Hello. Here is a listing of all of my published short stories. (I consider short stories to be over 1000 words.) They are listed with the most recent publications on the top and I have the work’s title, when and where it was published, and a brief blurb or history of the story. Most of these stories are on the web and I have linked to them. I hope you enjoy.
Main Publication Page
“Enigma”
What’s the deal with the flags?
“Enigma” is set in a larger universe, and consists of two parts. Part I follows Carlos Molina, a maintenance man at a comet mining facility. He is sent out to fix a problem with one of the automated miners. In the process, he discovers a cube embedded in the comet’s nucleus.
Part II is set five years later and follows Doctor Susan Black, Director of Cube Studies. With the upcoming anniversary of the discovery of the Molina Cube, she is deluged by news requests for comments. During this she gives an interview to a student from her alma mater concerning the nature of the Cube.
When we do travel into space, we will discover many things we will never be able to explain. We need to learn how to accept that basic fact.
Click here to download the story for only $0.99!
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Like most people, Jason Fisher wanted to make the world a better place. But he doubted he would ever have the chance to make much of a mark. Then a “woman” came to him, asking his help to save humanity by threatening it.
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I can’t remember where the idea for this story came from. It’s something I first wrote years ago and have revised several times. But I’m glad I wrote it because when I found out there was a magazine titled Bastards and Whores, I knew the perfect story to submit.
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I’ve never read the Riverworld books by Philip José Farmer, I just hope they’re better than the Syfy movie. I started watching it, but it got to the point where checking my email was more entertaining. Anyway, since “Great artists steal,” the idea of a different world where people go when they die was planted in my head. I hadn’t considered this for my 30 Stories in 30 Days Challenge because I pictured a much longer story. But I kept thinking about it and I figured I could shave a few bits off so I could finish it in a couple days.
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“Options”
What’s the deal with the flags?
My Human Republic Universe began with an idea for a TV series, Never Surrender. I see it as a combination of Band of Brothers and Babylon 5. It followers the crew of the Human Republic Heavy Cruiser George S. Patton, Jr. in a war against the Whistlers. I have a basic outline for the series, some of the characters figured out, and some specific things I want to do. If I had to pick five scenes as to what the series is about, the scene in “Options” would be one of them. For years I’ve thought about writing it up, and with my 30 Stories in 30 Days challenge and the 65th anniversary of D-Day, I figured I had the perfect time to write. Unfortunately, as I wrote it I realized that there are several plot elements that only make sense if you are familiar with the universe. If I ever do get to do Never Surrender, this scene would take place early in the second season, so the viewers would already know what was going on. But hopefully this piqued your curiosity enough for you to read my other stories.
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I think this story started several years ago when I heard about the Artemis Project, which “is a private venture to establish a permanent, self-supporting community on the Moon.” I wanted to help, by writing a story about the first astronauts to return to the moon. Making them associated with NASA probably isn’t what the Artemis folks wanted, but I figured that NASA would get there before private companies and I wanted the story to be the return to the moon. So I started this story of an astronaut answering questions and I had the ending. That was as far as I got. Other things came up, I put my energies elsewhere and this was left behind.
Then NASA came out with their Constellation Program. My crew capsule wasn’t like the Orion capsule, and I thought I should try to change it in keeping with the new program. But my idea of a base at the Lunar South Pole doesn’t fit in with NASA’s plans. So I became frustrated, and put it aside once more. But I liked the idea of the first mission to return to the moon too much. So I dug it out, said to hell with NASA, I’m returning to the moon my way.
The biggest problem I had finishing this story was that while I had the first several pages done, I just had a general idea for the rest of it. So I would write and write and realize I still needed to explain stuff. So I’d write and write and there would still be stuff that needed explaining. For awhile I wondered if I would actually finish the damn thing. But as you can see, I did manage, although I’ll admit there are still some rough spots. But as the saying goes, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
The other big problem I had was making it … good. If you watch the Eagle’s landing or the landing of a shuttle, they’re not … well written I guess you can say. Even though I’ve seen it a hundred times, I still get choked up watching the Eagle land. That is such an important moment in history and for me. (Can I say it was an important moment in my life when it happened seven years before I was born?) Trying to duplicate such an event in writing is extremely difficult, but I did my best.
