It's a Jumble

  This reading round-up is shorter than usual, as I admit that my short fiction reading fell off a cliff these last two months, due to travel and various distractions. Nevertheless, here are seven stories I did read and love.   “The Hungry Mouth at the Edge of Space and the Goddess Knitting at Home” by Renan Bernardo in Reactor   Let me be straight: I’m Adelaide, a space traveler, and I’m a ghost. It took me a while to whisper those words to my ectoplasmic self in the mirror and convince myself of that, so take your time. I wouldn’t believe it easily, were I you. I’m dead and forced to fluster about in the  Sopinha de Feijão , my lovely freighter, previously bound for a moon in the Kepler-32 system but now going back to Earth.   This story is fully as fun as its title suggests. Adelaide is the captain of a space cargo ship. Her dream, after saving up from numerous cargo runs, is to build a street market on a moon in honor of her beloved grandmoth...

  The year’s not yet over, but it’s that time when writers begin posting about their award-eligible work. This year I had five new original short stories published. I also had my first collection of short stories, The House of Illusionists , published by Interstellar Flight press!   New Short Stories   “Sweetest” (dark fantasy/horror, 6640 words) in The House of Illusionists and Other Stories . Published November 2025 (Available from Amazon and other outlets. More book info at the bottom of this post)   A story about clowns in a candy shop. Seriously creepy clowns in a candy shop. It’s also about hunger, loss, old-fashioned treats, shadow-children, and truths that may be too much to bear. This story is original to The House of Illusionists , and I’m so pleased to hear from many readers that it’s one of their favorites in the collection.     “The Space Roads” (science fiction/horror, 3174 words) in  Space Horrors: An Anthology of Horro...

  It's out!! My debut collection of short stories, The House of Illusionists , is officially out in the world! It's available at Amazon , Indiebound , Barnes and Noble online , and direct from publisher .  You can go to my personal dedicated book page for more information (including advance praise and interviews). You can also visit the official publisher website here.