Short Stories

Some things fall by the wayside, unfortunately. There are only so many hours in the day, so many different directions you can go. In my writing career, short stories have pretty much been the victim of literary triage -- I just don't have time to write them. Which is a shame, because there's nothing like producing a well-crafted short story (or so I've heard). But when you write for a living, sometimes you have to make business decisions about creative desires.

I sold my first short story in 1972 after attending the Clarion science fiction writers' workshop that year. The list below comprises all my published short fiction over the nearly three decades that I've been writing.

• Manifest Destiny (with Steve Perry), Thrilling Wonder Stories, fall edition, 2008; reprinted in The Cthulian Singularity, Darkside Press, forthcoming in 2010.
• Spider Dream, Lost On the Darkside, Roc Books, 2005.
• Undeadsville, Tales Of The Slayer, Vol. IV, Simon and Schuster, 2004.
• The Legend Of The Midnight Cruiser, Fantasy And Science Fiction Magazine, December, 2003.
• Keep Coming Back, Cemetery Dance Magazine #44, Summer, 2003.
• The Adventure Of The Arab's Manuscript, Shadows Over Baker Street, Del Rey Books, 2003.
• House Of The Vampire, Tales Of The Slayer, Vol. II, Simon and Schuster, 2003.
• Red Clay, Children Of Cthulhu, Del Rey Books, 2001.
• Gravespawn, Phantasm, spring/summer 1997.
• Elvis Meets Godzilla, The King is Dead, St. Martin's Press, 1994.
• Catspaw, novella sold to Dime Novels, 1992.
• The Way Home, (with Steve Perry), The War Years, Roc Books, 1991.
• The Night People, Twilight Zone Magazine, July, 1985; reprinted in Year's Best Horror XIV, DAW Books, 1986; reprinted in Horrorstory, Underwood & Miller, 1990; reprinted in The Century's Best Horror Fiction, Cemetery Dance Publications, 2005.
• The Tearing Of Graymare House, The Magazine Of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1983; reprinted in House Shudders, DAW Books, 1987; reprinted in The Best Of Fantasy and Science Fiction, St. Martins Press, 1990; reprinted in Haunted Houses: The Great Stories, MJF Books, 1997.
• Werewind, The Magazine Of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1981; reprinted in Fantasy Annual #5, Pocket Books, 1982; reprinted in Hollywood Unreal, Taplinger Press, 1982; recorded on Hollywood Fantasies: Ten Surreal Visions Of Tinsel Town, Dove Books Audio, 1997.
• Shadetree, The Magazine Of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1978; reprinted in Horrors, Playboy Press, 1981; reprinted in Fiction, November 1982.
• The Big Spell and The Maltese Vulcan, Weird Heroes #8, Jove Books, 1977. (These two novelettes, substantially revised, became part of my novel, Darkworld Detective.)
• Love Among the Symbionts, Ascents of Wonder, Popular Library, 1977.
• Amber Day, Gent, April, 1977
• The Sound of Something Dying, The Magazine Of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1976, reprinted in Fiction, January 1983.
• The Century Feeling, The Magazine Of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1974.
• Passion Play, Universe 5, Random House, 1974; Science Fiction Book Club edition, 1974; Popular Library edition, 1976.
• The Breath of Dragons, Clarion III, New American Library, 1973.