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I recently came across this story when I was reorganizing all my stories. This is something I wrote back in college. I had a plan for more Simon stories, but I can’t remember writing any more, but I do know that the second story was to be titled “Dynamite is Your Friend.” I didn’t make any major changes, just polished it up a little. My writing – I firmly believe – has gotten better over the years, but I thought it would be cool to put this out as an example of where I was.
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I think this started when I was wondering if aliens are here secretly, what are they doing? One possibility was that they wanted to mature humanity before we go out onto the galactic stage. But how can you help mature humanity? Since I’m a fan of scifi, some of which deals with humanity trying to come to terms with vast, incomprehensible aspects of the universe, I made a connection. So I wrote down in my idea notebook, “Aliens use sf to mature humanity.” After floating around in my mind for a few months, “Ticket to the Future” is the result.
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Several years ago, I went to a used book store not far from where I lived and I found this art book of scifi paintings. I had the idea of writing a story for each one, but it was $50 and I didn’t have the money. But after a couple of weeks of thinking about it, I told myself I had to buy it. I went back, but someone else had beaten me to it. I only remember one of the paintings – involving astronauts on the moon – but after six or seven years, I still haven’t thought of a story for it.
I was recently reminded of this, so I decided I should write a story about a writer who was inspired to write a story based on a painting, but that was rather boring. Hopefully, I managed to spice things up enough to make it interesting.
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“Collateral Damage”
What’s the deal with the flags?
One of the main “historical” events on my Human Republic Universe is the Conflagration. This is a period of civil wars, insurrections, revolts, coups, and terrorist attacks. The biggest impact this had on my universe is that as World War I led to the League of Nations and World War II led to the United Nations, the Conflagration led to the Human Republic. (I didn’t go for World War III because that has been overused and has certain connotations that don’t fit with my view of the events.) This story started because I went through the various stories I had and realized that none of them were set during this period, so I set out to fix that and “Collateral Damage” was the result.
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A few months ago some friends were bugging me about not having a cell phone, and I started to wonder if one day they would hold an intervention for me. Sometimes it takes very little to get a story idea.
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I was going through my writing notebooks, looking for story ideas I could use for my 30 Stories in 30 Days Challenge, and I couldn’t help but wonder how many of them I would never finish. This idea was born, and I thought it was the perfect story to begin with.
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This is a Tom and Jeremy story.
I had the idea for this story, had it worked out, and was about to write it, when I heard that George Carlin had died. So instead of writing this story, I wrote “Hand Me That Piano.” But I finally got around to writing this story.
I am working on a novel, but it’s been slow going. Some time ago I realized that part of why I’m having trouble is that I know how it ends. I think I enjoy coming up with ideas far more than I enjoy producing words. In fact, after working out the outline for Jeremy’s trilogy, I now want to write it.
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This story was republished as part of My Patriotic Duty. It was first published as my November 5, 2006 Weekly Story. I thought it fitting to finish out My Patriotic Duty.
I despise politicians. In large part because I feel they don’t have their priorities straight. To me it seems they put their reelection first, their party second, the people who gave them money third, and everyone else last. I think America should come first, second, third, and fourth. America has many serious problems, and I believe that these require long-term solutions to be fixed. But as long as the politicians only care about winning the next election, or seeing their party in control in Washington, then these long-term solutions will not be put into place. While politicians squabble, America staggers along as best it can, despite whoever is in Washington.
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This is the first Felix story.
I first wrote this story six or seven years ago. In that time it became my most rejected story. It has been rejected by, or lost, a total of 13 magazines and contests. So it feels good to know it has finally been published.
The main point of the story is my believe that people desire meaning in their lives and they will latch onto anything or anyone who promise it. (Look at the popularity of cults.) I’m sure if someone put The Meaning of Life in a box on a supermarket shelf, there would be fistfights over the last one.
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This is a story I wrote for Preston & Steve Online Marquee Madness. If it doesn’t make sense, it’s your fault for not listing to Preston & Steve.
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This story began a few weeks ago when a friend sent me this YouTube clip. It made me think I should write a story about Scientology. My first thought was to parody it, have somebody start their own religion and show how kooky that was. So I started wondering why people would start their own religion and I immediately though of money. This started me down the road to “Hallelujah” which is more about televangelist than Scientology, but it’s still a good story.
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“Always With Us”
What’s the deal with the flags?
I wanted to write a story honoring all the astronauts and cosmonauts that have died in the exploration of space, but the idea I had was too unwieldy so I changed it to just the astronauts of Apollo 1. They’ll always be with us.
