Fiction

Published and selected work

My fiction includes two novels and short stories published in Chess Life, Games Magazine, and elsewhere. Selected stories and excerpts are available to read here.

Long fiction

Novels

Two published novels that combine a dark sense of humor and intellectualism that borders on the pedantic. Mathematics, etymology and history are woven into these twisted tales, but never at the expense of the expense of the story and the quirky characters, who wouldn't put up that sort of shit.

Novel · ENC Press, 2005

Mother’s Milk

A young attorney working for a radical group of nutrition advocates with a passionate distaste for dairy prodcuts discovers that cows were brought to our planet centuries earlier by aliens from the Vega star system and that these Vegans (the ones from Vega, not the other kind) control humanity through chemicals mediating telepathic influence, secreted in cow milk.

Vegans and vegans (the other kind) are engaged in a secret war for the free will of all humankind.

Explore Mother’s Milk

Published by ENC Press in 2005

Novel · Partially serialized by Imaginaire in 2013
Published as an ebook in 2025.

Practical Applications of Game Theory

Two partners-in-crime are compelled to testify against one another to reduce their prison sentences. One of them, Remy Martine, a rugged outlaw mathematician, faces a series of harrowing obstacles inside a maximum-security prison, applying game theory to such questions as whether to shank the sociopath who preys upon the weaker prisoners, and how much to charge for illicit contraband in the black market prison economy, all the while addressing his biggest question: should he betray his acomplice to escape from the hellhole he has landed in?

Buy Practical Applications of Game Theory

Read an excerpt

Partially serialized by Imaginaire

Short fiction

Selected stories

A selection of published and other short fiction. Where publication rights permit, the complete story is available to read online.

Originally published in Chess Life Aug 1, 1998

“Motivation”

My first published short story. It featured a chess playing alien and the future of all life on Earth hanging on the outcome of a tactically complex Sicilian Defense.

Read the story

Short fiction · Chess Life

Originally published in Games Magazine Dec 1, 2000

“Cryptic Menagerie”

A parody of hard-boiled detective fiction with an embedded puzzle, in which the mystery is solved by discovering the hidden animal names embedded throughout the story.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate a copy of this story published 1/4 century ago. I will continue searching.

Short fiction · Games Magazine

Originally published by ENC Press, in 2009

“A Claus to Remember”

A young boy awakens on Christmas morning to discover that Santa Claus has apparently forgotten his house. Convinced that milk and cookies constitute a binding contract, he vows to never again to be good for goodness' sake.

Read the story

Short Fiction ENC Press

Written for a multi-media performance performed on June 2, 2001