Tag: anthology

Speculative Fiction Call: E4 Mafia & Junior Officers

I’m at it again. I’m doing edits and story selection for two anthologies with Henchman Press!

Tales of The E4 Mafia 2

We’re looking for more stories about those corporals, specials, lance corporals and petty officers!

Give us your best speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, and urban fantasy) stories about those experience young soldiers, marines and sailors getting tough tasks handled, dodging overbearing leadership, show how and when to ignore their unit’s stodgy processes, and skirting the regulations and rules with the grace of a ballet dancer. A ballet dancer who happens to have access to a ridiculous amount of equipment and weaponry!

Please send your submissions to keith@keithhedger.com with a subject line of “Tales of the E4 Mafia 2”. Submissions are due by 31 March 2025. Please format your story in Times New Roman in 12 point font, and should be between 4000 and 12,000 words total.

Butterbars! Large and (Not So) In Charge

No one starts a job or career knowing everything. Junior officers, whether they’re 2nd Lieutenants or Ensigns, in any military bring some nuance to their position. They have education and are provided with training, taught to lead and make decisions in tough situation. What they don’t have is experience at their job, an understanding of how their unit operates, or the personalities and capabilities of their people. Combined with directives to make decisions, give orders and direct efforts, this can lead to, err, interesting results, to say the least.

What we’re looking are speculative fiction tales centered around these most junior officers and the situations they create or impact. We expect to see absurd outcomes, courses of action that are other than optimal, or humor as these leaders’ directives and orders create chaos, their troops adjust to avoid negative consequences, and somehow they still get the job done!

Please send your submissions to keith@keithhedger.com with a subject line of “Butter Bars!”. Submissions are due by 31 March 2025. Please format your story in Times New Roman in 12 point font, and should be between 4000 and 12,000 words total.

So, if you write military fiction, speculative fiction, or any brand of fantasy or science fiction, send me a story!

Spooky Season Is Here! How About a Little Cyberpunk Zombie Action?

As Halloween approaches, I thought I’d share some about how my story “A Simple Escort” got started and how I managed to write a cyberpunk horror story.

Shortly after I’d sold a ‘Santa Claus kicks ass’ story to JR Handley (https://jrhandley.com/) for his Slay Bells Ring anthology, JR reached out to me about the zombie anthology he was putting together, saying that ‘You write dark stories’. While I didn’t think my stories were that dark, even accounting for the cyberpunk and dystopian elements, I sat down and thought about it for a minute. Obviously, I had an idea 🙂

A Simple Escort combined three elements. The first was that Burn and Bad Karma would be involved in a classic cyberpunk data theft job. They would go into a corporate facility to get data on a biotech project for whoever their mysterious employer was. That required them to escort a hacker (Cat, who you may have met in California Chaos), and biotech expert to confirm and vet the data.

The second element was incorporating an ‘uncanny valley’ aspect. This is a term that describes how people react when they see something that is close to human but not quite right. If you’ve walked past a store front at night and seen a manakin in a window and your stomach tightened in a fear response, that’s the uncanny valley response. Because of their levels of implants, Bad Karma and Burn can cause that in unmodded people. I wanted to cause that response to Bad Karma.

For the final, third, element, I wanted Burn and Bad Karma to end up with a house pet, as part of their relationship developing. So, yes, there’s a cyberware implanted cat in the story. And, yes, the cat lives.

If you’re interested in my stories or good zombie stories, hit the link and check out Zombies! Patient Zero.

What’s Going On?

Now that Tales of the E4 Mafia out in the world (and even selling copies!), it’s time to give an update on what’s going on in my life.

For anyone who doesn’t know, I’ve spent a lot of years running long distances. Like crazy long distances. 5k, 10k, half-marathons, marathons, and ultra-marathons. And a lot of them. Of course, I’ve a bad knee for a longer time, and periodically it’s come back to trouble me. After 15 years, I’ve finally accepted that I’m probably not going to be doing a lot of long distance running. So I switched over to cycling. We’ll see what kind of adventures that leads too!

In the writing world, I’m editing a new Burn and Bad Karma novel, with a working title of Chicago Cycle Book 1. Bad Karma goes to Chicago, with no adult supervision. Burn is kidnapped. And Micky is trying to solve the Burn kidnapping before Bad Karma finds out.

I’m also working on two more anthologies for Henchman Press. Butter Bars! Large and (Not So) In Charge! followed by Tales of the E4 Mafia 2: Specialist Bugaloo. These are both working titles, and have not been approved by the publisher 🙂

So, thanks for keeping up! Feel free to reach out and let me know what you think and how things are going for you!

Keith

Tales of the E4 Mafia has arrived!

I’ve done a lot of cool things in my life. I’ve written stories and published books before. But Tales of the E4 Mafia is different. It was my concept and idea.

So thanks to Leo Champion and Henchman Press for backing this anthology. Thanks to the authors who submitted stories (I got to read a lot of cool stories for this), and thanks to the authors included Dan Kemp Author, Andrew Heymann, Barb Caffrey, Gaige Mosher, Scott Reichek – Author, Josh Hill, Chris Sommerkorn, Michael LaVoice, Charles R. Scott, Gail Sanders and the late Ray Daley.

I learned so much in the process of getting Tales from idea to a printed book delivered to my home. From working with authors, to developing my editing process and learning more about my craft by reading the stories these authors generously submitted. Several authors are first time published in this book, so I had the privilege of sharing that ‘first book’ experience with them.

I appreciate everyone who’s supported myself and the authors in this book, those that have shared our many posts about Tales, and let their friends and communities know about this book. We’re all grateful for your reviews and shares, and comments that have been made to us about our stories.

Thank you!