SOME NEW READING FOR YOU

I've been kind of lax in keeping the content of my STORIES page fresh. So this week I took down a couple of stories that had been available for a long time and posted two new ones for you to enjoy.

"Sand From A Broken Hourglass" is about a man who wants to find someone else to blame for his alcoholism, and turns to a radical experimental method for retrieving repressed memories. But the walk down memory lane is a lot more hazardous than he bargained for.

How does a man exist in two realities at once? In "Shakedown" a prototype nanomachine is being developed to perform medical miracles within living bloodstreams using a Virtual Reality control system that will demand all the skill its gaming champion pilot can muster. Then the government comes calling with an urgent mission far into untested territory, and this "Shakedown" will be anything but smooth.

ALSO remember that through the month of June the e-book of my radio industry mystery/thriller novel Dead Air has been reduced from $7.99 to just $3.99, available from Kobo, Amazon, the iTunes Book Store, and Barnes & Noble. Read the first chapter here.

CANADIAN TALES OF THE FANTASTIC

The winners of the “Canadian Tales of the Fantastic” Competition have now been posted on the website for Red Tuque Books. I mentioned in an earlier post that my story “Shakedown” picked up an Honourable Mention. Congratulations to all of the winners, especially the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd prize winners: David Routledge, Marianne Paul, and Lindsey Carmichael. Publisher David Korinetz says that all of the 13 winning stories will be published in an anthology in September of this year. I look forward to it, and I hope the contest continues for years to come. If your writing tastes tend more to mysteries, Red Tuque Books also has their Canadian Tales of the Mysterious Short Story Competition underway now.

“Shakedown” is a story about a prototype nano-sized submersible intended for operations within the human bloodstream (like Fantastic Voyage but without the inexplicable shrink ray), and the peril involved when the virtual-reality control system becomes far too real. It’s a prequel story to a full-length novel I’ve written, currently being vetted by beta readers, for which I’ll soon be seeking an agent and a publisher.

I was also glad to see this week that the anthology Doomology: The Dawning of Disasters from the Library of Science Fiction and Fantasy, including my story “Tartarus Rising” is now available at Amazon.ca  as well as Amazon.com, so Canadian readers can take advantage of free shipping (always good!) “Tartarus Rising” is a tale about a disastrous invasion of our world, but from a very different source than the usual (hint: the name references Greek mythology). I got a kick out of writing it, and I hope that comes across in the reading.