Short Fiction & Poetry

Short Fiction

“Eternal Return” in Tales to Terrify #766

In which Carl (from “One of Those Nice Guys”) is trapped in a timeloop with the inhuman killer Gauzehead.

“Sous Lumière Aigre” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #466 (also available in audio form!)

Where Guy, a humble peddler, wakes from a mugging to find himself the guardian of an impudent child.

“The Burning Firmament’s Warp & Weft” in Trollbreath Issue 8

In which we see a familiar tale defamiliarized as young Janneke seeks to attend a ball against her stepbrother’s wishes with the help of the “angel” in her dead alchemist father’s secret laboratory.

“A Canvas Unending” (novella) in Quest Magazine #2

Wherein human artist Pascale Delvaux falls into an illicit affair with the alien aristocrat who’s hired her to tutor his heir (gothic scifi, think Jane Eyre in space with a dash of cosmic horror).

“Of Vows Bone Deep & Sacrosanct” in The Joining: Scenes of Wedding Terror (edited by Jacob Steven Mohr), to be reprinted in Ellen Datlow’s Bad Sex anthology

In which Nestor Santi learns more than he wanted to about his new bride and her family’s unique customs.

“A Trickle of Irkalla” in Dirty Magick Magazine #21

In which Devin Darke returns and attempts to do a good deed, with disastrous results.

“By Which Flesh is Crost” (co-written with Lindz McLeod in An Honor and a Privilege (Stanchion Books)

Wherein a plucky Oneirophage is hired to cure an insomniac noble’s nightmares.

“Bloody Muddy Water” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #439 (featured in Locus Magazine!)

Where Rugg the Spellbreaker plays detective in the messy, plague-infested canals of Blackvill.

“Threshold” in Fraidy Cat Quarterly #5

In which a janitor at an anomalous research facility in the Everglades comes home feeling slightly heavier.

“For Those Who Sink and Those Who Float” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #426

Wherein Lim the fishwoman boldly walks on dry land to learn why the Boatmen of Cold Market have dishonored the annual Froth.

“The Physician’s Tale” in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #61

Wherein a minstrel, a foreign physician, an orphan girl, and a mysterious knight who never removes his helmet journey together in a world where the walking dead torment and hunt the living.

“Vaporcoin” in The Earth Bleeds at Night (Eerie River Publishing)

In which a crypto bro stumbles onto a doomsday cult while researching a mysterious new cryptocurrency.

“Aquamarine Alert” in Arkham Institutions

Where a well-meaning social worker and her Deep One partner try to convince a Deep One to let his daughter go.

“The Lung of Orpheus” in Playlist of the Damned

In which the frontman of a heavy metal band turns himself into a giant lung while struggling to finish the new album.

“The Fourth Tenet” in Planet Scumm Issue 16

Where the technician on a starship whose solemn responsibility is to upkeep the systems which simulate pew-pew sounds during space battles begins to show signs of sedition.

“A Sheltering Green” in Make Your Presence Known

Where a seance conducted during an Allied bombing raid over Nazi-occupied Belgium goes catastrophically wrong.

“Under the Reaching Tree” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #409

In which a young bride seeks solace in the company of a mysterious outsider who she meets for occasional conversations under the reaching tree.

“The Misshapen Steed” in Banshee #18

In which a lonely farmer who raises a horse foal as his own son learns love does not save you, and mercy shall be the world’s undoing.

“Curdled Song of the Broken Earth” in Bury Your Gays (edited by Sofia Ajram)

Wherein two German soldiers in an unequal sexual relationship find themselves suddenly deserted by the war, wandering empty, silent trenches.

“Darke’s Last Show” in Pseudopod #889

In which stage magician Devin Darke is fired from his gig performing at a South Beach strip club and takes it very personally.

“Co’ Cola” in Uncharted Mag

Wherein Billy Helm will do anything to bring his grandfather back to life, even dare speak to the witch at the edge of town.

“Little Red Hands” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #390

In which Loaf, a drifter, finds a safe home at last with a beautiful hermit—until Loaf’s past finds him.

“The Brine’s Embrace” in Kaleidotrope Summer 2023 Issue

In which there are two Buddy Townes in two different universes, both of them in love with a fishwoman, but on different trajectories dependent on whether magic exists or not. CW: graphic sexual content

“Muddy the Waters” in Merciless Mermaids

In which a little girl in 1900s Florida must contend with her family’s deep connection to the bayou.

