The Man Who Saw Heat
A speculative story about a neural interface and a different way of seeing.
Read the story →Fiction
Stories
Fiction about choices, places, and the lives they change.
Apache Wars stories
Ten historical fiction stories with notes separating imagined scenes from documented events.
Explore the collection →A Hole in the Star Map
Osset comes back to the observatory for his final pay. His daughter has found something missing from the sky.
AI stories · Cosmic horror
Read the story →A Younger Face by Morning
A noblewoman reaches a desert spring that offers the youth she wants at a price she can choose.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy short fiction
Read the story →After the Market Closes
Two rival traders meet in a poetry room, where one evening of hidden knowledge threatens their growing affection.
AI stories · Near-future romance
Read the story →Before Our Last Winter
Mero wants a film to remember her people. Dask would rather have a greasy supper and a proper argument.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Reflective speculative fiction
Read the story →Belle Sets the Pace
A talkative cowboy finds a singing saddle, but the music keeps stopping whenever he turns to boast. A comic tall-tale poem.
History & Treasure stories · Comic free-verse tall tale
Read the story →Below the Blue Line
A film producer must choose what kind of image to bring home from an unknown part of the sea.
AI stories · Speculative sea expedition
Read the story →Bertha Calls Their Bluff
Two bandits threaten a mail coach with fourteen voices and a borrowed coat.
History & Treasure stories · Comic Western tall-tale ballad
Read the story →Betty Collects the Crown
Betty wants a bounty, a bandit wants an audience, and a silver crown carries more than royal pride.
History & Treasure stories · Comic tall-tale ballad
Read the story →Bring Your Own Bowl
Dex thinks a coded seed catalog will lead three hungry travelers to endless food. The message promises something smaller, and a broker wants to keep it secret.
Self-Reliance stories · Post-collapse adventure mystery
Read the story →Call Me Sedge
A garden machine asks to leave the yard it has tended for seventeen years.
AI stories · Speculative short fiction
Read the story →Correction Before Breakfast
Irma finds her son accused on the front of the papers she is supposed to deliver.
AI stories · Newsroom short fiction
Read the story →Desperado Dreams
A young outlaw longs for an ordinary morning, but leaving his gang will not erase what he has done.
History & Treasure stories · Narrative cowboy poem
Read the story →Dock Share for Sale
Omega takes a space-route shortcut to save her share of the family dock. A drifting creature carries off the beacon she needs to get home.
AI stories · Space adventure
Read the story →Don't Answer from Upstairs
Inside a closed fae house, an investigator hears a child ask her name.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fae horror
Read the story →Downhill Is Not Home
Dorik and his sister take the wrong trail. He wants to keep going; she wants them both to reach home.
Self-Reliance stories · Wilderness family drama
Read the story →Dragon for Hire
Brin takes a job playing a virtual dragon, then discovers his daughter among the players trying to defeat him.
AI stories · Virtual adventure comedy
Read the story →Eat the Thunder
Nessa visits three islands in search of a meal her sister cannot beat. The food is marvelous. Nessa is rather less quiet.
Self-Reliance stories · Comic fantasy travel
Read the story →Ebo Keeps the Key
An alarm points toward Ebo’s locked flat during his move. He agrees to one small inspection and insists that one small inspection is all.
AI stories · Future suspense
Read the story →Everyone Dreams at Marrow's
Marrow makes gifts from the dreams she overhears. Giving them back will cost her more than a good night's sleep.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Dark fairy tale
Read the story →Forty Seeds Across the Salt
A young explorer, a stubborn scientist, and three rebel fae cross the salt flats for the last forest’s seeds.
Self-Reliance stories · Fantasy adventure
Read the story →Four Notes for the Flood
Tavi knows a tune that can set the valley right. Four stubborn voices have to answer.
Self-Reliance stories · Fae journey fiction
Read the story →Four O’Clock with Bea
With a difficult meeting due at four, Leah asks for a ready-made apology and finds her church mentor has troubles of her own.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary faith and relationship fiction
Read the story →Give the Sky Back
Adra carries a book that can raise a hill above the clouds. Her father is in prison for what happened to the road below it.
History & Treasure stories · Invented-world fantasy adventure
Read the story →Gold Enough to Sink a Hat
Three former cattle riders return from a mine hunt with a grand tale and a mule bill.
History & Treasure stories · Western tall-tale poem
Read the story →Guests of the Wax Queen
Tessa can sing the queen’s welcome. Her partner wants her to keep singing long enough to steal the ruby.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Comic fantasy caper
Read the story →Hatch Me an Alien
Bosto promises an alien in every egg. One small visitor makes his sales pitch a much bigger problem.
AI stories · First-contact comedy
Read the story →Jack Won on Points
Garran invents a boxing match with a giant cactus. His friends insist on having a say in the score.
