Ten Story Omnibus: Fevered Visions

Fevered Visions: Ten Tales from the Febrile Hinterlands of Reason, a ~45,000 word collection of short stories, is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords:

Ten Tales from the Febrile Hinterlands of Reason

Professionally published writer Alistair Ainscott presents ten tales from the febrile hinterlands of reason. The stories probe shades of light and dark, from hilarity to shadows of doom. The light-hearted farce of a man trapped on a 3,000 mile trip with his twin toddlers. A mysterious forest fortified by concertina wire of black-barbed briars. One man’s quest to atone for nuclear holocaust.

The stories have a variety of themes and inspirations, almost always modest extrapolations from the safe islands of everyday experience that somehow mushroom into farcical (or horrific) tales of characters in dire situations. Call it an expedition to a visionary present if you like, or an exile to the febrile hinterlands of reason if you must, but terrifying or farcical, there’s something strange and wondrous to engage the reader with each tale.

This book includes the author’s foreword plus the following ten stories by Alistair Ainscott:

• “The Thriller Writer’s Workshop”
• “Tailor Maidens”
• “Captain Disaster and the Twin Terrors of Unholy Matrimony”
• “Occupy Stinking America”
• “The Briarwood”
• “The Familial Tremor”
• “Plastic Island”
• “Season of Black”
• “The Ferro-Erotic Roaches of Kiki”
• “Trinity of the Sands”

“Fevered Visions: Ten Tales from the Febrile Hinterlands of Reason” Copyright © 2012 Alistair Ainscott, Published by Rapid-Dynamix Publishing

Cover illustration © Rolffimages | Dreamstime.com

Short Story: The Familial Tremor

The Familial Tremor, a 5800-word tale of contemporary dark fantasy, is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords:

A man must embrace his past — or live with the consequences.

Ronald Masterson is haunted by the present, haunted by a past he can’t shake, and haunted by a future with the most horrifically perfect woman imaginable. Because each day he fails to solve the mystery that stalks him, it’s another step down the long spiral staircase of The Insanities, another step towards his fate at the hands of the familial tremor, another step closer to the consequences. 

A tale of dark science fiction by Alistair Ainscott.

“The Familial Tremor” Copyright © 2011 Alistair Ainscott, Published by Rapid-Dynamix Publishing

Cover illustration © Res2500 | Dreamstime.com

Short Story: The Briarwood

The Briarwood, a 6100-word tale of contemporary dark fantasy, is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords:

There are hidden things here, inexplicable and monstrous things, lost shards of time…

The prickly evergreen vines behind the childhood home of Martin Luske-Sanders rise and fall in great dunes of black-tipped thorns. There are hidden things here, inexplicable and monstrous things, lost shards of time. And it stretches before him, a dismal reflection of his future, a haunting memory of his past. A lost brother, a final truth lurking amongst the bloodthirsty thorns of the briarwood. 

A tale of contemporary dark fantasy by Alistair Ainscott.

“The Briarwood” Copyright © 2011 Alistair Ainscott, Published by Rapid-Dynamix Publishing

Cover illustration © Ronj2 | Dreamstime.com

Novel: The Flies Dropped Dead

The Flies Dropped Dead, a 32,000-word short novel of dark science fiction, is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords:

A mysterious death, a constellation of dead flies.

Can Jonathan Canny find redemption at the bottom of a multiplying black abyss of science gone wrong?

Jonathan Canny is a workaday morgue staffer who thinks he’s seen it all until he discovers dead flies scattered around the body of a gorgeous woman. Canny turns to Lila, his ex-girlfriend, to seek some answers, but what they uncover engulfs the entire morgue in a creeping webwork of darkness, culminating in one man’s desperate struggle for redemption– even if is far too late for his beloved Lila.

A novel of dark science fiction by Alistair Ainscott.

“The Flies Dropped Dead” Copyright © 2012 Alistair Ainscott, Published by Rapid-Dynamix Publishing

Cover illustration © Rolffimages | Dreamstime.com

 

Five Story Collection: Crimes against Literature

Five Crimes Against Literature, a ~23,500 word collection of short stories, is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords:

Five preposterous tales of far-ranging absurdity.

Professionally published writer Alistair Ainscott unleashes a vile compendium of five literary transgressions, a special room in hell for the serious-minded: “The Ferro-Erotic Roaches of Kiki,” “Occupy Stinking America,” “Maiden Voyage of the Pink Plastic Ponies,” “Captain Disaster and the Twin Terrors of Unholy Matrimony,” and “Why Oranges Are Apples”, plus an excerpt from “The Flies Dropped Dead.”

From aliens with bizarre sensory perceptions, a boy-with-bad-breath meets supermodel-girl story of wayward romance, a superhero who drives a rusted-out International Harvester Scout and saves a solo Dad from the clutches of his own twin toddlers, or a play with a swarm of eccentric characters– an inept vampire, the Pissy Flippin’ Bastards, the Harbingers of Doom, Death, Destruction and Other Nasty Things– well, what ends up on the page ranges from preposterous hilarity to full-blown crimes against literature.

