As some of you know, I’ll occasionally put out a novel or a book of short stories for the enjoyment and edification of discerning individuals. This is such an occasion. Better yet, the book in question is free on Amazon, today through Wednesday! (That’s 29 February through 2 March 2016, for those of you arriving later.)
Five short SF and fantasy stories, about 140 pages if it were in print (which it will be in due course). One of my favorite passages, from the title story:
There were girls’ hordes too, of course. More, even, and more lethal: Boys were picked up from the streets at five or six, like Xin, but son-hungry families shipped extra girls to Verso in barges and baskets and the backs of watermelon trucks, and they began to work as soon as they were old enough to take a jack. Once he had seen a girls’ horde take on one of the guild armies on the Emerald Plain. They moved together like birds, the mass of them weaving and jackknifing with perfect precision, not even slowed as their foes folded in on themselves like wheatstalks burdened by an early snow.
If that seems at all intriguing, definitely pick up VERSO while it’s free!
(Sad bit: Non-Amazon readers will have to wait another 10 weeks or so to buy it on their e-readers. But I will announce it again when it’s available on Nook, Kobo, Google, &c.)