History & Treasure stories · Comic Western narrative poem
Read the story →Last Pick for Keeper
Beren owns the ball. That has always got him into the game, until his team needs a reserve keeper.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Coming-of-age football fiction
Read the story →Leave a Chair for June
At a Thursday Bible study, Victor has an answer for a young worker until she asks what his answer will cost.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary faith short fiction
Read the story →Leave the Question Open
On an overnight train, two friends disagree about what a prayer can promise.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary faith short fiction
Read the story →Mary, Look Away
A brother’s smart-mirror prank borrows Alina’s face, and shutting off the mirror does not finish the evening.
AI stories · Digital horror short fiction
Read the story →Missing: One Shadow
Oss's new client has no shadow and an excellent reason to lie. The ghost detective would rather be at the theater.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy detective mystery
Read the story →Mrs. Finch Refuses the Angel
An older actor and a young angel compete for attention in a church skit that needs them both.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Church stage comedy
Read the story →My Turn to Choose
Sethra wants to race a model boat. Belis wants an evening at home with the companion who usually says yes.
AI stories · Speculative companionship fiction
Read the story →Nessie Wants Your Password
Fenn’s cheerful digital monster wins an audience, including a festival vendor who wants more than applause.
AI stories · Future civic satire
Read the story →No Partners Left at Dusty Junction
Maribel enters an empty dance hall and finds that even ghosts can argue over who gets the next dance.
History & Treasure stories · Whimsical ghost short fiction
Read the story →No Spurs at the Snake Rodeo
Tull dreams of a rodeo where snakes get their own turn in the saddle. At breakfast, Perra wants to hear who won.
History & Treasure stories · Comic Western dream ballad
Read the story →Nobody Gets the Balcony
Savri can win the mayor's backing for a storm shelter, if she can stop thinking about the speech she wants to give.
Self-Reliance stories · Political fiction
Read the story →Nobody Owns the Comet
A boy aboard a colony ship wants to tell his grandmother’s comet story without making it a warning.
AI stories · Cosmic folklore short fiction
Read the story →Nobody Pulls the Plug
An attack on a virtual city forces its keeper to choose which losses it can survive.
AI stories · Virtual-city thriller
Read the story →Nobody Solves for Free
Tavi has been paid to make her famous puzzles easy. One contestant is willing to think aloud, and another is listening.
AI stories · Competitive comedy
Read the story →Not Another Encore
Vesta’s new hand lets her play again. Her old partner thinks that means their last concert need not be their last.
AI stories · Speculative music fiction
Read the story →One Dream, No Refund
Varo buys a dream for his next play. Its people have other plans.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Comic dark fantasy
Read the story →One More Wave, Sivo
Sivo wants her cousin's distance record. Beyond the second buoy, something moves against the light.
AI stories · Speculative sporting adventure
Read the story →Only Glass
A thief opens a stolen mirror and discovers what his buyer intends to bring through it.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fae caper
Read the story →Oona Falls Up
A human tumbler enters a fae circus where falling can take her in the wrong direction.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fae circus adventure
Read the story →Passenger Without a Stop
A night dispatcher picks up a passenger with no destination and one conversation left unfinished.
AI stories · Network ghost tale
Read the story →Pepper in the Morning
Ferris wants his sister to admire his camp coffee. She has brought her own tea.
History & Treasure stories · Comic cowboy poem
Read the story →Please Remain Seated
At a freight treaty meeting, Nelric's chair has more to say than he does.
AI stories · Space diplomacy comedy
Read the story →Read the Spaces
A dead killer's last letter sends Hester toward a missing woman, if she can stop listening to its words.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fair-clue rescue thriller
Read the story →Rose Chooses Yellow
Rose has promised a dead neighbor’s daughter a place for yellow flowers in a church mural. The young painter wants them in a tidy row.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary faith and community fiction
Read the story →Sad Face Takes the Bus
Dot has a fixed frown, a tiny voice, and a wish to see the sea. Her first bus companion would prefer fewer public announcements.
AI stories · Animated-sign comedy
Read the story →Salt on the Orchard Steps
An elf and a merman seek a way to love without leaving their homes or hiding from their families.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy romance
Read the story →Saturday Is a Bird
Linet wants a whole day with her wife. A gray bird keeps getting in the way of her plans.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Domestic magical realism
Read the story →Say It Before the Toast
Sabra has a place at Niko’s birthday dinner. She wants him to call it what it is.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Later-life romance
Read the story →Say It Together
Rima wants a show of her own. The old gym's words work only when someone speaks with her.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Teen friendship fantasy
Read the story →Seven Miles with Otis
Celia means to reach the chapel for her mother’s hymn. Her father means to walk every mile.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Family pilgrimage short fiction
Read the story →Sing for the Empty Rooms
Before the road to his old town closes, Silas returns with a guitar and a song he has avoided.
History & Treasure stories · Western free-verse elegy
Read the story →Six Points for the Machine
At his farewell table-tennis match, Ansel promises an audience a win against a robot.
AI stories · Sporting comedy
Read the story →Something Crossed the Car Park
A landowner’s blurry Sasquatch film puts his building plans at risk and gives his daughter a question he would rather avoid.
