THE SUPER is a fictional single-handed race around the world around the Southern Ocean, one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. It is the tale of how Louella and Pascal (from Primrose and Thorn) formed their partnership to sail across Jupiter and features a few other characters from that story as well.
This story is based on the Grand Vendee race that requires unbelievable courage, unbreakable nerve, and a desire to overcome nearly impossible conditions solely for the glory of proving themselves. I have tried to be as true to that element of the race as possible. Baen ran this story, followed by Pumpkin, Primrose and Thorn, and Primrose Rescue back to back as a continuous narrative, with a new novella – The Winds of Mars – concluding the series.
Appeared in Baen’s Universe, August 2008 Created : 2006 Sold: July 2007
VIXEN, my first novel has all the elements of opera. This is a tale of conquest, of interstellar flight, of finding God, of betrayal and love, of lust and corruption, of bestiality and brutality, the fruits of pride, and the loss of innocence. It has a cast of hundreds, aliens, slaves, and rebellion. I hope you like it.
Cosmos, December 2008 ISBN 978-08439-5945-1
Created : 1998 Sold: August 2006, Words: 99,000
THE LATE SAM BOONE is perhaps the last of the Sam Boone series. The sequence of this particular misbegotten adventure is deliberately vague, but definitely before he departs for Andromeda and points galactic west.
Appeared in: ANALOG, June 2008 Created : July 2007 Sold: October 2007, Words: 13,500 Illustrated by: John Allemand
THE SUIT came to me as I was reading an article on advances in clothing technology and, in my associative manner, tied that to MicroSoft’s campaign to tie household appliances into a network so we could have “smart” refrigerators, stoves, etc.
Appeared in: ANALOG, November 2007 Created : December 2006 Sold: March 2007 Words: 5,600
BROADSIDE takes place earlier in the history of the same universe as Clay’s Pride. This is a soldier’s tale of an encounter between an Earth ship and one of the rebels’. This was written specifically for this anthology to illustrate one possible way a space battle might really ensue where capture of the ship was the primary objective.
The tale is pure action, with lots of blood and guts and not a few deaths along the way. Such is the way of war.
Appeared in: Breech the Hull, Autumn 2007 Created : June 2006 Sold: December 2006 Words: 5,000
llustrated by: Mike McPhail
ALLIANCES takes place earlier in the history of the same universe as Clay’s Pride. This is a tale of pirates and deep space intrigue among the colony worlds. This was written specifically for this anthology in part to explain what the recently ended war in Pride was all about. The tale is pure action, with an amusing twist at the end that I hope will leave a smile on your face.
Appeared in: Breech the Hull, Autumn 2007 Created : June 2006 Sold: December 2006 Words: 5,000
Illustrated by: Mike McPhail
LAUGH LINES was a result of a speech I gave several years ago at the Library of Congress and later put on my old web site. That article received wide circulation and resulted in the request to expand on the ideas and rules that I used in putting together the Sam Boone series. This piece is but one chapter of a rather long guide which also contains advice and assistance from a host of better known and more astute writers than me. I think it would be a welcome addition to any writer’s library.
Appears in: The Complete Guide to Writing SF Volume I – First Contact
Edited by David Law, Dragonmoon Press, 2007
Created: 2006 Sold: 2006 Words: 5,000
CONNECTION was a collaboration with Ramona Wheeler in which we tried to write a cogent short story of EXACTLY 500 words.
Appeared in: Darker Matters, June 2007 Created : December 2000 (Revised January 2007) Sold: April 2007 Words: 500
FROST had its genesis in an overheard remark that the nazis probably enjoyed the Christmas holidays. Pushing that further, one could consider the fond memories they may have had of those halcyon days, and how they managed to be happy despite the horrors they were visiting upon their victims. The premise for this was that even evil persons have families and a life not unlike ordinary people. That they also perform unjustifiable acts of horror without a qualm of conscience is the true horror. That they never realize it is even more hideous.
This was an attempt at a horror/sf combination into which I injected not an inconsiderable amount of personal memories, most of which was later excised to fit the short story format. FROST is a shortened version of a novelette I wrote several years ago and which garnered several complementary rejections, never found a market.
Appeared in: Darker Matters, July/March 2007
Created : September 1996 (Revised January 2007) Sold: February 2007 Words: 6,500
LITERARY LEGACY was written to help those who wonder what might happen to the trunks of unsold pieces they’d acquired over a lifetime and made some suggestions as to what might be done with them.
Appeared in: SFWA BULLETIN, Winter 2006 Created November 2005, Released January 2006, Words 1,000
AN AFFLICTION OF WYRMS was my first attempt at humorous fantasy. This story was created at a gaming convention where writers were completely ignored in favor of engaging in table-top war games. I spent the time between sessions composiing this little story and added a few elements that I thought were missing from the normal run of fantasy stories.
Appears at: iFiction Created September 2000, Released February 2006, Words 14,500
CHANDRA’S PUP is the sequel to Clay’s Pride. The story is placed a year or so after Pride’s encounter. This story deals more with the scientific examination of the “glass” spaceships and the question of not only WHAT they are, but WHY they act as they do. Clay, the conflicted captain of Pride, is once again faced with a choice, a choice that will affect his future and that of humanity. The reaction to Pride was that I HAD to explain the glass spaceships. Given the huge curiosity bumps of most Analog readers, this challenge could not be easily ignored.
Appeared in: ANALOG, July/August 2005 Created March 2004 (Revised June 2004) Sold July 2004, Words 23,500
BRIGHT RED STAR was my reaction to the events of September 11, 2001. I tried to get inside the heads of someone who answers to a higher morality but sacrifices something very human in the process. The core of moral choice in this story is the use to which the protagonist puts a little girl, and the logical consequences of that choice.
Appeared in: ASIMOV’S, March 2005 Created : October 2001 Sold: April 2003, Words: 4,400, Illustrated by: Vincent DiFate
Also appeared in YEARS BEST SF11: ISBN-13:978-0-06-087341-7l
Also appeared in Sci-Fi Magazin (As Stele Insangerate) Nr 1 – Octombrie 2007 – Pret 5 lei
Also appeared in EscapePod, Episode 136/December 12, 2007
Also appeared in Mini-Masterpieces of Science Fiction, an Audiobook Anthology
CLAY’S PRIDE was my first attempt to construct a military story and people it with the kind of folks I knew during my stint in the Air Force. The uncertainty of command, the responsibility, the chaos of engagement, and dealing with the repercussions of decisions reached in seconds all came to bear. I also wanted to play with the idea of an incomprehensible (at first) alien ship, a ship that appeared in some earlier work in slightly different form. But incomprehensible doesn’t mean I can’t come up with an explanation – such is the art of writing SF.
Appeared in: ANALOG, July/August 2004 Created : June 2003 Sold: August 2003, Words: 21,000
Illustrated by: Vincent DiFate