Short Fiction

The town is called "Dust," and there is nothing left of anyone, not even the crumbled molecules that could call the town their namesake. The Seraphim Twins and Kuroda Kumiko know the reason for the destruction, and who they have to find to put an end to it -- but is this mission worth what it will do to Kaine?

What can you do with the unrepentant and unrelenting Bad Guy? Aser and Danner face the consequences of messing with the malevolent mage Rocklift.

Rocklift the Mage is on a mission to make certain that fools who interrupt her cash flow become extinct.

The long road ahead of a single mother is a hard one, and some things will naturally make it harder. But perhaps the hardest part of the journey is when you can actually see the last part of the road ahead of you, and know what will happen when you reach it ...

The long road ahead of a single mother is a hard one, and some things will naturally make it harder. But perhaps the hardest part of the journey is when you can actually see the last part of the road ahead of you, and know what will happen when you reach it ...

When you camp for the night, and get ready to have your evening meal, you really ought to make sure you know with whom you're about to share your fire.

What Hollywood has to say about zombies is purely theatrical ...

Bad boys should know better than to mess with the girl whose mother knows the ins and outs of voodoo ...

She was gorgeous. She was loving. She was marked for death ... but, well, how does an assassin deal with someone marked for death a long time ago? Horace and Clancy have a conundrum to resolve ...

Most of the time you're not allowed to cause discomfort or pain to people around you. But there is one nasty, notable exception ...

Past your prime? Snow on the ol' mountaintop? Been studying other people's walkers with an eye to which model might suit your lifestyle? Have you said, "Been there, done that," to just about everything that comes up in cocktail party conversations? Perhaps it is time for you to visit the Master and ask his advice ...

For some, pain is their mode of communication and their way of obtaining what they think they need.

The open window at the top of the tower looks out upon the face of the Moon, the only face in view. Is this the world? Is this a dream? These are the questions asked hour by hour, day by day, each moment defying what was known to be normal in my family ...

Rocklift the Mage is using a potentially disastrous tool to make money, not caring what she ruins or hurts along the way. If money is her only measure for good, then nothing Aser can say will convince her that her business plan is a mistake.

One is Firefly and one is Shaman. One is called Jynx and one is called Kaine. They seem exactly alike to Kuroda Kumiko: good looking, annoying, and deadly. Can someone really be a bounty hunter and an angel as well? There are mysteries on the planet of Phoenix, where the leylines of the world are dying, and even angels can have enemies out to kill them. A pale traveler, hard to see, is stalking the Seraphim Twins, and their time is running out.

Be very, very careful when you listen to someone's tale of woe. Maybe you should even tape your mouth shut.

Some experiments are better left undone. Raccoons are cute, but they lack certain social skills.

Finding something good about a southern California heat wave, Piker Press staffer Lydia Manx evades traffic to visit pumpkins and the Del Mar Racetrack.

A courtroom drama! Which cousin really inherited the mill? Sometimes it's better not to know ...

There's something out there, and you know it's there, but you can't put into words what it is, that certain ... see? words fail again. But you have to keep looking, and if you're going to search with any expectation of finding, you're going to have to give that search your whole heart ...

Whether one cheats on taxes and gets away with it, or nicks the neighbor's tomatoes in the dead of night when no one sees, the deeds are still wrong, just like the big stuff of robbing and plundering and getting away with it because no one is willing to stop you

An Aser story.It's not always wrong to hide your emotions, and sometimes it's even a good idea to let people know when you're upset. However, if your job is to be attentive to patrons, then perhaps personal drama ought to take a back seat to making sure that the people who pay your wages are taken care of ...

Katrina Stonoff reviews Dorothy Allred Solomon's memoir "Daughter of the Saints," about being raised in a polygamist home.

Kaine and Jynx are kind of cute, kind of annoying, and very mysterious. The bounty hunter Kumiko isn't entirely sure she wants to be around them, but it seems their paths are intertwined ...

The City of One Hundred Spires is far richer than what you see in the travel brochures. However, if you want to sample the real flavor of Prague, you have to know the right places to look ...

Why don't littering laws apply to your mailbox?

<b>Prologue: A Brief History of Angel City and the Collapse of the Shaman Rail Line</b><br><br> <p>2000 years ago, the Four Great Ships <i>Salvation, Absolution, Redemption</i> and <i>Phoenix</i>, crossed the edge of a dying universe and entered another to start life anew. Aboard <i>Salvation</i> were three psychics, Talon Konstantine, his daughter, Regan, and Daigoro. Each of them possessed the powers of the three star angels, Shaman, Firefly and Yuusei, who were created when the universe was born to protect the creatures of the universe from threats like the Void that had consumed the one from which they had so recently fled. The chronicles written at that time claim the existence of a fourth star angel psychic, called Samurai, who stayed behind to seal the Void. There is no evidence today of this mysterious fourth psychic except that the Void has not encroached this universe.

What kind of house suits you?

Memories of summer -- the baseball games, the lightning bugs who clung to the sunflower leaves during the day, the time with family, the outings with friends ... this is a season to build rich treasures of sight and taste and images that will keep us warm and entertained during the winter months.

If you teach your children how to behave properly, they might not have to face the consequences of having someone else teach them the hard way.