Anthology

We Had Stars Once is a speculative fiction anthology. There are many amazing stories in it. One of them is a revised version of Derby Girls. The book can be found in hardback, paperback and ebook at these sites:

1889 Labs

Amazon: hardback, paperback, ebook 

Barnes & Noble: hardback, paperback, ebook

Google Play

Kobo

Goodreads

Facebook

io9

A Gift

summer sunset, originally uploaded by Jenn Platt.

Sunset, the time when all the night creatures come out and play.

This week we have sharp teeth, willing blood donors and a gift that works a little too well.

Rhythm

fallout, originally uploaded by Jenn Platt.

This week's photo is of one of my favorite signs. Signs like this one were on half the buildings in my old neighborhood. Walking to the subway I would imagine what the area would be like after the end of the world. Which led to some strange ideas about fighting with giant roaches for food and befriending mutated black squirrels from the park.

This week's story was inspired by the same neighborhood, but without the radiation.

Fire, blood and imagination ahead.

Lactuca

This week's story is about sibling rivalry on a grand scale (or a bear scale? those bears were pretty big in person).

Or at least a divine scale.

Sibling rivalry gets more complicated when your sister is the Goddess of Spring.

The Game

I've resisted the urge to write a Christmas story. It wasn't easy. I managed to omit all the trees and lights but this week's story does have some family themes. Games, drinking, obligations, blood.

Well, it is a family of vampires.

The Red Man

This week's story was inspired by the prompt: fever dreams. And by a very bad cold I had last month. Of course I didn't have to fire a gun when I was sick. Felix isn't so lucky.

Full Service

This week's story is based on the line:

"I will not wear the same dress as my pregnant ex-girlfriend."

Which some how led to exterminators and abandoned subways.

A Family Affair

I wrote this one on Halloween.

Of course that means vampires and some blood.

And a Buffy reference. It's an obscure one. The first person to figure it out and send me an email with the right answer gets to pick the topic for my next story.

Good luck!

Offerings

When I was about eight years old my favorite book was Black Beauty*. I reread it for the first time in twenty years last week. This week it had a part in inspiring a short story.

*No humans were harmed in the making of this story.