Short stories by Tim Pratt
Tim Pratt lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, Heather Shaw and their son River. His fiction and poetry have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, Asimov’s, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Subterranean, and Tor.com, among many other places (for complete details, see his bibliography). He writes a new story every month for patrons at Patreon: www.patreon.com/timpratt His debut collection Little Gods was published in November of 2003. His second collection, Hart & Boot & Other Stories, appeared in January 2007, and was a World Fantasy Award finalist. Third collection Antiquities and Tangibles and Other Stories appeared in 2013. First novel The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl was published in late 2005. It was nominated for the Mythopoeic Award, and won a Romantic Times Critic’s Choice Award for best Modern Fantasy, and an Emperor Norton Award (which has the coolest trophy ever: a bust of Joshua Norton). Other standalone fantasy novels include Briarpatch (2011), Heirs of Grace(2014), and forthcoming short novel The Deep Woods (2015). His gonzo-historical novel, The Constantine Affliction, was published under pen name T. Aaron Payton in 2012. He co-wrote middle grade spy novel The Stormglass Protocol with Andy Deemer (2013). In October 2007 he began publishing a series of urban fantasies featuring ass-kicking sorcerer Marla Mason. The first was Blood Engines, followed by Poison Sleep (April 2008), Dead Reign (November 2008), and Spell Games (April 2009). He serialized a prequel, Bone Shop, online in 2009. The fifth book, Broken Mirrors, appeared in 2010, followed by Grim Tides in 2012, Bride of Death in 2013, Lady of Misrule in 2015, Queen of Nothing in 2016, and final volume Closing Doors in 2017. He collected stories set in that world in Do Better (2018). Visit MarlaMason.net for details. His most recent novels are the space opera Axiom trilogy: Philip K. Dick Award finalist The Wrong Stars (2017), The Dreaming Stars (2018), and The Forbidden Stars (2019). He’s written several roleplaying game tie-in fantasy novels, including one for Forgotten Realms and five for Pathfinder Tales. Some of his poems have been collected in If There Were Wolves, including “Soul Searching”, winner of a Rhysling Award for best long poem. He has edited two anthologies: a reprint volume of stories about infernal creatures, Sympathy for the Devil (2010) and an anthology of original stories inspired by classic tales, Rags and Bones (2012, with Melissa Marr). By day he works as senior editor at Locus magazine, where, among other things, he write the obituaries. He won a Hugo Award (for “Impossible Dreams” in 2007), and has been nominated for a Nebula Award, Stoker Award, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, a couple of Gaylactic Spectrum Awards, a Seiun Award, a Scribe Award, and two Ignotus Awards, among others. In 2004 he was a finalist for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Listing 4 stories.
On the verge of suicide, a man is presented with an otherworldly spear that enables him to exact swift revenge on his enemies—but he can’t help getting “in his head” about it.
Just when a young woman's outlaw adventures seem to be over, a man from her dreams appears and revitalizes her will to live dangerously.
A man discovers a video store from a parallel universe, containing movies that were never made in his timeline. But as he grows closer to the rental shop’s clerk, he realizes that the window of time in which he has access to the store is getting shorter and shorter every night.
After his wife's tragic death, a man is visited by several small gods— including that of grief, joy, and heavy hearts — who help him go back to life as normal after his loss.