CHis pounding head woke him. He tried to open his eyes, found them too crusted with sleep, rubbed them, and tried again. They peeled back to reveal cracked, screaming light bleeding in from around the camel hair curtains. Even in the twilight of the basement, fire burned through his eyes to the back of his […]
Books
Of all my mostly petty complaints about living in Japan, one thing I do love is all the books. For a writer, the words “People don’t read anymore” are probably four of the most terrifying words in English, and yet here we are. Magazines? Sometimes. News online? Maybe. Facebook (fucking Facebook)? Certainly. But books? Novels? […]
Within a Name – Chapter 3
A week later and Ranat’s tin was nearly spent. He’d given Gessa twenty Three-Sides—a lot more than he owed her, but he’d felt some undefinable, probably misplaced guilt, and giving her less hadn’t seemed right. He’d more or less moved into the nameless bar where he’d met Gessa. What had followed was a blur […]
The Lies We Tell Our Children
It was a hot, overly bright afternoon spent hurling rocks into the trickle of river that runs by our house—usually the only thing to do to avoid a slow buildup of murderous rage on these wretched holidays when three quarters of the country all goes on vacation at the same time. “What’s that?” Taiki asked, […]
Blogs Suck
I always thought blogs were one of the most offensive things to arise from the information age. Suddenly, millions of people got the idea in their head that they had something worth spewing at everyone else. Ideas, recipes, pictures of their kid they’re sure a billion other people actually want to look at as much […]
The Kalis Experiments-Prologue
(This is the prologue of Book 1 of the Tides Trilogy, originally picked up by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. Unfortunately I was forced to part ways with them, and so am looking for a new home. In the meantime, it can live here, a little bit at a time.) Prologue: The Death of […]
The Kalis Experiments – Chapter 1: The Beginning
It was strange that Ormo had asked Syrina to meet him in his suite instead of his Hall, and it pricked at her thoughts as she crossed the broad courtyard toward the Palace where the fifteen towers of the Syndicate crowded together like a bundle of blunt, loosely bound spears. The northern sky was thick […]
THe Kalis Experiments – Chapter 2: The Accounting Problem
It wasn’t Lees’ name that Ormo gave her then. It was more than a year before that name came up. In the meantime, things returned to business as usual for Syrina, with the addition of Triglav. Watch him, steal that, kill her. Working with the owl almost immediately became as natural for Syrina as it […]