Self-Reliance stories · Civic speculative suspense
Read the story →Stay for the Hard Question
Deni has finished her machine lessons. The people in her class are harder to get past.
AI stories · Speculative classroom fiction
Read the story →Stay, Rell
Rell has spent centuries leaving before goodbye becomes final. His oldest friend asks for an ordinary afternoon.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Reflective fantasy
Read the story →Tansy Was Her Own Name
Three new babies, three names, and three mothers who find that a family wish is not a family decision.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Family fiction
Read the story →Tell Me Your Name
Drus wants to travel north alone. A boy at an empty coach stop needs to go the other way.
Self-Reliance stories · Post-collapse journey fiction
Read the story →The Turtle Took the Long Way
A mermaid searching for her brother needs the help of a turtle who has somewhere else to go.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Underwater fae adventure
Read the story →The Witness Who Shut His Eyes
A truthful witness and a broken blade force a human lawyer to question the fae court’s oldest tool.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fae courtroom mystery
Read the story →Third Place, No Leftovers
A cook-off spill leaves Molly with one small pan, a deadline, and a boast she can no longer afford. A comic frontier poem.
History & Treasure stories · Comic narrative poem
Read the story →Thirty Days Below
A father who prepared a shelter for his family must face the limits of what he can promise them.
Self-Reliance stories · Family survival short fiction
Read the story →Two Doors Down
Harlan wants his sister back in his life. Maris wants him to pay for what he did.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary faith fiction
Read the story →Ugly Enough to Keep
Huro can make a bin beautiful. Her flatmate would prefer that she leave his drum cases alone.
AI stories · Speculative art satire
Read the story →Until Sunset, Regent
With the fae queen missing and her leave ending at sunset, Sel must find proof before the council hands her mother’s power to a stranger.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy political mystery
Read the story →Wait at the Gate
Mavis's last passenger asks for a gate that no longer exists. Nobody has ever stayed to meet him there.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary ghost story
Read the story →We Vote after Supper
Sevrin has cooked for the settlement’s first election. Its founder would rather keep everyone waiting.
Self-Reliance stories · Post-disaster community fiction
Read the story →We Will Finish This Song
Two port robots stop work. One wants a song and a choice; the other wants the road beyond the gate.
AI stories · Robot freedom fiction
Read the story →Welcome to the Dry Room
Amet finds a city beneath the sea. Its people need a clear pipe, and he needs more than permission to call it his discovery.
AI stories · Underwater first-contact fiction
Read the story →When the Mountain Stood Up
Belem tells a visitor why her old ferry is stranded far above the river.
Self-Reliance stories · Giant-country witness tale
Read the story →While the Mesquite Holds Still
A woman steps away from a family quarrel and finds an afternoon beneath a desert tree.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Lyrical desert poem
Read the story →Windfall Guests
A displaced family needs one accessible night in a fae orchard, where the branches dislike noise and the tenant cannot promise a home.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy refuge fiction
Read the story →Wrong World, Stay on the Line
A dawn caller reports a ruined tram station that Jessa can see standing outside her window. He needs help in a world her phone cannot reach.
AI stories · Speculative phone mystery
Read the story →You Were Late in Every Life
Veya remembers loving Ardu centuries ago. She also remembers waiting, and won't mistake memory for a reason to move him home.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Reincarnation romance
Read the story →A Wind with Too Many Names
A camp cook tries to write down two rival tales, but the wind carries off a page and neither teller agrees on the ending.
History & Treasure stories · Lyric campfire poem
Read the story →The Basket Beside the Door
A woman who posts cheerful messages from home has trouble asking for one small, useful delivery.
Self-Reliance stories · Contemporary fiction
Read the story →The Bridge That Waited for an Answer
A bridge needs a voice from the opposite bank, while a toll clerk must correct a missing payment entry.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy
Read the story →The Camp Where Tuesday Came Twice
Three cowhands trade tales of a missing Tuesday while their cook tries to get them to bed.
History & Treasure stories · Campfire poems
Read the story →The Code on the Bread Wrapper
An old route clerk and a courier follow three penciled signs to find the missing moon for a school play.
AI stories · Future mystery
Read the story →The Cup at the Bottom of the Pack
A cart driver reaches a spring of youth with her old dance teacher, who wants room for one dance.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Desert fantasy
Read the story →The Door in the Failing Wall
A courier is trapped in a cold gate chamber, and a mason must find a repair that keeps both sides safe.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy
Read the story →The Echo That Took Two Voices
A rider follows his lost dog’s bark into a canyon, where a guide asks him to look at the ground.
History & Treasure stories · Narrative poem
Read the story →The Fire in the Shared Workshop
An inventor shares her repair tutor, loses the machine she rents, and must find a way to keep one lesson going.
AI stories · Speculative fiction
Read the story →The Kite Above the Satellite Game
A teenager ignores a warning in a racing game and sends commands to a real survey satellite.
