Soup of the Universe Available Now on Amazon

There's a time to write books and there's a time to publish them. Having amassed a hefty backlog over a decade or so of writing, it is my pleasure to announce the release of Soup of the Universe: An Interdimensional Adventure – a humorous tale of conflicting ideas, explosive confrontations, elaborate scheming, not-so-ancient ancients, and sentient slimes.

Available now on Amazon priced at $4.99 for the eBook version and $14.99 for a print paperback. Here's what you'll be getting yourself into should you buy it:

Soup of the Universe is a thrilling interdimensional adventure that will take you to the furthest reaches of space-time.

Depending on how you look at it, interdimensional travel is either a fantastic way of experiencing the wonders of the Universe, or a rather nasty fancy that merely pokes holes in the fabric of reality.

When these two outlooks collide within the Hub – an artificial pocket of space where every conceivable world intersects – an explosive confrontation is all but inevitable.

In one corner there's Marcus, an eccentric scholar who made his name by exploring the distant corners of space-time and facing unspeakable horrors armed with nothing but a bag of notes, together with any allies he can talk into joining his cause. And boy, can he talk.

And in the other we have an advanced race of avian humanoids who dispatch a team of highly-trained operatives specializing in interdimensional sabotage to the Hub. Once there, they intend to save the Universe by blowing up everyone they deem a threat.

Demons, constructs, sentient buildings, undead comedians, and even a regiment of US marines all play a part in their plan to destroy the Hub and Marcus's subsequent attempts to foil it.

Next in line is Paradox Buffet – a standalone story set within the Hub. A fresh cast of characters, cameos from familiar faces, an exciting dimension-hopping adventure, and plenty of humor – it's got it all. Expected release window – April-May 2024.

Escaping the Station

Preface

As it turns out, I can also produce interactive fiction.

What started off as a simple exercise in writing branching dialogue got more elaborate as I went along, and so it now has choices and consequences, and failure states. As such, it can even be considered a game in the most liberal of senses. It's still essentially a more primitive version of Zork, but hey, I made it.

So, without further ado, here's Escaping the Station:

The Dude About Town

Preface

Most of the stuff I write is absolutely packed with all sorts of speculative elements. But every once in a while, I get ideas that would only work in a real-world contemporary setting. With no immediate use for them, I defaulted to putting them all in a special file.

Enter me getting around to reading P.G. Wodehouse. At some point, I caught myself thinking – here I am, reading a story that's basically a guy spending a weekend in the country with some relatives. And it's the most entertaining thing I ever read.

I can do that, I thought to myself. And so I did, combining some of the stuff I learned while reading Wodehouse with all those notes I had just sitting there.

This resulted in a story about a member of the elusive idle middle class whose bumbling attempts to help his friends with their romantic problems end up getting them all embroiled in a criminal conspiracy.

So, without further ado, here's the first chapter of The Dude About Town:

A Thief's Bargain

Preface

For the longest time, I had this idea of writing a story about a couple of perpetually annoyed merchants supplying a never-ending conga line of eccentric adventurers with everything they need. The original plan there was to basically have Clerks in a fantasy setting.

But once I actually started writing this story, it transformed into what I like to call The Naked Gun of fantasy adventures. There's still a shop, its less than enthusiastic owner, and plenty of trope ribbing. But since I just couldn't bring myself to write a story without a real plot, the end result also has plenty of action, mysteries, and intrigue.

So, without further ado, here's the first chapter of A Thief's Bargain:

The Desert Lance

Preface

I had big plans for this one. When I first got this idea into my head that authors should have author websites, I figured that I could use mine to publish a serial, just like the old masters did, skipping past the part where they got actually paid for theirs.

The idea that won out there was essentially a sword & sorcery take on The X-Files where an old weapon master teams up with an ambitious inquisitor to travel the land and investigate assorted ghost stories and demon sightings. The first story then would introduce us to one of our heroes, the second would cover the other, and from that point, we would be free to follow their joint adventures in a less linear and more episodic fashion.

Having written that first story, I felt like I got off to a good start. But then the second one got away from me a bit, its word count bloating past what's appropriate for a tight short story. This made me wonder if I should rethink this whole endeavor and maybe turn these two initial stories into a novella, or even rework this idea into a proper novel.

In the end, this left me with one complete story, the first draft of another one, and some notes and outlines covering a few more. But whichever way I ultimately decide to proceed with this project, that very first story, I maintain, is pretty good.

So, without further ado, I present to you The Desert Lance:

Star Support

Preface

Now this here is the first of my works that can be considered kind-of sort-of published. I use such clear and confident language because while the story was indeed published, it was merely as part of a free anthology, so that doesn't really count. Though I've been told that as far as free anthologies go, this one managed to climb to the very top of the rankings around the time of its release even despite an abundance of typos.

The story itself splits its attention between a spaceship under siege by some nefarious individuals and a remote tech support specialist trying to assist the lone operative stuck on that ship.

So, without further ado, I present to you Star Support, complete with a few extra layers of polish: