Short Fiction

Despite his promise, Blackman has fled his childhood home, leaving ten-year-old Ray Harper behind to witness a taste of both the evil that his friend was forced to endure every day and the brutality that the older boy was able to prevent by his presence. For good or ill, however, Harper's friend is gone, leaving behind nothing but a broken promise. Part two of five.

At what point does a person choose to become evil? At the tender age of eleven years, William Blackman had already been made to bear a heavy burden of darkness and given the gift of a friendship of uncommon devotion. Darkness and light -- as childhood's end nears, which path will Blackman choose? Part one of five.

The conclusion of NASCAR Dreams.

Mankind has been struggling with the issue of bottom-line versus human resources since the building of the pyramids. Finding the right balance isn't something we're going to achieve any time soon.

Inside the dark helmet, the rookie was in his haven, he was master of his own destiny. No harm could befall him whilst he was in his fortress. His breathing had returned to normal. His eyes were pinpoints as he went into a type of tunnel vision only seeing what was transpiring directly in front of him. He finally saw it, he could feel it, smell it, and taste it all at once. The Almighty Draft, he now knew how to conquer it. He now understood all those things that the legends had spoken of, when he was a youth. He was no longer afraid of going too fast. There was no such thing. Adrenaline began to pump through his veins instead of the normal red blood cells...

Rachel is suffering from a strange malady. Cramping muscles, tormented dreams that bleed over into her waking hours until she cannot be sure what's real. How can this be happening to her? And how is it that she keeps seeing ...him? *Parental Advisory*

Surrounded by a world of wonder and intrigue, a young man struggles to come up with a plot for a science fiction story, immune to the marvels around him.

Vindication! The unscheduled pit stop proved to be a good decision after all. In the number thirteen car, Rob is starting to earn the respect of his pit crew and other drivers. The race is still young and strategy calls for teamwork on the track of the Daytona 500.

Take a seat behind the wheel of the number thirteen car in this action-packed tale of a rookie driver chasing NASCAR glory as he makes his bid to win the Daytona 500.

A gang of bikers stops to help Ed when his jeep dies along the side of the road. But there's more to these riders than meets the eye, and every favor has its price.

A beautiful girl catches his eye. She seems familiar, and when she calls out to him like he knows her, he asks where it is that they met before. Why does that seem to cause her so much pain?

Just one trip and he'll be able to retire planetside forever, never to set foot in a ship or be forced to endure his crewmates again. But, as one young traveler learns, spacer is a state of mind. First appeared 2005-01-23

The man with the wooden leg gained fame, fortune and all the whiskey you could drink before he lost it all - to the devil chicken. First appeared 2002-12-02

Matter and energy are the same thing. It's the basis for the greatest story ever told. But if you knew ahead of time that you were going to write a novel that would change the world... would you? First appeared 2004-10-02

An evening of headgames and petty power struggles has turned deadly. Shara must face the predators at home to seek help, where a sexual assault forces her to make a stand. The strange goings-on around her are a harbinger of the end of an entire way of life, but Shara is blind to everything but her own little world crashing down around her. Part two of two. <a href="http://www.pikerpress.com/advisory.cfm">Parental Advisory.</a>

Unaware of a beaker of mold spores knocked over a hundred miles away, the drama of the world ending is lost on one girl watching her own little world crumble to pieces. Part one of two. <a href="http://www.pikerpress.com/advisory.cfm">Parental Advisory.</a>

Amada's stories of her father made the winter's cold more painful. But Spring is coming, and with it, a new bloom.

Making friends is never so insiduous as when you're looking to travel light.

The past is viewed through the lens of the act of remembering itself, as a quiet child in a large and noisy family learns to take mental snap shots and hide them away.

A stranger in a foreign land looks for a gift to leave his hosts. Is the strange statue of the serpent a stolen antiquity, or is it a message from forgotten gods that the time has come again to steal back the secret of everlasting life and forestall the final fires that will destroy mankind?

All his girlfriend ever does is nag. Her annoying quirks, habits and fits are growing by the day. She used to do tequila shots at the bar with him, now she's not interested in anything fun. Not like Darielle, whose electric blue eyes have been haunting his dreams...

Ah, the terrible twos. A headstrong boy doodles on the walls of the house, while his concerned father tries to discipline him. Is he being too harsh? A neighbor thinks so, causing Dad to say, "If you can't beat em, join em" in this Edgar Allen Poe-esque tale of child rearing.

The death of an unknown jazz legend passes as unnoticed as the man's tremendous talent, mourned only by a musician and the muse of modern sound.

A tale to inspire a New Year's Resolution or two: He's got a full-time job and a few simple pleasures, but his wife constantly nags him. "You watch too much TV. You drink too much beer. You need to clean out that garage." You know, when you're right, you're right.

A brief journey into one man's relationship with literature.

From the day she was offered a full time secretary to the director of the residency training program in psychiatry, this temp understood that a lot of the strangest cases to come through the office weren't necessarily patients.

Rosalyn suffers from bad dreams. "Night terrors" is the clinic term. But that's okay; Spike, her new puppy, will protect her from the ghosts that torment her every night as she tries to sleep.

What was supposed to be a simple discussion about her performance in class has become an issue of far less ethical "performances" of another kind entirely. But this isn't a case of trying to earn an easy A; there's something almost supernatural about the way Naomi can't resist her professor's advances... Part 2 of 2.