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
He’d wanted to take her to a fancy restaurant in Corpus Christi, but with her last class of the day letting out at 7:30 p.m., she’d balked at the six hour round-trip just to eat raw shrimp from a champagne glass.
Flashes From the Verse
The driver’s name was Kaz, and as the newest and youngest member of the crew, Cynthia had fully expected him to cut and run as soon as the job went south, which coincidentally, was the moment she hit the roof of the McCall Tower in downtown Houston. The localized
Flashes From the Verse
As far as user caps went, Tenchi Teikoku had one of the lowest in the area. The rumors went that its sysop, who went by the name of Kenoh, ran the board out of his basement with his own equipment and bundled T1 lines. That meant bandwidth into Tenchi was
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