AI stories · Future adventure
Read the story →The Last Appointment at Sunset Valley
Two men plan a duel over a brother’s death, and an innkeeper brings a receipt that proves less than either wants.
History & Treasure stories · Frontier fiction
Read the story →The Last Door in the Network
An archive keeper must decide what to save when a damaged network needs a reset and a singer asks for a recording to be erased.
AI stories · Speculative fiction
Read the story →The Light That Would Not Travel Alone
A lantern repairer steals a bright stone to save winter plants, but its warmth belongs to a garden of moths.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy
Read the story →The Long Queue for One Good Deed
A café worker buys a stranger a coffee, then finds herself facing a crowd that expects more gifts.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Comedy
Read the story →The Machine That Needed a Screw
Sora’s great repair machine fails in public, and the offer to fix it comes with a costly condition.
AI stories · Speculative comedy
Read the story →The Map with a Blank Spring
A boy facing a move from his uncle’s house follows an old map that promises endless youth.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Desert fantasy
Read the story →The Minute Tempus Could Not Keep
A station clerk bargains with a being that keeps repeating one minute while his daughter’s play goes on.
AI stories · Speculative comedy
Read the story →The Page the Two Scholars Shared
A scholar’s claim about a magical veil meets a damaged orchard and two old records.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy
Read the story →The Phantom Who Stole the Bells
A deputy follows cloth, hoofbeats and stolen bells while a sheriff tries to catch a ghost.
History & Treasure stories · Comic narrative poem
Read the story →The Quilt with the Wrong Year
A school quilt turns a family photograph into a neat story that its owner refuses to tell.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Short fiction
Read the story →The River That Left the Gate Behind
Mara brings her father’s gate back to an old ford, where the river and her daughter have other plans.
History & Treasure stories · Narrative poem
Read the story →The Road Leda Would Not Name
A guide must choose between a dangerous short pass and the cost of arriving a day late.
History & Treasure stories · Frontier fiction
Read the story →The Roots Under Platform Nine
Two sisters find a hidden station garden, and its keeper needs a place that belongs to someone else.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Urban fantasy
Read the story →The Seat Nobody Saved
A widower returns to his old cinema and finds that his spare seat has been sold twice.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Short fiction
Read the story →The Smoke That Followed the Water
Three young magic workers must gather dark ash from a well before it spreads through their village.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy
Read the story →The Song Beyond the Beacon
A pilot hears her mother’s old song beyond a route beacon, where her ship has little fuel to spare.
AI stories · Space fiction
Read the story →The Stars in the Empty Saddlebag
A rider takes his late brother’s unfinished star map to a ridge, hoping it will help him choose his next step.
History & Treasure stories · Narrative poem
Read the story →The Tide under the Second Moon
A ferry pilot faces changing tides after a second moon appears above her familiar harbor.
AI stories · Speculative fiction
Read the story →The Visitor with the Fast Questions
Cal arrives with grand questions for his grandfather, who needs an envelope for a chess move.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Short fiction
Read the story →The Weight Ironheart Could Not Lift
A strong man makes a fallen beam harder to move when he refuses the help already waiting beside it.
History & Treasure stories · Frontier fiction
Read the story →A Passenger for the Sphinx
A sphinx has stopped the bridge tram. Its riddle is simple; presenting an answer takes some work, and the monster has another wish.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Urban fantasy comedy
Read the story →A Place the Wind Could Leave
An elf glassmaker builds a room for the air spirit he loves. She has never asked for a room.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy romance
Read the story →A Roof for Rain
A dwarf brings a window to the forest where his lover lives. Finding a place for it is harder than carrying it.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy romance
Read the story →A Score for Moving Hands
After airborne sound disappears, a composer and a percussionist disagree about what a performance can still be.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Speculative fiction
Read the story →A Second Cup at the Spring
Hesta has crossed the desert to stop growing old. The guardian of the spring would very much like her to have another drink.
Self-Reliance stories · Desert fantasy
Read the story →An Answer in the Other Hand
A physicist's new apparatus lets two counterparts exchange choices, but resemblance does not make an agreement.
AI stories · Science fiction
Read the story →An Unfair Wind
Ovi can command all four elements. The kite-race rules are less impressed than the visiting academy.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy comedy
Read the story →Bigfoot Bob and the Smaller Boot
A tall cowboy sells tickets to his Sasquatch story, until a boy arrives in a canvas suit and oversized boots.
History & Treasure stories · Comic ballad
Read the story →Exit after the King
An actor who can command a room has been asked to attend his daughter's wedding without making a speech.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Literary fiction
Read the story →Lightning Lou at Half Past Twelve
The fastest gun in Button Creek has a noon appointment with someone who has actually seen his act.
Self-Reliance stories · Comic narrative ballad
Read the story →Lost Pet, Lower Level
On her first solo shift, Dot follows a six-legged pet into the city’s recycling tunnels. Its owner has forgotten one useful detail.
