Stories

Here is a list of my short stories, novelettes, and novellas, in publication order, most recent first, Coming Soon listed at the bottom.

For those who need it, I’ve a page separating out all works available as audio, here.

93. “Live to Eat” in ADI – what if you could give up on eating altogether? Eating disorders and parenting.

92. “Up the Mountain” in Phenomenons 3: The Wind and Fire – Lipstick Lilly’s adventures continue! This time, we worked closely to make sure this shared-world anthology has an over-arching plot. 

91. “Don’t Taunt Robot Mermaids With Laser Eyes” in 42 Stories – an anthology of 42 stories exactly 42 words long with 42-character titles. I riffed on my story “Seeing Clearly” which I was shopping around at the time. 

90. “She’s a Rescue” in F&SF Summer 2024. Juno just wants her dad to trust her to fly the ship, but her mom gets in the way. You can get it at Barnes & Noble, Mac’s Backs, or Weightless Books

89. “What We Telepath When We Telepath About Love” a Raymond Carver send-up, in For a Friend.

88. “A Tight Fit” in Tales of the United States Space Force – big science machines and rescues in near earth orbit. 

87. “The Good Twin” on Simultaneous Times Podcast May 15, 2024: For our 40th birthday, my sister and I gave each other migraines. 

86. “Variant Cover: Pantone Sunset” in Escape Pod May 5, 2024: a robot retail worker starts reading comic books and that changes everything. 

85. “Rail Meat” in Clarkesworld January 2024 – a professional thief takes a turn at being human ballast for atmospheric racing yachts.  Reviewed by Malda Marlys on bsky: “at least four different genres crashed together at high speeds into both scathing indictment of the excesses of wealth and satisfying romp.”

84. “The Handmaiden Alchemist” in Analog January 2024 – a young woman uses the power of chemistry in 1520s France.  With footnotes!  My last Clarion 2013 story to sell!

83. “Interfacing With Your New Human for Sexbot Satisfaction” in Apex’s Strange Machines anthology of weird technical manuals.  Only available through kickstarter reward! 

82. “The Caregivers” in Robotic Ambitions anthology – November 2023 – Pierre is an AI nurse and someone is messing with his memory. 

81. “The Silver Dame and the Box of Mystery” on Zombies Need Brains Presents – Solving the theft of a time machine in 1940s St. Louis is bad enough without your killer robots’ passive-aggressive sibling rivalry.  (behind a paywall.) 

80. “Football on Mars” in Factor Four, October 2023 – This one’s about what it says on the tin.

79. “Cheaper to Replace” in Clarkesworld July 2023 – Hanh loves her robot graduate student assistant but the lab wants to get rid of him.

78. “Two body Problem” in Factor Four – a flash about post-graduate positions and space.

77.  “Big City Girl” in Phenomenons 2: Season of Darkness – a shared world superhero anthology. My heroine from volume one, Lipstick Lilly, the somewhat insecure cosmetics scientist who solves crime with improbable lipsticks, teams up with her hero, Better Angel, when all the heroes with actual super powers start LOSING THEM.  

76. “Sazerac for the Secret Mouth” in Apex book’s Strange Libations exclusive promotional anthology (only available as a kickstarter reward, sorry.) A flash fiction piece in the form of a cocktail recipe.  “Start with five bridesmaids, each committed to single life and carrying a jigger of Catcher in the Rye with sarcastic notes in the margins.”

75. “Haunting the Docks” in Cast of Wonders February 28, 2023 – a lonely AI wonders why no one visits their dock anymore. 

74. “The Subway Algorithm is Half Constructed” in F&SF March/April  2023 – Searching for love in a machine learning lab gets complicated when the lovely Kato shows up, training AIs to workshop novels.

73. “An Echo of a Will” in Analog January/February 2023.  Zeke’s husband is in a coma, leaving him a chatbot for company as he struggles with making end of life decisions.

72. “Forgotten Eyes” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies in December 2022 – Colonialism and lost folklore, explored through an enigmatic symbol and a conversation with a goddess.  From the world of my novel The Gods Awoke.

71. “Bumble Bot” in the September/October 2022 Analog – complicated families and robot bees in an urban community garden!

70. “Subscription Life” in Dreams for a Broken World anthology – would you choose to live in an artificial world, knowing the costs to others?

69. “We Built This City” – my first Novelette! in Clarkesworld, June 2022.  The city in “A Place to Stand On” has now floated over Venus for twenty years.  How does a new generation maintain it?  A quiet story of labor and generations. Hugo and Nebula Finalist for 2023!  Now in Chinese!

