There are two stories, which are much shorter than the previous six. They were written at about the same time – very early ‘90s, and over­lap­ping by a month. It’s inter­esting for me to reread them, because I often don’t reread my short fiction unless I’m looking for specific details in a partic­ular story – for instance, when looking up the Maker’s Guild in Memory of Stone. As I approach the task of proofing them (and describing elements of each story to the graphic designer), I’m struck by the sense of watching myself change as a writer over a decade and a half. These stories were written twenty years ago. All stories come from the sum of our expe­ri­ences, obser­va­tions, and inter­ests, but not in completely predictable ways. I do not remember … Continue reading →

I’ve been writing (Peril & War at the moment) and revising (Silence), and in between, when the creative impulse is at its lowest, I’ve been proof-reading and format­ting. All six of the stories related to the West novels are now on-line (six are avail­able in the iBooks store, four at Barnes & Noble, one at Kobo, six at Diesel, one at Sony. I do not know what happened to Echoes at B&N, and I’m trying to have it redis­trib­uted, but so far that hasn’t worked). My type­setter is halfway through the book, but has gone to Alaska for two weeks. ETA: All six of the stories are now avail­able, as of this morning, at B&N. A new page has been added to the sidebar — Short Stories — which … Continue reading →

This is the sixth, and final (for now) of the short stories set in the universe of my DAW novels. It, as I mention in the intro­duc­tion, went a little on the long side, and it’s my personal favourite of the six. It’s also the only one so far that has one of those cover quotes — pulled from the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror’s intro­duc­tion because it made me happy. Although this story focuses on two char­ac­ters that aren’t other­wise extant in either The Sun Sword or The House War, it touches on things that are central to the final conflict. It is now avail­able, as usual, on Smash­words, and will be coming up at Amazon​.com within the next twenty-four hours. Smash­words wait times … Continue reading →