Y’all. Y’all.

Hard to believe it’s been so long since my last dispatch, but then we’ve all been living through the same bizarro hellscape, so you get it. Time is a slippery pig of late. Health/life/everything has slowed my long-form output, but I hope when all my schemes come to fruition you’ll find them worth the wait. In the meantime, I’ve dropped a few small, colorful eggs of dubious freshness…

Free for the reading:

“Rough Work” in Southwest Review Volume 107.3 (Halloween issue), with killer artwork by Nicole Rifkin. Big ups to editors Sarah Booker and Mónica Ojeda!

Pay to play:

“The Conspiracy Against the Twenty-third Canton,” my first Crimson Empire story set after the original trilogy. Appears in The King Must Fall, edited by Adrian Collins, Mike Myers, and Sarah Chorn.

“Quantum Summer,” a piece I co-wrote with Brent Winter. Take the ride in Tales from OmniPark, edited by Ben Thomas. Brent, Ben, and I may have something cooking for later this year, too…

“Bloody Roots,” another Alex Marshall joint that provides an origin story for everybody somebody’s favorite Villain. Appears in Grimdark Magazine #21, edited (again!) by Adrian Collins and Mike Myers.

Finally, my long-out-of-print viking yarn “The Saga of Hilde Ansgardottir” was reprinted in Grimdark Magazine #29, edited by Adrian Collins and Mike Myers (enough with these guys, already). Hilde will also make her return in a new piece later this year…

If my words just won’t suffice and you need the dulcet sounds of my rambling voice, way back in the early days of the plague I took part in an Outer Dark panel on weird world-building with Jeffrey Ford, Natania Barron, Seb Doubinsky, L.M. Davis, and Sarah Read. The podcast version also features readings by Valjeanne Jeffers, Jeff Strand, L.M. Davis, and Ian McDowell.

But enough ancient history! This Saturday I’m honored to help my dear friend Ally Shaw launch her debut book, Ashes and Stone. We’ll be having a live conversation on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 2pm EST/7pm GMT, so join us if you can!


Fun housekeeping note: it’s come to my attention that messages sent through this website’s contact form don’t always reach me. This is a major bummer, as in all things I aspire to be like Vincent Price, and he apparently responded personally to every letter he ever received. Given the convenience of email and my, um, slightly lower volume of fanmail, I should easily be able to emulate Uncle Vince.

While I try to sort my site out go ahead and email me at myfirstname.mylastname AT gmail DOT com. You can see how tech-savvy I am, but rest assured if you tried to hit me up and I never responded I definitely want you to try again. Even if it’s hate mail. Especially if it’s hate mail.

That’s all I got for now, but keep watching the skies, keep wearing your mask, and keep on moving past the crossroads when the moon is full and heavy and dripping its pale light despite the best efforts of the clouds to sop it up.