My new short story, "Simon's Beautiful Thought" on Smashwords

To celebrate St. Valentine's Day only, I had put up my new Science Fiction Romance short story for download. I had been getting asked about when I would start publishing my writings online and well, I'm finally there.

In honor of romance and St. Valentine's Day, I had set this quirky little Science Fiction Romance story, "Simon's Beautiful Thought", to be a free download through that day. But it is still available at Smashword's at their minimum price of 99 cents.

Cover image for "Simon's Beautiful Thought"

From the story's open:


“I love you Simon. I wish I didn’t, but I do. It’s destiny, as if I were made for you.” She looked up at Simon, her eyes big, twinkling, passionate, and tracking him perfectly. He felt as if he could fall into them. “I love you too,” Simon said. “But sometimes, love is not enough. Sometimes, loving someone, is just not-- right....” 


It is a story I wrote recently as a writer's group theme of "Obsession". Simon was my offer to that group. They really seemed to like it. Simon is perfect in several ways, except that he is unable to make an ongoing romantic connection with women. You know, rough childhood issues. And so he has found other ways to feel "normal". Ways most people would find-- odd. Thinking he has finally found a way to work things out, of course things change for him and leave him having to make a major decision. 

This is my first time putting a piece online for sale as an epublished work. I hope you like it.

The next thing I will put up online is an anthology of my short stories. I will get it online as soon as I can get it edited. Hopefully within the next week or two. 

This will include: "In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear", "Quantum History", "Gumdrop City", the novella "Andrew", "Sarah", "Poor Lord Ritchie's Answer (To A Question He Knever Knew")", "The Mea Culpa Document". 

Original graphic from "In Memory..." being published

"In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear" was my first short story ever to get published in a magazine back in 1992. I have updated it as its technology was getting dated. And I had to update it before I was published as I had written it some time before it finally had gotten published even back then. Originally it was written as a proof that I could make any storyline work. My friends chose a concept they thought couldn't be made to work and I wrote it. I also wrote it in an attempt to start writing more simply, after I finished that story, that is. For all intents and purposes it should never have gotten published, but I must have done a good job on it.


"Quantum History" was done as a friendly experiment between three friends. There are two other versions of this theme floating about and I'm willing to bet that other than mine, those others will never see the light of day.


"Gumdrop City" was published in The Undead Nation Anthology back in 2010. It was a story I was told by a Professor in an Abnormal Psych class. It is a true story, however, I fictionalized a father and daughter in it, and a few elements inside the serial killers house. What was found in the secret room in the killer's house is all true.


"Andrew" is the story of a very young boy and how he tries to deal with an event more traumatic than anyone should ever have to experience. This is then juxtaposed with how he learned to deal with it as an adult and his choices at that time.


"Poor Lord Ritchie's Answer to a Question He Knever Knew" was chosen by Rutger Hauer as a winner in an International Short Story contest he ran for two years back in the late 1990s. I entered it because I just knew he would like that story out of all of my stories. It is about a lost Medieval Lord and his descent into either time travel, or madness. When Rutger read the story, it had three acts. It now has four and the ending I could never figure out back then.


"The Mea Culpa Document" was originally written back in college with the help of a Theater Professor into medieval literature. It is about a great burden that an idealistic Witch Hunter has to bear. A Mea Culpa document is one that some used to write out all their sins on and then burn. But in this case, they were stored for posterity. My Professor had wanted to do it as a one man show and he would have been brilliant in it. But I was never able to get the play just right. Over time I ended up writing another story based on this document that I started to build into a novel but never finished. That happened several times, meaning, I have several unfinished novels laying around. One in a similar format to King's epic novel, "The Stand". I've called the story from the document,"Vaughan's Theorum" and it will be in my book when it gets published.


Sarah has been built into my screenplay, "HearthTales" which I've been sending out to production companies. It is about a woman lost in Alzheimer's Disease. I had heard about this from a girl in an Abnormal Psych class at my University. She told me about her grandmother and these were such moving stories, I had to find a way to share them. 


I've been working hard on my book, "Heaven" (tentative title). I'm not sure what direction I'll take with it being published. I would like to see it done in the traditional way, if I can get it worked out. I have a few publishers who have been suggested to me today as possibilities.


Then I have to get back to finishing my "America" screenplay that I have put off in order to get these works ready to go. I've had all these writings sitting around that I needed to get out there to be seen. As my Professor from college said, "You'll never sell a book that is sitting on a shelf in you house."


So, Happy St. Valentine's Day! And I hope you like my story.