First Place winner in the Young Adult category in the 7th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published E-book Awards!. . . a delightful adventure with a street-smart narrator with a heart of gold. . . . overall, a spirited story with a lot of heart . . . – Judge, 2019 Writer's Digest Self-Published eBook AwardsA ticking, tocking, whooshing great read. The combination of meticulous historical research with wonderfully imaginative flights o...

A new gaslight thriller from award-winning author Dean Whitlock!Bad luck seems to follow Ewan Gilmore, a crewman on the steam liner Isle of Lewis. It’s a blot that makes him a pariah among the crew. Now, about to be left behind on the pier, he gets one last chance to prove himself – to masquerade as a passenger and serve as secret bodyguard for a certain Professor Jakub Skovajsa and his gifted daughter, Tereza.The Skovajsas have been hounded out of the country under a cloud...

. . . richly inventive . . . readers will [be] swept along the broad stream of this fast-paced fantasy adventure. –BooklistSkillful, evocative writing, a uniquely drawn setting, and richly developed characters . . . –The Midwest Book ReviewWhitlock gives us a unique world of his own creation – a true world, deeply perceived and fully realized. Magic runs throughout the adventure, along with suspense, terror, and poignancy. And one of fantasy’s most marvelo...

A thrilling, world-traveling fantasy novel with a sympathetic and worthy hero. Readers will love the dangerous and mysterious world of this must-read tale! –S.S. Taylor, author of The Expeditioners seriesHighly readable and entertaining . . . I couldn’t put The Arrow Rune down, stayed up way too late to finish it. Well-drawn, believable, compelling, marvelous . . . enlightening! –Scott R. Russell, beer and mead brewer, author of North ...

After nearly a year as a boatman on the stinking, crowded canals of Dunsgow, Fireboy’s great skill with boats and engines has earned him barely half of the money he needs to pay off his mother’s bond fee. Only then can he return to the River Slow, reunite his family, and work his own boat on clean water. A chance meeting with a seer inspires him to trade in his boat for a new steam launch expressly designed for shallow waters, and to take a commission on the Wynde River for Baron Miner – t...

Thomas Painter is a talented, self-taught wood carver, but he lives in a land where your name is your life. His father was a genius artist, and everyone expects young Thomas to be the same. His parents left him to journey downriver when he was only three, but they never returned. Now, apprenticed to his uncle, William Painter, Thomas longs to be free of the stink of paint. In fact, he stinks as a painter, with none of his father’s great talent. Secretly, he has given himself the name Carve...

It has been four years since Raven fled Baron Cutter’s estate – four years since her mother, Roxaine, failed to show at their rendezvous. They were bond servants then, trapped in a system that never paid enough wage to cover the ever-growing bond fee. Now Raven is an outlaw and a rising mage – she can change into a bird at will. But at fifteen, Raven is haunted by the past: Did her mother abandon her, or did Raven desert Roxaine in her hour of need? Driven by a desire to know what happened...

An alien who can paint on the surface of a soap bubble. A corporate raider who faxes himself to his takeovers. A woman who can See the future, and a man with fear so great it turns back time. These are a few of the beings who inhabit Dean Whitlock’s stories. From back roads to teeming cities to a hidden torture chamber; from the serious to the absurd – each of the ten stories in this collection is unique, a tale born of a real-world experience, reshaped by Whitlock’s questing imagination a...

Forever is a monthly science fiction magazine that features previously published stories you might have missed. Edited by the Hugo and World Fantasy Award winning editor of Clarkesworld Magazine, Neil Clarke. Our May 2025 issue features "The Ghosts of Mars" by Dominica Phetteplace, "Deep Blue Jump" by Dean Whitlock, and "Father" by Ray Nayler. Cover art by Ron Guyatt.