Short Fiction

Excitement! Adventure! A glittering creature of myth and legend to travel with! Who could ask for a better vacation than that? Dudalos the Dragon is about to help Aser find out.

Plague waits, injured and doubting, while the angels meet to decide his fate. How could he possibly think he can help in the battle to come?

While the stars whisper overhead, and the creatures of the earth vibrate with their songs, while the rasp of daily voices fills the very air you breathe, where can you go to listen to what's in your heart?

It's high time for the ghost of Garfer Miller to move on from the planter in front of Aser's door. Unfortunately old Garf isn't looking forward to what waits for him in the next world — or who.

Plague is still not comfortable with his change from despairing suicide to the side of the angels. While we are ready to forgive others their mistakes and failings, our own haunt us like whispers of Hell...

Banding together, people can accomplish more than they can on their own. What if a dragon shows up on your doorstep? Who are your allies then?

Confronted with an unexpected event, do we step forward to embrace the adventure -- or is it better to remain safe?

A familiar constellation is slipping away as the Northern Hemisphere oozes into Spring.

Never trust a vampire writer not to mess with your head ...

Who is it, waiting there, knowing so much about that private life?

What could be more wholesome than a family trip to the zoo?

There are lots of tales worth telling, but few worth losing a beer over.

A ring around the moon is a sign to the weather-wise: a sign that says, "Get your old bones moving and get out while you can." At least that's what Aser is about to find out.

Life is like a pointless maze sometimes, and you have to wonder if breaking out of it will bring you freedom and beauty -- or will it bring you great danger? Staff Writer Lydia Manx treats us to a colorful little tale in a strange setting.

If your main concern is profits and not the health of your hired help, the neighborhood shaman is probably not the most auspicious person to ask for assistance -- unless you want what is really coming to you.

If only Wesley hadn't seen her turn into a mean drunk over brandy, Anne's life might have been very different. Funny how things like that happen ...

The co-workers leaning against the back of the building smoking, the office hens with their cheap and heavy perfume, the copy machine spewing wrinkled paper and toner dust, the supervisor who thinks that "managing" is done by "threatening workers" -- is that what you really want?

Kathryn Long has two published novels -- "Oklahoma's Gold" and "A Pleasant View" -- with a third, "Whips, Cuffs, and Little Brown Boxes", currently in "limbo" as it sits with a publisher. Besides writing, Kathryn spends a great deal of time at her day job as a language arts teacher. She is married and lives in northeastern Ohio.

Plague is walking infection, working for the ones who bring misery to the human race. Is his love for his sister enough to turn him from the path to Hell?

Who is that on the street corner? Is it someone we know? Is it someone w're going to meet? Oh, yes, we know that stranger. And soon, Death will be a stranger no longer ...

Little Jen was surely the perfect companion... (originally appeared in 2003)

Crouched in a concrete pipe, with metal-jacketed slugs being fired at the rate of about 300 rounds per minute is not the most comfortable place in the world ...

Don't you just hate it when the worker at the next desk flumps down with two boxes of tissues, throat lozenges, cough syrup, a bottle of aspirin, and a sore red nose and says, "Yuck, I can't remember when I've been this sick! I was up all night coughing my guts out!" Ooo, so does Aser.

Raka is learning a lot as he searches for Ol' Bob, not the least of which is that all his weaponry and money are gone ...

He knew the sound of the doorbell at that same time on certain days -- on the other side of the threshold was that which no man should have to face at the end of a busy day ...

Behind one door is someone who is always willing to lend an ear to matters of the heart or of hope, someone the entire family can count on to be present for advice or for company ...

Good table manners aren't just a formality -- bringing uncouth guests to a dinner date really annoys people.

If you hear it, but don't see it, is it really there? What if it's just too cunning to be caught?

The world has changed, and the dead are no longer "departed" ... do they live among us, or do we die among them ..?

When you reach a point where you have nothing left, which direction do you take as your life continues? And what, you may ask yourself, actually counts as "life?"