Fantastic Texas

"Fantastic Texas" is pending publication by Wilder Publications/Fantastic Books. Here's a brief rundown of the wondrous tales in the collection.

A Rocket for the Republic

A newspaper editor interviews a centenarian on his 100th birthday and the old man opens up with a fantastic tale of a trip in a rocket ship during the days of the Texas frontier.

Originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction, September 2005

Honorable Mention, "The Year's Best Science Fiction, 23rd Annual Collection (2006)", St. Martin's Press - Gardner Dozois, editor.

Third Place, Short Stories, Asimov's Science Fiction Annual Readers' Poll (2006).

The Witch of Waxahachie

A small group of scientists use left over equipment from the Superconducting Super Collider for an experiment - that goes astray - and find themselves in a world where Texas remains an independent republic, Buddy Holly is its president - and that's only the beginning of the strangeness.

Originally published in Jim Baen's Universe, April 2008.

Honorable Mention, "The Year's Best Science Fiction, 26rd Annual Collection (2009)", St. Martin's Press - Gardner Dozois, editor.

The Cast Iron Dybbuk

A group of miners at an open-pit coal mine in East Texas discover and accidentally break open a very ancient artifact from a long-lost race of reptiles - and Bad Things Happen...

Originally published in Andromeda Spaceways In-flight Magazine (Australia), June 2005.

Honorable Mention, "The Year's Best Science Fiction, 23rd Annual Collection (2006)", St. Martin's Press - Gardner Dozois, editor.

Avatar

A scientist working in genetics at a university in Texarkana decades after World War III devastated the United States stumbles upon an unexpected revelation while studying the effects of radiation on a man descended from Aztec priests.

Originally published in Darker Matter (U.K.), April 2007

Honorable Mention, "The Year's Best Science Fiction, 25th Annual Collection (2008)", St. Martin's Press - Gardner Dozois, editor.

Silence is Golden

A wise-cracking recent college grad working in the chemical department of an industrial clean up company battles a contamination puzzle at a mine in East Texas - and solves an age old secret in the process.

Originally published in Revolution SF, August 2003

Honorable Mention, "The Year's Best Science Fiction, 21st Annual Collection (2004)", St. Martin's Press - Gardner Dozois, editor.

The Rocket-Powered Cat

A tabloid reporter investigates a very successful matchmaking service in Dallas - that uses the latest in marketing and data mining technology - and learns more than he wanted to know.

Originally published in Revolution SF, December 2004

Honorable Mention, "The Year's Best Science Fiction, 22nd Annual Collection (2005)", St. Martin's Press - Gardner Dozois, editor.

Rome, If You Want To

A lonely middle-aged man running a limo service single-handedly - during a very hot summer in Dallas - drives a pair of strange tourists around the Big D.

Originally published in Surprising Stories, May 2004

Big Girl

An old man consoles his granddaughter - who gets teased all the time about her size - by telling her an old family secret.

Originally published in Ultraverse, June 2005

The Silver Dollar Saucer

Two desperadoes in the Old West on the run from robbing a stagecoach run into the desert and into the arms of vistors from another world - and that's just the start of their troubles!

Originally published in Ray Gun Revival, January 2009

Body by Fisher

A newspaper editor and his colleagues help a small town get through the harrowing devastation caused by an EMP accident - with the help of an old jalopy that (thankfully) doesn't have any electronics.

Originally published in the Fencon IV (2007) Souvenir book

Video Killed the Radio Star

A recent college grad who's career is ruined before it starts because of a drug conviction falls in with some rather strange characters who have a really big secret buried under an even bigger rock in Central Texas.

Originally published in Aphelion, December 2008

Professor Malakoff's Amazing Ethereal Telegraph

A Yankee showman trying to make a living in Post-Reconstruction Texas runs afoul of some cattle rustlers after accidentally inventing radio broadcasting - in 1875!

Originally published in Science Fiction Trails No. 4