New Stories Out

I have a couple new stories out that I wanted to share with all of you.

"Crapgod" is out in the special Winter Edition of Cover of Darkness. It took a while for me to find the right home for this one, and I'm very glad that Tyree Campbell, Herika R. Raymer and the other fine people at Sam's Dot Publishing took a liking to my work. Again.

The story is set in Grand Rapids, Michigan, my youthful stomping grounds. I tried to include some details about the real-life city in the story, which I hope add to the atmosphere. Like a lot of my stories, I pulled from a number of sources for this one, including the real-life setting, my reading of H. P. Lovecraft, and the SedlecOssuary. I hope that the reader is left with a question -- is the antagonist insane, or is there a dark god emerging beneath the streets of Grand Rapids?

"Remote Control" is more down to earth, less Lovecraftian and more Mathesonian. It qualifies as a short short, under 1000 words. Graeme Hurry at the new ezine Kzine was happy to take this one, and I'm very grateful. It tells the story of a not very nice person getting his just desserts in an unusual way.

Both of these stories were written before I had a name for what I was trying to do with my writing, but some of the elements of haiku fiction are there. The focus is on a single character. There is some playing with the tenses and points of view. Both demonstrate my writing while I was still trying to figure out what haiku fiction is.

I hope you'll take a look at "Crapgod" and "Remote Control". I'm especially happy to see my horror-homage to my hometown in print. Support the small-press movement by buying Cover of Darkness and KZine.