All short stories published on The Quick and the Dead are linked below. Happy reading!
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The chew witch lived up in the hills, on one of them dirt roads that never had any gravel on it in the first place, because nobody had the money to spread it or care enough to. Her real name was Clara Lou or Lou Claire or something like that but everybody called her the… Continue reading
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The next time Eden and Annie saw Meg, she was with Park, and there was no trace of the crying, nearly cowering, shrinking woman that had accompanied the other man to the coffee shop on Meg’s previous visit. The coffee house employees watched the couple as they always did, and Meg and Park did what… Continue reading
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“Hey Park,” Eden said as he slowly approached the counter. “Cappuccino today? Or you wanna do the flat white again?” She began to take a fresh cup off the stack next to the register, her pen ready to scribble down his order. “Oh, cappuccino is fine,” he said. He always seemed timid when they spoke,… Continue reading
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They started coming into the coffeehouse about 8 months ago. The woman was perhaps in her mid-forties. She colored her hair. Sometimes the roots grew out to where Eden could see them, streaks of gray among the black. She was about Eden’s height, a little over 5 foot 3, unless she was wearing heels. And… Continue reading
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I started writing a prequel story to my first novel, The World Between, near the end of 2021. I have not worked on it much in the last two years, but I have a few ideas on paper at this point, including a complete prologue. I shared the first section of the prologue last year… Continue reading
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When the text came to her phone, pinging like a clear bell in the finally silent house, she almost didn’t look at it. Whoever it was could wait until morning. These night time hours were precious—when she could draw, or paint, ink, stamp, glue, print, tape in peace. Amy finished the last stroke, letting… Continue reading
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Nigel sat alone in a room small room with a bunk, a bucket, a small window near the ceiling, and a metal door which had been locked from the outside. The single light bulb overhead was flickering. It was twilight, and he could hear the noises of night creatures beginning to stir. He leaned back… Continue reading
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This story will appear in the upcoming campaign books for the popular table top RPG Never Going Home, published by Wet Ink Games. Nigel woke from a dead sleep. His ears were ringing, but not in the way that made him think something was wrong. He felt completely peaceful, like the ringing was his body’s… Continue reading
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He didn’t quit, and we didn’t talk about that night in November again. We just lived in an uneasy tension for the next several weeks. On New Year’s Eve, the bar was filled with people, and we were too busy to be distant or angry with each other. By the time the ball dropped,… Continue reading
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So, for the next several months I spent a lot of time at the bar working while Dickerson spent a lot of time at home working. It didn’t bother me much—I actually found I got more work done without him there to distract me with jokes and gossip and recaps of televisions—but it did… Continue reading
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