Derry Brown looks through an otherworldly lens. In Derry's warped sense of reality, a mundane architectural review takes place in a bleak future ruled by high-tech racing. With the executive assistant protesting the race sponsors in the hallway, and a spectacular crash taking place between a marker and an eraser on his whiteboard, Derry has to try to maintain his sanity long enough to ask the most important question: Is spending money on this code change worth saving twelve cents?S...

Life is short and brutal in the apocalyptic wasteland. Skag Murdet culls herds for slaughter to help sustain the population on razor-thin margins of available sustenance. Everyone has a duty to perform. Everyone has a quota to fill.Parental Warning: This story contains imagery which may be disturbing to young readers.

Two years after humanity defeated an invading alien force, Alex enjoys the remnants of a normal life. A little apartment, a regular job, a busy commute, and, as a specialized contractor, working outside. Although the fighting is long over, the world is just a little bit different. Like, the cities are flattened and a wrecked starship hangs around in low orbit. Repetition breeds normalcy, and after a couple years the lifestyle of alien invasion survivor isn't so foreign. It is normal becaus...

Vincent Wagner is a soldier for the Panthera Corporation. His mind has been chemically and behaviorally altered to make him a more effective soldier. Soldiers for the Panthera Corporation have no memories of what transpired during their duty. For Vincent, his duty leaves him with the impression that he is a lion in a vast meadow, moving and fighting with perfect ferocity and no long-term memory. But then he wakes up.

To what lengths would a person go to heal a dying Earth? Nora graduates from school and is predisposed to an unexpected and unsustainable type of work. Angry at not being able to pursue her dreams, she reaches out to her peers in search of other options and possible meaning. Will she do what is necessary to save the planet?This is a short story of approximately 5,700 words.

Sometime ago I embarked on a cross country adventure with my dad to hunt pheasant in North Dakota. Starring grumpy old men, wet dogs, whiskey, and unexpected circumstances.This is a short travelogue of about 4,500 words.

The disappearance of Emperor Micah One in a rift in space-time, witnessed by billions, spawned a powerful religion. Now, two hundred years later, the Micahnian Acolytes have taken over the Empire and ushered in a dark age. Rebels in the asteroids are ready to strike back. But a Novice Acolyte and a shard of alien technology complicate the plans. "Through the Rift," a stand-alone science fiction adventure, continues the story of Micah Quispe and the strange shards that he discovered. Approx...

In this retelling of the Buffalo and Field Mouse, a psionicist is employed to find collusion within a tribal casino. Kateri Redfox must walk a fine line between truth and history as AI and quantum processing collide with legend to send her on a journey of self discovery.

Oil and Nation places petroleum at the center of Bolivia’s contentious twentieth-century history. Bolivia’s oil, Cote argues, instigated the largest war in Latin America in the 1900s, provoked the first nationalization of a major foreign company by a Latin American state, and shaped both the course and the consequences of Bolivia’s transformative National Revolution of 1952. Oil and natural gas continue to steer the country under the government of Evo Morales, who renationalized h...

Darby is kicked out of the house and into a world seemingly dominated by social finance and universal basic income. Torn from the carefree life she knew and ruing opportunities lost to past decisions, she discovers the failure of adults to raise their children are being addressed in a surprisingly stark and tough-love fashion.This is a short story of approximately 5,000 words.

In the heart of India, Biju once communed with the gods of old but now his worshipers have fallen to only a few. As the last threatens to leave, he begs to the morning light for a sign that his connection with eternity persists.This is a very short science fiction story.

The war is over. Only the battlefield remains.The last shots left the corporal in a pool of blood, following the creep of death's shadow. Memories of his wife and daughter beckon him to their comfort. Meanwhile, cut off from communication, and with the last copy of the encryption keys buried in the corporal's brain, his squad resuscitates him using spare body parts and enemy technology.Guided by fleeting specters of his family, the corporal leads the squad across the silent...