Brand New Fiction!

Thanks to Kassie Klaybourne’s very hard work, I am pleased and proud to announce that I can now offer you products for immediate download. This gives me incredible flexibility to turn things around quickly.

Jed and the Titanium Turtle is a really good example of this. I wrote the story back in March because I wanted to—even though I knew finding a publisher for it would be really tough. If I’d started sending it out in the usual manner the day after I wrote it, along about now is when I’d get the first rejection slip. And if it was accepted at the first magazine, it would likely be another six months before it saw print. While this isn’t a story that’s going to age badly, all that waiting is like waiting for a splinter to work its way out of your finger. If the story got rejected a couple of times, it might see print in a year and a half. Or never, since there aren’t that many markets for short stories.

What is Jed about? Here’s the opening line:

Set in a near future, Jed and the Titanium Turtle is a story about America and how it deals with a bunch of alien visitors who are “here to help.” It’s a fun story, but should also make you think.

You can download it now by clicking on the picture above. The story costs $2.00, is published here for the first time, and is presented in .pdf format.

In the future I’ll be releasing more original tales, and some of those hard to find stories that deal with some of my more favorite characters. (In creating characters for an anthology assignment, I always come up with more than one story for them. Direct downloads will give me an outlet to write some of those other stories.) I’ve also got a number or projects simmering in my head that will take well to this format.

So, please welcome Jed and the Titanium Turtle as the first in a bunch of stories that will go directly from me to you.