Ancient Logic

Initial Walk by Morgan Crooks (2019) As the light rail car picked up speed, Morris felt his heart race increase. On the speakers, the jangling guitars marking the start of REM’s It’s the End of The World played. “What is this about anyway?” King County Advisory Executive Marrion Tims zipped up the front of her dark purple uniform and grimaced. “Did you watch the videos?” “The cartoons?” Now Tims’ eyes blazed. “Instructional videos and mandated onboarding material.” A glint of something bright attracted Morris’ attention. Far to the south, close to Tacoma, something flared in the bright blue sky. “What the hell was that?” “We don’t have a lot of time and I need to know whether you’re ready for the fight.” “I’d like to know what’s happening.” The windows rattled in the Link Light Rail’s frames and Morris heard a faint thud. On the horizon the glint dimmed as he caught sight of the first trail of smoke. “Are we under attack?” Capitol Hill by Morgan Crooks (20...

This week my story, " Ghost Notes " appeared on the Dime Show Review website. Ghost Notes is one of a handful of contemporary fiction pieces I've written and only the third to be published.  The story was easy to write in some respects. While not fully autobiographical, the incidents described in the story exist with unusual clarity within in my mind. The version you can read is not all that different in broad strokes from the first draft. That is definitely not always the case with my writing. What do I think this story means? At heart, I think growing up means finding room to grow. Something has to be displaced in order for an individual to find enough space to find themselves. The character in this story finds himself in a very claustrophobic situation,  approaching the start of college with a sense of its possibilities without quite being able to imagine a world outside of the confines of his childhood room. I'm not sure if the ending is a happy ending...

Dear J, This is my third and final letter to you. You haven't replied to any of my previous messages and while I didn't expect you to, I think my desire to reach out to you has run its course. Perhaps not soon enough for your taste, but there it is. Glint Horizontal by Morgan Crooks (2017) My intention in writing to you was never to hector or convince you of anything. The course you have taken with your writing is your own and, frankly, I celebrate it. Rather, it was my hope that we could have extended our conversation after that one meeting. Those who know far more than I about literary critique have cautioned of the perils in assuming intention in the work of others but nevertheless I cannot but help read some echo of our brief conversation in some of your current work. Perhaps a certain perversity or even an obstinate disregard animated your recent writing. Perhaps this is hubris but your use of a certain style in recent stories suggests you have also placed some th...

I'm thrilled to announce my flash piece, "The Green Rope," has been published at the online literary magazine " Subtle Fiction ." This is my first general fiction piece to have been published and to have it appear here is a great honor. The story is about fear and how it lingers. "The Green Rope," is one of the shortest works I've ever written so if you were inclined, you would have plenty of time to check out the other available works. Thank you, Jill Chan for selecting my story! From Subtle Fiction's "About," page: We are a new literary magazine which aims to publish the best short fiction online. We are interested in short stories and flash fiction pieces of no more than 3,000 words. Fiction which does not fit into a box. It must be lively, daring, and filled with subtlety, hence our name. Give us stories which surprise and move us. We are looking for beautiful, complex, and uncompromising work.

I am thrilled to share the news my story, "Promontory," will appear in an upcoming anthology of unusual possession stories published by the incredible Martian Migraine Press. The anthology, "A Breath from the Sky,"puts together a classic H.P. Lovecraft tale and twenty other atypical stories of possession. Judging from the cover and the list of impressive authors, I'm anticipating pure awesomeness. "Promontory" is a possession story and one of my more overtly horror tales, so I'm overjoyed that it found a host, er, home here. I am sharing the Table of Contents below, as well as a link to the announcement on the Martian Migraine website to provide a sense of what this collection will be about. The cover is amazing, the other authors selected for the collection are amazing, and I have to say, having a story appear alongside a classic tale like HP's "Colour Out of Space," feels pretty darn amazing. I hope to provide more information about...

I received a preview copy of "Stone Work" in order to complete this review. Mirror Matter Press' "Stone Work" is a collection of three novellas written by Dominic Stabile, all concerning the travails of a disfigured assassin/bad-ass named Stone. The world Stone inhabits is one part Blade Runner and one part Mad Max with a helping of Steven King for good measure. For aficionados of pulp horror thrills this anthology brings the goods. Stabile writes in a hyperbolic and pop-literate style that emulates the splashier elements of a Frank Miller graphic novel while giving nods to horror, science fiction, and noir classics from the last century. The final and longest story, "Godless City," is my favorite of the collection. It has the most interesting set-up; a man hires Stone as a bodyguard as he tries to bring a sacrilegious documentary to light. I dig world-building and this story explores in detail an intriguing element of Stabile's wor...

A couple of weeks ago, I announced my panels for Arisia 2015 and I thought I’d add a bit more information to that post. First off, here’s my schedule during the weekend: I have the Speculative Literature: Year in Review panel first, 10:00 pm Friday night in the Marina 2 room. The other panelists are Gillian Daniels, who writes a column for the Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine on new and notable short fiction as well as being a talented writer in her own right. The other panelist is Teegan Mannino, who reviews more than books on her blog than I get to in a year.  On Saturday, 4:00 pm, at the Marina 2 I’ll be in the True Detective Panel with a whole bunch of knowledgeable folks about my favorite television show last year. Shira Lipkin, the moderator, I’ve seen at a number of Arisia panels. Also there will be John Murphy, Steve Sawicki, and Megan Markland. Everyone seems to be coming at this show from a variety of directions. Personally I got into this show from the weird ficti...

I've actually got a bit of history with this one. Full disclosure, this novel, released last year on the White Wolf imprint, was something I've read a few times in the past few years. I've was a beta reader on one of the early drafts and I reread another version of the novel put up as a serial on the White Wolf website. It's inspiring to see the book finally reach print, especially after all of the various versions appear to have improved and refined the story. The plot of Silent Knife is steeped in the mythology of the World of Darkness, the fictional noir universe of White Wolf's many role-playing games. Silent Knife focuses more or less on the Masquerade, the treacherous and Byzantine politics of the Vampire world. Ariadne, the eponymous protagonist, is a relative newcomer to this world, changed into a vampire barely a decade previous, negotiating the relentless demands of her Prince, Liliane, during a full-scale rebellion. The leader of the rebell...