Epiphany 2.0

I write a little of everything: shorts and novels, spec fic and mainstream, science fiction and fantasy and horror, and uncategorizable variants of all of the above. Here’s the stuff you can (or will soon be able to) read.

Novels

The Earth and the Sky

• THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS
  Forthcoming from Orbit in February 2010. Long ago, four gods were bound in servitude to a single mortal family, which used their power to remake the world. Centuries later, an estranged daughter of the blood returns to the family seat, where she is dragged into the viper-pit of politics and long-buried family secrets. She has one chance: allying with the gods who are the family’s source of power. But some allies are more dangerous than any enemy…

• THE BRIGHT GOD’S BANE
  Forthcoming from Orbit. Ten years after The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, a blind street artist finds a half-dead vagrant glowing like a living sun in her trash heap. She takes him in and instantly finds herself embroiled in the gods’ most ancient and terrible conspiracy. Can she trust the shadowy mortal organization which offers to help? Or are there worse things to fear than vengeful gods?

• THE BROKEN GOD’S GET
  Forthcoming from Orbit. Long ago, the world was united under the Three Gods — before betrayal tore it all apart. Now a revolt among the demigod children of the Three threatens any hope of reconciliation.

Short Stories (published and forthcoming)

• “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters”.
  Forthcoming from Postscripts in Summer 2010. In the flooded streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, a young drug dealer faces existential horrors both mundane and magical.
• “The You Train”. Strange Horizons, 2007.
  Dead trains. Trains that never were. If one of them stops for you, will you get on? Recipient of an Honorable Mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, 21st collection.
• “Playing Nice With God’s Bowling Ball”. Baen’s Universe, 2008.
  Little Jeffy didn’t mean to get his best friend sucked into a black hole. Honest.
• “Bittersweet”. Abyss & Apex, 2007.
  On the hostile planet called Bittersweet, war is extinct but so is privacy. What is the price of freedom?
• “The Narcomancer”. Helix (2007) reprinted in Transcriptase (2008).
  An evil master of sleep-magic torments a small village in the land of Gujaareh. Cet, a priest of the Dream-Goddess, must overcome both the narcomancer and his own temptations to survive.
• “The Brides of Heaven” Helix (2007) reprinted in Transcriptase (2008).
  On the planet Iliyin, a colony of women struggles without men. Is a mysterious pool of alien water a blessing from God, or a deadly curse?

• “Cloud Dragon Skies” Strange Horizons, 2005.
  The sky has turned red and the clouds now dance. A tale of the Earth’s final days. Also an Escape Pod episode!

• “Red Riding-Hood’s Child” Fishnet, 2004.
  Wolves are hunting a youth named Anrin. Some of them are human. Also a PodCastle episode!

• “L’Alchimista” Scattered, Covered, Smothered anthology (2005), reprinted in Escape Pod (2006).
  On a snowy Milano night, a stranger walks into a restaurant with some very strange ingredients. Is Franca chef enough to cook them? You better believe she is. Recipient of an Honorable Mention from The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, 18th collection.

• “Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows” Ideomancer (2004).
  Can love survive the end of the universe?

Awards

• The Speculative Literature Foundation’s 2004 Travel Grant, using “L’Alchimista” as writing sample.
• Recommended Reading Shortlist for the “Parallax Award”, Carl Brandon Society, for “Cloud Dragon Skies”, 2006.

Representation

My novel-length fiction is represented by Lucienne Diver of the The Knight Agency.