Dragons of the Stars – 2 short stories about the future, where spaceships controlled by superintelligent AI’s go renegade, venting their human crews into the vacuum of outer space and become the Dragons of the Stars.
“Under the Dragon” – The roar of the dragon’s thrusters could not be heard through the vacuum of space. But Allan heard it anyway, in his mind, as the massive bulk of the renegade spaceship eclipsed the light of the distant Sun…
“The First Dragon” – This mining outpost had been attacked two weeks ago, the third time in the last year. And so the Company had sent a team of dragon hunters to deal with the problem. The hunters had arrived, and that should have been the beginning of the hunt…
Four linked stories of Hell, and Life, and Life in Hell. Illustrated with paintings by Don Michael, Jr.
“Summer Breeze” – The demon Jike decides he needs a change.
“Inferno” – Undead hellcat Canto gets a night out on campus of lust and gluttony and the other deadly sins.
“Sweet Tooth” – Donut baker Ted Millet, divorced and broke, has a new customer that makes his ex-wife seem almost human.
And in the novella “Afterimage” Emily M-Something March, dead and damned for thirty years, finds herself back in her home town with a fifty-foot demon looking for her.
A collection of violent horror flash fiction and short short stories by David Michael.
“The Call of the Hunter Moon” – Violence is easy. You just let go. Your hands become claws for ripping. Your teeth bare, you snap, you grab, you tear. You smell the fear, savor the screams, taste the blood…
“Tucker” – When I arrived, the boy stood there surveying the chaos he had wrought, gloating over it all–except for her. He wouldn’t look at her. She knelt by the body she had once inhabited, her physical face now unrecognizable in the gore…
“Crowfeeder” – At our arrival, the closest of the black carrion birds startled. A ripple like a wave in a black ocean flowed across the field as the birds flapped into the air, reconsidered once they saw how few we were, and settled back to continue gorging…
Brain Freeze & Other Stories – A collection of eight Speculative Fiction and Slipstream stories by David Michael, with illustrations by Don Michael, Jr.
“Brain Freeze” – Crouched on all fours, eye nubs just over the edge of the curb, Boollf’s ear bones vibrated with the sound of the low churning, the sirens’s song, the goal of tonight’s mission…
“Callisto” – She came out of the hut and the butt end of a spear hit her in the face. She had only an instant to see the two men, strangers, one of them holding her boys, pinning the boys’s arms…
“Indian Summer” – Anna, hurting from the death of her best friend, isn’t ready to give up the gray gloom of autumn for the sunshine of Indian summer. But maybe more than just the sun has come back to her.
“Constellation” – The Great Bear looks down on the world and sees a woman, a mother like herself, whose children have been taken from her.
“The Perfect Hiding Place” – The house next door has been sold and the new neighbors are moving in. Do you think they’re religious? They seem to have a lot of kids. Do you think they’re hiding something? They look ethnic. Do you think they might be worth robbing? No, obviously, they can’t be *monkeys*…
“Selene” – Her village is burned, her beloved husband is dead. Only she can save her sons. The Moon bears silent witness as she runs through the night and the storm to reclaim what remains of her life.
“Nostalgia” – Two yellowing Polaroids, snapshots of a little girl at the fair. Two different childhoods separated by the death of her father. One childhood she can’t remember, ruined by the one she wants to forget. When her boyfriend’s “birthday surprise” turns out to be a date at the same fair, Sharon finds herself face to face with both.
“Evanescent” – She’s the girl you meet every year for the first time. She has red-gold hair, sky-blue eyes, and just a splash of freckles across her cheeks. She’s as young as you are, or as old. She dances in the rain and splashes in the puddles. She jumps in the leaves and spins with the wind. She steps out of the fog to smile at you, then disappears before you can ask her name…
The World Wears Thin – A collection of eight Sci-Fi and Horror stories by David Michael, with illustrations by Don Michael, Jr.
“A Fine Mess” – Kenneth hunts edible Strings in the Frayed remnants of the vegetation of the world.
“Enamored” – Chick-lit meets cyberpunk as overworked, underappreciated Roxy heads to work.
“Curtain Call” – The White Hot Hemisphere Community Theater Company chose Shakespeare’s Hamlet for their first production after the cataclysm–and possibly their last before the end of the world.
“Insanity” – Corporal Jonathan “Drooz” Andrews wakes up in the middle of a war and wishes he remembered what he spent his re-enlistment bonus on.
“Encounter” – The Traveler tries to help in the aftermath of a riot in the Trog Ghetto.
“Until Death Do Us Part” – Ross and Marjorie grow old together in undead retirement.
“Baptism” – Drunk on mojitos, high on love, and smelling of sex on the beach, Myra Acevedo went swimming and drowned. Then she became the end of the world.
Bonus Story: “Roxy Overload” – Roxy, from “Enamored”, heads home after work on an evening when it seems everyone–her best friend, her mom, her men–even her dog–wants a piece of her.
Dragons of the Stars – 2 short stories about the future, where spaceships controlled by superintelligent AI’s go renegade, venting their human crews into the vacuum of outer space and become the Dragons of the Stars.
