speculative-fiction

Closed head trauma is about as much fun as nude paintballing.

You sit beside the sorcerer, your love, and unzip your ribs. Tucked under your heart is a small oak box, plain and unvarnished. You offer it to the sorcerer. 'I brought this for you.

Let the spirits guide you, but never let them take you.

At Tara in this fateful hour,I place all Heaven with its power,And the sun with its brightness,And the snow with its whiteness,And the fire with all the strength it hath,And the lightning with its rapid wrath,And the winds with their swiftness along their path,And the sea with its deepness,And the rocks with their steepness,And the earth with its starkness:All these I place,By God's almighty help and graceBetween myself and the powers of darkness!

The gentle pulsing and flickering of stars and nebulae made a kind of music, a sweet easy mesh of whispered tones and sighing harmonies that held him in its force like the earth [holding] the moon.

Millions cheer the warriorspilling blood across the ringwhile the one who stands for peaceis ridiculed and shamed.Must hearts forever sufferfrom ignorance and greed?Can bombs heal our soulsor set our spirits free?

The sky is the limit only for those who aren't afraid to fly!

Because there wasn__ anything else to do, he settled at the kitchen tablewith a bottle of mead and nearly emptied it. The anesthetic effect he hoped for hadn__ happened, though. At least not yet.

Hades cracked his knuckles on each hand, and the noise was like gunpowder caps exploding in the silence. "First dish duty," he mumbled to himself, "now possessed cowboys. This just isn't my night.

He shook his head again. ____ afraid I don__ feel much of anything these days. Especially not hope. I have no time or energy to waste on false wishes and dreams that won__ come true.___ope isn__ about ignorant wishing._ She surprised even herself with herdefensive backlash. __ope is about believing__elieving there are betterthings in store for us if we just wait for them. It__ about understanding we__e not left completely on our own here, regardless of the way things appear.__amont snorted. __hat ain__ much for a body to go on.___erhaps not, but I reckon it__ enough. Sometimes it__ gotta be, anyhow.Without hope, what would drive one onward?__e was silent for a long moment before he looked up and met her eyes.His own eyes displayed no emotion when he answered in a weary, grimtone, __ear._ He took a drink and fell silent again as she quietly scrutinized him, attempting to discern in his haggard face the thoughts behind what he had said.

To my surprise, the sensation of query filled my stomach, spreading through to every corner. This was followed by each point of query ending at the same answer. Device Nineteen had responded to the question by coming to the conclusion that oblivion was the end of every

With timid curiosity, I asked, __hat do you mean the old bodies get reused?

[sic] his reaction was a sign of civilization. Nobody reaches for a gun anymore, just for his lawyer.

I told you stupid sons of bitches that this was going to happen!

First contact comes not by hand of man, but by metal of machine.

Complete. What an awful word for an infected people, that final, animal stage that was the future of all of them. Chels swallowed, unsure what to say. __hat___sad. I didn__ even know he was infected.__emesz whispered, __e was just infected yesterday. We saw him last night, and he already had mouse whiskers and a tail.

illustration Speaking before the Marion Hobby Club Marion, OH 2013 This writer is looking for an agent.An old adage warns: If you don't know your history, you will be forever condemned to repeat it. Likewise, if you don't know your science fiction, and heed its warnings, you could condemn the Earth to future catastrophe.

An old adage warns: If you don't know your history, you will be forever condemned to repeat it. Likewise, if you don't know your science fiction, and heed its warnings, you could condemn the Earth to future catastrophe.