The animated version of my dystopian sci-fi thriller I Hope You’re Happy has been released on the Storiaverse app, which combines original animation with text to create a unique interactive reading experience. The app is now available for free on both iOS and Android.

In the State of Bliss, the only crime punishable by death is crying.

It isn’t a difficult law to enforce, given the rarity of the offense. In fact, there hasn’t been an execution in Bliss for decades—nary a tear has been shed in over 50 years. Babies in Bliss are born quiet and serene, passing through their mothers’ hips like wet grapes through pursed lips: just a soft little pop sound, and the newborns emerge into the world with smiles on their faces and birdsong in their lungs.

That’s what made Fiona’s reaction all the more unusual: she was absolutely sobbing with despair. Uncontrollably, inconsolably sobbing.

In honor of President’s Day, my dark sci-fi story Arrival at Hope Station Have Been Indefinitely Postponed has been published by Stupefying Stories. It’s framed as an urgent announcement on an interdimensional travel platform. Any resemblance to the unfolding disaster in American politics is purely coincidental.

Attention, Travelers. Due to circumstances entirely within our control—but beyond our collective will to change—all arrivals at Hope Station have been indefinitely postponed, and the Station is now closed. Travelers entering the Station should abandon Hope and proceed to the exits immediately.

My sci-fi flash fiction story Pop’s Time Machine has been published in Issue #4 of Drip Literary Magazine. It’s the story of a boy whose father insists he has a time machine in his head.

When I was eleven years old, I told my dad I wanted to invent a time machine. He told me he already had one. I asked him where it was.

“Right here,” he said. He tapped his forehead and smiled. “All I have to do is close my eyes, and I can travel back in time as far as I want.”

My dark sci-fi story Just What I Want is now free to read in Issue 9 of The Stygian Lepus. It’s a story about what happens when your digital personal assistant understands you so well that it starts doing things for you before you even ask.

Amy examined the shipping label. It was addressed to her. “Never mind!” she yelled back. She carried the package into the kitchen and opened it. Her eyes lit up. “Clara, did you order this for me?”

Blue LEDs flickered on a featureless black cube hovering over the kitchen counter. Tiny gray text on the front edge identified it as CLARA: Completely Lifelike Autonomous Robot Assistant. A woman’s voice emanated from within.

“I thought you’d like it.”

My short sci-fi story Coherence has been published in Amazing Stories. It’s 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.