HealYou
We Are Here To Heal You “We are here to heal you.” The voice was loud enough to make the windows shake, but they didn’t. Still, the noise woke up Mary Whitlow. It was just dawn, Mary saw, and she wondered if she’d dreamed it. She hadn’t been sleeping very well since the accident that had […]
GirlClub
The Girl of the Month Club I WAS ALREADY LATE for work, but when I opened the door a Transcontinental Courier delivery driver was in the hall about to knock on my door. “Are you William Wood?” said the courier. “Yes,” I said. “What’s going on?” “This is for you.” He pushed a handcart into my apartment and […]
Nausea Pistol
Nausea Pistol Sylvia Parker was trying to lose weight. She was five foot three and she weighed 91 pounds and she felt tubby. If she were just a bit thinner, she thought, she would have the sharp definition in her cheeks that would make her look like a high-fashion model. Sylvia worked as a receptionist […]
Sungone
Sungone Look, it wasn’t my fault. Not really. It was just another demonstration at a nuclear power plant, and we hadn’t been getting enough network coverage. The crowd was big, but polite. The National Guard ringed the plant and we were hundreds of feet from the gate. We were as close as we were going […]
My Superpower
Last year at one of the Startup Circle meetups, a woman asked me what my superpower was. She apparently was asking everybody the same question. I was taken aback by the question. Never considered it before. A search reveals that “What’s your superpower” is a standard surprise question in an employment interview. Normal HR […]
Gladiator Prison
Gladiator Prison The guard opened the door and I shuffled into the dressing room. I was shackled hand and foot. “The key is on the table,” the guard said, and closed the door. I was alone in the windowless room. I didn’t notice whether the walls were Institutional Green or Institutional Gray. All […]
Open Source-m
Open Source Just when Jacob was ready to go to work there was a knock at the door. It was a mailman from the old United States Postal Service. “You got a registered letter,” the mailman said. “It’s from the IRS. You gotta sign for it.” “IRS? What’s that?” Jacob said. “Internal Revenue […]
Announcing My Death-m
Announcing My Death A short story by Colin Campbell 2,300 words It is so strange to have to announce my death. I’ve heard vague rumors about something like this but I never dreamed it would happen to me. My body stopped and I didn’t notice for several hours. I was in Santa […]
Fiction
Fiction Recent short stories Moire (2024) Anne Hedonia (2024) Mr. Blondo (2024) McNabb, the Dog Who Really Smelled (2023) C.O.I. Anonymous (2023) Open Source (2023) Announcing My Death (2022) Works in progress The Nanogatherers Slingship Sam the Asteroid Man Other Dark Vision (2002) The Bug Stops Here (1981) Interview with Rin Tin Tin (1977) Stories […]
Awards
Professional Awards Earlier in my careeer I did a lot of work for art directors whose sole goal in life was to win awards for creativity. If the ads for the clients also increased sales, so much the better. Back in those days I would investigate the client’s situation and suggest a line of attack: […]