Coming 

Christmas

2o27

Watch the newsletter for the cover reveal.

Like heirloom glass ornaments hanging on the tree reflecting the twinkling lights, these 12 short stories will brighten your Christmas and holidays.

Each year since 2022, I have published a new Christmas story or two that I gift for free to my newsletter subscribers. For the first two years, I wrote a story to satisfy both my sci-fi and Americana/historical fiction readers. Since 2024, I have written two stories each year from the same concept—one catered to each audience. 12 Tales of Christmas is a compilation of the first twelve stories in that annual series and will be available in eBook, paperback, and audiobook.

12 Tales of Christmas is an eclectic collection of twelve short stories in several subgenres of speculative fiction, historical fiction, and Americana. This family-friendly collection includes stories about this year and yesteryear, aliens and angels, portals through time and space, traditional rodeo cowboys and robo-bulls. Not all is wonderful during the holidays, though, but the collection is loaded with plenty of humor and holiday cheer.

With this eclectic mix of genres, there is a story for every member of the family. Avid readers will want to open every one of these gifts, but you can use the index by story type and genre to jump to the stories that interest you most. Explore beyond your normal boundaries, and you may discover a genre you didn’t know you liked.

The collection also includes six “bonus” six-word stories with a short commentary about each and a secret bonus short work. The gifts keep coming.

The 12 Tales of Christmas compilation includes stories from the Flashing Lights: Short and Weird series. Flashing Lights takes you on a mission to explore the breadth of speculative short fiction. Each story is preceded by a content rating (G, PG, a few PG-13) and its genre tags. And each is followed by an About section, describing the story’s prompt, inspiration, homages, and the occasional Easter egg. It’s Christmas, but why not?

If you enjoy this collection, look for more story collections and novels in the Flashing Lights series.

Planned Stories

2022: Christmas Angel: Leaning Into Christmas

Series: Americana, Flashing Lights (Vol 1)

G: Family, Humor, Mainstream, Supernatural

2023: Mother’s Mincemeat: Home for the Holidays

Series: Americana, Flashing Lights

G: Family, Humor, Mainstream, Paranormal Mystery, Supernatural

2024: Eight Seconds Till Christmas: Rising to the Occasion

Series: Flashing Lights (Vol 2)

PG: Action, AI, Future, Humor, Robots, Sci-Fi

2024: Eight Seconds Till Christmas: Holding On to Life

Series: Americana (Vol 1)

PG: Action, Family, Modern West, Mystery, Supernatural, Western

2025: Adopt an Elf: Mall Santa’s Pet Shop

Series: Flashing Lights (Vol 3)

PG: Americana, Dystopian, Future, Humor, Satire, Sci-Fi

2025: Adopt an Elf: The Piebald Pig Bat

Series: Americana, Tailing Times (Vol 1)

G: Coming of Age, Family, Historical Fiction, Frontier, Western, YA

2026: Sidetracked: Wormhole Wonderland

Series: Flashing Lights (Vol 4)

PG: Future, Humor, Robots, Sci-Fi

2026: Sidetracked: Mystery on the Holiday Express

Series: Americana, Tailing Times

PG: Action, Adventure, Coming of Age, Frontier, Mystery, Western, YA

2027: [TBD-Sci-Fi]

Series: Flashing Lights

G/PG: [TBD]

2027: [TBD-Americana]

Series: Americana

G/PG: [TBD]

2028: Christmas Cauldron: Angel Face

Series: Flashing Lights

PG: Aliens, Future, Mystery, Post-Apocalypse, Sci-Fi

2028: Christmas Cauldron: The Pot Stirrer

Series: Americana

PG: Family, Humor, Mainstream

Bonus: Six Six-Word Stories

Yep, stories in only six words.

Secret Bonus

It wouldn’t be a secret if I told you what it is.

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