Tag: indie publishing

  • “Be Fruitful and Multiply” audio story available

    A new entry in the archive of evidence for why Joyce should not be in charge of their own promotion: I forgot to tell you all about the podcast I got to have a story in. Alone in a Room with Invisible People is a writing craft podcast by Holly Lisle and Rebecca Galardo. Normally, it’s advice on how to write fiction happily and professionally. For Halloween, though, they put together a collection of flash fiction by their listeners with spooky flavors of various sorts.

    I’m in part one, available here, with the story, “Be Fruitful and Multiply.” (It’s got ghost plants, and I love it.) There are a bunch of fun and creepy stories in the episode, so I encourage you to listen to it all. If you want to jump to my story, though, it hits at 36:00.

    I’ve known Holly for years now and been in a number of her writing classes. Having her read my story aloud (a first for me with my original fiction!!!) is one of the greatest professional joys I’ve had to date. I hope you take a listen and enjoy it!

  • It Happened in a Flash

    Book cover art: in the middle of a dry grass field, a green tree is struck by lightning. Cover text: (above) 64 fantastical Flash Stories presented by HOLLY LISLE; (below) It Happened in a Flash

    I’m in an anthology~! And it’s free right now~!

    Solve a mermaid’s problem …
    Step off the edge of a roof …
    Dig up a grave at midnight …
    Take advice from a fortune cookie …
    Visit the last library …
    Meet a bridge troll …
    And more …

    In one instant, like a bolt of lightning, a single impossible event changes a person’s life. And like the trace of lighting in the sky, each is unique and interesting.

    These wildly different flash stories delight, astonish, scare, and inspire. Enjoy 64 delightfully eclectic tales. Like your flash fiction intriguing with a twist? Discover the diversity and check out “It Happened in a Flash”.

    (*excited whispering* I’M the mermaid story! First story slot! *flail*)

    This was put together by the writing community to which I belong, so a bunch of my buddies are in here, as well as a lot of people I’ve never read before. (I…need to actually read all the stories that made it in. This has been in the works for a while, and I have forgotten what’s there. :D )

    The ebook version is currently free, and there is a print version available as well.

  • Magic in the Dark and Dust

    Aisha, freelance witch, certainly doesn’t have any work to keep her busy lately. That specter has cast a pall over her normally cheery, if unpredictable, life. The offer of a potluck and a new friend couldn’t come at a better time. Meeting Ben’s art buddy could be just the distraction she needs.

    “I don’t need pity jobs. I’m a real witch for hire, not just some kid.” She could find work, someday. More work. Eventually. But most people didn’t need or want a witch to fix their printer, when all it really needed was a properly installed toner cartridge. (Josh at the local copy store got an earful, which might be a good thing, but Aisha wasn’t interested in making a career of that.)

    By dessert, Aisha thinks she might make it through this with no intrusive thoughts and only minimal babbling on her part. It’s all fun and mug cakes until the microwave explodes, turning the kitchen into a battlefield.

    It had only counted down two seconds when the display fizzled, scrambling the numbers into gibberish. Aisha opened her mouth to ask what it was doing. Before she could, the light within the microwave increased, becoming a hellfire glow.

    Something more than packing boxes has started lurking in the corners of the apartment. Something dark just moved in the periphery of Aisha’s vision. Something plans to drive them out and steal a home for itself. And whether this is a paying gig or not, stopping it is going to keep Aisha very busy.

    “Something dark,” Charmaine added in time. “I’ve seen—you know how you see something out of the corner of your eye and your caveman brain goes, ‘oh no, a predator’ until you look at it directly?”

    Aisha shivered. “Yeah?”

    “Only when I look at it, I can still see something moving.” Ben hissed, baring his teeth in a grimace both comical and horrified.

    Have Magic, Will Meddle, a story of new friends, old junk, and a whole lot of uninvited housemates, now available for purchase in my shop, on Amazon for Kindle, and on Barnes & Noble for NOOK.
  • What You Can’t See Can’t Hurt Them

    monster making AMZ cover 1If you needed to start life over in a better place, Darby-on-the-Sea might not be your first choice. Minna has been on the road for days, though–alone, exhausted, and living intentionally blind. By now, she’ll take whatever help she can get, even if she doesn’t believe she deserves it.

    His footsteps across the boards gave Minna her only warning, for he took hold of her elbow and hauled her after him without so much as a by-your-leave.

    “My darling child, you might have been killed, standing in the street like that.” Still holding her by her arm, he directed them up the street toward his own house.

    The villagers in Darby have good reason to distrust strangers. With the rocky island off their coast home to monsters, it takes a special sort of hero to win their approval. Minna, anxious, shy, and obviously fleeing misfortune, just doesn’t fit the bill. Pinewood does.

    “Weren’t no wolf, sir,” the man began as though halfway through an argument. “No wolf as I know can open pen gates, nor lock sheepdogs in the barn without a hair out of place on them.”

    Pinewood began pulling on the leather coat hung by the door and pushing feet into boots, even as they said, “A human, then.”

    “Any human who could tear apart a ewe like that—well, I’d say that monsters come in all shapes, then. Please, you will help, won’t you?”

    The offer of shelter and rest is too tempting for Minna to resist. Worst of all, Pinewood offers Minna a friendship like she has never had before. She knows, though, that one wrong look could bring it all down in flames. She knows what will happen if a hero finds out the truth about her.

    Her secret revealed, she waited in her self-imposed darkness—for the blow of a hatchet, or a hunter’s knife against her throat, or any of the thousand other deaths she imagined earned Pinewood their reputation and their keep within the village.

    Monsters of Our Own Making, a story of losing everything and finding where you belong, now available for purchase in my shop for all ebook formats, on Amazon.com for Kindle, and on Barnes and Noble for NOOK.

  • Mops and Magic Just Go Together

    Wireless Mice AMZ cover 1It’s not easy being the new witch in town. Aisha wants to make the perfect first impression by finding a neighbor in need of magical help. Too bad her familiar just came home with a stolen robotic vacuum.

    The cat hopped down and spat a small black triangle onto the bed.

    “Ew, Jasper, what’s that?” Aisha scuttled back as the object flopped itself over and started trundling across the bed on…little wheels? “That’s a ChurchMouse, isn’t it?”

    The vacuum’s owner has bigger problems to worry about, though. With an angry appliance flooding his house, Ben’s happy for any help–be it magic or a mop–he can get.

    His eyes looked wide and panicked. Aisha hurried to yank a towel out from under a protesting Jasper and toss it into the slowly shrinking puddle. With a towel under each foot, the man skidded around the laundry area, even as he asked, “Can I help you?”

    Aisha has her chance to help at last. If she can’t figure out what has this washing machine so cranky, though, that chance will slip through her water-logged fingers.

    The only warning was a rumbling in the pipes and a too-late yelp of alarm from Ben. A jet of water shot from inside the washer, hosing Aisha down.

    “Oh, hell no.” She planted her hands on her hips. “Now it is on, buster.”

    Wireless Mice & Washing Machines, a story of annoyed appliances, interfering familiars, and solutions both magical and mundane, now available for purchase in my shop for all ebook formats and on Amazon for Kindle.