My short fiction tends to be very short. Indeed, my most natural writing length feels like the short-short story (1,000 words or fewer), though I have been trying to extend myself of late. After all, one can make a career out of short-short stories, but in a field that pays by the word, it becomes very difficult to make a living of them.

My professionally published short fiction includes:

“Grignr in the Land of Er-Urz” in the anthology The Eye of Argon and the Further Adventures of Grignr the Barbarian, November 2022

“The Conspiracy Theorist’s Tale (or, Rockefeller on the Rocks)” in the anthology The Fans are Buried Tales, May 2022

“On the Rocks” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January/February 2022

“Bulkeads Make the Best Neighbors” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January/February 2020

“Creatively Ignorant” in the anthology Footprints in the Stars, July 2019

“It’s all my fault, or, the beanstalk sucks” Nature, May 22, 2019

“The Ant and the Grasshoppers” Daily Science Fiction, November 16, 2017

“Godding About and Sleeping Around: Zeus’ Conversation with Tantalus” in the anthology TV Gods: Summer Programming!, May 2017

“The Necessary Enemy” in the anthology If We Had Known, May 2017

• reprinted in: Red Stars and Shattered Shields: A Sci-Fi Charity Anthology of Light and Hope edited by Maxwell I. Gold & Henry Herz (Yuriko Publishing, February 2024)

“Shall Not Perish From the Earth” in the anthology Altered States of the Union, July 2016

“It’s not ‘the lady or the tiger?’, it’s ‘which tiger?’” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, April 2014

“1-9-4-blue-3-7-2-6-gamma-tetrahedron” Nature, January 5, 2012

• reprinted in: Timeshift: Tales of Time edited by Eric S. Fomley (Shacklebound Books, August 2018)

“Mars is the Wrong Color” Nature, October 2, 2008

• reprinted in: Martian Super Pack (Positronic Publishing, September 2021)
• a reading of the story is available on YouTube

“All the Things That Can’t Be” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, November 2007

• reprinted in: Best New Tales of the Apocalypse edited by D.L. Snell and Bobbie Metevier (Permuted Press, October 2013)

“Get Me to the Job on Time” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 2003

• later appeared as a podcast on Escape Pod, May 6, 2009

“You Gotta See This!” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, December 2002

“Ego Boost” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March 2002

“How I Won the Lottery, Broke the Time Barrier (or is that ‘Broke the Time Barrier, Won the Lottery’), and Still Wound Up Broke” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June 2000

“It’s the Thought That Counts” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, April 1998

“Living It Is the Best Revenge” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, February 1996

• winner of the 1996 Analytical Laboratory Best Short Story award
• reprinted in Mind’s Eye Fiction
• winner of Best of the Web 1998, Eternity Online
• electronic edition available at Amazon
• electronic edition available at Barnes and Noble

“Without An S” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, November 1995

“The Ears Have It” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, December 1993

“A Glance Backward” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, September 1993

“Fermat’s Legacy” Analog Science Fiction and Fact, September 1992

• reprinted in Eternity Online, April 1998
• a reading of the story is available on YouTube