Why Flash Fiction?

Over a month ago, my drip coffee maker broke. instead of getting a new one of fixing it, I have been boil water with coffee in it then poring that into the filter by hand. Doing that I use less than half the coffee for a far better tasting cup. Drip coffeemaker are wasteful. They also use more electric than I realized, keeping your coffee hot.

My work is now available on Ream

This ongoing story, and many of my other works are now available on Ream and have more content I am constantly adding. https://reamstories.com/jamesrsteinhaus. With the Story Donald of Mars, I have used fiction to try to give people a more realistic idea of what living on Mars would be like. I hope you will read that and my other works there.

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In the Service of Evil update

Book one, A Fall of Ashes, is now up on Reamstoreies, joining the ongoing story of Wind Blown Ashes. Both stories have updated covers and are also available on Kindle Vella. You can follow Ashes story as she struggles to learn not to be a victim and tries to balance her scales, so she done not end up following the Dark Path. https://reamstories.com/jamesrsteinhaus The Fall of Ashes After being…

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New Web site is up.

I have a new website. It is still under construction, but I have the basics in place now. My author site https://wordpress.com/home/jamesrsteinhausauthor.wordpress.com is still active. But most of my updates will be taking place here from now on. Vella Links

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Free Flash Fiction: Goddess Not

Could those beyond our comprehension have walked among us? Did they to have problems they could do nothing about?

If she hadn’t had one of her eyes looking right at it, Ayia would never have noticed the indicator crystal worked into the wall mural, change from blue to red. Not even three thousand years of controlling her expression kept the fear off her serpentine face. A Kell was coming for her. “Something troubles you, Goddess?” said the elderly human high priest at her side. The absurdity of everything…

Free Flash Fiction: Goddess Not

Kerric the Mercenary: Episode 7, Run to DeSon

Kerric and his Warcat took the lead. At the edge of DarkGate, he turned Akrus off the road and headed due west. The moment they made it to those dark woods, he said, “Run,” and all Akrus’s anger vanished. He was off as if shot from an arrow.

At home, north of the Black Sand, running was dangerous. There, except for hunting sprints, if he ran, it was in fear, and he was running for his life. It wasn’t until Kerric brought him south of the Black Sand that his war cat had a chance to run full out without fear. Now, only mating and hunting brought his Warcat more pleasure. It was a pleasure Akrus rarely got to indulge in and the perfect reward for being dragged out of his rest.

Like the larger breed of Warcats in the north, the ones his men rode were built for running for days despite that not being a good idea in the north. Except the Tolar, nothing in the south could escape them over the long run, and very few on the short. Only experts here would pick up that this wasn’t the breed you found in the far south in the forest bordering the frozen waste. Those were a patchwork brown, instead of dark brown with black stripes on their hind quarter, and only three-quarters the size of the Warcats Kerric’s men rode. Nor were they as fast or have the endurance of this northern breed.

Yet those southern beasts stilled killed more of their own riders than the northern ones did, making seeing a rider a very rare occurrence in the far south, and nearly legendary this far away from that icy waste. That was, until Kerric, and his band arrived.

Kerric shifted his weight. With a snort, Akrus stopped trying to outrun the others, but kept his pace high enough to make them work at keeping up. They might have longer legs, but Akrus had more muscle. That meant more speed in a run among Warcats.

They hit the edge of the gorge and Akrus leaped from the side to the branches of those massive trees. The others followed. Riding the treetops might be common in the jungles north of the Black Sand but was unheard of here. That shortcut across the gorge instead of around it, as all others had to travel, was why his men would get there before the sun came up, despite having to saddle them before riding out.

Akrus leaped to the next tree, and then the next. Even in the dark, Warcats never jumped to a branch that can’t whole their weight, though sometimes, they bend more than their riders anticipate. That bending and springing back is what the Warcats used to move forward with such speed. It took all the rider’s concentration to stay in those saddles and not one of them could have done so the way Kerric did, without the thigh straps. That springing motion was why in the trees, Warcats move only a little slower than their ground eating normal pace.

Kerric spared enough attention from his own ride to see all of his men having a harder time of it than they should. It was one more sign that they had lost too much of their edge. The gorge was deep and wide, but not so much so that those Warcats could not cross it in half the night.

With well over a candle mark before even the false dawn, his men were on the road to the main keep of DeSon, something that would have been a four-day trip by the road using caravan wagons.

Tantos came out of the woods as they moved closer to the keep. “I found Corman camped on a woodcutter’s track nearing the Aring-DarkGate Road. He’s taking his time and will hit that road early morning tomorrow. If he pushes it, he could make Aring by late night, but more likely is planning another night on the road.”

Kerric nodded and looked over the lands of his prospective employer.

Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

Chapter 22 of Vikings of Asgard is now live.

While Don is off to his own barony, Bob is keeping an eye on the newest baron, a ruthless man from the Philippines, with hopes of having an ally. Read it on Kindle Vella or patreon.

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99 cent Short Story: I Took A Walk

You would think being able to walk through walls would be great. In this science Fiction Short story, I explore a few of the problems with doing that. $0.99 or free to Kindle Unlimited users. Buy Now

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Can We Break the Universe? What does that imply?

The assumption that with enough that with high enough technology, it is possible to break the universe leads to many interesting conclusions. It almost eliminates the possibility of an older, more powerful race, except under certain circumstances. Quite simply if you can break the universe, there is no way to prevent people who would do so from figuring out how to. It will take time, but it will…

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