Mixed Nuggets

My second ebook, Mixed Nuggets, is now available at Smashwords. The RTF version has some problems with indents, but the Kindle, Epub and PDF versions look good.

A description is given below:

This is a collection of 7 fantasy, science fiction and mainstream short stories, none of which I have published before. Some of them are among my best stories in my personal opinion, though some people may not share that view.

In Orson Scott Card's MICE classification (Milieu / Idea / Character / Event) most of these stories are idea pieces, often skimping the other components and in many cases intended to be nothing more than light entertainment. The main exception, A Quiet Evening, is a rather dark mood piece. Changing Things is, in its way, even darker.

If that is what you want, buy and read Mixed Nuggets. If you prefer stories with more characterization, character development and a fully developed story arc, you might be better off reading such stories as Paratime Encounter and Leonids [on this website], and reading my novels, of which Tochwyatis has been published in ebook form.

Where to get Mixed Nuggets:

Mixed Nuggets is now also available at Diesel, Sony, Amazon and possibly some other retailers.

An expanded print version of Mixed Nuggets, containing 7 additional stories taken from this website, for the benefit of those who would rather read stuff on paper than on a screen, is available, intended chiefly for distribution in Finland. It is currently for sale in Akateeminen Kirjakauppa in Helsinki, possibly also in the Lisco bookshop in Mariehamn (I left a few copies for sale there in 2017, I haven't heard from them since then). I may provide a print version for international distribution when I get around to that. Anybody who doesn't want to wait is welcome to contact me (click the "Send a message" button). I'll sell the book for 5 EUR + postage. (It's only 102 pages in total, but that means that it doesn't take up much shelf space!)

Teaser:

I had begun perusing the most valuable property I had inherited from my father – the only known surviving copy of the Necronomicon. My father had obtained it on an expedition to darkest Massachusetts. Every time I asked how he had got it, he would get a haunted look in his eyes and change the subject.

Most of the spells were useless, because they required ingredients that were hard or impossible to obtain. Take dragon’s blood, for instance. Where do you find a dragon?

Or virgin’s blood. OK, virgins probably exist even nowadays, but you can’t go around asking people if they’re virgins, and if so, whether they’re willing to donate some blood. I had a lot of trouble convincing the authorities that I’m harmless, so I daren’t risk it again.

Eye of Newt: that isn’t practical either. US congresscritters, even former ones, are too well guarded.

When I had eliminated all the impracticable spells, there was exactly one left. Bat wings aren’t too hard to get, and most of the other stuff I could buy in any grocery store. (No, I won’t list it. This stuff is better kept secret.)

The last ingredient was a bit more problematic: threads from a Tommy Hilfiger shirt. (How did that get into a recipe from the Middle Ages? I never did figure that out.) Well, I found such a shirt at a reasonable price at a flea market.