L.A. Nocturne Collection--Urban Fantasy short stories set in Los Angeles

One of the first short stories I ever wrote for Dark Valentine Magazine was "Tired Blood," a tale of a vampire so old he'd developed dementia and forgotten he was a vampire. I liked the setting of the story so much that for the next few years, I kept writing stories set in my version of Los Angeles where the normal and paranormal co-exist. This fall, the novel based on that story, Misbegotten, will be published. (Better late than never.0 And as a run-up to that publication, I have released this colleciton of the "Misbegotten" short stories.

Some of these stories originally appeared in the collections L.A. Nocturne and L.A. Nocturne II, others have never been collected; a few were written just for this volume. I'm happy because the stories run the gamut. There are ghosts, shapeshifters (and not the usual kind), djinn, mermaids, sorcerers, demons, angels, and a were-bear. Also fairies. And unicorns and a centaur.

There are also vampires. Lots and lots of vampires. And a werewolf or two.  But not, I hope, your standard issue alpha wolf guys.  I hope you'll check out the collection. I had a great time writing these stories.

Shakespeare Noir--shameless self-promotion!

Because this is the year I get everything out there, I collected my three Shakespeare Noir stories, a drabble (100-word story) and a Shakespeare rant into one volume. I'm pleased with the stories, only two of which have been published before. Eventually, I'd like to add more to the volume, but I've promised my writing mentor that I'll concentrate on longer works for a while. ("But I love writing short stories," I whined to her. And she suggested I take a look at my monthly royalties for my other collections and make the choice.)

If you like noir and you like Shakespeare, you might enjoy this collection. Shakespeare Noir will be free for five the next five days.