Words and Worlds by Carl Bystrom
Magical Thinking for Androids and Other Future Beings
Water: A 20-Minute Tale – Read It Now!
WaterWhen the Big One hits and everything changes, what will matter most?
A group of neighbors in a suburban cul-de-sac grapple with the aftermath of a major earthquake. Or so they think.
Available here – free in the Kindle Library and to Kindle Unlimited subscribers, and only $0.99 for anyone else.
Don’t have a Kindle? No worries! You can read on-line with the Kindle Cloud Reader or download the Kindle app to your favorite device.
4:17 – An Apocalyptic Novella– Read It Now!
4:17How do you survive when eye-contact can mean instant death?
Set your priorities, recite your mantra, and keep a bandanna handy.
In a world where death is only a thought away, society has collapsed and seven survivors shelter together in a basement stronghold. Each haunted by a troubled past, they struggle through their private purgatories to rebuild trust, faith, and hope for the future.
When one fails to return from a foraging expedition and a stranger arrives in their makeshift sanctuary, the group is forced to confront its fragile equilibrium.
Is the newcomer a saving grace or an angel of death?
My first novella weaves apocalyptic horror and grim mystery into a labyrinth of choices made in the face of death.
Available here – free in the Kindle Library and to Kindle Unlimited subscribers, and only $1.99 for anyone else.
Don’t have a Kindle? No worries! You can read on-line with the Kindle Cloud Reader or download the Kindle app to your favorite device.
4:17 began as a short film conceived and created for the 2009 48-Hour Film Project International Shootout. You can watch it below.
I’ve got another short story out on Kindle today! What better way to spend 20-minutes and a buck!
When the lines are drawn and the walls go up, the edges will blur.
In a country torn apart at the seams, a family fractures in the shadow of the ever expanding Border War.
Find it here!
Available exclusively on Kindle, free in the Kindle Library and to Kindle Unlimited subscribers, and only $0.99 for anyone else.
Please leave a review when you’re done!
It’s a new year and a new decade. Time for a reboot!
2020! Can you believe it? The number still sounds so futuristic to me. 2020 ought to burst at the seams with science-fiction tropes, utopian hope, outrageous technologies, and dystopian menace. Hmm. Then again, perhaps we’re here after all.
In any case, I’m happy you’re here with me. I’ve been off-line for a while, but I haven’t stopped writing. I’m using the turn of the year as a catalyst to reboot my social media and website and, today, I’m releasing my first piece to Kindle. Continue reading “2020 Reboot!”
I usually listen to podcasts like RadioLab, More Perfect, Hidden Brain, and Invisibilia when I run. (I use “run” in the most modern sense – the pace at which I shuffle my feet used to be called “jogging” but that term seems to have slipped out of favor.) But while waiting for fresh episodes, I often look to Escape Pod, an always reliable source for professionally rendered audio sci-fi short stories, to keep my mind off my tiring legs.
Yesterday, I was entranced by an episode in Escape Pod’s Artemis Rising series (a month of sci-fi by female authors) called Promise by Christi Nogle. I won’t spoil anything about this story except to say that if you like crisp plots that tie up neatly at the end, then you might look askance at this one, but I recommend it anyway. Promise is mesmerizing and beautifully read by Tina Connolly. I enjoyed it so much that after I finished my run, I went to the site and read the story for myself.
Art (for Escape Pod) by Geneva B
Reading Time: 4 minutes
“Can you believe it?” Elena’s eyes flashed with glee. “It’s happening! It’s really happening!”
I smiled, trying to jump on the coattails of her enthusiasm, but I lost my footing and landed squarely on my skeptical ass. I shook my head. “This is absurd.”
“It’s only absurd if you don’t believe.” Matthew chimed, as patronizing as ever.
Matthew was the DM, or he was supposed to be. Somehow he’d transformed his role from benign dungeon dictator to a kind of messiah figure. Just-this-side-of-crazy, up to now, but he’d just stepped over that line. Continue reading “The Road to Dthelwyndale”
They predicted the dams would keep generating power for up to a year without any maintenance so long as the supporting infrastructure remained intact.
Strung for the celebration where Phil announced his retirement after 34 years in the Corps and where his daughter Millena had quietly taken him aside to double his joy with the news of his first grandchild (relieving his anxiety about ways to fill his newfound time), the lights in the back garden hadn’t begun their slow fade from bright white to coppery yellow until a full nineteen months later.
No-one remained to witness the demonstration of power’s unexpected longevity.
“Why do I always look so squinty in these things?” I stared at my calling card. One side of my face was scrunched up. I looked like a scurvy scallywag.
“You’re always squinty.” Paolo, my go-to communications wizard, replied. Right there with support.
“Special request,” I leaned over the cluttered counter and lowered my voice, although, currently, I was the only patron in the dusty little shop. ”Can you hook me up with a sensate spell or two?”
“Those are only for the cops, Stag.” Continue reading “A Quiet Beat”
The robe slipped down his back. His scars startled me, three ripples stretching from shoulder to waist. Sliced, lashed, or perhaps scratched by some three-fingered beast.
Respect didn’t sway my mission. My lips pursed and blew.
Falling, his hand raised to the sting in his neck.
I bowed silently into the shadows.
“You’d think I’d be used to this by now.” Davis absentmindedly addressed the plump little bird cradled in his hands. The creature squirmed. The vestigial wings, dwarfed by its nearly round body, wiggled uselessly while its legs pushed in a pulse against Davis’ cupped palms. The wide, nocturnal eyes appeared unfocused and the small, nearly round beak gasped open and closed. “I guess I’m just a softy at heart.”
Davis broke the bird’s neck with a practiced twist. Continue reading “Silhouette”