Books

I See You Glow

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May today overwhelm you with love.
Let the sun in the sky shine with envy above.
Let the birds in the trees sing and scatter their seeds
Only sharp. Sometimes flat.
Fit to accompany but not to lead,
Subservient to your voice.

Every time you open your eyes,
May you see the cleanest light.
Let every purest winter morning still envelop you in warm sunshine.
Let autumn leaves play hide-and-seek,
Chase each other around your yard.
Let any biting cold wind only whisper “Summer isn’t very far.”
Let hope Spring eternally, no matter where you are.

The world is a square peg,
And you’re shaped like a star.
Let your voice ring out across humanity,
So we remember who you are.
Let history endlessly repeat,
Chase its tail for all eternity
In all of time and all reality
There will never be another person like you.

May time be ever kind to you,
Let life be always warm and true;
Lay out the softest carpet beneath your feet
And may you rest in eagles’ nests when sleep is all you need.
Let every dream lull you gently back to actuality,
And every night skew off the light to get you back to sleep.

Should you ever slumber eternally,
May you have the greatest dreams.
The world will have lost one of its most precious things,
But a broken heart, once eons pass, often only stings.

From the poetry collection Aparting, available now.

Aparting

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In the wake of a series of losses, fantasies begin to overlap reality. Folksy, down-to-earth poems set in the modern day intersect with imaginative, absurdist images from the afterlife, as Aparting explores what it means to walk the avenues in between, and to go on living with a phantom heart.

Whether it’s the end of a relationship, the death of a loved one, or the extinguishing of a spark of inspiration or passion, the characters in Aparting find themselves in the trenches of grief, trying to learn how to go on existing as a remaining part of a once-complete whole.

Aparting is a narrative poetry collection about living with loss, and dealing with topics ranging from cancer to politics to space exploration. The characters in Aparting face different struggles as they become separated from people or things dear to them, whether it’s by a could shoulder across the room, or a lost signal across the vacuum of space, or a soul slipped across the veil between this world and the next.

Aparting comes out December 8th, 2023, but you can read or download it here or from Smashwords right now.

Smashwords | Amazon (eBook) | Amazon (paperback) – Coming December 8, 2023

Contents:

The House You’re Building
Life After Money
Concurrents
Only Ever
From Time to Time
Passing the Scene of an Emergency
The Lonely Tavern Keeper
I See You Glow
Counting Sleeps
Big and Strong
My Battery is Low and it’s Getting Dark
Into the Dirt
When We Meet Again
The View Through an Afterlife Window
Sunrise
Three Goodbyes
Beats Per Minute
Gardens and Guitars
Something That Stays
Make Like a Tree
In Loving Memory
Aparting

I wanted this one to be free of charge wherever possible. Amazon does not let authors do that. There’s a chance that enough people using Amazon’s “Report Incorrect Product Information” link on the book page and clicking “I have a problem with the price/ I found a lower price elsewhere” will get Amazon to price match it, but this doesn’t always work. In the meantime, you can download a hopefully Kindle-friendly .mobi file here. I also wanted the book to be available at other retailers by the time I made this post, but it seems the holiday rush has hit, and there is a backlog of books waiting to hit storefronts (on the bright side, maybe that means a lot of people are out there writing books?). So you can read and download the book in PDF format right here on my site.

I hope you enjoy this book. This one took a lot. Much love to everyone out there.

Here’s the second poem from the collection, “Life After Money.”

Life After Money

So now we’re living in the future
It doesn’t look quite like we imagined it would
Too much has changed,
But some things haven’t changed enough
And you’re not here
And did you know?

I remember standing barefoot in the snow
My memories are scraped like faded lines on VHS tapes
We wanted to see who could last the longest,
Then we’d run inside and put our feet by the heater vents

Now it’s the end of December,
And outside it’s seventy degrees.

So I’ve been spending too much time in the past,
Grasping at things I lost I swore to God would always last
And in my heart it’s always summer
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t snow
And you’ll always be there,
But that doesn’t make it easy.

