This is my fifth collection of short stories, after "Dandelion Seeds", "First Lines", "Scatter Plot" and "Paths Less Traveled". Of the stories in this book, "Stranger" was probably the most fun to write, but "Kill Switch" is my favorite because who doesn't like a good robot apocalypse story, right?

About The Cover

This is a horrible visual pun. The two spaceships are faces, in profile, spun around to make solid shapes. The gap between them is a sort of inverted Rubin's Vase illusion.

Stories

"Bugged" - Patrick has a bug problem.
"Smith" - Peter has a special set of skills. Too bad they’re someone else’s.
"Digits" - Amethyst couldn’t care less about the Crystal Numbers. She just wants to go home.
"Heading Home" - Inzhu was banished from her village, for being a teenager.
"Stranger" - When you talk to strangers in grocery store parking lots, you never know what you’re in for.
"Life’s Work" - The world-simulation servers keep shutting down because they’re too introspective.
"And a Star to Guide Her By" - Captain Salucci can’t steer her ship, because somebody didn’t fill out the right forms.
"Masquerade" - T.W. Masterson throws the best parties. Everyone’s going, living or dead.
"Kill Switch" - Dr. Vanderveldt would really like it if her robots would stop trying to kill everyone.