Eileen's sister, Rose, is dead. Technology can bring her back -- but her family can only afford it for a month each year, only at the beach where she died. What happens to a pair of sisters when one grows and the other stays the same?(Originally published in the Summer Splash Anthology, graciously compiled and published by @rskovach -- https://www.wattpad.com/51855756-summer-splash-anthology-summer-sister-matt_weber )…
Pel has a story to tell. There's the girl who grew up destitute, addicted, single mother to a son she can't protect; the father who left the family, then disappeared; the old family friend, angel and demon both; the Dandelion Knight. But why tell it tonight, before a crowded theater in a city under siege?…
Twenty scrupulously truthful answers to twenty questions nobody asked.…
The King of Uä and his retinue make their annual pilgrimage to the Summer Palace. En route, a scullion and a fighting man meet over a campfire story, and something blooms between them. But strange things are transpiring in the palace corridors, and the chilling fireside tale that connected our would-be lovers may be more real than anyone suspects.A fantasy inspired by swashbuckling stories of all vintages, from ancient China to Dumas to Fritz Leiber and Steven Brust. Updated Wednesdays until it's done.…
Amputees sometimes feel excruciating pain from their "phantom limb," the one that's gone. Sometimes, the trick to quieting that pain is as simple as convincing your mind that the limb is still there. Mona learns the trick -- and learns a bit about the difference between quieting pain and becoming whole again.…
Patients are dying strangely at Drake's hospital. Low blood pressure; exsanguination. His girlfriend, Meena, seems to be the common denominator. He doesn't believe she's a murderer; he certainly doesn't believe in vampires. But, under the baleful eye of the moon, he's not sure what else he can believe...…
Tubby Shu is a grandmother in a nursing home, irascible and independent. But she can't help but notice that more and more bright young people are joining her in the home, their memories destroyed... and that the common denominator among them is a cognitive enhancement technique that her son, too, is using. He waves off her worries as the demons of an old woman with too much time on her hands. How can she convince him of the truth?…
A young soldier comes back from a campaign and finds himself prospecting a claim -- a small territory in a dead city where he has the right to search for ancient technology, or possibly magic. What is he looking for, and how did he come to possess the claim?This is first draft copy -- raw words, posted daily, as I write them. Tell me what you think! THE CLAIM is projected to be done in mid-January, 2015. If you're interested in process notes and essays about the writing, they're posted in "THE CLAIM: DEVELOPMENT DIARIES"; or you can check out my blog, linked in my profile.…
Process notes and occasional essays on the writing of THE CLAIM. Updated weekdays until the book is complete, most likely mid-January. If you're looking for the first draft of THE CLAIM, check my profile.…
A strange conscription into a strange army.…
Xin wants to escape his life of slavery, grinding away in the offices of a multiplayer video game. But what is he escaping to?Cover art provided by DeviantArt's joannastar: http://joannastar-stock.deviantart.com/art/fantasy-landscape-bg-10-130100810…
An AI simulates a woman's dead husband from his online data trail. But what offline data is she hiding from it?…
A couple of retired spies at the old spooks' home discuss the time that one of them created the most beautiful woman in the world -- and then weaponized her.…
