Critical Mass and Other Stories

by C. Scott Davis, Joel Byers, Deneen Ansley, R. Eric Smith, Sue Bowers

Overview

This is a book about monsters.

Monsters who love us. Monsters who hate us. The monsters we nurture, and the monsters we become. They may be imperceptibly small or unimaginably vast, completely devoid of thought or filled with incomprehensible rage and hunger, but regardless of scale or motivation, they cannot be ignored.

On these pages, you will meet an artist who plays with the geometry of madness, a child who refuses to accept the rules of loss, and a mind unravelled by the forgotten touch of a cold dark world. From the illusionary safety of childhood, to the intersection of beauty and horror, corporeal prisons, and serial suicides, these stories expose the lingering echoes of forsaken lives, disturbing visions of cruel futures, and ultimately ask the question: “What do you do when faced with the unthinkable?”

Includes the complete novel “Critical Mass”, along with the following short stories:

“Come into the Light, My Darlings”
“Infernal Ratio”
“Wake”
“Killing Me Softly”
“The Angel’s Seed”
“Ice Riders”

Product Details

BN ID:	2940154448410
Publisher:	Shared Words
Publication date:	07/26/2017
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	647 KB

About the Author

C. Scott Davis is a writer, game designer, computer programmer, humorist (of dubious quality), musician (even more dubious) and generally interested in almost everything. He is also an Olympic class waffler and has two silver medals in procrastination. His stories have been published in 404 Ink, The Nassau Review, and several anthologies.

Joel Byers has been described by the industry as the laziest, most brilliant, unpublished talent currently pretending to write. He has vigorously protested this appellation, as he claims he was dead all those years and has the paperwork to prove it. Since regaining his corporeal form he has promised to write more, as good flatulence jokes won’t write themselves. Or will they?

Deneen Ansley spends her time around unruly animals: wolfdogs, dingos, cats and her Shared Words peeps (http://sharedwords.net/). In an attempt to maintain balance, she considers her “Win” Days those where she writes and edits, curled up in pjs with a cup of coffee, pet hair and her girlfriend, choosing not to leave the sanctity of her lovely Dayton, Ohio turn-of-the-century home.

R. Eric Smith works as quality assurance for accounting education, despite still being unclear if he's paying off the principal or interest on his house. He dabbles in game design, having produced the board games Alt and Conspiracy Kooks, available from thegamecrafter.com. He hopes to contribute more horror writings in the future, drawing rich inspiration from the Trump administration.

Sue Bowers is a displaced ‘desert rat’ with a passion for feral cats, dingoes, and hybrid wolves. She enjoys all sorts of obscure stuff, new experiences, philosophising, grokking the Great Outdoors, and disrupting the status quo.