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
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
Flashes From the Verse
The morning of her graduation party, when the first rays of the sun had yet to grace the rooftops of the stately homes on the Copper Vein cul-de-sac, Miri Walker was lying restless with one arm hanging over the edge of her bed. She had tossed and turned all night,
Flashes From the Verse
Barbara Cobb hadn’t smiled once since the party began, and the longer she went without offering more in the way of conversation than a polite nod, the more Randy Cobb started to realize something was up. It wasn’t Barbara’s way to be anti-social; she loved events like
Flashes From the Verse
According to the gilded invite sent out a month prior, the event taking place in the clubhouse at the Diamond Ranch golf course was ostensibly a party for the three recent graduates who lived on the Copper Vein cul-de-sac. However, based on the number of adults, all of whom were
Flashes From the Verse
If it hadn’t been for the bright green signs calling out the exits for the city of Holliday, Trace Butler might have driven right past what appeared to her as an endless black prairie with hardly enough evercrete and glass to reflect the bright moon hanging overhead. Driving west
Flashes From the Verse
As she waited for him to climb the steps to the patio, she wondered how he had found her so quickly. But then a soft breeze coming in off the water carried the question away, and she felt comforted by the idea that he had been waiting for her, probably every day since she had dropped off the grid.