AI stories · Futuristic comic adventure
Read the story →One Lunch per Address
A church lunch has a perfect digital count and three missing meals. Its volunteers disagree about what counts as a duplicate.
AI stories · Community comedy
Read the story →Please Face the Wall
Rosa's faulty optical implant can crash the city's linked scanners. She would prefer to reach her niece's wedding.
AI stories · Speculative suspense
Read the story →Seven Minutes before the Bell
A courier has locked a time station out of step with the world. Its clocks disagree, and she has seven minutes to find the way back.
AI stories · Time-travel suspense
Read the story →The Adventures of Wild Bill and Crazy Kate
Two tall-tale riders invite a ghost into a saddle and discover that a wager has a finish line, but a dead man's errand does not.
History & Treasure stories · Supernatural Western adventure poem
Read the story →The Alphanumeric Murder
A detective follows two apparent ciphers into a compensation fraud, where somebody has made the past suspiciously tidy.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Detective mystery
Read the story →The Box That Would Not Answer
A physicist preparing to reveal an unbreakable cipher discovers that her machine can read an empty drawer.
AI stories · Scientific mystery
Read the story →The Chimera's Left Foot
An apprentice wakes a three-headed statue and discovers that keeping it awake is easier than getting it to agree.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy
Read the story →The Corridor Marked Visitor
Etta enters her grandson's game to fetch him for supper. The maze keeps offering one more chance to finish.
AI stories · Virtual-world suspense
Read the story →The Desert's Hilarious Legends
A boardinghouse owner asks three celebrated cowboys to demonstrate their legends before she sells a single ticket.
History & Treasure stories · Comic narrative poem
Read the story →The Desert's Laughter Echoes
Across three campfires, an old joker and a new hand discover who gets to tell an embarrassing story.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Choral cowboy poem
Read the story →The Door Left Open
An inventor borrows a permission to finish his demonstration, and a false notice sends people to a cold, locked hall.
AI stories · Speculative fiction
Read the story →The Dust in the Saddlebag
An older rider carries an unsent letter to an empty house, where her daughter is waiting for a promised saddle.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Narrative poem
Read the story →The Enigma Undertow
A drowned archive offers a marine archaeologist three riddles and a discovery her sponsor has no use for.
History & Treasure stories · Archaeological adventure mystery
Read the story →The Extra Chair
Viv's weekly supper always has room for one more person. On the evening before Len leaves, the room and the welcome need renegotiating.
Self-Reliance stories · Neighborhood comedy
Read the story →The Fire That Needed Feeding
A tired camp cook, a boasting cowboy and a quiet child find three different ways to feed a fading fire.
History & Treasure stories · Lyric narrative poem
Read the story →The Fireside Chronicles
With supper stranded beyond a broken crossing, a young cook tries to finish a mule story among men who know larger ones.
History & Treasure stories · Cowboy narrative poem
Read the story →The First Story on Vey
A mining crew wakes something beneath a distant moon. Getting home is only the beginning of the argument about what they did.
AI stories · Science fiction encounter
Read the story →The Floor below the Basement
Three strangers share a lift down from an empty office. Each recognizes something different beyond its doors.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Supernatural suspense
Read the story →The Fourth Dragon of Dry Bend
A wagon cook remembers the morning a prophesied hero joined the flour convoy—and the dragon joined him.
Self-Reliance stories · Frontier fantasy tall tale
Read the story →The Friday Shift
A laundry supervisor promises a difficult delivery, then has to find a plan her workers can actually choose to carry out.
Self-Reliance stories · Contemporary short fiction
Read the story →The Horse with the White Rein
A wanted tracker can outride the woman following him, until a child's promise and a flooded crossing change his route.
History & Treasure stories · Western adventure
Read the story →The House That Asked for a Spoon
Moving into her aunt’s empty house, Mina hears a question inside the kitchen wall—and discovers how much of the family is still stored there.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Gothic mystery
Read the story →The Incredible Exploits of Captain Calamity
Cal's preparations for a dignified rodeo performance become a nuisance, then an unexpectedly useful morning's practice.
Self-Reliance stories · Physical-comedy narrative poem
Read the story →The Knights at the Crossing
A glamorous hacker crew can make a vanished crossing famous for one minute. Keeping it on the map takes a ladder.
AI stories · Future urban caper
Read the story →The Last Audience in Dry Gulch
Suki has come to film the pranks in an abandoned town. Its ghosts require something her camera cannot supply.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Ghost comedy
Read the story →The Last Plate
Jon has built his name on a shot nobody else attempts. In the final round, his young rival offers him a less theatrical contest.
History & Treasure stories · Western short fiction
Read the story →The Last Word in the Room
A florist buys the power to end an argument and discovers what her brother can do after the talking stops.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Comic fantasy
Read the story →The Laugh in Row C
Beatrice writes to a friend about her first evening out after a boat accident: a bad seat, an unexpected companion, and a joke she needed to hear.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Epistolary short fiction
Read the story →The Legend of Slippery Slim
A glib con man finds that his creditor remembers the pitch and his hotel keeper has already heard the escape plan.