68. “What We Have Done” in the March/April 2022 Analog – A flash piece combing the singularity with a Bruce Springsteen love story. 

67. “Juniper’s Song” in Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue       The space whale-herders need a new Whale Singer.  Juniper needs to escape from the people shooting at her.  If working something out also means falling in love, how much the better!

66. “Lipstick Lilly Vs. Electric Lady in the ‘Land” for Phenomenons – a shared-world superhero anthology.  Lilly is a mild-mannered chemist whose lipsticks can do incredible things, but she doesn’t feel like a real super-hero, not with a woman shooting lightning bolts at power junction boxes on the west side of Cleveland. 

65. “Three Little Arcologies” in Little Blue Marble September 2021 – Once Upon A Time there were three houses that dreamed of sustainability and a Big Bad Development Corporation out to get them.

64. “Room to Live” in Analog, September 2021 – Process Friction is the answer when a call center worker deals with a problematic roommate, helping the homeless, and a possible robot uprising.

63. “Loving the Falls” in Cast of Wonders August 25, 2021 – A resurrected teen contemplates her relationship with her parents after her death and return.

62. “The Unlikely Heroines of Callisto Station” Novella in the July/August Analog – Lottie has bipolar disorder and a fondness for gothic novels.  Can she defend her home station from pirates with the aid of a facilities manager who hates her? 

61. “Sura of Blood” – a Syrian vampire decides to go on Hajj, in the near future, and has to deal with biometric identification as she crosses borders. 

60. “The Plus One” in the May/June 2021 Fantasy & Science Fiction — US Marshal Blaine investigates a preventable death in what might be the first case of homelessness on Mars. BSFA Long List 2021!

59. “Second Hand Destinies” in the March 2021 Analog – St. Vitus was a ship pretending to be a basilica pretending to be a station. Tatiana was a small, tentacled thing curled inside a corpse, pretending to be Tatiana.

58. “Things From Our Kitchen Junk Drawer That Could Save This Spaceship”  in Daily Science Fiction 2/23/2021 – what it says on the tin. I thought I’d write a list story.  Hugo Longlist 2021!

57. “Watch Your Step” In Departure Mirror 1/2021 – A Kaiju deals with body image issues. 

56. “The Rooster of Io” in Amazing Stories 12-2020 – someone has killed the only man working on Io Station and it’s up to Marshall Blaine to figure out which of the ladies did it in an environment where everyone is a suspect and no one can escape.

55. “Blink If You Love Me” in DreamForge 12-2020 – a lovelorn biologist breeds faster-than-light fireflies.

54. “Iron Priest” on Daily Science Fiction 9-2-2020 – what if killer robots were Catholic?

53. “Falling for the Wrong Guy” in Pangaea III – conclusion of the shared world anthology trilogy, my story continues “The Wrong Way to do the Right Thing” (number 13 below, in Pangaea II), with Daicey, gun for hire, and her best friend, Brikka the Neanderthal, as they get swept up in larger events.

52.  “From the Trash” in Little Boy Lost – June 18, 2020 – Facilities manager Nanlee hates children, murder, and people interfering with the Lunar colony toilets.  So naturally she finds all three in one day.

51. “Barley Wine and Potable Myths” in Lackington’s – June 18, 2020 – Cookie reflects on nostalgia and preserving the past in bottles of liquor.

50. “On the Changing Roles of Dock Workers” in Analog July/August 2020.  Mary wishes being a dock worker meant what it used to mean as her boss nags her to fix a rebellious robot.  Available as a podcast.

49.  “Single Malt Spacecraft” In Lightspeed Magazine June 2020.  The twenty year time dilation on Fresia’s cargo runs are ideally suited to aging scotch whisky. (also available as a podcast!) Called “The best kind of weird.” – Aurelius Raines II – Reprinted by China’s Science Fiction World, March 2021

48. “Sister Thrush” in Way of the Laser: Future Crime Stories June 2020.  Patrick’s kid sister Alyssa comes home in a robot bird body, asking him to help her cheat the mob and the cops before her stolen body gets confiscated.

47. “Blue Eyes” in Nature: Futures – Genetic modification and discrimination are traps in this very short piece. 5/27/2020

46. “Seeing Clearly” on Little Blue Marble 4/10/2020 – a robot mermaid with laser eyes gets the feeling she should think outside her tank after the humans stop visiting her.  Reprinted in the Little Blue Marble 20202 Anthology.

