I've had near 20 short stories published in the last decade in regional and national, literary and commercial publications. For a complete listing go to my publications page. Each month I'll highlight two stories and provide background on the writing process behind each. This month's stories are two pieces of genre fiction, one science fiction and the other fantasy. They're also two of my personal favorites.
Game Face
Originally published in Aberrations, Issue #20, 1994; Honorable mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror , Edited by Datlow & Windling, 1994.
Background: I always wanted to write an end of the world story. When I decided to write Game Face the Soviet Union was collapsing and everyone was talking about an end to nuclear proliferation. "How can you have end of the world stories without the threat of nuclear weapons?" people asked. Would there be any relevance to them? I decided to show the world that they were wrong. Aberrations picked it up for $1 (I still have the check!) and about six months after it was published I received a letter from Richard Blair, the editor, saying it had been picked as an honorable mention to be listed in the back of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror over at St. Martin's Press and could I give him permission to have it placed there. I called Mr. Blair and said, "Sure, sounds good," without much enthusiasm. "It's a big deal, Joe," he said. "Okay," I replied and hung up. The next day I went into the bookstore to see what this Year's Best book was all about, and saw both the size, a very thick hardcover book, the names of authors like King, Straub, and Joyce Carol Oates as both selected authors and honorable mentions, and realized what a big deal it really was. I called Blair back again that evening and he just laughed. It was very cool to be listed alongside Michael Moorcock, Ray Bradbury, and Ursula K. Leguin.
Harvesting the Boneflowers
Originally published in Dragon Magazine, #213, 1995.
Background: I've always been interested in the internal lives of skeletons. Evern since seeing the Harry Harryhausen skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts I've been hooked on bones. I wondered what they thought about - always the bad guys, like in the movie - would they have any of their humanity left? Could a skeleton be a good guy? I wrote a poem in High School about an army of the dead that won publication in the school paper and then wrote a short story about a skeleton-like creature named Loomer Thomp while I was in college - though he was a science fiction creature by then and not a skeleton from a fantasy world. I rewrote his story some dozen times and still didn't have it right. Loomer changed as I rewrote his story over and over again but he wouldn't go away. He was stuck in my craw and I couldn't get him out. Then some ten years later, influenced by my work in the AIDS epidemic I found him in the desert with his companions driven on by sandpriests with their whips of time. Having it published in Dragon Magazine - at that time what was the magazine of the Dungeon and Dragons world - was the icing on the cake.
Pistol Grip
Originally published in Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, XI:1 Fall 1993.
Background: I fence and I've always been a fan of Errol Flynn. Those two points converged at the Mineola fencing club one winter day, when I was desperate to fence again, but couldn't find anybody nearby to fence with. I lived out in Soundbeach, a good hour and a half away but the ride was worth it. Sam is wholecloth out of my first night at the club. The rest just came to me. How much of what I write is authobiographical? Just about everything, in a sense. If not in fact, then in spirit. This was one of my first, and longest sales so it did my ego good.
