A guardian angel whose charge went to Hell, Reflection is stuck. It’s been two years, but still he keeps thinking about William. Always William. When God calls him in for weekly visits, he's certain it's the end.Reflection's not sure he can ever be fruitful again. But someone else thinks he’s a fruitful branch sleeping through a winter season.Originally published in "The Sword Review" magazine, Winter Branches won second place in TSR’s fiction contest and fourth place in th...

In this collection of shorts, enter the sometimes funny, sometimes serious world of angels. Meet an angel punished by having to sit on a rock for three years (it could have been worse, he says) and a guardian angel who knows he should never have gotten this assignment (because he’s a demon). Peek into angelic online support forums and find out what happens when God institutes a creation-wide self-esteem movement.The short story bundle contains Damage, Winter Branches, Even A Stone,...

Every year, thousands of expecting parents start prenatal testing to find out if it’s a boy or a girl…and instead learn the baby is going to die.Anencephaly. Trisomy 18. Potter’s sequence. They’re called “incompatible with life.” But they’re not incompatible with love.Many doctors recommend immediate termination, but more parents are carrying their babies for as long as possible, often without guidance.Carrying to Term: A Guide for Parents after a Devastating Pr...

Something's shooting down shuttles when they try to land on the surface of Pluto.After an invisible force annihilates two shuttlecraft in rapid succession, the humans at Pluto Station find themselves pitted against a weapon they can't see. Every time it fires, the weapon gets stronger, until it's targeting anything heading in-system. Meanwhile, their resupply freighter is on approach, carrying all their food and equipment for the next three months. Its destruction will mean starvat...

"If I get to Heaven and find her there, I'd rather be in Hell."Six years ago, an ultrasound diagnosed baby Annie with an incurable birth defect. She'd be born, and then she'd die.Doctor Olivia Thackeray walked into the exam room and did the unforgivable. She lied to Annie's mother, badgered her, and finally yelled to coerce her into an abortion she didn't want.Today, Doctor Thackeray walks into the mother's church. And she's still unforgivable.An ou...

When Gage Jordan's uncle dies inside a magic circle, and his cousin Jeff can't communicate, no one has the answers. Was Gage's uncle trying to protect Jeff, or was he working black magic? Some claim there's a generational curse while others whisper about demonic possession.The only thing Gage knows for sure is they're in danger. Demons are prowling the Vermont countryside, hunting for him and Jeff as the souls who got away. Gage's father can't help, and he's forbidden Gage to talk ...

"You know how one year is seven dog years? Well five months dating Lee is the equivalent of three years dating a normal woman."Lee and Bucky are back, but you know it's never that easy. Six months later, Hal's still around and Lee's mother is already picking out bridesmaid dresses. Auto-mechanic and Angel-phile Lee could live with those gourmet brownies dense enough to form their own gravity well, but she's not so sure about that "forever" part. After all, when you get married, you...

Auto mechanic Lee Singer considers New York City her personal playground, with lots of big engines and complicated tools and today a car that got towed in because those "severe tire damage" signs mean what they say. It only adds to the fun when she pops the trunk and finds it full of styrofoam heads.It turns out the client isn’t a madman with a decapitation fetish. Instead he’s a marine roboticist, and if you send foam objects down to the ocean floor, they shrink under the pressure...

A guardian angel whose charge went to Hell, Reflection is stuck. It’s been two years, but still he keeps thinking about William. Always William.He’s not sure he can ever be fruitful again. But someone else thinks he’s a fruitful branch sleeping through a winter season.Originally published in The Sword Review magazine, Winter Branches won second place in TSR’s fiction contest and fourth place in the 2007 Reader’s Choice Award for short fiction.W...

A rosary in one hand. A dagger in the other.Sister Magdalena never heard of the Catherinite nuns until the day she faced her own death sentence.Rome, 1562. It's the era of the Index of Banned Books and the Roman Inquisition. Kings still burn heretics. The worst threats come from within the Church itselfOnly seventeen, Magdalena killed a priest who tried to rape her within the walls of her convent. His powerful family will see her executed, and then they'll destroy h...

Everyone knows about guardian angels — and Nezeq knows he should never have been made one. He’s a demon, after all. So instead of protecting the human Joshua, Nezeq tries to kill him. And fails.That’s his first mistake.His second mistake is in coming back to finish the job. There’s not going to be a third mistake.Originally published in Dragons, Knights and Angels magazine, Damage won second place in the 2006 Reader’s Choice Award for short fiction...

29-year-old Lee has a Park Slope apartment with easy access to Manhattan, loves her job as an auto mechanic, and can see her guardian angel (a wisecracker with a fascination for the Rumours album.) That's kind of a full life for a kid in the world's biggest playground. Despite what everyone thinks, she doesn't need, or want, a romantic relationship.Far more comfortable in blue jeans and flannel than in heels and satin, Lee finds herself lying to every man she dates. To the physical...