45.  “A Hitchhiking Robot’s Guide to Canada” in Flash Fiction Online 4/1/2020 Another one of those that is what it says on the tin.  “Fun, familiar, and smile-worthy” B. Zelkovich “…damn” – Jon Stout

44. “Volatile Memory” in Flame Tree’s “Detective Thrillers” anthology.  Sandra is investigating the murder of her partner.  It would go smoother if he wasn’t tagging along offering color commentary.

43.  “Some Form of Contact” at Daily Science Fiction, 2/10/20.  Danger makes her horny.  She’s not alone.  Aliens and humans react to first contact by seeking… other contact.

42.  “Knit Three, Save Four” in the November 2019 Fantasy & Science Fiction — Mouth is a space bum knitting her way between the moons of Jupiter when she finds herself stowed away on a cargo ship full of problems.  Can her knitting save the day? Reviewed on Rocket Stack Rank “Well Tied Together” (I see what you did there.) Two stars (out of three) on the Tangent Online Recommended Reading List for 2019. Reprinted in The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 5 (2019)

41. “Electric Tea” in A Punk Rock Future 10/19  Tsui is an art school grad sliding toward failure in near-future Tremont where a new creativity-enhancing product has hit the market.

40. “Loitering With Mathematical Intent” in DreamForge 5/19 – a mathematician in a post-capitalism world finding meaning in her work.

39. “Politeness Costs Nothing” in Daily Science Fiction – an AI tries to pass on what it has learned about manners.

38.  “South of the Waffle House” in Do Not Go Quietly May, 2019.  What if your friend was a space alien?  Would he understand the anxieties of having a parent who doesn’t have citizenship status?

37. “The Problem from Jamaica Plain” in Diabolical Plots Year Five anthology.  And online on their site.  A lawyer is called about a murder… or an abandoned child… it’s not clear which. Reviewed at Quick Sips: “It’s cute, it’s fun, it’s queer, and you probably need this in your life about now.”

36. “Free Wifi” in Parvus Press anthology “If This Goes On” Imagine a future with no net neutrality and no free public education? Scary!

35. “Celeste and Bobby Fisher” in Daily Science Fiction, February 28, 2019. Just pure robot chess-player snark. On my birthday!

34. “A Place to Stand On” is in the January/February 2019 Analog.  Hortensia hasn’t trusted anyone else with her safety since her mother failed to secure her tie-line while rock climbing as a teen.  Now she’s on a floating platform in the atmosphere of Venus, and it’s sinking. Reviewed at Reviews and Robots. “…a great character piece” Anlab Reader’s Choice Finalist!

33. “Tactical Infantry Bot 37 Dreams of Trochees” in the January/Feburary 2019 F&SF . The infantry robots haven’t had their software patched in years, and they’re growing peculiar.  Some collect images.  Bot 37 collects interesting words.  While war rages around her, she learns to write poetry.

32.  “Saving Big Daddy” on the No Sleep horror podcast

31. “The Eater of Dirt” in Reckoning 3  The ancient goddess of decay takes a long view toward current events.

30.  “The Seventh Street Matriarchy” in Crossed Genre’s Resist Fascism anthology. Will Ty’Shae help the residents of River View Estates buck the system or help evict them as part of her job?

29. “The Beauty You Cannot Buy” in Daily Science Fiction, 10/16/18 . In a world of ubiquitous plastic surgery, how do you achieve true beauty?

28. “The Toymaker’s Daughters” in The Internet Is Where Robots Live Now anthology.  Claire is a clockwork bartender searching for her family, and learning what family really means.

27. “Learning to Fly” in the Terra! Tara! Terror! anthology (also in ebook) from Third Flatiron press.  A child learns to fly on a piece of poster paper. Based on a true childhood dream. 

26. “Customer Review: Life of Jesamie Blake, 0-39” in Daily Science Fiction August 2018 In a world where you can experience other people’s lives, how would you rate them on Amazon?

25. “Infinite Boyfriends” in Broad Knowledge anthology in the “Women Up to No Good” anthology series.  Getting dumped isn’t so bad when your friend the mad scientist can pull alternate versions of your boyfriend from the multiverse. 

24. “This is an Optimistic Science Fiction Story About the Future” on Little Blue Marble, May, 2018.  This one is exactly what it says on the tin. A bit meta-fictive.

