Five Years Later

My short story “Five Years Later” appeared in the Harlan Ellison tribute anthology The Unquiet Dreamer, edited by Preston Grassman and launched in August 2019 by PS Publishing at the World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin.

While the anthology is a tribute to Harlan Ellison, as is the story, the story was not written to ape his style, or attempt to channel the man. Yet it would not have been written without him.

As I said in the afterword to my story —

“When I was 12, the purported Golden Age of Science Fiction, I read Harlan Ellison’s groundbreaking anthology Dangerous Visions for the first time. It blew my mind, but more than that — it helped me better understand the kind of stories I wanted to write — ones which ignored both story taboos and market restrictions, ones which made even the idea of writing to market itself seem taboo.

“It turned out not to have been the best career move. But it at the same time turned out to be the most rewarding in the way that mattered most.”

I will always be grateful for that.