My historical horror story Everything As It Was has been accepted by Litbop. Set in the dust-plagued landscape of 1930s Oklahoma, it’s a story about lost hope, lost faith, and lost children come home.

“I prayed that you’d come home, and the crops would come back, and everything would go back to how it used to be. And now, glory be, here you are.”

My modern dark fantasy story Dragonsbreath has been accepted into the Winter 2024 Dragon Gems anthology by Water Dragon Publishing.

It’s the story of a teen forced to wear a fireproof mask to protect himself and others from a power he can’t control.

This story is an odd one for me: a little bit fantasy, a little bit horror, and a little bit (gasp!) romance. 

The woman’s head lurched forward as her SUV slowed to a jarring stop, its bumper only inches from the police car parked sideways across her lane. Half a dozen emergency vehicles crowded the street ahead of her. There were police cars. Fire trucks. An ambulance.

The woman watched with mounting horror as a pair of paramedics lifted a gurney out of the ambulance and began wheeling it up the driveway of a nearby house.

Her house.

My short horror story Something’s Wrong With Mom has been accepted by Literally Stories for publication in November.

It’s the story of two brothers who wake up in the middle of the night to discover that their mother is on the ceiling. Again.

My short story Firefly has been accepted by The Remington Review for their Fall 2023 issue. It’s a simple story about a young girl who captures a firefly in the back yard to help cheer up her ailing sister.

Missy caught the firefly in mid-air, cupping her hands around it to form a tiny, dark cave. She could feel the insect’s delicate footsteps tickling her skin as it wandered across her palm, searching for a way out.

“Got you!” she whispered, victorious.

My dark sci-fi story Set For Life has been accepted by Radon Journal. The story is about a man’s first day on the job picking up bodies for Syntech and the disturbing secret about where they come from. 

Andy loaded the body into the back of the van, then slammed the door.

“Last one,” he called out, knocking on the rear door with his knuckles. The van’s engine started up with a roar. Its tailpipe shuddered, enveloping Andy in a swirl of exhaust. He coughed and waved the noxious fumes away from his face. “Thanks, asshole,” he thought.

My eco-horror short story From Below has been selected for the ParSec In Print anthology by PS Publishing, a curated collection of stories chosen from ParSec’s digital editions to appear in print.

In the flooded remains of Old Manhattan, the wealthy stay dry and well-fed in their penthouses, while everyone else is left to fend for themselves against the unseen horrors lurking just below the surface.

You can also hear the audio production of From Below on the Horror Hill podcast.

My short horror story They Say Crows Can Remember Faces has been accepted into the A Coven of Witches anthology by West Avenue Publishing. When a bully kills one of Ava’s favorite crows, he quickly learns that some birds never forget a face.

The stone hit Ava in the back of the head. She stumbled and fell, spilling her schoolbooks out of her arms and onto the dirt road in front of her. Gravel dug into her palms as she threw out her hands to break her fall. Her knees skidded painfully across the ground.

“Have a nice trip!” a boy’s voice called out from behind her, to a chorus of laughter. “See you next fall!”

My sci-fi story Coherence has been accepted by Amazing Stories. Set in the same Syntech universe as Override, Set For Life, and A Free Man, Coherence tells the story of a synthetic assigned to replace an elderly widow’s deceased husband, and what happens when it refuses to replicate the bitter resentments of a loveless marriage.

I’m this way because Sam was this way, and because this is how Rose expects me to be.

My historical horror story Breathtaking has been accepted into the Wild Weather anthology by Smoking Pen Press (final title TBD).

Set in 1930s Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl, Breathtaking tells the story of a young girl and her brother who see a mysterious woman in white screaming outside their house during a dust storm.

Banshee,” I whispered, mouthing the words as I read. “A spirit in the form of a wailing woman who appears to members of a family as a sign that …” I trailed off. I felt my stomach tighten. Icicles formed down the center of my spine. “That one of them is about to die.”

My body horror drabble Only We has been accepted by Martian Magazine. It’s the story of a couple who wanted grow closer to each other … but not that close.

His hand caresses my cheek. His cheek. Our cheek.

There is no he anymore. There is no me. There is only us. Only we.