“Dancefloor Tragedy” – Drops of Crimson, July 2009
To shake the hand of a shy, fashion-impaired peasant – goth-queen Ravina would rather die than defile herself with nightclub commoners. Too bad she’s wearing her lovely red boots tonight: stylish Achilles heels meant to inspire envy, but instead drag her off to a blistering lesson in common courtesy.

“Infectious” – Not One Of Us, June 2009
Bordello? Or hospital? A visitor to Kue’s dingy boudoir may not be asking for mere fantasy play when he wants to be healed – especially not when the rest of the girls break out in gruesome, mind-eating diseases. Inspired by The Handmaid’s Tale.

“American Nightmare” – Well Told Tales, May 2009
Small-town misfit Trisha Bell is awakened from her grave by mysterious forces, and there are only two people in the whole world she needs to see: her also-undead greaser boyfriend Sammy, and her still-alive derbygirl best friend Soraya. Sammy joins Trisha in gleefully turning the tables on the small-minded locals, but Soraya is all alone in a town that took its post-9/11 terrorist hysteria out on her family. With gun-toting bullies aiming for her head, Trisha has to be sure her friend is strong enough to handle the panic – while craving a bite of her brains herself.

“Let Them Bleed” – Pseudopod, December 2008
They started out wanderers, leaving their hometown in search of adventure. Tragedy made four become three, and the boardwalk offers a sordid refuge for the desperate, a corrosive world of hopeless addictions and sadistic saviours lurking beneath the neon lights. The dream of a better life dances within reach, but the way out is a path of knives and needles. Escape promises deep scars – how much will they sacrifice when they run away, this time?
“Written with lurid immediacy, it takes hold with unremitting morbid fascination.” – The Fix

“Sweetwater” – Fantasy Magazine, July 2008
A small act of rescue opens the dark marshes of Atlantic City into the soothing cove of a tattooed mermaid, a badly needed place of healing after Shawna loses her mother in a car accident. One small price, though: the waters stay warm and welcoming as long as Shawna remains silent. When saving a stranger means losing a sanctuary, but keeping the people you love with you forever.

“The Neon Coffin” – The Paramental Appreciation Society, Red Snake Press, 2007
The lovechild of a diabolical priest and a North Beach gogo dancer runs away to the woods to seek her fortune – only to end up poisoned by love and trapped behind pornographic glass. This-San Francisco-in-the-80’s retelling of the Snow White story ended up spawning my first novel, a death metal fairytale.
“…a good, multilayered read, literate and involving.” — The Fix

“Rozz Forever” – Morbid Curiosity, issue #9, 2005
How I spent my 30th birthday – deciding I want to be cremated! A wander through a Hollywood cemetery in search of a deathrock icon’s resting place stirs up thoughts on alternate memorials, ostentation in death, and how to tell the future what your life was all about.

“Working in Luck” – Morbid Curiosity, issue #6, 2002
It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness. True-life tales from one of the nation’s oldest occult shops, a Philadelphia pharmacy that opened in 1917 and went on to sell candles and herbs.