I. Novels
1. The Pirooters, Treble Heart Books/Sundowners. Published January 30, 2008. 65,000 words. San Antonio, Texas, 1916. Jim Ed’s hot temper keeps him in constant trouble with his father, Leo Pargrew, a wealthy lawyer. After a long absence, the Pargrews are visited by Leo’s father Virge, an old cowman, come to reconcile Leo with his family. Virge tells Jim Ed a yarn of hair raising exploits with his wild granduncle Heck in search of Jim Bowie’s legendary silver mine down in old Mexico in 1865 with Comanches, bandidos, and French Foreign Legionnaires in hot pursuit. Enthralled by the tale, Jim Ed doesn’t know whether to believe it, but one summer at Virge’s ranch, he learns the real secret of the lost treasure of Santa Perdida. Out of print.
https://www.amazon.com/Pirooters-Mark-Mellon/dp/1932695664.
2. Escape From Byzantium, Withersin Press. Published September 15, 2009. 50,000 words. Simon Rosencreutz, a conscript officer in the Holy Army of the Revolution, wants nothing more than to escape from Zoorland, a strange, dangerous blend of revolutionary Russia and Iran. Saved at the last second from imminent execution, promoted and transferred from the hazardous front to the seeming safety of Byzantium, Zoorland’s capital, Rosencreutz finds himself rescued from death by combat only to be trapped in a nightmare of intrigue and suspicion, a moral quicksand of deceit, coups, plots, and counter-plots. Winner of the 2010 Independent Publisher Silver Medal for SF/Fantasy. Out of print.
3. Napoleon Concerto, Treble Heart Books. Published December 15, 2009. 100,000 words. The Napoleonic Wars: the world’s two great powers square off in deadly combat. France is militarily undefeatable under Bonaparte. Britain rules the seas. Neither side can come to grips with the other, to engage and defeat a mortal enemy. The English whale confronts the French elephant with no practical way for either one to destroy the other. Or is there? The answers can be found in a novel of alternative history that reads like Patrick O’Brian mixed with Jules Verne. Out of print.
4. Roman Hell, Amber Quill Press. Published August 17, 2010. 64,000 words. Roma, world capital, choked with summertime heat and filth, sum and summit of earthly power and glory. This is the arena where the impoverished poet Martial struggles for money and fame. When Titus, “Princeps” or first citizen, asks Martial to spy, the shameless poet willingly accepts. Yet what seems a trivial assignment grows increasingly dangerous and deadly when evil witches plot with Domitian, Titus’s brother. With the help of a brave ex-legionary, Martial tries to reveal the plot. Yet Martial’s efforts to save the Princeps only drag him deeper…into a Roman Hell… Out of print.
II. Short Stories
1. Harry’s Car, Retard Magazine, No. 1, 1994. Red Menace Publishing. 2,500 words. A lawyer who wishes he was a cop drives like a jerk and lives to regret it. Out of print.
2. Trophy of the Hunt, Aberrations Magazine, No. 32, 1995. 6,000 words. A broken man struggles with alcoholism while leading a hunt for biologically engineered super apes. Out of print.
3. Conversations with an Old Man, Chasm: Journal of the Macabre, Vol. 2, No. 2, Winter 1997. 5,000 words. Exiled to an Arctic wilderness, a young man is drawn into a deadly game with an old shepherd who may be more than he appears. Out of print.
4. The List of Caliban Cade, Gothic.Net e-zine, January, 1999. 6,000 words. An obese government attorney resorts to slaughter when his world collapses around him. www.gothic.net.
5. Where Will We Bury Them?, Of Ages Past, Vol. 2, No. 1, July, 1999. 8,000 words. A Red Army division tries to invade Finland, but is trapped and slowly chewed to pieces. An excerpt from an unfinished WWII novel, Hammer and Skull.
6. The Old Man and the Sea Ate Me, Gauntlet, No. 3, 1999. 6,000 words. A man suspiciously like Tarzan fights a shark as big as a bus. Out of print.
7. Viva La BigAss!, Terra Incognita Magazine, No. 6, Winter 2000/2001. 6,000 words. Coco the sacred ho is taken prisoner by a bird headed man in a sadly deteriorated future Las Vegas. Out of print.
8. The Brave Little Cockroach, Anthrolations Magazine, No. 3, January, 2001. 6,000 words. A fifty pound cockroach labors heroically to salvage a radioactively contaminated Taj Mahal,unaware he is but a pawn in a plot. (Note: this story was nominated for Best Anthropomorphic Short Story of 2001 for the Ursa Major Awards.). www.sofawolf.net. This story was also put online as a podcast by Anthropomorphic Dreams Publishing on September 21, 2009. Read by Stoker Bramwell. http://www.anthrodreams.com/?s=the+brave+little+cockroach.
9. Partisans, Gauntlet, No. 6, 2001. 6,000 words. Cut off from his own lines by the Germans, a young Red Army officer rallies resistance against them in the Pripet Marshes. This was another excerpt from Hammer and Skull. Out of print.
