Hello!

I write science fiction, magical/speculative/slipstream fiction, and comics.

I have written a YA science fiction novel entitled, “Silverwood.”It needs an editor/publisher who will love its characters and their unconventional lives as much as I do. Here’s what “Silverwood” is about:

Fourteen-year-old Helen Silverwood is tired of life on the run with her bounty hunter mom and younger brother Henry. She longs to reunite with her distant father Gabriel and gain some sense of a normal life. But before that can happen Helen must come into her own as a member of the ancient Silverwood clan and use her unique gifts to battle shape-shifting creatures called Tromindox. For different reasons, everyone – Helen and her mom and brother, Gabriel her dad, the Tromindox, and a Council made up of corrupt bureaucrats – are headed for the same remote town of Brokeneck, California – a place where knitting keeps away zombies and the lake nearby causes people to go in and drown themselves. Can Helen come to terms with her real identity and untangle what’s really going on in Brokeneck quickly enough to reunite her family?

Here are some of my wonderful publishers and editors who deserve many mountains of support: Perihelion, Literary Orphans, Story Shack, 1000words, and coming soon: Fiction Vortex. Also visit Flash! Friday where I write flash fiction each week.

Here’s a story for you non-clicking types:

Dave and Bruce… and God

“Hey Dave, your love interest is here.”

“Shut up, Tom.”

Laughter.

Dave looks down at his beer. Billiard balls knock together in the next room.

Bruce enters the bar with a couple of friends, talking loudly. He takes up a position at the end of the bar closest to the door. He orders something. His friends order something.

Dave occupies the seat at the opposite end of the bar, farthest from the entrance. He sits here because he arrived first. Whoever arrives first sits at the far end. Best view of the whole establishment, best way to know when the other one comes in.

Sometime during the evening the person closest to the door will develop the need to use the bathroom, and this necessitates a carefully choreographed dance. It’s a work of art, really. One of them, say it’s Bruce in this situation, will stand up and stretch. This is the signal that he is about to walk to the back of the bar where the latrine is located. The person at the back end of the bar, Dave in this scenario, must spot this signal and react accordingly. If he misses it for some reason, one of his friends is sure to alert him. Then, he can get really involved in a conversation, or ordering another drink, turn his back long enough for Bruce to pass. When Bruce comes back out, he will head straight for to his post without looking to the side. This is how it works.

Every so often, someone thinks it’s funny to order a drink for Dave or Bruce, and tell them it’s from the other one.

Once in a while Dave or Bruce will get a new car, or a new girlfriend, and everyone will reassess. Who has the upper hand? Is this girlfriend the other one’s ex? Has one of them got a new job? Oh, this should be good. What will Dave think? What will Bruce think? When will they just go beat the hell out of each other in the parking lot and get it over with?

“Hey why don’t I go piss in ol’ Dave’s drink over there, huh?”

“You go ahead and do that.”

“He wouldn’t notice, he drinks that crap beer anyway. Alligator pee, that stuff is. He’d never know. Hell, the whole thing could be piss and he’d drink it.”

Laughter.

“Hey did Bruce get a haircut? Looks pretty.”

“Ready for his school picture, there. Nice sideburns.”

More laughter.

And so on.

One night, God gets bored with all this and peels the roof off of the bar.

Everybody looks up. The music continues to play, which is awkward. A billiard ball drops into the pocket and rolls to the end of the table.

“Man you guys are dull,” says God.

“What do you mean?” says Tom the bartender. He’s feeling a little defensive about his bar. It’s not a boring place, as far as he’s concerned.

“You two,” says God, pointing at Dave and then at Bruce. “You have got to be kidding me. Go do something else. Tell you what, I’ll help you. Give you a little head start.”

God reaches a hand down into the bar.

“Let’s just do… this.”

With a flick of a finger, God flings Bruce out of the bar, in a long arch, out into the night somewhere.

Everyone stares at God. Now what?

God points at Dave. “You go get something to do. Honestly.”

“But…” says Dave, “how come you threw out Bruce? Why not me?”

“He was closest to the door,” says God, “that’s all.”

“So,” says Dave, “I get the bar?”

“You idiot,” says God. “This is your problem. There’s no reason. I just picked somebody and flicked ‘em. What you do next is up to you. If you want to sit here and congratulate yourself, you go right ahead.”

God sticks the roof back onto the bar. It scrapes around a little while he straightens it, the light fixtures swing around, but it fits back on okay.

….and, here’s a cartoon for your enjoyment: