VISITING is a collection of 12 stories, fantasy (F) and science fiction (SF), 11 of which have been previously published in magazines ("Space and Time," "The Palace of Reason," "Speculon," "Aoife's Kiss," "Delirium," "Alternate Realities," "Glyph," "Cyberthirst," and "Night to Dawn") and a never-before-published longstory at the end: 1) THE WAITING ROOM (F) - a young man in a wheel chair, an old ex-businessman, and a girl straight from her prom wearing a plastic crown meet in the after-life and 2 recapitulations result -- of civil society and of personal character development. 2) STATEMENT (F) - a situation arises when criminals want to use a young woman who dreams items to her and, so, kidnap her. 3) NEW WORLD ORDER (SF) - the war in America started over a drought, and then the rest of the world got involved; but this is the effort of one young woman to survive all the different sides. 4) RAIN (SF) - a young woman, a spy, trained to be a honey trap is bio-chemically augmented, resulting in some devastating unintended consequences for anyone who gets close to her. 5) FLIGHT (F) - a dream about flying. 6) Purgatory (vampire) - how might a vampire escape her fate, or does she embrace it and wait for the light of day? 7) EYE OF THE BEHOLDER (SF) - Adamina is a "britney," a Hollycrat rather than a Repugnant, of course, living by the Reiner Rules, and now seeking a job to get some "real world" experience before she starts endorsing Presidential candidates. 8) ENCHANTMENT (F) - an enchantment is freed to make her way in the world, until she's recognized for what she is. 9) WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENJOY LIFE? (SF) - a humorous advertisement for a new/old technique to make you happy! 10) LILITH (F) - the wife of Satan, condemned to wander the earth, helps free her sister, The Shekinah, from a blood-stained Nazi amulet, and then appeals to her sister to break the bonds holding Lilith on earth. 11) WHAT DID IT TELL YOU ABOUT YOURSELF? (F) - a patient tries to figure out with his therapist what is real. 12) THE GARDENS OF EDEN (SF) - longstory appearing in print here for the first time - a "Christian" settlement on a distant planet is attacked. An ex-Marine, retired to an independent weather station on the same planet, and his wife, who was essentially ex-communicated from that settlement and then set up by the senior with the ex-Marine so the girl could go live a life, come to the rescue ... with their children, including the little girl known as 'Hard Corp'.
About the Author: I started sending out my stories in 1964. My first published stories were in the early 70's. In the 80's, I placed hundreds of poems and dozens of "literary" stories, plus reviews, and a few history essays. In the 90's my love for fantasy and science fiction paid off in that I started receiving money for stories (including horror and suspense). Along the way, I've studied under a lot of smart people. In college there was particularly Robert C. Mallett, William Hedrington, and A McA. Miller. Three who gave me a lot of encouragement at the CSU Imagination Workshop in 1999 were Ted Deppe, Karen Joy Fowler, and Tim Powers. Still, it's easy to get distracted in life -- and I did. I stopped sending out stories to write "my novel." I completed two. One is the novel Epiphany, also available in a CreateSpace edition put out by Washington Street Press. The other, Have Amber--Will Travel, will be available on Kindle, Nook, and CreateSpace in December. Meanwhile, I've been a musician and song writer performing in garages and coffee shops, a painter, an award winning photographer, computer programmer, a farm laborer at 16, a ride-operator at an amusement park, a tree trimmer in Florida, dish washer, house painter, many times self-employed, a store manager, retail supervisor and just about everything else over the years. And now I'm old and settled down and back at it. My science fiction and fantasy influences over the years are Heinlein, Niven, Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorcock, Robert Asprin, Jordan, Goodkind, Martin, Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts, David Feintuch, Lois McMaster Bujold, De Lint, Joel Rosenberg, and David Drake by the bushel; and in the early 1990's especially female fantasy authors, such as Elizabeth Moon, Patricia C. Wrede, Tamora Pierce, Anne McCaffrey, Sherwood Smith, Jane Lindskold, and Kristen Britain most recently. I liked reading about the young women/girls who were the main characters in the female fantasy writers stories--and so, a lot of the stories I had published in the nineties and two thousands I wrote under the pen name Beverly Bonnie O'Neill, probably a little too male in my thinking/appreciation to really fit, but that could be my own particular niche. Visiting is a collection of a dozen of those Bev stories.