Fiction Index
Personal Favorites
In reverse chronological order, the pieces that I’m most fond of.
City Nights
“City Nights” is my bad working title for a loosely-connected series of short stories I started writing in 1993.
Science Fiction Novel Microfiction
In September 2006 I decided to rewrite my science fiction novel (then a sprawling 180,000–200,000-word first draft) as a series of 30 microfiction episodes, each alternating between 300 and 250 words in length. (The full-scale novel itself is unfinished, currently in its second draft.)
- 0: Party, Success, Power, Status, Greed
- 1: Assassins, Gardens, Ouster, Board, Escape
- 2: Trapped, Ship, Despair, Choice, Alone
- 3: Abuse, Contract, Surprise, Capture, Anger
- 4: Decadence, Power, Excess, Competition, Impunity
- 5: Despair, Desperation, Fantasy, Obsession, Records
- 6: Fever, Persistence, Disappointment, Luck, Surprise
- 7: Plague, Mystery, Panic, Rebellion, Power
- 8: Scavenger, Ship, Grave, Race, Payment
- 9: Pursuit, Competence, Indifference, Regulations, Unease
- 10: Captive, Negotiation, Passenger, Transport, Doubt
- 11: Blackmail, Discussion, Assumptions, Demands, Complications
- 12: Reward, Hunt, Research, Guess, Discovery
- 13: Solitude, Insanity, Company, Capture, Confusion
- 14: Negotiation, Wealth, Threat, Agreement, Destination
- 15: Asteroid, Base, Money, Surveillance, Flight
- 16: Information, Questions, Confusion, Opportunity, Idea
- 17: Obstacle, Friction, Evaluation, Recognition, Decision
- 18: Unease, Contingency, Disagreement, Risk, Corner
- 19: Trust, Determination, Dilemma, Odds, Proposal
- 20: Assignment, Anomaly, Misgivings, Resentment, Approach
- 21: Fear, Agreement, Contacts, Hopes, Plan
- 22: Foray, Disguise, Welcome, Aid, Exit
- 23: Gamble, Killing, Speed, Luck, Flight
- 24: Orbit, Evasion, Request, Intervention, Regulations
- 25: Anger, Review, Trail, Politics, Insight
- 26: Prediction, Inconsistency, Meeting, Observation, Confrontation
- 27: Capture, Dismay, Assumption, Principle, Resignation
- 28: News, Shock, Isolation, Reversal, Flight
- 29: Naivety, Incredulity, Anger, Bitterness, Escape
‘Coup’
A fantasy story in four parts.
Miscellany
Stories whose genre is unclear to me that aren’t part of some larger world or narrative.
- ‘Overlay’
- ‘Stillness’
- ‘Estranged’
- ‘One Day’
- ‘Guidance’
- ‘Waiting to Drive’
- ‘Imagination’
- ‘An Urgent Request’
- ‘Chosen’
- ‘The Case of Curious Eddy’
- ‘Desert Walk’
- ‘That Little Bastard’
- ‘Touching the Pacific’
- ‘The Palace of the Unencumbered’
- ‘A Short Reprieve’
- ‘A Tree on the Path’
- ‘Flow Episode’
- ‘Announcement’
Miscellaneous Fantasy
Stories I think of as being in the fantasy genre that aren’t part of some larger world or narrative.
Miscellaneous Science Fiction
Stories I think of as being in the science fiction genre that aren’t part of some larger world or narrative.
pafib
A series of experimental fiction pieces based on this quotation:
“possible attitudes found in books 1) I don’t know what’s happening to me 2) what does it mean? 3) seized with the deepest sadness, I know not why 4) I am lost, my head whirls, I know not where I am 5) I lose myself 6) I ask you, what have I come to? 7) I no longer know where I am, what is this country? 8) had I fallen from the skies, I could not be more giddy 9) a mixture of pleasure and confusion, that is my state 10) where am I, and when will this end? 11) what shall I do? I do not know where I am”
—p74. Donald Barthelme. “Alice”. Sixty Stories. New York: Penguin, 1993. 68–75.
Snippets
Pieces of larger works that may or may not end up being written.