Short Stories

Read more about the article [Story Sale] Happy release day to NOIR!

[Story Sale] Happy release day to NOIR!

When you write a 5-book saga with a rather large cast of characters, you're likely to hear from readers that you should have written more about so-and-so. One of those characters is Detective Timo Cho of the Bulari Police Department, who spends some time investigating our heroes and learning some truths of his own about how the seedy underbelly of Bulari works. I agree. I loved Cho, and loved being in Cho's point of view for his scenes. Because his storyline is a bit separate from the rest of the characters — he is investigating them, but not physically interacting until…

News Roundup: Short story sale, audio books, and more

I've been pretty head-down the past few months, dividing my time between finishing writing the Nanshe Chronicles, preparing for the launch of the first book in May, and working on a big book project with a new nonfiction ghostwriting client. Not to mention extracurriculars like spending time with my family and some local travel! A lot of cool things have happened over the past few months, publishing-wise. I realized that although I've been keeping my newsletter subscribers updated on all the Cool Things, I hadn't breathed a word to the rest of the world on my blog. (Guess you should…

Read more about the article Dispatches From Anarres, or Don’t Disappoint Denzel Washington

Dispatches From Anarres, or Don’t Disappoint Denzel Washington

I'm convinced Denzel Washington just wants you to live your best life. In The Equalizer, he walks into the bad guy's office with a simple offer: Take some money, make things right, and turn over a new leaf. The offer's too simple, though. Denzel's character is too unassuming — and so the bad guys laugh him out of the office. Denzel walks to the door and sighs sadly at what's about to happen. Then he locks the door, checks his watch, and proceeds to demolish every last bad guy with intense precision. Guys. Don't disappoint Denzel. I love the trope…

Read more about the article Space Cocaine, Vol 2: The Zoom Situation

Space Cocaine, Vol 2: The Zoom Situation

We titled the second volume of our offbeat anthology the Zoom Situation for pandemic reasons — but by the time we actually got the reading scheduled most of us were vaccinated and able to do live events again. The result was a strange, hybrid event where four of us read live and two of us read via Zoom — which was broadcast to both the in-person and virtual audience. Here's the replay. The audio's fine, though the video's a bit jerky. It might be the bandwidth issues, or it might be the space cocaine. It's hard to tell. The cast of instigators…

Read more about the article [Short Story] “Once More With Soul”

[Short Story] “Once More With Soul”

I have a love-hate relationship with our new virtual world. On the one hand, my day job has always been virtual (I'm a freelance writer), so I'm pretty comfortable conducting business via video and phone call. And now that everyone else is doing it, I've had so many experiences with friends and family that we should have done before. Virtual game night with friends in Seattle after their kids went to bed? Why weren't we always doing this? Virtual craft play dates with my sister's kids who live 3 hours away? Why weren't we always doing this? Happy hour book…