I write science fiction and fantasy about systems, and the people stuck inside them.
Sometimes the system is time itself. Sometimes it's a compulsion sealed into a woman's soul. Sometimes it's an alien overlay that measured all of humanity in 6 stats and then, rudely, declined to end the world.
Different worlds, same obsession. The science holds up, the magic follows rules, and the people are as stubborn as the ones you know.
You don't need an account to read any of the short fiction. Start wherever you like.
Two free stories
The Witch's Brew. Four months out of college and drowning in his own wasted potential, Ethan Reed has given up on Halloween. Then he finds a shop that wasn't there yesterday, wedged between a vape store and a dead Blockbuster, door ajar, candlelight warm.
Inside waits Vesper, who knows his name, his fears, and exactly what he's afraid to want. Her potions taste of blackberries and smoke. She gives him one night to decide.
47 minutes. If you like the dread of Mexican Gothic or the enchantment of Practical Magic, this one's for you.
Acceptable Losses. Two hundred civilians. Twelve of them infected. A captain who's already decided which ones die. Cadet Caroline Voss has four weeks of training, no connections, and one chance to prove that the Empire's founding principle means something — even when keeping it costs everything.
43 minutes. For readers of character-driven military SF: the command dilemmas of Weber's Honor Harrington, the crucible academies of Ender's Game.
Read Acceptable Losses, free →
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Where to start
Another Past, if you want hard SF with a slow burn under it.
Paul Taylor died at 65. Brilliant physicist, changed the world, missed every part of it worth changing it for. Then a fusion accident in 2033 ended his first life and he woke on a summer morning in 1979, 14 years old, holding 50 years of knowing what happens next.
He knew the future. He never knew her.
Three books, complete. For readers of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Dark Matter, and Replay.
Technomancer, if you want fantasy with a technology twist and a romance that isn't safe.
There's a compulsion sealed into her soul. The magic is real, the physics under it is real, and the question she can't put down is whether anything she feels is actually hers.
Book 1 is out. Book 2, The Awakened Mage, is in edits.
The Integration Era, if you want space opera with a system laid over the top.
A century ago, on a barely habitable planet at the forward edge of human expansion, somebody found an alien installation. Now everyone is watched, judged, and rated. Humanity got measured in 6 stats, and then the aliens declined to end the world.
The serial updates weekly.
Still not sure? Read The Witch's Brew first. Half an hour, and you'll know whether we get along.
If you write, too
Some of you got here looking for craft notes, not fiction. Fair. I keep both.
The Studio has 6 tools that run in your browser. Free, and no account needed to use them.
Character and worldbuilding templates. A writing planner. A PDF auto-scroller for read-throughs. A cover comparison tool that shows your cover the way a browsing reader sees it, small and buried in a crowded shelf.
And a manuscript diagnostic that counts repetition, echoes, passive voice, and filter words. No AI anywhere in it. Nothing you paste in ever leaves your browser.
Writing Resources is the rest: the character template I fill in before I name anybody, the 10-part world-building slog, the exercises, the market analyses. About 30 documents. A free account opens all of it.
Open the Studio → · See the Writing Resources →
If you want to save output from the tools, register (still free) today.
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One more thing
Every month I put two books in a ring and see which one's still standing. Classic SF against new releases. Dresden against Murderbot. That kind of thing.
It's called Book Battles, it goes out as a newsletter, and the back catalog comes with it.
Stick around
New chapters, release news, and the occasional look behind the curtain. That's the whole list. I don't spam, and I don't sell your address to anybody.
Glad you're here.
Charlie
Join Today & get free audiobook story versions
Join today and get ePub and Audio versions of two short stories.
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