Fiction

Novels

The Program (2025)
This sci-fi novella takes place shortly after it is proven that our universe exists within a computer program whose Creator has been absent for all of human history.

Spirits (2023)
The other stories listed here are PG-13, but this newsroom mystery/romance set in 1994 has some R-rated scenes, so consider yourself warned.

Voices of the Ruah (2010-2020)
Pre-teen siblings from our era are sent into a future in which Earth has lost half of its water and a new sentient species has evolved. The "ruah" look like horses with elaborate hollow horns through which they exhale in a musical language that sounds like oboes and bassoons.

The Boardwalk Bomber (1990s)
An ex-cop in the witness protection program is trying to keep a low profile in a sleepy resort town, but a series of explosions in the area prompt him to quietly investigate.

Short stories

These were all written in the 1990s when I lived in Dayton and I was part of a fiction writers group.

While We Waited for Jesus
Although I changed most of the details, this story reflects much of my experience going to a fire & brimstone church growing up.

Prometheus Downsized
In this modern retelling of "Prometheus Unbound," an employee bound to his desk can only see the world through the window of a high office tower.

Time and the Ancient Retailer
At a restaurant, a dapper old man with a pencil mustache sat down at my party's booth and began reminiscing about his long-ago business career. We realized he had dementia and let him talk. I was later reminded of "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" because the central character has been cursed to tell and retell his story to strangers passing by.

Trouble at the Hotel Grande
At a Midwestern amusement park, college students working a summer job act out the same scenes of a gangster story in a life-sized dollhouse as park visitors walk by.