Science Fiction
For additional science fiction short stories, visit my GALCOM Universe page.
Collection: 10 Stories of Monsters Galore
Logline: Ten dark fantasy and supernatural monster tales where ordinary people face extraordinary creatures lurking in fog, shadows, caverns, and beyond.
Series: Standalone Collection (Monsters Galore Series – Book 1)
Length: 10 short stories (approx. 30,000–40,000 words total)
Genre: Dark Fantasy & Supernatural Horror
Subgenre: Dark Fantasy & Supernatural Horror
Main Characters: A mix of mages, shapeshifters, hunters, soldiers, and everyday people confronting the uncanny.
Setting: Varied locations including fog‑shrouded forests, rain‑soaked villages, haunted caverns, waterfront towns, and alien‑touched landscapes.
Themes: Courage in the face of fear, the unseen lurking beneath the ordinary, magic with consequences, survival against the monstrous.
Timeline Placement: Independent stories set across multiple worlds and eras; no chronological order required.
Link: https://books2read.com/u/3RqzvL
Description: Monsters lurk in the fog and hide in the shadows of caverns. In these ten tales, danger waits in unexpected places — and ordinary people must rise to meet it.
Step into the dark. The monsters are waiting.
Short Fiction: A Ticket to a Spaceship
Logline: Cascadia Stone buys a ticket to a crashed spaceship hoping to solve an old mystery—but the caretaker’s secret is the real truth she’s been searching for.
Series: Standalone Short Story
Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Subgenre: First Contact Mystery
Main Characters: Cascadia Stone; Ford (caretaker)
Setting: A crashed alien spaceship hidden on a hill, filled with mirrors and illusions.
Themes: Curiosity; truth and perception; courage; alien encounter; revelation
Timeline Placement: Modern Day Earth
Link: https://books2read.com/u/b59l5R & https://www.curios.com/c/WP2YX3
Description: Cascadia Stone buys a ticket to a crashed spaceship, hoping to solve the mystery hidden in its maze of mirrors But the biggest surprise is the caretaker himself, and the truth he’s been waiting to reveal. A mysterious, character‑driven science‑fiction short story of first contact.
Short Fiction: Vagabond by Blood
A weary assassin on a luxury space cruise must protect the woman he was sent to kill over when her husband’s deadly agents close in.
Series: Standalone
Length: Short story
Genre: Science Fiction, Space Adventure
Subgenre: Thriller, Space Opera, Action Suspense
Main Characters: Nick Cobb, Anna Perry, Mr. & Mrs. 1425
Setting: Interstellar cruise ship; Spacewalk deck; Promenade Deck; orbital station
Themes: Identity, redemption, autonomy, surveillance, moral choice, found courage
Timeline Placement: Far future / Interstellar era. Set before the large‑scale alien wars seen in Theater Ship
Link: https://books2read.com/u/mePgNA and https://www.curios.com/buy/1001365
Description: Nick Cobb is a soldier on the run, hunted across unstable frontier space where alliances shift as fast as the terrain. When a routine escape turns into a deadly encounter, she must rely on instinct and the thin line between duty and survival. This standalone science‑fiction short delivers fast pacing, sharp tension, and a vivid look at life on the edges of human‑controlled space.
Short Fiction: Theater Ship
An aging actress performing for soldiers in deep space finds herself trapped on the front lines when the alien war shifts into her theater’s flight path.
Series: Standalone Science Fiction Short Story
Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Subgenre: Space Opera / Action & Adventure
Main Characters: Catherine Mason (aging actress), Earth Defense soldiers, alien intruders
Setting: A traveling theater ship stationed near Earth’s defensive perimeter; active alien war zone
Themes: Themes: Courage under fire, art in wartime, aging and relevance, unexpected heroism
Timeline Placement: During the first year of the alien war; concurrent with early Earth Defense operations
Link: https://books2read.com/u/bxj10v & curios.com/buy/1001368
Description: Catherine Mason thought her days of Hollywood danger were long behind her—until her traveling theater ship gets too close to the alien front. When the battle line shifts, she and her troupe must perform for soldiers who may not live to see another show. But when an alien machine breaches the ship, Catherine discovers that survival demands a different kind of performance. A tense, character‑driven science‑fiction short about the thin line between stagecraft and survival.
Short Fiction: Inspired by an Alien
Logline: An artist at a deep‑space retreat discovers her inspiration may come from an alien source.
Series: Standalone Short Story
Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Subgenre: Alien Contact / Soft SF / Psychological SF
Main Characters: Aurora Long (artist), Scott (creativity aide), unseen alien patron
Setting: Remote art retreat on a distant planet; alien‑influenced creative environment
Themes: inspiration, creativity, trust, alien influence, self‑discovery
Timeline Placement: pre‑consolidation artistic programs and alien patron initiatives
Link: https://books2read.com/u/b5kzkw
Description: Aurora Long travels to a remote art retreat on a distant world, expecting solitude and inspiration. Instead, her mysterious patron sends a creativity aide with secrets of his own. She must decide if this inspiration is a gift, or a trap. A quiet, atmospheric science‑fiction tale of art and trust.
Short Fiction: Price of Intelligence
Logline: A stranded soldier faces an alien that grows smarter with every kill—and she may be next.