We memorized lines to remind us we’re free,
Now I see they taught us how to lean on the bars of the cage
And everything I ever thought that flag was waving for,
And all my visions of our life after money died when you did

I used to dream of December
We’d spend a few weeks in the Caribbean
Just because it seemed like that’s what a family would do
If they could be totally carefree

And I wanted to drink with you by the ocean
But our ocean is made of plastic and oil
And I wanted to sit with you in the grass of an alien world,
But they’ll be bought by the wealthy and portioned out wholesale
And you’re not here
And do you know?

I’m so afraid of the future
Every December we’ll remember what it was like
To light a fire in the fireplace
The way you did when I was a kid and Christmas seemed alive

Why would I want to live in the future?
I couldn’t afford air worth breathing
I’m looking back at the past and it’s all smiles and waves
But the past can’t see that I’m screaming,
And you’re not here.

Normbies!

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It’s a different kind of zombie apocalypse.

Everybody knows getting bitten by a zombie turns you into one of them. What took a little longer to figure out is that biting a zombie also changes them back. But there is a cost, and not everyone is ready to pay.

As the zombie threat looms as strong as ever over a post-post-apocalyptic world, perceptions toward the creatures begin to shift, as do those toward normbies—the people who have been brought back from the other side. It’s a new world full of new dangers, and the worst of them might not be the zombies at all…

Normbies! is a collection of short stories that span several decades, surrounding a zombie apocalypse that takes a sharp turn when survivors discover biting a zombie turns them back into a human. The book will be available digitally and in paperback and hardcover starting October 14th, 2022. You can read the first story, “Patient Zero” here: Patient Zero

You can pre-order the eBook now: Amazon – Smashwords

The Foreland

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Centuries ago, humanity mastered space travel only to find themselves alone in a quiet solar system. Everything changed when they encountered the Navigators, a species of aliens capable of teleportation. Not long after building a new home on a distant planet and surrounding it with satellite colonies, the Navigators revolted, leaving the colonies stranded on the far side of the Universe, with no contact with Earth.

Long after Earth has fallen into the realm of legend, agent Kenner Fense works for the Colony Defense Bureau, an organization claiming to keep the peace among the impoverished colonies while the wealthy and powerful isolate themselves on the planet’s surface. But Fense’s latest mission, which should have been a routine assassination, turns his world on its head when he meets a young woman named Ashes and her newfound friend, a captive Navigator.

Fense and Ash find themselves on the run from those who would use the creature’s power to do immeasurable harm, but it’s a small solar system with few places to hide. The chase brings out the best and worst humanity has to offer, and the only safe place to hide may be the only place no one knows how to find: Earth, the Foreland.

The Foreland comes out October 15th, 2021. Digital pre-order links below. Softcover and hardcover editions will be available in the next few weeks.

Apple Books • Barnes & Noble • Kobo • Smashwords • Amazon

This Can’t Be All There Is

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I’ve been sitting on this one for far too long, and I’m excited to finally put it out there.

This Can’t Be All There Is was originally intended to be both a poetry book and a fully recorded spoken-word album. I’ve dabbled in the idea in the past, but this time, I got close. Every song was demoed, and most of them were completely finished, save for a few touch-ups, and one major aspect: the vocals. I never was able to get my voice to a place I liked or could even stand.

But I’m proud of a lot of these poems, so the book is moving forward. The album might come someday. I still have a lot of work to do before I’ll know for sure.

This Can’t Be All There Is contains 27 poems:

Wilderness
The House You Built for Me
We Were
Someday Will Eventually Come
Still
Storms
Graveyard Shift
All My Favorite Songs
Come Back
Variables
At the End of All Things
Take Me Away
When I Went to Bed
This Can’t Be All There Is
Nowhere Road
Worry
I Live Here
I Need You, Summer
Shapes and Spaces
A Long Night’s Conversation
You Harbor
Worth
KALEIDOSCOPE
Noise
Just Passing Through
Hey Sunburn
My Forever

The book will be available November 15, 2019. Its cover might change before then. I’ll also post a selection of poems on my site before release. (Keen visitors will find that a few of them have already been here for years. I promise I didn’t shoehorn them in; they were always a part of this collection. Like I said, I’ve been sitting on it for too long.)

Pre-order the digital edition here:

Amazon • Smashwords • Barnes & Noble • iTunes

To start things off, here’s “Nowhere Road”.