“Five Crimes against Literature” Copyright © 2012 Alistair Ainscott, Published by Rapid-Dynamix Publishing

Cover illustration © Philcold | Dreamstime.com

 

Short Story: The Ferro-Erotic Roaches of Kiki

The Ferro-Erotic Roaches of Kiki, a 3000-word science fiction story, is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords:

Sharpen your beaks, prickle your barbs, color your ears. My Kiki, my brothers, we must guard our broods…

The Kiki dwell contentedly in their hive until the odd roundy beasts plummet to the surface.

Chantelle and James, marooned on an alien world of banded stone and gaping chasms, take refuge in the warrens of the roach-like denizens of the planet. They find a peaceful, if uneasy, co-existence.

Until the baby arrives.

And they call again for help.

And Chantelle must choose: her baby or her life…

A strange tale of science-fiction by Alistair Ainscott. 

“The Ferro-Erotic Roaches of Kiki” Copyright © 2011 Alistair Ainscott, Published by Rapid-Dynamix Publishing

Cover illustration © Innovari | Dreamstime.com

The Writing of the Ferro-Erotic Roaches of Kiki

This is one of the short stories that I wrote at the short story workshop that I did with Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith. To be honest it was the best received of the four stories that I wrote for the workshop. It has a strange voice for the parts told from the alien’s otherworldly point-of-view, funny in an odd way, but it mostly seemed to work for the twenty other writers who attended. This is interspersed with scenes from Chantelle’s (the protagonist’s) point of view.

Kris liked like the story and encouraged me to mail it or e-pub it (which I have now done).

Dean Wesley Smith loved the title. He must have said “What a great title!” three or four times.

This also may be the only science fiction story ever written about the Kiki / Bouba effect. It’s a real psychophysical effect. Look it up.

Short Story: The Maiden Voyage of the Pink Plastic Ponies

The Maiden Voyage of the Pink Plastic Ponies, a humorous 1430-word science fiction misadventure, is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords:

Wrangling twin preschoolers is no mean feat.  Especially to Mars. Especially when bringing their favorite toy violates quarantine…

Drake Derringer thinks he knows how to handle his preschooler twin girls until he has to figure out how to tell the family that he’s been relocated… to Mars. But they ain’t even gettin’ into Low Earth Orbit if his beloved girls can’t bring their beloved pink plastic ponies along. 

A silly tale of science fiction… with toddlers.

 

“The Maiden Voyage of the Pink Plastic Ponies” Copyright © 2011 Alistair Ainscott, Published by Rapid-Dynamix Publishing

Cover illustration © Therealdarla | Dreamstime.com

Short Story (Script): Why Oranges Are Apples

Why Oranges Are Apples, a strange and hilarious 4960-word short story (script) for a collection of Pythonesque comedy sketches, is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords:

A farcical play in eight acts of doom, death, destruction, and other nasty things.

The Shadow Guy, an inept vampire. The Harbingers of Doom, Death, Destruction, and Other Nasty Things. The Happy Elves, the Pissy Flippin’ Bastards, an outlandish pachderm wannabe. A medley of deranged characters assault the stage in this Pythonesque collection of comedy sketches that took the college theater circuit by storm, available as 100% genuine electrons for the first time ever…

Avast! We are the Harbingers of DOOM, DEATH, DESTRUCTION, and Other Nasty Things! You will be consumed by the totality of our unpleasantness, you will be sucked into the maelstrom of our sin…

A Play in Several Farcial Acts of Retching Hilarity, as originally produced at New Voices 9 by the “masque” troupe of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and performed at numerous other colleges in the United States and Great Britain. 

“Why Oranges Are Apples” Copyright © 2012 Alistair Ainscott, Published by Rapid-Dynamix Publishing

Cover illustration © Snumr | Dreamstime.com

Short Story: Assailing the Void (Flash Fiction)

Assailing the Void, a 930-word short-short (flash) science fiction story, is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords:

What lies beyond the labyrinthine confines of the city?

Georg Ventman knows only the dim, cramped world within the megacity of a dark future. He needs to stretch. He needs to break free. He needs to assail the void with a two-fisted gesture of exaltation.

A short science fiction story of escape from a dystopian future by Alistair Ainscott.

 

“Assailing the Void” Copyright © 2011 Alistair Ainscott, Published by Rapid-Dynamix Publishing

Cover illustration © Kydriashka | Dreamstime.com

Short Story: Captain Disaster and the Twin Terrors of Unholy Matrimony

Captain Disaster and the Twin Terrors of Unholy Matrimony, a humorous 5400-word story, is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords:

One dad, twin preschoolers, and a three-thousand mile trip.

What could go wrong?

Bernard Keyes travels cross-country with his identical twin girls so they can be flower girls in his brother’s wedding. But that last mile of winding country roads just might be the hardest part of his journey… other than the ceremony itself. An inkling of trouble cracks in Captain Disaster’s arthritic knuckles, but can he push his sputtering, rusted-out old truck fast enough to save the day?

 

 

“Captain Disaster and the Twin Terrors of Unholy Matrimony” Copyright © 2011 Alistair Ainscott, Published by Rapid-Dynamix Publishing

Cover illustration © Marianmocanu | Dreamstime.com

The Writing of Captain Disaster and the Twin Terrors of Unholy Matrimony

This was a short story that I originally wrote during the June 2011 Short Story Workshop that I did with Kristine Kathryn Rusch. This is the last story I wrote at the workshop; I was getting tired so this one came out pretty silly.

Thanks and I hope you enjoy the story.