Short Fiction

Recent history gets tweaked as Dan Ur-Jennan relates how she single-handedly defeated the army of Kaladang the Axe. Well, of COURSE there's lots of beer involved!

If you live in an isolated little town, you can get very comfortable being like everyone else. They see the same sights, they speak the same language, they know where everything in town is supposed to be. However, if you step outside the isolation, and keep on traveling, after a while you know that if you ever go back to your home town, the people there might not even recognize who you are ...

Cornered between the deadly river and the fields of Kaladang the Axe, Aser and Danner get to insult the evil wizard Fellmount one last time.

Calls peal out in the night, and a vicious death spooks the neighborhood pets ... and what begins as curiosity is about to become a terrifying discovery ...

Hizashi and Getsuei fire, but it is not enough. The Immortal Guns will pass on, but will they ever be able to defeat the Death that walks the ruins of Angel City?

Aser and Danner take one last break among the Ghost-folk and find that fish-breath and spectral lounge-lizards inspire them.

Death walks the streets of Angel City, shouting words the people hear as prophecy, meting out pain and loss. Death stalks the streets of Angel City, years later, hiding from sight, knowing what truth is to come ...

Still on the run from the treacherous wizard Fellmount, Aser and Danner make a risky side trip to try to find the magical baboons Narsai and Guillaume. How do people get so attached to animals, anyway?

Once again Aser and Danner are snatched from the evil wizard Fellmount's clutches in the nick of time. Whose stupid idea was this anyway?

The look in his eyes was serious, but filled with promise. But it was a promise that seemed to come from farther away than Jim had ever imagined. He was afraid of that pledge, but far more afraid of not taking that first step ...

Just what you need when you're feeling left all alone to face the music is one more crabby ghost griping about desertion.

An Aser story. Planners, loggers, coopers, and whores -- this isn't your usual cast for "Singin' in the Rain."

Kaine is dying; he has nothing left to help him heal. The time has come for Iai to remember who and what he is, and what he must do ...

Kristan Ginther is a professional copywriter and published nonfiction author. Her recent short fiction work has appeared in apt Literary Journal, M Review, and Planet Magazine. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Dan, two cats, and Boxer dog. She has no photos of herself without the husband or the pets.

Part of a shaman's work is to tell how things are with the world of the Unseen. Spooky? Maybe. But sometimes being the Voice of a ghost is pure job satisfaction.

Iai, Kaine, Jynx, and Kumiko have something in common on the harsh desert planet of Phoenix. It's not their courage, or their battles -- it's that for their own reasons, their hearts are all breaking ...

Kids never believe their elders about anything. Is it any wonder we can't stand them?

There is more than one side to any story, even a fairy tale.

"I always hated this fairy-tale," says Lydia Manx. "It was a pleasure to give 'Snow White and Rose Red' a new look."

Spin staw into gold? A little man with an unknown identity? Lydia Manx revisits "Rumplestiltskin".

Dan twists another fairy tale into something to make your eyes bug out.

Dan Mulhollen tokes a new look at an old classic fairy tale: "The Little Match Girl."

An Aser story. Is there anything sicker than an entire community of mimes? First appeared 2003-11-29

Evil and mystery have haunted the desert nights of the planet Phoenix, but the creature of malice and cruelty, Suada Zacharias, strides confidently under the blazing sun, dining on the pain of others, and quenching her thirst ... with death.

Moonlight, a graveyard, and who can you turn to and call your best pal?

The sun and the moon are found, but how will Raven steal them and put them back in the sky?

An Aser Story: The evil wizard Fellmount has every intention of tracking down the two shamans who exposed his wicked deeds -- now Aser and Danner have no choice but to pay their respects to certain deceased relatives.

The encounter was just chance, but both of them knew that there is a fire that can be sought when one is cold and alone. Sometimes the world seems so cold, and a life can seem like such a lone spark in a vast emptiness, that finding fire is the only solution human eyes can see...

Raven has no choice but to visit the scene of the crime, and finds not only a witness and a helper, but the inspiration to sell Girl Scout cookies.

Okay, so maybe blowing up the evil wizard Fellmount's house wasn't the smartest thing Aser and Danner ever did. The clans of Ur suggest they not let the door hit them on the ass on the way out.