Short Stories
Here is a collection of all my short stories:
1888 Amenti
This short story was made using the solo RPG: 1888 Amenti, by Mundos Infinitos. More of an experiment than anything, this story was given little to no revision after completion.
Taxman
As a lover of Terry Pratchett, Death has been a character for an incredibly long time. This naturally suggests the question: where is Taxes? Of course, Terry answered this in a way with the Auditors, but I decided to make a short-story joke about it anyway. The humor was there, but got a little existential.
The Ring
I once wrote out a quick review of Twilight. Having never read the book, I was going entirely off of other people’s opinions and descriptions, so it was an ultimately pointless masterbation, more a method of organizing my own thoughts around a single question: was sparkly vampires a good idea?
I have always been drawn towards theme over action, so in a misguided attempt to detail what would have been a “better choice,” I started playing around with modifications to familiar fantastical beasts. One of which was a strange cross between a vampire and a genie.
It was perhaps the one interesting idea in the whole paper: a supernatural being of immense strength and power who will do anything you ask? How is that not a genie? This drew me to the original story of Aladdin, which involved not one, but two djinn; one of the lamp, and one of the ring.
From there, my first and only attempt at young-romance was born.
Bally the Fool
It’s hard to explain where Bally the Fool came from. Perhaps I don’t need to explain, for people of a certain age.
Tales from Cliffside
The stories of Edmund Moulde take place in a world far larger than the confines of the books themselves. Most notable in its absence is the great city of Cliffside, an advanced metropolis that covers as much vertical as horizontal space along the ocean. It is here that massive ships and zeppelins lay anchor to deposit their goods and passengers. It is a city of smoke, steam, and miraculous machines.
The Tales of Cliffside was originally an experiment, then a means of relaxation, then a place to put story-ideas that weren’t quite good enough to be a whole book. Some are thrillers, some are action-adventures, and some are just experiments.
- Skyrail
- Stories at the Passenger’s Crossing
- The Allingdale Ball
- The Docks
- The Clockwork Spider
- The Kettleworth Files
- The Steamworks
The Watch in the Sand
Whoof. This is an artifact.
When I first decided to become a writer, it was because of this story. When I first imagined the idea, it took shape as a poem akin to Robert Browning’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin; a story of a fateful day when half the population of a city suddenly dropped dead, and the mystery that followed.
Eventually it became a series of short vignettes that detailed the path from first step to final catastrophe; no villains, just a series of people who let the world unfold without consideration.
Given the events that occurred since my first publishing of this story as a downloadable ebook in 2013, I will forever more be a little salty.
Re-reading it now, more than a decade after it was written, I am struck by how much of a time-capsule it is. I feel the same way I feel reading old 60’s sci-fi, where Spaceman Jeff pets his dog-o-tron before jetpacking to his job on the moon. There is so much in here that is simply quaint, to say nothing of cringe.
But at the same time, I can’t say — were I to rewrite it today, with my future-knowledge — that I would change much. Sure, I’d change the timeline and mess about with details1 perhaps focus on different aspects of the technology or how humanity reacts; and I’d certainly be more eager to challenge some of the ideas that I so causally assume — but with our current (as of writing) discussions about AI and its purported earth-shattering possibilities,2 there are sentiments that I still have some compassion towards.
But there is no denying, this story is old. I’d love to do a re-write to polish away some of the roughest edges, but I’m not here to preen. Warts and all, this is still my origin.