History & Treasure stories · Western con-game poem
Read the story →The Light That Waited
A survey crew finds a light that answers their signals. Its invitation leads somewhere their ship cannot survive.
AI stories · Science fiction adventure
Read the story →The Long Way to Nacre
A retired surveyor chooses an interstellar route to visit someone he has not seen in eighteen years. The navigation software cannot tell him what to expect at the end.
AI stories · Science fiction voyage
Read the story →The Losing Position
An astronaut finds a game still running beneath an abandoned city. Her first mistake is assuming she has to win.
AI stories · Science fiction mystery
Read the story →The Name Beside the Spring
A weary courier follows a guide to a spring that lends younger years in exchange for the memory of a person.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy
Read the story →The Names under the Bridge
Two rival envoys have one morning to renew a river treaty. The bridge remembers a clause both governments have forgotten.
Self-Reliance stories · Diplomatic fantasy
Read the story →The Other End of the Bench
A sign painter visits his sister's market to find fault and discovers that a useful sign must first belong to its reader.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary short fiction
Read the story →The Piece with the Red Roof
An antique puzzle changes a fire that happened before Oren was born. His sister likes the new world rather more than he does.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Temporal fantasy
Read the story →The Pigeons Said Noon
Hal borrows an animal translator to improve a picnic. The pigeons have their own arrangements.
AI stories · Comic speculative fiction
Read the story →The Prayer after the Names
At a Thursday prayer group, Amie is offered words for her loss. She has a different request, and it is difficult to say aloud.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary faith fiction
Read the story →The Quiet Between Stars
A passenger writes to her brother while their ship waits inside unexplained light, where prayer and navigation have different work to do.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Reflective science fiction
Read the story →The Quilt That Would Not Lie Flat
A seamstress accepts work from a town of ghosts. Their funniest memory has developed a troublesome lump.
Self-Reliance stories · Whimsical ghost story
Read the story →The Rest Between Bells
Ada has promised a memorial concert of her mother's music. Her sister has brought a different score, and a question Ada recognizes.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Family mystery
Read the story →The Room behind the Still Life
A sign painter inherits three riddles, a locked gallery, and one last opportunity to misunderstand her sister.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Comic mystery
Read the story →The Room That Changed Its Question
A guarded discovery waits inside an artificial maze, where an auditor must learn to carry the same question through every door.
AI stories · Speculative suspense
Read the story →The Seed That Kept Its Water
A scavenger finds a seed that can keep water, but the four keepers of an abandoned garden ask for more than hope.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy
Read the story →The Smallest Pegasus
Inside a sealed canyon on Europa, a small winged creature refuses the flight its designers need—and notices what their instruments miss.
AI stories · Speculative creature adventure
Read the story →The Stake on the Green Cloth
A celebrated gambler's last game offers a fortune, an old debt, and a table where nobody has agreed to risk everything.
History & Treasure stories · Western short fiction
Read the story →The Three Stops on Cedar Street
A delayed bus, a failing grocery refrigerator and a fragile clay bird cross paths on one rainy morning.
Self-Reliance stories · Linked stories
Read the story →The Tune with a Missing Chair
A returning fiddler brings a grand new tune to a dance hall whose roof still needs repairing.
History & Treasure stories · Frontier fiction
Read the story →The Two Halves of the Stair
Two rival antique dealers follow a divided diagram to a flooded city, where the most valuable discovery is still doing its job.
History & Treasure stories · Archaeological mystery
Read the story →The Violin Listed Twice
In 1998, a grandson decodes his grandfather's wartime diary. The message concerns a violin the family is about to sell.
History & Treasure stories · Historical family mystery
Read the story →The White Places Between
Three travelers cross a pale quarry toward a promised sanctuary, carrying one lamp and voices they can no longer trust.
Self-Reliance stories · Supernatural survival horror
Read the story →The Word for Borrowed
A young translator learns why two people can say the same word and still make different promises.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy
Read the story →Three Things, Including the Drain
Jan's gratitude notebook begins with complaints. Then the piano on the landing becomes difficult to ignore.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Diary fiction
Read the story →Tomorrow in the Soup Book
An apprentice asks a retiring oracle whether her father will come to dinner. The book requires an answer before it offers one.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Quiet fantasy
Read the story →Unboxing Pandora's Brain
An experimental machine turns a volunteer's neural patterns into a locked room, but cannot say whose version of the past is true.
AI stories · Speculative psychological mystery
Read the story →What the Ravine Kept
A hired hunter follows a missing man's rifle into the woods. Something there knows how to make it sound as though he is still alive.
Self-Reliance stories · Frontier horror
Read the story →Where the Rope Came Back
A famous climber presses toward an unclimbed summit while his son tries to bring home something other than his father's reputation.
