Dead Wife Waiting

My first story sale, “Dead Wife Waiting,” appeared in K.C. Ball’s 10Flash Quarterly on New Years Day, 2010. I met K.C. when she was the editor guest at the Long Ridge Writer’s online writing forums, a few months earlier. I learned she edited a magazine which had a theme for each issue, based around a different story prompt. She mentioned the upcoming issue’s theme was “an encounter at a lonely crossroads at twilight,” and BAM!, “Dead Wife Waiting,” popped into my head. A weary, determined hex-slinger pursuing a nasty sorcerer, encounters his supposedly dead wife guarding a crossroad, sword in hand. I’d already written a lot of unpublished short stories, but “Dead Wife Waiting” had a spark the others lacked. It just felt cool to me. K.C. loved the story when I submitted it, but wanted two small changes, which made it a much stronger story. I listened.

The story appeared in the January 2010 issue, and gave me my first fan letter as a writer.

I wrote two sequels, “Skinning the Sorcerer” and “Last Hex Sacrifice,” which also appeared in 10Flash. I later republished the three stories as my second eBook, in 2012. In August 2016, I republished the collection with a new cover on instaFreebie, and picked up new readers.

I wrote a novel in 2013-14, The Hardscrabble, featuring Thomas and Mira, but it didn’t quite work. It just didn’t capture the epic of the short stories, or do justice to the crackling setting. I hope to return to Bandy and the Three Deserts someday soon, and do the world justice in novel form.

Until then, you can grab a copy of the eBook version of Dead Wife Waiting for free at my Book Funnel page, here. Happy reading!