23. “The Willing Body, the Reluctant Heart” in Analog’s May / June 2018 issue – A body collects friends heart, lung, and brain to seek out these strange new aliens who seem to have only one intelligence per body.  AnLab Reader’s Choice Finalist!  Translated into Chinese in Science Fiction World November, 2019

22. “The Robots Karamazov” in IGMS April, 2018. Called “Darkly hilarious” by Maria Haskins. So yeah, what if the brothers Karamazov were robots?

21. “Fourth-Dimensional Tessellations of American College Graduates” in The Reckoning 2 (ebook December 2017, print coming in June 2018.)  Reviewed by Cat Rambo:  “…the ending made my heart leap and it is my favorite story of 2018 so far. I will hold onto my copy of this magazine forever because it contains it.” 

20. “Quirks” in the November 2017 Analog. (Print or ebook) When collective bargaining meets direct memory transfer, watch out for the quirks. 

19. “The Flirtbot Condition” on Terraform / Mothership October 2017. How can a flirtbot learn to flirt if no one talks to it?

18. “The First Trebuchet on Mars” in the September/October 2017 Analog. (Print or ebook) This one is (shockingly) about the first Trebuchet catapult on Mars.  Now on escape pod as a podcast.

17. “Metal and Flesh” at Daily Science Fiction. A dark future with humans enslaved by robots.

16. “We All Scream” on Escape Pod podcast. (download audio) A family operated ice cream truck is one town’s only hope against a rampaging monster.

15. “Stepping Out of Stream” on T. Gene Davis’ Speculative Blog. Stepping into a real world beyond ubiquitous VR. Reviewed by Steve Quinn: “I really enjoyed [it] because it creates a plausible, near-future commuting world and shows the real pros and cons of that world.”

14. “Cross the Street” on Cast of Wonders podcast March 2017. (download audio) Kids vs. Autos in a world where pedestrians have no right to cross the street.

13. “The Wrong Way to Do the Right Thing” in Pangaea: The Rise of Dominjaron (shared world anthology.)  

12. “Space Princess Coronation” is a mini  text adventure on Sub-Q magazine.

11. “Kitten Lorelei ♥ CherryBerry24” is on especbooks’ website, having tied in a “kitten flash” contest.

10. “Hold the Moment” is in the June 2016 issue of Analog.  A single mother tries to balance raising her daughter with inventing time travel. (Print or subscription) 

9. “Michael Doesn’t Hate His Mother” in the March 2016 Lightspeed. Something is terribly wrong with Michael’s mother. Reviewed at Quick Sip Reviews: “I kind of love how the story goes about framing their relationship with their mother…. Quite difficult to read at times but very good!”

8. “Neil Armstrong Vs. Zombie Hitler,” which is about exactly what the title suggests, in Pornokitsch, an arts magazine dedicated to pop culture. (Free online.) And it’s now available in audio! Reprinted in “Fantasy for the Throne”

7. “Butterflies on Barbed Wire” is in the October 2015 issue of Analog.  Can a new tattoo technology change the course of a young man’s rather dysfunctional life? 

6. “Keep Talking” published in Apex Magazine in December, 2014.  Gerald struggles to communicate with his daughter, who has autism, while his daughter deciphers a message from distant aliens. This story won Apex’s “Story of the Year” for 2014. Reviewed by Oxford Culture Review. “It’s poignant, imaginative, and approaches its subject matter with maturity and deftness. It’s the embodiment of what science fiction should be in 2016.”  Translated into Vietnamese by SF VN! 

5. “Trash” appeared on Escape Pod in November, 2014. Nanlee was a woman with the sort of past that necessitated moving to a non-extradition treaty country, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t planned on enjoying her “retirement” on Luna Colony. (download audio)

4. “Jupiter Wrestlerama” published in Lightspeed in October, 2014. Waitress Karen navigates the tight confines of her space station community to investigate the murder of her boyfriend, the star of the local wrestling show.

3. “The Time Mechanic” published in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show in September, 2014.  What’s a guy to do when he’s stuck in a town with a comically whimsical name in eastern Kentucky in the 1920s with a broken time machine?  

2. “Deshaun Stevens’ Ship Log” published in Escape Pod in November, 2013 – Bridget Jones’ Diary, but in space and male. (download audio)

1. “Brain Trust” published in Reflection’s Edge in February, 2006 Bang wants to touch a broader reality than her small town in southern Vietnam.  Her family doesn’t understand.  (Looks like Reflection’s Edge has vanished.)

Coming Soon:

“Carnival Fire” in Drabblecast

“A True Account of a Pre-Teen Blob” will appear in Haven Spec

“Chits and Bits” From Story Protocol

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