Hey kids, my name's Sam. I'm in college, I like to read and write and program little computer games. My favorite genre used to be fantasy, but now I can't say. I appreciate fantasy, science fiction, nifty general fiction (Life of Pi, for example), and all kinds of short stories. I try to write in the same genres, with varying degrees of success.

I've noticed recently that the Fantasy section on FP is responsible for maybe fifty percent of the unfortunate writing on this site. Cleverly, I've opted to read other genres instead. (Genius!)

My longest story, Philosophers and Fools, is very long, adequately written, and a piece. of. crap. Modesty aside, it's probably middling-good as Fictionpress goes, but c'mon guys, it's Fictionpress. The story is dreck and will always be dreck.

Here's a Fun Fact: Anything you put on a website like this EVER is considered "published." Legally, most publishers won't take it. Man, what's up with that? Nevertheless, that's the troof, and I don't want to chance it.

As such, I've got some chapter 1's up, but no whole (good) stories. If you want to read one of my stories in full, or if you'd like to read my short stories sight unseen (for some reason), send me an e-mail!

Great books on writing: Creating Short Fiction by Damon Knight, and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.

Current projects:

ACE HIGH - A novella, about half done. Tryin' for a hardass, claustrophobically focused space opera. Fun as hell to write.

CONTEMPORARY SORCERY - A big ol' novel, my baby at the moment. Maybe a third finished, 35,000 words so far. The subgenre's the usual magical transplant, but I hope I'm doing enough new things with it that it doesn't get hung up.

THE STORM-FOLK'S GODS - Probably going to end up as a slim novel or novella, maybe 10,000 words done. Might end up amazing, might fall flat on its face. High fantasy, low magic. Main character a farmhand. Could work?

A few other Chapter 1's, mostly unrealized, on the back burner right now.

Finished short stories:

A FLIGHT AT SUNSET -A dream-logical romp. A man named Christene steals Deep Blue's memorybanks and tries to smuggle them out of the country by plane.

BICYCLICAL -A ranting monologue by an angry low-income philosophy student.

CRACKS - Chronicles the slow unraveling of a radio security guard's sanity.

HENRY - An autistic child, in love with battleships, encounters deep strangeness on his first plane flight.

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL CITY FROM EYE LEVEL UP - A man trapped by his gambling debts must make a hit for his boss.

MAYBE YOU'D BETTER SIT DOWN - A play about a straight guy 'coming out' to his hyperliberal mother.

MY GRANDMOTHER DIED IN A FREAK MASSAGE ACCIDENT - Really says it all.

SHEMMEL DOUGLAS, WORLD TRAVELER - The last man on Earth has a picnic.

THE 24-HOUR LAUNDROMAT - Below. A woman rethinks her life.

THE ECSTACY OF COOKING - A cookbook for angelmeat. Published in antithesiscommon.com's Winter 2005 Issue! (that link's broken, so: http://members.aol.com/AntithesisCommon/Issue2/pg11.htm )