Series: Standalone Short Story
Length: Short Story (approx. 20–40 minutes)
Genre: Science Fiction
Subgenre: Military SF / Alien Contact / Survival
Main Characters: Gaynelle (space soldier), Panther (her buddy), the alien
Setting: A remote, hostile planet where the terrain hides a predator that learns from every victim
Themes: Survival, evolution through predation, loyalty under pressure, fear of the unknown
Timeline Placement: Earth’s future
Link: https://books2read.com/u/3RLMPp and https://www.curios.com/buy/1002099
Description: Cut off from command and trapped on a hostile planet, space soldiers Gaynelle and Panther fight to stay alive against an alien that studies them as prey. Each encounter makes the creature smarter, and their chances of escape shrink. Gaynelle must uncover the alien’s purpose before It’s too late. A fast‑paced military‑SF survival story about courage and loyalty.
Mystery
Noir Mystery
For a novel in this series, please see the Al Travers page.
Short Story: One Red Shoe
A private investigator’s investigation into a missing actress’s home, where a single red shoe becomes the key to surviving a deadly confrontation.
Series: Al Travers Mysteries — Historical Noir Mystery Series
Length: Short Story
Genre: Mystery
Subgenre: Noir Mystery / Historical Mystery (1940s Hollywood)
Main Characters: Al Travers, Mike Reeves, Lily Boone, Dov Ackerman
Setting: Laurel Hills, California — 1940s Hollywood
Themes: Deception and hidden motives, The danger behind Hollywood glamour, War trauma and instinct, Survival in close quarters, Trust vs. betrayal
Timeline Placement: Early‑mid in the Al Travers Mysteries chronology. Standalone — can be read independently.
Links: https://books2read.com/u/3JQ9og or https://www.curios.com/c/05YKZL
Short Story Collection: Stain of Secrets
A private investigator pokes at the shadows of 1940s Hollywood, where secrets and lies glamour turn every case into a fight for survival.
Series: Al Travers Mysteries — Historical Noir Mystery Series
Length: Short stories + one novel
Genre: Mystery
Subgenre: Noir Mystery / Historical Mystery (1940s Hollywood)
Main Characters: Al Travers, Mike Reeves, Dov Ackerman
Setting: 1940s Hollywood — film studios, backlots, glamorous homes, seedy apartments, and the darker corners of Los Angeles.
Themes: Secrets behind fame, cost of ambition, glamour vs. danger, corruption and power, identity and reinvention, survival in a ruthless industry
Timeline Placement: Standalone stories set in the same era, loosely chronological but readable in any order.
Link: https://books2read.com/u/4DKYWd
Description: A gritty, character‑driven mystery series set in 1940s Hollywood. Private investigator Al Travers uncovers the truth behind dangerous obsessions and studio secrets. Each story blends noir atmosphere with emotional depth, revealing the hidden lives behind the silver screen. Glamour and danger collide as Al navigates a world where fame comes at a price.
Short Story: Backlot Deception
A private investigator is forced into a murder case on a Hollywood soundstage, where studio politics hide a truth Al Travers may not be ready to face.
Series: Al Travers Mysteries
Length: Short story
Genre: Mystery
Subgenre: Noir Mystery / Historical Mystery (1947 Hollywood)
Main Characters: Al Travers, Dov Ackerman, Mike Reeves
Setting: Hollywood, 1947 — Ackerman Pictures Backlot
Themes: corruption beneath Hollywood glamour, Hero worship vs. truth, Power dynamics and coercion, burden of loyalty, moral cost of doing the right thing, How fame distorts relationships and motives
Timeline Placement: Standalone story within the Al Travers Mysteries series. Chronologically early‑mid series, but fully independent.
Link: https://books2read.com/u/3JXDvB
Description: Private investigator Al Travers doesn’t handle murders — until studio boss Dov Ackerman forces him onto a case involving actress Allison Hayes, found dead on Stage 9. The police call it an accident, but Dov suspects director Howard Epps, a man Al has admired for years. As Al digs deeper, he discovers some secrets are meant to stay buried.
Short Story: Lost Night
A private investigator wakes up beside a dead woman with no memory of the night before. He must piece together the missing hours before the police catch him and the real killer strikes again.
Series: Al Travers Mysteries
Length: Short Story
Genre: Mystery
Subgenre: Noir Mystery / Historical Mystery (1948 Los Angeles)
Main Characters: Al Travers
Setting: Los Angeles, 1948
Themes: Memory loss and unreliable perception, trauma from war, Innocence vs. guilt, survival under pressure, corruption and danger in Hollywood, the thin line between victim and suspect
Timeline Placement: Standalone story within the Al Travers Mysteries series. Chronologically mid‑series, but fully independent.
Link: https://books2read.com/u/4jLVKX
Description: Private investigator Al Travers wakes in an alley beside a dead woman, his memory gone and the police closing in. With only fragments of the previous night Al must reconstruct his missing hours before he’s arrested for murder.
Short Story: Ransom
A rising Hollywood star is kidnapped, and private investigator Al Travers must navigate studio politics and a ticking clock to bring her home alive.
Series: Al Travers Mysteries
Length: Short Story
Genre: Mystery
Subgenre: Noir Mystery / Historical Mystery (1947 Hollywood)
Main Characters: Al Travers, Mike Reeves, Dov Ackerman
Setting: Hollywood & Laurel Hills, 1947
Themes: Power and corruption in Hollywood, the cost of fame, moral compromise vs. doing the right thing, loyalty under pressure, violence behind glamour, race‑against‑time rescue
Timeline Placement: Standalone story within the Al Travers Mysteries series. Chronologically early‑mid series, but fully independent.
Link: https://books2read.com/u/3LVyXw
Description: When rising star Jean Hartman is kidnapped, private investigator Al Travers is pulled into a dangerous ransom case the studio refuses to hand over to the police. Every clue points toward a personal motive with a deadly endgame. In 1947 Hollywood, fame can be fatal, and Al has only hours to save her.
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