A young country boy in the 1860's is taught to play poker and handle a gun by his Pa. His Pa was a rake and a rounder and when Cletus Hawkins is shot while laying with another man's wife, young Clete follows in his footsteps. He's good at cards, good with a Colt and good with the women.
A Devastation Diary Story (6) Lady Betty is a sailing barge; the Wars have forced a return to much older technologies. Her captain needs a crew; where can he find one?
Forty years ago I was propositioned in a pub. Happily married, I didn't take up the offer. But I remembered, and this story is the result, and it's nothing like that encounter. A lonely man and a desperate woman...
In Wyrm City, everything is dragons. Dragon Lines connect magical thinking machines modeled after draconic brains, using the dragon magic to access and store information. Dragons drink sewage and piss clean water. Dragons breathe polluted air and exhale the fresh scent of pine. Dragons run the corporations and corporations run the government. And if you want to make it in this cutthroat world, you gotta get some dragon