Flashes From The 'Verse are unedited, unrevised scratch writing—just me trying things out. Some are character explorations, some are world-building exercises, and some are just me messing around with an idea to see where it goes. None of these are considered canon unless they appear in a published book, but any one of them could eventually find a home in the Vinestead Anthology. Or not. Who knows? Let's find out together.
Flashes From the Verse
Author's Note: This selection is from an attempt at a longer version of Bartering Nola that never quite materialized. In addition to molding it into a full-length novel, I also tried to tie it back into the larger Vinestead Universe. Obrego, for example, has an Ayudante biochip, which
Flashes From the Verse
Date of Notification: April 25, 2025 Dear VNet Account Holder, Thank you for choosing Vinestead International’s Virtual Reality Network (“VNet”) as your platform for immersive digital experiences. We are committed to safeguarding your personal information and are writing to inform you of a recent security incident that may have
Flashes From the Verse
by Frank Gattis, Junior Aggregator, Banks Media Productions The more things change, the faster they change. At no time in our history was that more true than in the years between 2018 and 2026, when America and most of the civilized world were almost brought to a technological standstill by
Flashes From the Verse
Pattrn itself is not the problem. It’s social media as a whole that needs to go. Every network that has come and gone in the last two decades has promised to revolutionize the way we connect with people. Instead, they’ve degraded an instinct that is vital to our survival as a species.
Flashes From the Verse
by Frank Gattis, Junior Aggregator, Banks Media Productions Living in America means taking things for granted. We assume there will always be water to drink, food to eat, and electricity to keep the lights burning. We expect roads to be in good repair, buildings to remain standing, and VNet to
Flashes From the Verse
Rouge data fell through the net, unassembled and out of sequence, riding the currents between the virtual things that were meant to be. The probability of any one of these bits encountering another in a world so vast as the Net was remote but possible. All it would take was
Flashes From the Verse
Cal Emerson was in bed, lightly treading the border between wake and sleep, when the call came in.
Flashes From the Verse
It was a mess the next morning. Muriel and I watched some of it from our balcony, behind the safety of some bamboo shades that her parents had bought us for Christmas. At first it was just the odd apartment dweller out for a morning amble, walking like a half-drunk
Flashes From the Verse
The advertisements for Metro Futurology featured a cavernous lobby full of glass and metal in a building that resembled the Tower of Babel stretched too thinly toward the sky. The sleek videos boasted finely appointed rooms with climate control, memory foam mattresses on the bed, and enough square footage to
Flashes From the Verse
Julius pulled the rig from his face and felt the rush of cool air over his skin. His apartment was dark, lit only by the glow of his laptops. Gray Man flashed frantically, warning him that the proxy path had collapsed and the hops between his rig and The Net
Flashes From the Verse
Bowie Elementary hadn’t seen a student in ten years, and yet the city had never gotten around to demolishing the school. Instead, the octagonal building had been allowed to languish in the middle of a drowsy neighborhood with its doors and windows boarded up and its innards baking under
Flashes From the Verse
The store had been slow all day. Not since before the toll road bypass had customers filled the aisles of the small convenience store on Highway 277 just north of Sonora. In those days, Nelson had worked for his father, manning the cash register as the old man sat in