Trails In My Path

This was the original post of my short story Trails In My Path. Look for it soon in M. K. Dreysen Collected: Volume 4, coming August 2020.

Last story ahead of the witching hour. This one I stumbled onto while thinking of the intersection between power and loyalty, between those born to it, and those who've built their own place in the world. As with many of my stories this month, this one covers dark territory. So I set it loose in the last breath before midnight.

I call it "Trails in My Path".

... And these three men mad a solemn vow: John Barleycorn must die...

A Lucky Man

This was the original post of my story A Lucky Man. Look for it soon in M. K. Dreysen Collected: Volume 4, coming August 2020.

And may I introduce you to the Luck Man? He jumped into my head last year, and refused to go away until I'd written this first taste of his story.

I call this one A Lucky Man. It is the first of many tales he has to tell. 

in this great future, you can't forget your past

Down To The River

This was the original post for my short story Down To The River. Look for it soon in M. K. Dreysen Collected: Volume 4, coming August 2020.

This one... I call this one Down to the River.

It's been waiting for a time. I wrote it last year, about this time. In a rush, a hard fast thing from title to last word. A story of ghosts, of a couple of different types.

bright before me the signs implore me

A Good Watch, Wound Tight by M. K. Dreysen

This is the post where the story A Good Watch, Wound Tight by M. K. Dreysen was originally published. Please look for it in M. K. Dreysen: Collected Volume 3, to be published June 2020.

This story surprised me, reader.

All of them surprise me at some point in the proceedings. Which I enjoy, I do.

This one came on out of nowhere. I wrote down the title, and next thing I came down to the end and it was finished.

Most of all, I think this story concerns what you have, what you get. And...

what you tell yourself you'd change. If you could.

I call this one "A Good Watch, Wound Tight".

Now the preachin' is over, and the lesson's begun

Last One There For The Exhibit by M. K. Dreysen

This is the post where the story Last One There For The Exhibit by M. K. Dreysen was originally published. Please look for it in M. K. Dreysen: Collected Volume 3, to be published June 2020.

For my next story, I stumbled across a place and time where power and family dynamic twists the mind and alters your view of the world. This one involves not so much intrigue, as greed, and the desire to satisfy it.

I call it "Last One There for the Exhibit."

Don't you want to go to heaven when the world's on fire

Like Tom Waits With A Head Cold: A Story of Academic Misbehavior by M. K. Dreysen

This is the post where Like Tom Waits With A Head Cold: A Story of Academic Misbehavior by M. K. Dreysen was originally published. Please look for it in M. K. Dreysen: Collected Volume 3, to be published June 2020.

For your reading pleasure this fine October, another little story. This one's about the ways and means. no.

This one's about long knives, and what happens when research gets personal. I call it "Like Tom Waits with a Head Cold", and it's a little exploration of the wrong side of academic life... or, at least, how badly such things might go wrong.

it's hard to win when you always lose

One Step Too Far: A Tale of Gina's Hunters by M. K. Dreysen

This is the post where One Step Too Far: A Tale of Gina's Hunters by M. K. Dreysen was originally published. Please look for it now in M. K. Dreysen: Collected Volume 3, to be published June 2020.

Next on the list for October reading, we return to the world of Gina's Hunters. I call this story "One Step Too Far", it's a rumination on what happens when a person takes one too many trips to an old well.

It's also about what happens when an old hunter finds out what the young hunter's tricks are.

cashed it in and held it in my hand. That kind of word can get around...

And So It Begins by M. K. Dreysen

This is the post where the story And So It Begins by M. K. Dreysen was originally published. Please look for it now in M. K. Dreysen: Collected Volume 3, to be published June 2020.

Here's another story for your pleasure this October. This one's another betrayal, in this case a grand one. This is what happens when you, and by you here I mean "You!" on the grand cosmic scale, leave yourself open to that most fundamental of urges.

Revenge.

I call this story "And So It Begins." I think, when you read it, you'll guess better than I what might start in this little system on the edge of nowhere...

Jeru, from Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool

It All Went Down On The Flight To Cartagena

This is the post where my story, It All Went Down On The Flight To Cartagena by M. K. Dreysen, was originally published. Look for it now in M. K. Dreysen: Collected Volume 3, to be published June 2020.

Let's begin the way fall has this year, with a little story of intrigue, and subtle betrayal. A tale of things that happen when you're expecting something else.

I call this one "It All Went Down on the Flight to Cartagena."