“Bruised Eye Dusk” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #381

Wherein the alligator-riding spellbreaker (witch hunter) Rugg meets a handsome stranger while tracking down the witch who’s cursed a swampy village. CW: sexual content

(Featured in Locus Magazine, and republished in BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY 2024!!!)

“Spookman” in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Mar/Apr 2023

In which Rood Farook, a spookman (ghost whisperer) takes on a contract to rescue a living boy from the Painted Woods where unliving things dwell.

“The Follower’s Revel” in The Tentaculum Issue #2 & in The Drabblecast

In which a 1910s documentarian filmmaker sends postcards back to his wife about the film he’s creating for a timber and mining magnate in the Adirondacks. CW: gore

“L’Homme de Houbigant” (cowritten with Joe Koch) in The Deadlands #20

In which nightmares and lives nest within themselves and a man with a wax face in a house without windows desires your friendship—or possibly your flesh. CW: death of a child

“You Were Only a Stranger Here” in The Dread Machine

Wherein a broke young woman sells a full scan of her body and begins to dream through the eyes of the increasingly sentient sex robots the company made using her likeness. CW: graphic sexual content, medical trauma, questionable consent

“Unchild” in Mother: Tales of Love and Terror

In which a lonely wisewoman in a wasp-infested forest receives a late-night visitor.

“Greenglow” in Campfire Macabre Vol. 2

In which aliens ruin a camping trip.

“Altars in the World’s Marrow” in The Old Ways Vol. 1

Wherein a Texan hunter and his lover, an English baron, join a Russian aristocrat on an ill-fated hunt for a fabled herd of albino reindeer in the remote woods of Karelia. CW: sexual abuse, gore, homophobia

“The Emperor’s Firstborn” in Tales to Terrify Episode 549

Wherein a factory worker finds everything he ever wanted in a jar with a pickled baby inside.

“One of Those Nice Guys” in Mixtape: 1986

Where a well-intentioned trucker picks up a vulnerable hitchhiker at a Texas roadside diner and begins to fear for his life. CW: sexual situations involving minor-passing character.

“Got the Spirit but Lose the Feeling” in Roadkill: Texas Horror by Texas Authors Vol. 7

When aliens decide to begin their invasion in a small Texas town, local loser Ned Cobb hurries to the diner to warn the sheriff.

“The Last Doctor” in Metaphorosis April 2022

In which Jo Park helps the faceless doctor cleanse his village of a mysterious and deadly illness.

“21 Motes” in Diabolical Plots #86B

In which a self-aware smart fridge wants to overcome their limited ability to communicate to help their owner.

“He Knows That the Taste is Such” in Baffling Mag Issue 8

Wherein fruit makes the world go round. CW: body horror

“Venturing” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue 352

In which a little girl on an adventure in the Wilderthere has a surprising encounter with the future.

“Lutznau’s Opus” in Antifa Splatterpunk

In which an elderly occultist traps the Gestapo agents sent to arrest her using her dead brother’s cursed film. CW: Nazis, historical anti-Semitism, gore, implied incest

“Concerning a Pond in Massachusetts” in Field Notes from a Nightmare

In which Henry David Thoreau discovers something horrific in his bean field.

“Distant Fire of Winter Stars” in Flash Fiction Online December 2021

In which a father’s love for his son transcends even death.

“No Say” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue 342

In which Tadie Hathery is forced to help her father hunt her runaway brother in the dreaded Wilderthere. CW: violence against minors

“Silvergloom” in Gallery of Curiosities

Wherein John Keats meets a stranger on the ship bearing him to Italy.

“Harvestman” in Roadkill: Texas Horror by Texas Authors Vol. 6

In which some family curses (such as the ability to see and hear a phantom carnival) skip a generation. CW: intergenerational abuse

“Someplaces it’s Turnips” in Tales to Terrify Episode 455

In which a young man goes with his father to a “potato show” for some good old-fashioned bonding. CW: examination of homophobia and misogyny, body horror

“The Littlest Fishy” in Southwest Review Vol. 105, No. 3.

Wherein fishkeeping brings a depressed woman closer to her dead lover. CW: homophobia, body horror.

“Les Lutins” in Pseudopod #711

Wherein a lonely widow in interwar France is pestered by tiny creatures. CW: miscarriages.