Two new short stories

I have written two new short stories that are intended for contests. I’m very, very excited about these right now. Each time I read them, I think they are the best short stories I have ever written. I love the messages, and I can definitely see me expanding one of them into a novel or series of novels (as if I needed more distractions).

One of them is a hard science fiction story called “Remembrance Day”. I wrote it as a response to the 21st Annual Parsec Short Story Contest, and I intend on submitting it after my wife looks over it. The other is not really firmly titled yet. It started out as “Shelly, the Mana Vampire” but it is currently trending toward “Shelly and the Contessa.” It’s more of a paranormal fantasy work, and I think it’s a lot of fun. The Shelly story was written for the Triangulation anthology for this year, which has a focus of “Appetites.”

Have your own ideas for these? I encourage you to send your stories in. Writing short stories is great practice. At least, I think so!

If my stories make it into these contests/anthologies, I’ll let you know. I think the first decision is Triangulation, which should be decided at the end of March. The Parsec Short Story contest will not be finalized until June or July of this year. I may forget all about these by then, but hopefully, it will be good news!

On the novel front, I’ve decided to go with Damonza for a cover art redesign for the Primal Patterns series. I need to get some new back cover material in place (I’m planning to just say what Lucifer’s Odyssey is about, rather than the vague back cover that I went with when I was scared to death of stories about religious characters while living in the Deep South). I also need to think what I’m comfortable with in terms of covers now. The covers for Lucifer’s Odyssey and The Goblin Rebellion have been in place for half a decade now. That’s a long time to get used to something. Time to move on.

If you want to keep a copy of Lucifer’s Odyssey or The Goblin Rebellion as they are right now, you may want to pick one up now. Very soon, you will not be able to get that cover art again.