New Release: Thorned in the “Thorns” Anthology
I’m very excited to share that my sci-fi/horror short story Thorned was recently published in the Thorns anthology. This anthology has an interesting premise. That is, short stories inspired by the many videos of tumbleweed filling streets, overtaking cars, and even blocking residents of small towns from leaving their homes. The anthology publisher, Black Hare Press, provided videos like this one for inspiration:
Here’s an excerpt from my story. You can read the whole thing by getting the anthology here.
Excerpt of Thorned
The alert blared over Maddie’s phone. A zing of panic jolted through her body, and she swerved. She wasn’t alone in her reaction, several cars ahead of her jumped lanes, one scraping the cement barrier before correcting back into its lane. She gripped the steering wheel, keeping her white-knuckled hands at ten and two as she listened to the report.
“This is a tumbleweed alert. Find shelter. If you are on foot or in a vehicle, travel south to your nearest shelter. Tumbleweed is moving eastward at approximately fifty-five miles per hour. Message repeats…”
Maddie’s heart slammed against her ribs. A flash from one of the educational videos she’d seen as a kid whisked through her mind. A tumbleweed-infected body. The infecting thorn festering in the skin. The person, now an automaton, walking into the door, trying to get out, searching for a dry place to die and fertilize the new plant already stretching roots inside of them.
She refocused, looking at her map, the arrow pointing eastward, toward home, toward her dogs. With a single alert, what was a simple lunch break errand transformed into a life-or-death situation.