Stories

Short Stories

The One in the Night-Storm Dress

Petra immediately spied Death in the crowd. A shimmering opalescent gown curved over Its shapely frame, and Its mask was white. No one else would be,could be in unpainted porcelain.

TAGS: fantasy, dancing, pretty dresses, why don’t we have masquerades anymore, death, emotionally significant clothing

Read it in issue #5 of Curiosities (winter 2019), or listen now!

Raise-the-Dead Cobbler

“What are you?” Joseph asks, and again I stutter and don’t answer. In my head I hear all the times Jun told me you’re a witch, you jag, but I can’t say it.

TAGS: fantasy, witches, millennials, old hollywood, bad decisions, oviraptors, recipes you shouldn’t follow

Read it now! Shimmer, November/December 2017.

Three Ways to Ruin Your Best Friend’s Birthday (and How She Fixes It)

In the end, it was about thirty percent my fault that Nisha let the polar bears out of their cages… But it was one hundred percent my fault that I ran smack into a guard on the way out.

TAGS: science fiction, best friends, adventures, bad decisions, space travel, great decisions, birthday presents

Read it now! Flash Fiction Online, August 2017.

Itself at the Heart of Things

On the floor, I hiked my skirts up and began to disassemble myself, starting with my left knee.

TAGS: dadapunk, fantasy, love, bravery, taking yourself apart solves all your problems, aliens, paris between the wars, larks, death, grand theft spaceship

Read it now! Shimmer, July/August 2017.

Listen to it now! Podcastle, September 2018.

BONUS! Break/Make: Itself at the Heart of— poetry is a cut-and-paste poetry generator. Choose your experience and create a poem! (Each “experience” is a different selected paragraph from the story, giving you a different wordbank to use.)

Beneath the Bark Her Heart

Someone has been planting a tree for each girl who goes missing.

TAGS: fantasy, don’t mess with girl gangs, witchcraft, trees are good, teenage rebellion, daphne, lipstick the color of a japanese maple tree

Read it now! Recompose, Ritualistic Pompadour, September 2016. (also on Curious Fictions)

The Roving Bookstore

The roving bookstore comes out when all else is closed, in the moonlight, stepping between the stars.

TAGS: fantasy, break-ups, rebound relationships end badly, magic, baba yaga’s bookstore, books are magic, kansas city, hot summer nights

Read it now on Curious Fictions! The Sockdolager, Spring 2016.

The Gaps in Translation

The planet was less different from Earth than Miranda had imagined.

TAGS: science fiction, space travel, scientists… in… SPAAAACE, linguistics, second contact, love, lizard people

Read it now! Crossed Genres Magazine, January 2014. (also on Curious Fictions)

Interactive Fiction

Silver & Gold

These things come in pairs.

In a dark city, a servant sees something she shouldn’t and flees from her master’s house.

Read it now! Sub-Q Magazine in August 2015.

This Is Not A Love Poem

This Is Not A Love Poem is a short piece of interactive fiction, exploring the theme of “love” for the #subQjam.

Base of the Comet

In the deep of space, there are unexpected things. Like science, love, and undiscovered monsters.

Base of the Comet is an interactive story about Cal Yeasin, space scientist. There are detours to learn more about Cal or explore bits of ship and wreckage. There are monsters either way.

Downpour

How long has it been raining?

Downpour is a short interactive story about a lot of rain.

The Fairy Woods

Someone dear to you has disappeared into the dangerous woods of the fairy realm, and you’re on your way to save them…

The Fairy Woods is an interactive story with multiple endings and character combinations.

Inheritance

If you inherited a ring and discovered that it made invisible portals turn visible, would you walk through? Yulia would.

Inheritance is a short exploration of a portal concept. This story has multiple endings. Originally for a challenge on Twinery.org: 15 passages or fewer, in 1,000 words or fewer.

Digital Witnesses

You are on the run, but why?

Digital Witnesses is a short fiction created in twenty-three Twine passages, prompted by a challenge on Twinery.org and binging on St. Vincent’s self-titled album.

Several very short items

Note: After the demise of Storify, all of these links are dead. But they sure were a good time.

#spacewitch: A twitter story about a space witch. In honor of May 1, 2014 being officially declared the day of the #spacewitch.

Sick day: A twitter story about a necklace and the not-so-common cold. For #CreatureDay, May 29, 2014.

Seasonal changes: A brief ode to autumn, with its scarves and boots and higher degree of comfort when slaving over a cauldron.

Snow and the #spacewitch: A small continuation of the first #spacewitch story, written during a blizzard in winter 2015.

All graphics on this page were created by Andrea Martinez Corbin.