A Skein of Words

I’ve gathered together my best short fiction, along with an introduction on fiction writing, and postscripts describing how each story came to be written, and put them together into a single volume.  It’s available as hardcover and paperback from Lulu, and an ebook from Amazon.  Named after the final short story, Wild Enough and Free is an eclectic collection that contains science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and general weirdness.

I’m also making each short story available for PDF download below.  If you enjoy the short stories, please do consider buying the book.  Fiction is always best enjoyed curled up in bed, and personal computers just aren’t as cuddly as books…  Plus, you want to encourage me to write more fiction, right?

• The Last Man to Believe in God. John Doakes, of Gypsum, New Hampshire, is the last man to believe in God. Kate Wright, doctoral student in religious studies, has set herself the task of finding out why — why does he continue to believe, without support from family or community? What purpose does this belief serve, especially in an era when immortality drugs make the idea of an afterlife irrelevant? Is he psychotic? Or is he the last sane man?
• The Secret of the Day Rat. A story of a rat’s simple but determined quest for a higher standard of living.
• The Time Machine and the Prince of Mars. Frank really is a nice guy, once you get to know him. Of course, he did almost kill that one guy, and he killed himself too — at least twice, actually — but he’s not really a killer, when you get down to it. The first guy was really asking for it; and as far as killing himself, well, he did it to defend Ashley’s honor. Which, Ashely thinks, is really pretty sweet. Sometimes you just really can tell he’s a prince.
• Virginia Dare. What if North America were reversed east-to-west, with the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Appalachians to the west? In this alternate history story, the high Rockies slowed the advance of the Europeans enough that now, in the 20th century, Native Americans still live in powerful independent nations. This story covers a crucial episode in the 2nd World War.
• Wild Enough and Free. In Greenland, in the year 1100 AD, the Christian missionary Mona wanders into the remote fjord where Ulf, one of the last believers in Odin and Thor, is living alone. Their intertwined journeys will carry them far from everything the Europeans have ever known.
• Zopyrus. Babylon is under siege: it has revolted against Persian rule, and King Darius I is leading his armies personally against the ancient city. The siege is already twenty months old, and the Persians are growing weary. Young Zopyrus, head of Darius’s stables, hatches a daring plan to break the Babylonians, for the glory of Persia. But even as he prepares to betray the Babylonians, he begins to wonder whether he will find himself betraying the Persians instead.