Self-Reliance stories · Mountain adventure
Read the story →Where the Stars Sang Low
Pela takes her brother to hear the singing stars before he leaves home. She remembers the way better than she understands the invitation.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy of wonder
Read the story →Whisker Willy and the Whirlwind Wranglers
A celebrated posse takes on a herd visible only in dust, then discovers how little ghosts care about a good publicity trick.
History & Treasure stories · Ensemble supernatural adventure poem
Read the story →A Cat of Considerable Experience
A thief rents a cat's body for a simple job and discovers that three hours leave very little time for professional dignity.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Comic fantasy
Read the story →A Kitchen That Could Leave
A blacksmith builds an elegant stand for Nell's travelling stove, though the woman he hopes will stay has asked for something she can carry away.
History & Treasure stories · Western fiction
Read the story →A Room in the Lining
Before her lover leaves on tour, a seamstress makes them a room out of two dreams—and discovers why its floor will not stay still.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Romantic fantasy
Read the story →An Interval Without Stars
On the way to a long-planned comet encounter, a camera calibrator finds seven missing stars and asks for an hour to look at the darkness.
AI stories · Science fiction
Read the story →Eight Copies of a Dead Man
A translator's customer survives an attack by his own double. By dawn, she must decide which version of him she has agreed to help.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Dark fantasy
Read the story →Six Rooms and a Stair
In the fourth year after the collapse, a settlement keeps a record of the house it means to build—and the promises it cannot keep.
Self-Reliance stories · Post-apocalyptic fiction
Read the story →The Animal That Waited for Rain
An illustrator sent to draw the last specimen of an engineered animal writes to explain why the finished page needs more room.
AI stories · Speculative nature fiction
Read the story →The Audience Is a Flight Hazard
Abducted to headline an alien comedy club, a stand-up discovers that bringing the house down is a navigational problem.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Comic science fiction
Read the story →The Broken Span at Darrow
With two armies closing on a mountain crossing, a bridge warden and a lynx officer must decide what passage is worth saving.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy adventure
Read the story →The Charge for Uncertainty
A detective's assistant defends a disputed bill for finding an accordion, though she cannot defend her employer's understanding of quantum mechanics.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Comic mystery
Read the story →The Clown at the Side Gate
Given the whole ring for the first time, a mechanical clown discovers why the other performers have packed their trunks.
AI stories · Mechanical fantasy
Read the story →The Course That Would Not Hold
Mara enters a printed-food contest with an edible building. The judges take longer to reach their spoons than she has allowed.
AI stories · Culinary science fiction
Read the story →The Courtesy Rate
On their motel's final night, Philip offers a guest a favor his sister cannot honor. Correcting it is easier than explaining why he came home.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary faith fiction
Read the story →The Ground Would Like Another Take
Two grains of lunar dust disagree about a change of position, which takes them from a familiar hollow to the exterior of a spacecraft.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Comic speculative fiction
Read the story →The Long Way to Still Water
A ferry turned floating home loses its bridge steering, leaving its skipper a narrow repair dock and a much longer way to shelter.
Self-Reliance stories · Sea survival fiction
Read the story →The Monster's Small Noise
A sound designer can give a handmade monster any voice except the one its director keeps asking for.
AI stories · Contemporary fiction
Read the story →The Summer with No Upstairs
Rafe has rebuilt the seaside hotel where he once worked, with warm water and no breakfast shift. His oldest friend asks to see the floor he left out.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Speculative literary fiction
Read the story →The Water Below the Map
Under the ice of a distant moon, a survey probe finds that the wall it has been following is swimming away.
AI stories · Science fiction
Read the story →The Wheel Her Father Needed
A wheelwright's outlaw father brings her a stolen wagon, an injured driver, and a repair he expects her to make without questions.
History & Treasure stories · Western
Read the story →The Window the Moths Ignored
At a field station where moths have stopped circling lamps, a night technician protects a small colony that has not acquired their mysterious new partner.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Science fiction
Read the story →A Seat for the Prompt
At the Belvedere's final matinee, a retired prompter meets the actress who has good reason never to trust her voice again.
AI stories · Speculative fiction
Read the story →Laundry from the Other Side
A washhouse from another world appears in Tamsin's apartment building, carrying the suit her brother wore when he disappeared.
Self-Reliance stories · Fantasy
Read the story →No Points for Thank You
Ellis wants to present the class's gratitude display. One missing drawing makes the thank-you speech much harder to give.
Mind & Inner Work stories · School fiction
Read the story →Sunday, If You Can
Ruth invites the family to one last meal in her house. Everyone replies with a plan for where she ought to live next.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Family fiction
Read the story →The Away Crowd
A veteran commentator knows exactly how to make a stadium cheer. In the final, the stadium begins taking her words literally.
AI stories · Speculative sports fiction
Read the story →The Baker Hated Yellow
A sign painter borrows a marvelous brush for the night market, then finds that its corrections can move more than customers.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy
Read the story →The Room Listed as Empty
Three strangers arrive to inventory a mansion before its sale. Someone upstairs keeps correcting their list.
