Read “The Annual Conference of the Ladies in White”

I’ve been driving for six hours when a hotel appears on an otherwise empty stretch of road. It has turrets and a fussy gazebo, like an antique wedding cake preserved by moonlight, and a red sign promising “vacancy.” Whatever it costs, my emergency stash will have to cover it.

My flash ghost story “The Annual Conference of the Ladies in White” is now online at Flash Fiction Online. This one was so fun to write–you can learn more about my process via FFO’s Patreon interview series.

The story is free to read online and the complete issue is available as an e-book for purchase.

New Short Story: “The Boyfriend Trap”

I’m thrilled to start of 2022 with a new short story. “The Boyfriend Trap” is now available in the January/February issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction.  Order the print or digital issue via the Asimov’s shop.

In the story, a young woman and her boyfriend visit a cabin to hash out their plans for the future. Instead, they discover the dark heart of their relationship–and their own secret desires.

“I felt guilty for reaching for him out of anxiety, not affection. Though they’re not so separate, maybe. Like reaching for your date when the monster appears on the screen. Who do you want to be close to when you’re feeling afraid?”

Read the full story.

Update: Read my reflection on the writing of this story on the Asimov’s blog.

“The Genius and the Devil” Now Online

This was what I agreed to: For exactly one night and one day, I would sit by her corpse, refusing entry to all visitors except Karla and the sister. In exchange, I would inherit enough money to buy a year of time, time all to myself, to paint. To—maybe, finally—paint my own masterwork.

“The Genius and the Devil,” my new story about friendship and envy, creativity and commerce, and the genius of wanting the right things is now online at Catapult Magazine.

woman paints birds

“The Staircase” Available Now

In our town, there are two roads that cross on top of a hill. Go through the intersection and you’ll tip down toward the mall (east) or the turnpike ramp (west) or the high school (north) or the endless town-house developments (south). But everyone at school says there’s another tipping point there, a fifth cardinal direction.

Specifically, there is a staircase cut into a grassy hill: fifteen wooden planks, the final one inches above the asphalt. If you walk down them, if you take that last step, your foot will never hit the street.

You will disappear.

My new story “The Staircase”–about urban legends, gossip, and what we’ll do to keep our friends–is available now in the July/August 2020 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

You can now order individual paper copies (click the PayPal link) and e-books (all formats).

You can also subscribe! Order paper copy subscriptions from F&SF, a digital subscriptions (all formats) Weightless Books, or Kindle editions.

My 2019 Awards-Eligible Stories

This past year saw the release of two stories eligible for awards consideration:

“The Children’s Cabinet”
Shirley Magazine, Issue 13 (spring 2019)
730 words / short story

“The Albatwitch Chorus”
Asimov’s Science Fiction, September/October 2019
8,000 words / novelette

Read in the SFWA forums. (Log in required.)

I was also pleased to discuss the story with the Asimov’s blog, From the Earth to the Stars.

Thank you for reading!

Interview with From the Earth to the Stars

I recently spoke to From the Earth and the Stars, the Asimov’s Science Fiction blog, about my new story “The Albatwitch Chorus.” I confessed to things like:

This idea, like most of my ideas, came both quickly and slowly. When I learned about the albatwitch, a kind of mini-Sasquatch from Pennsylvania folklore, I knew I wanted to write about it. I like cryptids and have a weirdly specific phobia of uncanny, humanoid tricksters.

Read the whole interview here.

“The Albatwitch Chorus” Out Now

You can find my newest short story, “The Albatwitch Chorus,” in the Sept./Oct. issue of Asimov’s. It’s about a witch going through a midlife crisis, her ex-husband, her teenage intern, and the cryptids in her backyard:

“Possum?” I asked, but the wind shifted, revealing the body was too big. Curled hands and pointed black ears of a raccoon, but sparse fur and no tail. I had never seen one before, but I knew.

“Albatwitch,” Jonas said, his eyes still fixed on the creature. “Go call animal control.”

Very little scared me, yet I nodded mutely, hurried through the kitchen door, and stood at the window with a phone in hand. Albatwitches carried disease. They attracted predators. And they had mysterious funerary rites one did not want to interrupt. They mostly kept to themselves, but they were quick to retaliate, and usually as a chorus—that was the name for a group—at least, before the 1979 Treaty of Half Moon Rock, sealed with an exchange of apples (from us) and a mound of empty soda cans, a few nuggets of raw garnet, and a deer carcass (from them).

You can order print and digital subscriptions, purchase an eBook copy, or find the issue on the shelves at Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, and a million other stores.

“The Children’s Cabinet” Now Online

The baby — well, she’s no longer a baby. She stands at the cabinet door, only wobbles a little as it swings back. The baby — the youngest and the last, forever the baby — has inherited the amusements of three older siblings. To you, the cabinet is an archive of ten years of raising children, but to the baby, it contains the future.

Read my new flash story “The Children’s Cabinet” in Shirley Magazine.

My 2018 Awards-Eligible Stories

This past year saw the release of two stories eligible for awards consideration:

“The Barrens”
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2018
11,100 words / novelette

Read in the SFWA forums. (Log in required.)

In one of his best of 2018 round-ups, Jason Sanford says, “A group of teenagers follow a pirate radio station’s signal into a dark forest — and the woods are hungry. This new take on a familiar horror trope is a beautifully haunting story.”

I also talked about the story in this interview and was thrilled to receive this review from the B&N SciFi & Fantasy blog.

“The Witch of Osborne Park”
Asimov’s, September/October 2018
3,700 words / short fiction

Read in the SFWA forums. (Log in required.)

 

Thank you for reading!