The Update

Reading Time: 3 minutes When an almost heavenly woman, Sister Mary, dies she expects she’ll go straight to heaven. But the stranger who shows up for her soul has a trick up his cell phone.

The Mistaken Haunting of Seth Harrison

Reading Time: 15 minutes Excerpt
Lizzie Borden took an axe.
Gave her mother forty whacks.

But did she?

Three grifters get caught up in the Lizzie Borden murders and it plays itself out one hundred years later.

It’s Not in Your Head

Reading Time: 2 minutes When The Soul©  chip is implanted in the cerebral cortex at birth, it’s imagined it will create an immortal soul. But there are problems. 

RNA

Reading Time: 9 minutes When an aging baseball player suffers a career threatening injury, his HMO takes over. He is entitled to the lowest level of care which includes an attractive home health aid. He is crushed when she informs him that she’s not really a person.

Inuksuk

Reading Time: 17 minutes Erecting a cell tower in the middle of an arctic waste–next to one of those ancient stone Inuksuks to fix location, to show scale, and to provide a little local color–would be perfect for the “We’ve got you covered” ad campaign. What could go wrong?

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for May 26, 2023

Reading Time: 16 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a creepy stalker-ish vampire, a witch trying to get her powers back, another witch who has to solve a murder mystery, and a box set of six EMP survival books.

Where the Lighting Goes by Jackery Salem

Reading Time: 3 minutes Salem builds something truly unique out of many familiar fantasy tropes — dwarves, dragons, amnesia, all kinds of magic — and ties it up with compelling characters and a deeply satisfying conclusion.

The Reality Star of Relativity

Reading Time: 4 minutes When the Helikon requires a young, fresh face, to keep the people back on earth interested during its long interstellar voyage, who better than Reality Star LaVi Elphan? Though there are some surprises in store, for her, and the PR agent who sends her.

I Like To Be Hit

Reading Time: 5 minutes A sentient golf ball that likes to be hit is willing to do what it must to ensure it is on the receiving end of long drives.

Reflection

Reading Time: 3 minutes I find your heart on Europa, and for a moment it is mine. I follow the signature of your thoughts, and it leads me far above the galactic plane.

Nocturne in Black and Gold

Reading Time: 9 minutes “Nocturne in Black and Gold” exists in some poetic world outside of reality and yet—feels easily relatable. This story bypasses your flesh and bone and gets right into your soul. What happens when your doctor is a tiger?

Living Ship

Reading Time: 13 minutes Stranded when their ship was torn apart unexpectedly, the Crew of the Scorpion were lucky enough to find refuge on a nearby planet. Or were they? It turns out, the planet has a mind of it’s own.

A Clairvoyant’s Misfortune

Reading Time: 4 minutes Someone might say: pal, since you know what’s going to happen, why don’t you do something to change your future! I can only say one thing: I did try it, many times, but there is no way to change your fate. If your life has got something in store for you, you will surely get it.

Robert J. Sawyer on stage accepting his lifetime achievement award.

Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Reflects On Past And The AI Future Of Writing

Reading Time: 3 minutes Dr. Robert J. Sawyer, author of twenty-five novels, including Hominids and the WWW trilogy, won the L. Ron Hubbard Lifetime Achievement Award at the L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers and Illustrators of the Future Gala this past Friday. This was the day before his 63rd birthday. “Clearly, you’re done achieving when you hit that magic …

Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Reflects On Past And The AI Future Of Writing Read More »

This week’s top writing advice from around the web for May. 7, 2023

Reading Time: 8 minutes I subscribe to over a hundred writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, Joanna Penn had a very inspiring and thoughtful podcast about AI-assisted writing — plus, there was great news about self-published author incomes from Alli.

The Leviathan

Reading Time: 26 minutes A seemingly simple solution to a backyard problem quickly gets out of hand.

Send in the Clones

Reading Time: 4 minutes The victim’s head had been blown clean off, that much was obvious. The body lay on a table in the morgue, the harsh scent of antiseptic trying and failing to cover the rusty smell. I looked over at my partner, Wolf-776f6c66 and sighed. “Why am I here?”
There wasn’t much crime on Callisto Colony, and what there was tended to be pretty minor. Vandalism, drunk and disorderly, sometimes a domestic disturbance. All in a day’s work for me, the only full detective on the colony. A corpse was unusual, true, but this case? Open and shut.

Pantsed

Reading Time: 10 minutes Katia hopes to have a pleasant time with Ben, but when it turns out he hasn’t heard a thing she’s told him about herself, she decides to put her programming skills to good use.

A Free Man

Reading Time: 7 minutes In a world where you can purchase a synthetic replica of a person from a vending machine, the best person to frame for a crime you committed may be … yourself.

This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Apr. 30, 2023

Reading Time: 8 minutes I subscribe to more than a hundred writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. Some excellent marketing advice this week, as well as the usual help for people struggling with motivation or needing help with the craft of writing.

Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for April 28, 2023

Reading Time: 15 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a ghost trapper dealing with a creepy haunting, a sexy werebear, and a woman who discovers her magical powers just as she’s trapped at a Renaissance Faire.

Revelations

Reading Time: 5 minutes “Everyone looks to the sky with mixed feelings, some welcoming of the arrival of Others, some dreading it. How we behave in that moment of revelation will speak volumes to those who need merely wait and watch, to know all they need to—about us.”

Bob and Big Dave

Reading Time: 4 minutes The sudden appearance of the ghost of Bob, Dave’s best friend, leaves the latter feeling unhinged. Dave has just lost his wife, and Bob has returned to prevent Dave from following after her.

Interlude In Gehenna

Reading Time: 18 minutes He should have killed the man when he had the chance. Now there was nothing to do but wait for retribution in a town just a shade removed from hell.