Nowhere Road

Hey, weary traveler
Come with me tonight,
All you have to do is be a passenger.

You can recline your seat,
Roll down the window,
Maybe even get some sleep.

There won’t be anyone on the roads,
Because this is a direction nobody goes.
It’s a way that very few people seem to know,
And the ones who do know better than to take it.

I’ll take you somewhere the lines have faded
And nothing divides us, places
Go by like faces in a crowd,
Faded and drowned out.
You and I and sounds like
Tearing the sky.

I want to see the way the asphalt stretches toward the bottom of the glass,
And how surrounding towns burn down to ashes as we pass.
Watch the fog fight the defroster,
Turn our music up full blast.
And, for once, relax.

Your hands can ride the wind,
And when I want to scream I don’t have to hold it in.
In the driveway or out on the highway, we can cast aside our sins
And leave our virtues in the back seat with our vices and our whims.

If I drive fast enough,
Maybe you and I will blur together.
Maybe time stands still and lasts forever.
We can outrun our pain and all bad weather,
Catch storms in our eyes like your hair catches light.

Hey, innocent bystander.
Take me with you.
I’ll go anywhere your soul is aching to.

I’ll show you places they don’t put on maps,
Hold your hand across old railroad tracks.
We’ll go out to the edge of your heart and back,
Or over and fall forever, if you want.

Just take me somewhere the stars aren’t falling
The buses and cars stop calling
My heart isn’t walled up and cold,
Tone deaf and old.
Here we are and nothing,
No matter how far,
Can tear us apart.

The Afterglow

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Hey there. I’m back again, and I brought another friend with me.

Everyone knows about the afterglow: When someone dies, their spirit briefly visits the living soul who meant the most to them, before quickly fading from this world.

Jake and Emma were normal teens in high school, until a tragic accident claimed Emma’s life. Jake’s understanding of the world is fractured when Emma’s afterglow appears before him—but somehow doesn’t recognize him at all.

Confused, depressed, and in a daze, Jake turns to Emma’s sister Elise for answers, and instead finds a bond unlike any he’s ever felt before. But Elise knows what Jake doesn’t, and the secrets Elise swore to keep could tear the two of them apart.

The Afterglow is a young adult coming-of-age story about ghosts, railroad tracks, summer, and what it means to connect with each other on a spiritual level.

The Afterglow will be available in print and eBook formats July 26th, 2019. You can pre-order digital editions at the links below, which I’ll update as more editions become available.

Amazon ⋅ Smashwords ⋅ Barnes & Noble ⋅ iTunes Books ⋅ Google Play Books

The Forever Earth

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For the past few years, I’ve been slow to write or publish new fiction. It’s time for that to change. Late last year I was part of a team of talented individuals who published Crypto Bizarro, an illustrated horror story collection for adults. I’m just getting started.

The Forever Earth

I wrote this one a long time ago. Many of my works have touched on science fiction, but few have flown so far as to reach space opera territory. I ended up writing a novel in the genre, and while I felt like it had a large scope and a lot going on, it ended up being one of my shortest novels yet. That story is focused on a small set of characters on a very specific mission, but the world I found them in had a lot of other stories going on. The Forever Earth is one of them.

In the distant future, humanity has reached the apex of space travel, finding themselves alone in a dark and quiet solar system. Then the Navigators appear, a species of aliens capable of bringing mankind into a new frontier via teleportation.

Cody is one of the first settlers to uproot his life and move to a space colony orbiting a habitable planet half a universe away. People from all walks of life make their way to the colonies, hoping to earn a shot at one day living on a new planet’s surface.

But half a universe isn’t far enough to escape humanity’s demons, and Cody and the rest of the colonists soon find themselves cut off from Earth, stranded in the silence of unfamiliar stars. Culture shock, separation anxiety, and lawlessness collide, and Cody’s only hope for peace rests with his dreams of the little blue planet he left behind, and his ability to find his way back.

The Forever Earth will be available on May 10th, 2019, from most eBook retailers. Pre-order links can be found below:

Amazon ⋅ Smashwords ⋅ Barnes & Noble ⋅ Apple iBooks · Google Play (Coming Soon)

 

Crypto Bizarro

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It’s been a while, but I haven’t been idle. I have a few projects in the pipeline, hopefully coming soon. In the meantime, my latest is available right now.

