Category: Fiction Excerpt
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Kilt Too Damned Many
I found this last night in a file folder full of old stuff–I’ve no idea when I wrote it, or why, or in what context, but I sure wish I did. “A hero, pffft.” Keaner spat, “there’s them to call him that, and you say rascal which is something closer to the mark. A killer…
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Theological Discussion
“One true Church,” He recited, grinning mischievously. “It is mine, obviously. The Church of Me—I, my and me, now that’s a trinity!” I smiled, which only encouraged him. He poured. “Para todo mal, Mezcal, y para todo bien, también!” We both drank–with lemon and a pinch of chili powder. The Mezcal was beyond serviceable, a…
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Excerpt: The Irishman’s Tale
The Irishman’s Tale is a short story relating a pivotal moment in the life of a mysterious, iconic character from the earliest days of second tier colonization and namesake of The Irishman’s Mountains. As the story goes, the Irishman, whose name has been lost to history, emerged from the desert with a squad of devoted…
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Excerpt: Novel in Progress
Someone asked me about the novel in progress…here’s some: It took both of them to drag me up from the hole, and from their grunts and curses it wasn’t easy for them. I had stopped struggling weeks before, and was paid for it with harder currency than when I’d fought back, but there wasn’t a…
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Novella Excerpt: Sharp Del
“Come on out of there, you motherless—.” Sharp Del’s voice died beneath a deeper, more malevolent rumble. “My mother,” the hulking Brin stepped out from the shadows behind him, “was very young.” Sharp Del whirled around with startled fury, swinging the heavy ball gun a bit further from his body than he ought to…
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Fiction Excerpt (Rough Draft in Progress: Olya’s Warhol Night
Try to ignore the issues with verb tense–these reflect unresolved narrative decisons in the longer form version and are not meant to imply that Olya exists on three different but simultaneous temporal planes, although now that I think on it…. Wake up at noon, legs trembling, back muscles slip-knotted, drawing tighter with every slight movement,…
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West From Chicago…excerpt from another old story
*this is the final excerpt from what I’ve called the “big truck” series–an abandoned, unfinished road trip novel I lost interest in 17 years ago and recently revisited. I added it partially in response to posts by our friends over at the excellent Great Plains Trail blog–where they’re building something awesome. The Great Plains are…
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First Draft Excerpt, Action Scene From Novel In Progress
…pushing so hard he could barely maintain balance. He fully expected to feel the thud of a slug in his back, the sear of an energy beam cutting him off at the knees, or the jolt of a plasma burst to reach out and slap him from his churning feet, but it didn’t happen. No…
Old Road Apples 