A hit man. An apocalyptic cult. A demon with a grudge.Keith Murphy’s on the run after botching his last hit, fleeing Adelaide with a necromancer’s soul in his pocket and an apocalyptic cult on his heels. Seeking a hiding spot where magic can’t trace him, Keith heads for the one place nobody expects: home.Thirteen years ago, Keith left the employ of the demonic crime boss Sabbath, disappearing into the night without a word. Now he’s back, and Sabbath demands...

The Viking Maiden’s crew has received some long-awaited shore leave and all Dana Valkyrie wants to do is kick her heels up, stay out of trouble, and devour the steaks and vegetables you just can't get in the middle of space. She might be the Maiden's champion, the best fighter on the toughest ship to sail the spaceways, but even Dana knows better than to pick a fight in a port as strict as White Harbor.Her plans soon go awry when the local security division sends an agent to tail D...

When the zombies rose, Val and Janice retreated to small farmhouse in the mountains, putting up fences and joining forces with the local militia to keep their community safe. "At least we have each other," they thought, "everything will be just fine."It turns out long nights hunting the dead and long days wondering if something has gone wrong will take its toll on every marriage.Trouble is brewing out past the fence, and Janice fears it will soon find its way inside.

iction writers are taught to show, not tell. In each Short Fiction Lab, award-winning short fiction writer Peter M. Ball presents an original story and an accompanying essay showcasing a particular aspect of the craft or business of writing inspired by the creative work.The Story: Winged, With Sharp TeethThere have always been lands not mapped out in an atlas, and those lands have always needed heroes. Once, Steve had that chance to visit another w...

Cody Jones owes the corp a lot of money. Decanted from a cryotube with a mountain of debt and very few options, she works corporate black ops in Downside—home to the gene-freaks, gangs, and dispossessed who don’t have a place in the gleaming towers of Helix City.Cody’s latest job is simple: recover a fresh cache of cryogenically frozen citizens from a local gang before they're bartered to the highest bidder. Deliver them to Bellamy and knock a little more off her debt.Pity ...

A Keith Murphy single set after the events of Crusade. Also available in the short story collection These Strange and Magic Things.Keith Murphy’s doesn’t understand professional wrestling, and he doesn’t care to try. But when paying back a debt means figuring out how a demon is feeding on the crowds at the local indie show, the hitman-turned-mage finds himself up against a creature far more powerful than he expected.With the aide of a conf...

Read the first short story in Peter M. Ball’s Seraphim Plague series, One Saturday Night, With Angel (also available in the collection Not Quite The End Of The World Just Yet).There’s an angel perched on the Nite Owl roof when Mike shows up for the graveyard shift. He thinks it’s the same angel that's been following him for most of the week.Everyone's convinced Mike will be purged before morning. Elvis and all the other regulars are tellin...

A cabin boy with a secret is lead astray in Tortuga’s last great house of ill repute, where the ladies have all returned after death full of mysteries to be unravelled. The Captain promised Tobias Truman a night to remember, but what Toby seeks behind closed doors is a truth only a lady of the house can reveal.The first story in the Crossbones & Sorcery series, available as a stand-alone ebook (also included in the short story collection The Birdcage Heart & Other Stories)

If you love your fiction weird, heartbreaking, and unforgettable, take this opportunity to introduce yourself to the short stories of Peter M. Ball.This debut collection of fantasy tales will take you on strange and wonderful journeys that contrast the sublime and the everyday, introducing you to unforgettable characters and unexpected landscapes. Walk beside an executioner tasked with killing a criminal who cannot be killed, a young man learning to love while there’s a birdcage wh...

A desperate future where humanity lives in the ruins of old buildings, avoiding the streets haunted by predatory cars who hunt for sport. Off-duty time travellers stop Viking invasions that interrupt a well-earned night out.A clowder of cats gathers around a mysterious fire to tell stories of what might be, and teenage friends turned bitter rivals compete in a race that sends giant mecha sprinting across a frost-bound colony.A cosplayer turns superhero when aliens invade. A...

Series fiction has exploded in popularity alongside the rise of digital publishing, drawing renewed attention from readers and institutions alike.Yet writing series fiction isn’t always easy. Developing characters and stories capable of sustaining reader interest over multiple iterations is a challenge for any author, while our understanding of how series fiction differs from writing stand-alone titles addressed via anecdote and commercial framings rather than an engagement with wr...

Vicious storms of red rain sweep across Australia, raising the dead as zombies hungry for human flesh. Fortunately, we’ve all seen zombie movies and know what comes next, allowing the locals to band togetherand live small, desolate, ordinary livesdespite the ever-present danger.Drawing inspiration from George Romero and Raymond Carver in equal measure, Peter M. Ball presents six dirty realism tales of quiet desperation and spare, razor-sharp narration in a world overrun by the walk...