This story was inspired by the classic summer yard sale. Of course, when I'm writing the story it stops being anything but classic. It appeared in Alien Skin Magazine.

This was my entry in the Anotherealm.com "Under the Moonlight" Flash Fiction Contest. It got some very good responses from the Anotherealm.com regulars. It was another one of my "out of the mouth of babes" stories. When Anotherealm.com gets it's archives up again, I'll post a link to the story.

The Case of the Missing Rats

The New Year's Eve Offensive

These two stories were placed in an anthology called: "Catty New Year." And as you might have guessed it's the sequel to last year's well received "The Twelve Cats of Christmas." Both are being published byWhortleberry Press. I have to admit that this is only my third and fourth foray into writing cat stories but I had a lot of fun with it and I'm hoping it shows.

The Case of the Missing Rats is a story about an aging Chinese wizard named Mr. Wong and his cat (also partner and sidekick) Zhan. The two make a dubious duo in this adventure where the King of the Rats has asked for their help and the entire world may be at risk.

The New Year's Eve Offensive is the sequel to my very popular: The Battle of Elm Street. In last year's 12 Cats of Christmas, I told you a tale in which Santa and his elves are forced to do battle with an alley cat that has caught some of their brother's in arms. Not an easy taks when you consider that Santa is only six inches tall. This year you find out what happens after Christmas on New Year's Eve. Santa is back. The Cat is back. But now there's a new villian in town and it may take everyone's unique talents to save the day. As they say in the movies: "This time it's personal."

This started out as a submission for a "zombie" anthology that I'd heard about. Then, when that anthology got cancelled, I was forced to find a new home for my story. Luckily I did:"Dead Men (and Women) Walking." The publisher "Bards & Sages Publishing" has selected over two dozen tales and poems of "brain-feasting, blood-sucking, revenge-seeking" terror. Sounds fun, doesn't it? And mine happens to be one of them. If you're a fan of the undead (and who isn't) you might want to check it out. It's available on Amazon.com and has been reviewed by TheHarrow.com and DiverseBooks.com. I got a very nice mention both times!

This is my entry in the Anotherealm.com "Halloween" Flash Fiction Contest. The story is really the result of a joke the webmaster of Anotherealm.com made and a challenge a fellow writer made to me. The webmaster asked for a creepy story that could include all sorts of monsters (which he named) and the other author's challenge was to do just that -- write a creepy story with ALL of the monsters named. So I did. I cheated. I admit that. But I got everyone named or mentioned in the story. Including the kitchen sink (literally). So, for a creepy Halloween story, click on the title.

This story idea was given to me by my brother-in-law Peter. We were having dinner one night and he pointed out that a very significant date was happening in 2006. He then went on to propose a premise -- a "what if" sceanario. He then closed off by saying: "wouldn't that be a great idea for a story." I agreed and took up the challenge. I added a few bits, threw in my own take, and came up with The Alhpa and the Omega. I hope you enjoy.

Winner of the "2005 Goldberg Award." The Goldberg Award is given by the readers of Anotherealm.com for the best full length Fantasy/Horror story published in 2005. I am hugely honored to have won this award. Thanks for the votes everybody!

This story appears in May issue of www.StaticMovement.com. It's a Sci Fi tale about an onery old man, who happens to be the last human being on Earth, and his conversation with our ultimate descendant.

This story appears in the April issue of www.StaticMovement.com. It's a Sci Fi tale about the future of being "politically correct" and the roots of hatred. I've already gotten some good feedback on this one.

This is my entry in Anotherealm.com's "Politics as Usual" contest. It's a flash story about Ogres, a Prince, and the will of the people. It won First Place in the contest.

AudioCD.com has an interesting concept. They're trying to entice people to download stories as MP3 files so that they can play them on their Ipods and PC's. Ok, it's not a new concept but here's the kicker. All of the stories are being read by their authors. So if you want to hear me try to put some dramatic emphasis into one of my own stories, I invite you go over to Audio.CD.com and download the stories. The stories are free right now but the ultimate goal is to ask for a nominal fee so that the authors can get something for all their hard work. It's an interesting experiment and one I'm excited to be a part of. The stories can be found here.

One of the interesting realities of writing is that you can always go back and rework a story. "Pole 69" was originally written for the Flash Fiction Contest over at Astoundingtales.com. It got a great response and that response inspired me to write a longer (about 3 times as long) version of the story. The longer version gave more details, covered a few points raised by the feedback, and has a different ending. Well, I was able to place the new revised story with GateWay S-F. So the effort was certainly worth it.

StaticMovementonline.com's premier issue. It's the story of a swordwoman's return home. The story not only got accepted but it won the contest for Best Story. I actually had to trim 1500 words off of it in order to get it within the word limit. Luckily, that didn't seem to hurt the story.

We live in a world of statistics. So when people ask me: "How are you doing?" It's sometimes easier to give them numbers. I mean, what does "working hard" really mean anyway? And if I try to describe my efforts in intimate details their eyes glaze over. After all, they didn't ask me to write them a novel.

So here they are: the cold, cruel, unforgiving numbers. As you might guess, I don't like numbers. I don't think they convey the true effort or emotion behind an activity. But that's why I'm a writer and not a mathematician (apologies to my good friend, Margaret). When I look at the stats, I find them both daunting and inspiring. Which reaction is strongest depends on what day you catch me.