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This is a story I wrote for Preston & Steve Online Marquee Madness. If it doesn’t make sense, it’s your fault for not listing to Preston & Steve.
Click here to read the story.
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“The Kingdom of Beer”
What’s the deal with the flags?
“We have all heard of stars down on their luck trying to make a new name for themselves. But what about former planets? What will the people who eventually colonize Pluto do to save their home from obscurity?”
That was how I described “The Kingdom of Beer” in my cover letter when I submitted it to Written Word. When Pluto was demoted last summer I knew I had to write a story about it. But what to write? I started wondering what people in the future would think of the matter. Will future colonists commemorate that day?
I am a fan of Bill Geist, so when I decided to have a reporter in my story, it just seemed natural to have a cheap imitation of him.
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This is a Tom and Jeremy story.
This story started after I saw Bill O’Reilly’s “white, Christian, male, power structure” comment. For several days I was unsure of how to respond to it, but then I started wondering if I should blast him for the comment or if I should just, as Jeremy calls it, “Let-your-enemies-look-stupid-so-you-look-better.” That was the original idea and where the title came from, but as I wrote the story it turned into something else, something better. It’s a story that made me face some things, and also asked questions that I haven’t been able to answer yet. I think if a story does that to its author, then there is definitely something there.
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This is a Tom and Jeremy story.
The title of this, of course, comes from the infamous Monty Python Spam sketch. As I started thinking out the story, it occurred to me that I could just use the characters I had created for “Politically Cynical.” I figured it would be easier to write with established characters, and it was, somewhat.
PS. I hate to say this, but I did not make up the Damsel in Africa story. I wanted to print it out, because it was just so bad, but the next day when I went to print it I found out that her profile had been deleted. And that was the only woman that has wanted to marry me.
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This is the first Tom and Jeremy story.
I have to admit, I’m very PC.
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I despise politicians. In large part because I feel they don’t have their priorities straight. To me it seems they put their reelection first, their party second, the people who gave them money third, and everyone else last. I think America should come first, second, third, and fourth. America has many serious problems, and I believe that these require long-term solutions to be fixed. But as long as the politicians only care about winning the next election, or seeing their party in control in Washington, then these long-term solutions will not be put into place. While politicians squabble, America staggers along as best it can, despite whoever is in Washington.
Click here to read the story.
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This was my first professionally published work. It won the Mountainland Award for Short Fantasy/SciFi Fiction.
There is a long, confusing, complicated, and painful story behind this story. The simplest way I can explain it is that I was interested in a woman, a friend of mine, and that this story was my prediction of what would happen when I finally worked up the courage to ask her out. It was sadly prophetic.
(Since it isn’t online anywhere, I’ve set it up on a page of its own.)
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The Iconoclast was the publication of The English Club, an organization at West Chester University, in which I held several positions. ST was my penname back then.
Not to give too much away, I consider this to be a realistic alien invasion story, in that humanity looses. It is kinda sad that it has been so long since I wrote this I no longer remember where the idea came from. I do remember that some of the people who read it at the time described it as an outline for a novel. So I started writing it as a novel. I didn’t get to far, because I was biting off more than I could chew at the time. Whether or not I’ll be able to finish it someday, I don’t know. But I’ll keep you informed.
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The Iconoclast was the publication of The English Club, an organization at West Chester University, in which I held several positions. ST was my penname back then.
This story was pretty much an experiment. An experiment on what you ask? If I told you that, it would pretty much give everything away.
(Since it isn’t online anywhere, I’ve set it up on a page of its own.)
Click here to read the story.
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The Iconoclast was the publication of The English Club, an organization at West Chester University, in which I held several positions. ST was my penname back then.
In all that I have written, the line I’ve enjoyed writing the most is in this story. I don’t know what disturbed state of mind I was in to come up with Swedish Meatballs, made from real Swedes, but it’s a state I’ve visited far too infrequently.
This story started when one of my high school English teachers assigned a writing project to the class. Each student was to go home and come up with a list of a noun, a verb, an adjective, and an adverb. The next day the class combined all of our words into a massive list. The assignment was to write a story using all of those words. I think I struggled with it for a couple days, and then I just went nuts and started having fun. That’s how I ended up with a story about a space pirate named Adolf Hitler, cannibals (hence the meatballs, and the title) murder, marriage, and revenge, along with a mime who gets run over by a truck.
(Since it isn’t online anywhere, I’ve set it up on a page of its own.)
Click here to read the story.