New story out now – Doorways

My cosmic horror story Doorways is out now in the Rogue Planet Press anthology Exomoons.

This was the first collection I was invited to write for, as opposed to taking a shot in the dark, and I enjoyed writing the piece.

It’s about Tom Kinsella, who is called to an island off the coast of North America following the death of his father, Preston, and uncovers hints that the older man may have found where the dead end up … and may be able to bring them back.

Doorways is set in my Fairgale Island universe, which is also where Through the Gateway, included in Eldritch Encore, takes place. I created it for the novel I have in progress, Worlds Without End, but Doorways and Through the Gateway, written more than a year apart, have nothing to do with each other (at least right now, I might change my mind in another year or so).

I might actually earn royalties if enough people buy ebooks or paperbacks so if it sounds like your thing, give it a whirl.

Exomoons is a fun anthology that’s a mix of science fiction, horror, and grimdark all themed around moons that are outside our solar system – sometimes, like in Doorways, very far outside of it indeed.

A note from the editor, Sergio Palumbo:

Think of alien exomoons where once life was present and whose archaeological remains today have become the valuable prey of plunderers from space. So, in this book you’ll read a story about an exomoon that is bigger than planet Mars’s size, on which lifeforms are present, though orbiting a gas giant that doesn’t give them light, and warmth, the same as our Sun does. You’ll also read stories about exomoons that aren’t moons at all… And there is also a story about what happened to exomoons partly damaged by something that apparently almost turned them into pieces of shapeless rocks in outer space. Then, here you’ll also find a story about strange exomoons approaching our Sun. And an unusual moon out there in space where some Cthulian deities are at work, maybe… Be that as it may, for starters there’s a story that is about a werewolf and some different, very different exomoons!

Are those exomoons full of surprises, or just as dead as our Moon is? Have some alien species visited them, or do they plan on doing it in the next future maybe?

The Ties That Bind: Debut book out December 31

Barring some unforeseen catastrophe, my debut collection The Ties That Bind will be out on December 31, initially through Amazon but hopefully through other outlets for ebooks not long after. I’m looking into places like Lulu for paperbacks as well just so there are options.

I am very proud of these stories and they cover a wide range of subgenres and a few different styles as well.

I promised myself I’d have a book out in 2024, and while I did shop collections around to a few publishers ultimately I went my own road. And December 31 gets it into 2024 by the skin of its teeth, so I’ve kept my promise to myself.

I’m looking into options for selling through the website and am experimenting with Woocommerce, which is why you see a “shop” tab at the top that’s not currently anything.

All my story collections will be gathered under the umbrella of Shadows and Starlight – originally that was going to be the title of this book, but I was able to forge more thematic links between the stories.

Volume II, What Gets Left Behind, is due out on March 31. Volume III, believe it or not, is in the process of being chosen, though I don’t have a title in mind for that just yet.

– David