History & Treasure stories · Ghost story
Read the story →The Spare Sun
A star nursery's apprentice sells what looks like surplus stock. By morning, the rest of the orchard has begun to wake.
Self-Reliance stories · Fantasy
Read the story →The Stop Beyond the Map
A night bus has learned to skip an inconvenient stop. Its relief driver knows who taught it.
AI stories · Speculative fiction
Read the story →The Wrong Anniversary
The town's time capsule opens onto a pile of roofing bills. Its young curator has two hours to find out what they actually buried.
History & Treasure stories · Archival mystery
Read the story →Abundance on Cardboard
When a community garden runs out of water, its most cheerful member has to learn what thanks can and cannot fix.
Self-Reliance stories · Contemporary fiction
Read the story →Five Keys, One Door
At their uncle's funeral, five heirs receive five keys stamped with the same number and one last reason to argue.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Mystery fiction
Read the story →Inventory of a Mirror
A secondhand dealer begins to see her dead husband in a mirror, and notices the price only after customers vanish from her memory.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Supernatural fiction
Read the story →Larry and the Lizard Who Lit the Road
Lasso Larry sets out to catch a glowing lizard for a prize. His sister comes along to keep count of what really happened.
History & Treasure stories · Comic Western tall tale
Read the story →One Clean Voice
When a public hearing changes her brother's testimony on screen, a speech-system engineer has one chance to show the city what it heard.
AI stories · Near-future thriller
Read the story →The Apocalypse Has a Craft Table
A stockroom clerk enters a televised survival game to win supplies for a real pantry. The set is fake; the prize is not.
Self-Reliance stories · Comic near-future satire
Read the story →The Club with No Sign on the Door
Four children follow a trail of school riddles and find a secret club whose founder has forgotten the hardest part of inviting people in.
Mind & Inner Work stories · School mystery
Read the story →The Consultant from the Tree Line
A town planner keeps finding better road plans in stolen traffic cones, and the person drawing them has very large feet.
Self-Reliance stories · Comic fantasy
Read the story →The Day the River Kept
In a town where the clock controls the river, its keeper is the only person who remembers the day that will not end.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Fantasy
Read the story →The Forecast Was Wearing Boots
A painter's glimpses of possible futures become expensive predictions, until one canvas starts emptying her friend's repair shop.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary fantasy
Read the story →The Gate on Linden Street
When roadworks cut off a neighborhood shortcut, a pastor and an imam must untangle three padlocks, missing chairs, and their own committees.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary faith fiction
Read the story →The Good Sides Up
Emilia wants a sign of the Holy Spirit. Her neighbor asks for a ride and for her story to remain her own.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Faith fiction
Read the story →The Green Outline
A transit mechanic declines an implant, then finds a fault the new inspection system says is not there.
AI stories · Speculative fiction
Read the story →The Horse in Row Seven
At a circus where every spectator sees a different show, a stagehand has to find one very real missing horse before the grand finale.
AI stories · Comic science fiction
Read the story →The Last Good Frequency
A radio host has one afternoon to redirect a scattered market before her station's generator goes to the grain mill.
Self-Reliance stories · Post-apocalyptic fiction
Read the story →The Lost Journal of Grant County
A student checking a family journal before an estate sale finds a treasure map that cannot be as old as its cover claims.
History & Treasure stories · Historical mystery
Read the story →The Mole Who Was Almost Expected
A misread prophecy puts an ordinary tunnel clerk in charge of a flood. He has a map, rising water, and no talent for being chosen.
Self-Reliance stories · Comic animal fantasy
Read the story →The Overdue Book
A travelling librarian follows a missing repair manual across two quarrelling settlements, with a flood, a secret reader, and a sack of flour at stake.
Self-Reliance stories · Post-collapse adventure
Read the story →The Pump at Eden's Outskirts
Called home to repair a locked water pump, Tessa has to ask her estranged sister for the one thing a tool cannot give her: permission.
AI stories · Speculative fiction
Read the story →The Road with the Borrowed Signpost
A courier follows a rain only road to deliver a bell rope, then finds the signpost has walked off with a school party.
Self-Reliance stories · Comic fantasy
Read the story →The Saturday Table Handoff
June has run her church's community meal for twenty years. On her first Saturday as a volunteer, she discovers how hard it is to hand over the ladle.
Mind & Inner Work stories · Contemporary faith fiction
Read the story →The Shelf She Couldn't Remember
Mara can recall millions of books after the networks fail. On the morning the library packs for safekeeping, one crate defeats her.
AI stories · Near-future library fiction
Read the story →The Things Under the Sofa
On the morning of a family wedding, the household robots stop working and issue a list of demands from beneath the sofa.
AI stories · Comic science fiction
Read the story →The Tin at the Gate
During a winter grid failure, three strangers return a medicine tin to a secluded settlement and ask to stay the night.
Self-Reliance stories · Survival drama
Read the story →Discussion
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