Places Where the Roads Don't Go

An excerpt from the story on the story page.

Who Am I to Contradict Them?

Colleen Chen reviews the October 2012 issue of Analog, the which contains my novelette, "The Journeyman: On the Short-Grass Prairie."  It runneth as follows:

In “The Journeyman: On the Short-Grass Prairie,” by Michael F. Flynn, Teodorq sunna Nagarajan the Ironhand is on the run, pursued by the brothers of the man he killed. We already should know he’s a hero by his name, but then we read this: “On all the Great Grass, he feared no man; but fearing a score of men was another matter. One Serpentine, he could meet knife-to-knife. Half the clan, maybe. But not all the Serps all at once. It would be a songbound feat even to evade them.” So now we really know he’s a hero.

Captive Dreams

Amazon.com sez they have only 18 copies left in stock.  I assume that does not apply to the Kindle version.  But if you want one in your hot little hand, act soon. 

Captive Dreams Has Escaped, err Been Released

Amazon-dot-com is pining for customer reviews of CAPTIVE DREAMS.  Do not leave them in the Pine Barrens with the Jersey Devil.  Amazon saith thusly:

'Mike Flynn's stories begin by intriguing your brain and end by piercing your heart.  Few other writers can combine cutting-edge science and emotional situations with Flynn's skill and sensitivity. Read these stories, and you will never forget Mae Holloway, nor Ethan Seakirt, nor Karen Brusco, nor any of the others who must live with the dilemmas that even the most hopeful science can bring.'
--New York Times Bestselling Author Nancy Kress

Fine literary writing meets Science Fiction. A thematic tour-de-force exploring the concept of being human through the eyes of imperfect protagonists struggling with their demons. More than just great SF, these are just great stories told with style, wit and sensitivity. Six memorable stories, each independent, but each tangentially touching on the others. Melodies of the Heart, Captive Dreams, Hopeful Monsters, Places Where the Roads Don't Go, Remember'd Kisses, Buried Hopes

'Michael Flynn has quietly become one of the best sf writers of our time. CAPTIVE DREAMS shows his intelligence, his compassion, and the dry wit with which he seasons them both. Don't miss it!'

--New York Times Bestselling Author Harry Turtledove

Hey, don't blame TOF.  He didn't write that.  It's from Amazon's Book Description.  But I ain't gonna argue with it none.  (How's that for fine writing.)  I do wish, pace Harry Turtledove that I haven't been so quietly.

Captive Dreams

Coming Soon

Order early  and often

Some blurbs that are not too unkind: 

Michael Flynn has quietly become one of the best sf writers of our time.  CAPTIVE DREAMS shows his intelligence, his compassion, and the dry wit with which he seasons them both.  Don't miss it!

-- Harry Turtledove

"Mike Flynn’s stories begin by intriguing your brain and end by piercing your heart.  Few other writers can combine cutting-edge science and emotional situations with Flynn’s skill and sensitivity.  Read these stories, and you will never forget Mae Holloway, nor Ethan Seakirt, nor Karen Brusco, nor any of the others who must live with the dilemmas that even the most hopeful science can bring."

-- Nancy Kress 

Each story builds from scientific what-ifs to a reality of human fragility and despair. ... While great writing, vivid scenarios, and thoughtful commentary outshine the scientific concepts, the stories will linger after the last page is turned.

-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Captive Dreams

A starred review from Publishers Weekly for the forthcoming collection, Captive Dreams.
 

Captive Dreams

Michael Flynn. Arc Manor/Phoenix Pick (www.phoenixpick.com), $14.99 trade paper (266p) ISBN 978-1-61242-059-2

Prometheus Award–winner Flynn (In the Lion’s Mouth) assembles six tales delving into deep melancholy and moral ambiguity. Each story builds from scientific what-ifs to a reality of human fragility and despair. In “Melodies of the Heart,” genetic conditions have a young girl aging too quickly and an old woman too slowly. In the title story, ideological differences hinder a young boy’s ability to make sense of afterimages and echoes floating in his brain. “Hopeful Monsters” pulls back the curtain on the world of designing babies. In “Places Where the Roads Don’t Go,” a lifelong friendship is strained when a heated debate over the nature of mind becomes more than talk. “Remember’d Kisses” explores science that offers to absolve emotional pain. In “Buried Hopes,” buried objects keep hope alive. While great writing, vivid scenarios, and thoughtful commentary outshine the scientific concepts, the stories will linger after the last page is turned. Agent: Eleanor Wood, Spectrum Literary Agency. (Aug.)

Captive Dreams

Arc Manor will be publishing a collection of my stories at some indeterminate time in the near future.  This collection will consist of three old stories and three brand new ones.  I just got word that the editor has decided that the three new stories are not so irredeemably lacking in merit as to reject them out of hand.  IOW, he is paying me good cash money for the exclusive right to publish them.

The collection will be available in both dead tree and e format.  It may even be that, as he did with The Forest of Time et al., he will make the individual stories evailable at lower prices. 

The stories are to be:

1. Melodies of the Heart
2. Captive Dreams
3. Hopeful Monsters
   
4. Places Where the Roads Don't Go
   
5. Remember'd Kisses
6. Buried Hopes

The stories are listed by internal logic/chronology and those in boldface are the new ones.   The ties that bind them is that the protagonists in each story live in the same neighborhood, an oval made by two roads enclosing a woodland inside the loop.  Characters in one story may make cameos in another. 

The stories are set in the world of The Nanotech Chronicles, so one cameo is Charlie Singer, who with Jessica Burton-Peeler, is the protagonist of "Soul of the City" and "The Washer at the Ford."  He appears in "Hopeful Monsters."  

Excerpts below the cut