Introducing Crypto Bizarro.

Welcome to the world of Crypto Bizarro, where all manner of ghosts and ghouls and things that go “bump” in the night come out to play. This fully-illustrated collection of horror includes short stories, poems, puzzles, cryptograms, secret messages, a choose-your-own-adventure tale, and more. From restless spirits to physical monstrosities, dastardly acts and forbidden rituals, the frights found within ask the reader to question their reality. As the tome comes to life in your hands, you’ll have to search beyond the book itself to unlock all of its mysteries, but take care—when you venture into darkness, the unknown has ways of making itself known.

Crypto Bizarro is a fully-illustrated collection of horror-themed short stories, puzzles, and poems for a mature audience. This collection is the culmination of two and a half years’ worth of work and correspondence between myself and Josh Leichliter, as well as the contributions of our wonderful writing and producing team: Sarah Carswell, Seth Thomas, Nick Brown, Aerys Bates-Leichliter, Andrea Wright, and Ariana Wright.

The book is available in hardcover and eBook formats. You’ll find links at the bottom of this post.

Crypto Bizarro is more than a collection. It’s a brand, a flavor if you will, and this collection is just the start. To keep up on all of our crazy ideas, visit www.cryptobizarro.com and sign up for our mailing list, or follow our page on facebook. Right now you can find a few free samples and a nice little puzzle, with more on the way. This is meant to be a growing, evolving, living (or perhaps undead?) collection, and Josh and I have much more up our sleeves.

Amazon (Hardcover) • Amazon (Kindle) • Google Play (Coming Soon) • iTunes • Barnes & Noble (Hardcover) • Barnes & Noble (eBook) • Smashwords • Direct Purchase

Someday Will Eventually Come

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Someday Will Eventually Come

There’s never been a storm that didn’t break,
Though there’ve been some we couldn’t see the end of til it came.
There’s never been a night so dark we went to bed but couldn’t wake
Or been a silence so extensive we had nothing we could say.

I know it hurts right now,
But there’s never been a problem so complex we couldn’t figure out
Or been a time so frozen still we couldn’t wait it out,
Or a word so painful you could never let it out your mouth.

And it’s okay to cry,
There’s never been a watershed so wet you couldn’t dry your eyes
Or been a dark so heavyset the sun refused to rise
Even after love so close you thought it too strong for goodbyes

You’re allowed to be happy.
There’s never been a suffering you needed an amount of,
Or been a pain so absolute it couldn’t be healed from,
And I wish that I could promise someday would eventually come

But that’s not fair to say,
There’s never been sincerity exempt from a mistake
Or been a promise so assured it couldn’t possibly break
And I am not infallible, despite how confident I stay

If I could make you better,
I’d do it right away.
But there are no diseases I can cure with my embrace,
Or wounds that I can close with all the words I softly say,
Or history I can erase by putting smiles on my face.

If I could really fix you,
I’d have done it long ago.
But there are no words I can say to force you to keep hope
And I can’t make you believe things nobody can know,
Or send you down a better road if you don’t want to go.

All that I can really do is ask you to believe,
There is happiness out there for you even if it’s not with me.
There’s never been a distance so great you couldn’t try to run,
But I hope you never stop believing someday will eventually come.

You Harbor

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You Harbor

I’ve grown so tired of the sea,
This salt-stained deck beneath my feet
The endless shaking of the waves,
That swallow everything I say.

And I can see the shore,
The places that I used to know
Too shallow here to moor,
And will be forever more.

So tie the anchor around my legs,
And help me walk the plank
Watch me fall for fathoms deep,
Into a bed where I might sleep.

The seagulls cry, but not for me
And hold wakes in the foam
My ship won’t be the first to sink
Just miles from its home

I thought I saw you on the sand,
Hair blowing in the wind
I thought I saw you lift your hand,
To wave goodbye again

And I’m a ship that has no crew,
The water gods had cursed
To roam the oceans, far away
For all eternity.

So sing your song for me,
Guide my ship toward the rocks,
Send me to the bottom of the sea,
Remind me what it’s like to breathe.