As I mention pretty much every time I post an update, I am bad at 1) posting updates and 2) maintaining the integrity of this website. I was recently reminded that hey, maybe you should make sure all the links to your stuff still work and sure enough there was a fair amount of tidying up to do in both the For Free! and For Monies? sections.

The bad news, of course, is that some of my favourite stories are no longer able to be found for love nor money. (Time to start submitting reprints, though!) I also found out that Inner Worlds is soon to go on indefinite hiatus, which is sad to hear, so flip through their back issues and show some love.

The good news being, some of the stories which used to be For Monies? have now been shunted over to the For Free! section (along with a co-written story with Victoria Feistner which I simply forgot to include last year. 2024? Whenever that was). And so, while I have all the links handy, here’s the list of things that are now past their best-buy date (but still perfectly edible):

Side Hustle (as V.L. Seltsam): The most important thing to know about this story is that it contains multiple uses of the word ‘poot’ and we still managed to sell it to a literary magazine. This is genuinely one of my greatest achievements. (You will need to scroll down the page to Volume 8, No. 1, Issue 21, #BlackLivesMatter to access the magazine; I leave you the choice of whether you wish to purchase a hardcopy or simply download a .pdf. I ain’t the cops.)

Lifted Spirits (as V.L. Seltsam): There’s a guy in this who touches a hors d’oeuvres and then doesn’t take it and I am so jealous that Victoria was the one who thought of that particular bit of character building, that guy sucks.

Roots and Shoots: I think this remains my most ‘experimental’ story? It is one of my favourites, so I’m glad it hasn’t disappeared like some others. It stars a robot and involves robot magic. This also had one of the nicest (and most incisive and helpful) editors I’ve ever worked with, and I learned a LOT from them. I don’t think they do editing any more, which is a loss for the literary world and a boon to whatever other world they’re gracing.

The Last Limerick Out Of Dirt Rut: Another favourite of mine (and uh maybe still extremely fucking relevant to the state of the world). The writing is clunkier than Roots (and the website’s formatting is not exactly a blessing) but I think it still packs an emotional punch. Also it contains a song I wrote for a D&D bard I played back in highschool, so I feel I get some kind of check mark for that.