Couple of new forthcoming short stories

My friend and publisher, Josh Viola, have been collaborating on quite a few projects lately. We finished a three novel FBI series last year; those manuscripts are braving the void known as Literary Agent Submissions. In the meanwhile, we've been hard at work on several short stories. So far, about 75% of these short stories have found a home, which is a far better track record than my solo work, to be sure. Most recently, a story we did called "Our Hero" has been published in an anthology called False Faces, which is published by the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. The editors, Warren Hammond and Angie Hodap, are two wonderful, talented people, and I'm pleased they accepted the story. "Our Hero" has its genesis in a question I've often asked myself: "What if Superman's alter ego was Diana Prince? Or what if Wonder Woman's alter ego was Clarke Kent?" It's also a tale of a detective's resentment toward a superhero who flies overhead, getting all the accolades, while he does the dirty work of tracking down criminals, pedophiles, and the like. 

The second story, forthcoming in October, is called "Many Carvings." Josh and I were discussing story ideas and he had a notion for a tale involving witchcraft and pumpkin patches. Josh has explored witches very effectively before--see his story "Scarecrows" in the Nightmares Unhinged anthology--and I wanted have a go at it myself. 'Many Carvings" is a historical piece, set somewhere in early 19th century America, and I hope it captures the right mood and cadences. Anyway, be on the lookout for it in an anthology called Doorbells at Dusk.