10. Shtriga’s Kiss, chapbook published by Anxiety Publications, 2001. 4,500 words. Count Ciano conquered every beautiful woman he met. After all, he was Mussolini’s son-in-law. That is, until he met the Shtriga. This story was re-published in 2012 by Hungur, a vampire fiction magazine, in their Walpurgisnacht issue. Out of print.
11. That Summer On The Moon, Albedo One Magazine, No. 26, 2002. 6,000 words. Poplumina Percival Shakur travels to the lunar summer home of megamagnate Odysseus O’Toole, only to encounter serious danger. homepage.eircom.net/~goudriaan.
12. The Favor, Behold, an e-zine of Anxiety Publications, 2002. 2,000 words. A Red Army officer must decide in occupied Poland whether to extend mercy at the risk of his own life. Another Hammer And Skull excerpt. Out of print.
13. And A Snake Tattoo, Whispers From The Shattered Forum, No. 8, 2002. 3,000 words. “Mellon takes on tough tasks in this story: he sets horror in a mundane, even familiar locale, then sets out to make it as weird as an exotic setting. He also tries to evoke a snake as an innocent victim, a rare reversal.” Tangent Online review excerpt. Out of print.
14. The Were Jaguar, The City Morgue, No. 11, 2003. 5,000 words. A fanged dwarf wreaks strange magic in a pre-Columbian horror story. Out of print.
15. The White Whale of Europa, Black Satellite, No, 4, 2003. 3,000 words. “A genetically engineered animal resides on the terraformed surface of Europa. Created by a partnership of alien industrialists, the whale exists solely to be hunted by wealthy clients.” From the review on the Project Pulp website. Reprinted in Visions III: Inside The Kuiper Belt, Lillicat Publishers, December 2015. https://www.amazon.com/Visions-III-Inside-Kuiper-Belt-ebook/dp/B01BI730WI/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=visions+III%3A+inside+the+kuiper+belt&qid=1618027586&sr=8-1.
16. The Goth’s Daily Grind, Quietus Magazine, Vol.1, Issue 2, Hallowmas, 2003. 1,690 words. A disgruntled goth kid receives an unpleasant surprise that makes his day. Out of print.
17. Gates of Ai’Dann, Hadrosaur Tales, No. 19, 2004. 5,000 words. Mithras Pahlavi senselessly committed suicide by leaping into a hurricane, leaving his enormous Florida mansion to his vicious wife. Or did he? Hadrosaur Tales is now Tales Of The Talisman. www.talesofthetalisman.com.
18. Two Heads Are, Premonitions, 2004 Relaunch Issue, Pigasus Press. 5,000 words. A gencode relies on his specially bred two headed companion for everything: sex, information, protection. http://pigasuspress.blogspot.com/.
19. Bell of the Clan, Zahir, No. 4, 2004. 6,000 words. A boy in medieval Ireland is sent to the land of the Sidhe on a quest for a family heirloom. This story was reprinted in 2010 in Faeries: An Anthology, by Static Movement/Pill Hill Press. https://books.google.com/books/about/Faeries_an_Anthology.html?id=YxcwkgAACAAJ Bell was published a third time in the Summer 2018 issue (no. 2) of the Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly: https://www.amazon.com/Oklahoma-Pagan-Quarterly-Summer-2018/dp/1720524297/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=oklahoma+pagan+quarterly&qid=1618029063&sr=8-3.
20. Neron Caesar 666, Sutekh’s Gift, No. 1, 2004. 6,000 words. Laenas, a retired gladiator, must battle demons at the command of a resurrected Emperor Nero. To quote the editors: “Written with pace and ceaseless energy from the first paragraph to the last line, Neron Caesar 666 is a dark and feverish foray into ancient delirium.” Out of print.
21. Et in Arcadia Ego, Aoife’s Kiss, No. 8, 2004. 6,000 words. An arrogant Olympic athlete competes in the manner of the ancient Greeks and learns a valuable lesson about real courage. Out of print.
22. Don’t Worry, The Boss Knows All About It, Combat Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 4, Fall, 2004. 6,000 words. A Red Army officer learns of imminent German invasion, but superiors ignore his warnings. A fourth excerpt from Hammer And Skull. http://www.combat.ws/S3/BAKISSUE/CMBT02N4/BOSS.HTM.
23. Down To The Frenchman’s Place, Rope And Wire Magazine, 2009. 3,400 words. An eccentric Frenchman and his Japanese wife must face rustlers on their isolated ranch.Out of print.
24. The Espantosa, Rope And Wire Magazine, 2009. 3,900 words. Charles Dent thought he could handle anything, but learned a hard lesson when he brought his pregnant wife to the Espantosa Lake. A traditional Western based on old Texas ghost stories. https://www.ropeandwire.com/western-short-story-the-espantosa.html. Republished in Rymfire Books’ State Of Horror, Texas, a horror anthology. Out of print.
25. A Gringo In Matalo, A Twist Of Noir 259, November, 2009. 2,700 words. Two Mexican narcos eat cocaine and drink beer while a kidnapped boy languishes. A gringo shows up. The first published Alec Pargrew story. http://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/search/label/Mark%20Mellon
26. The Occultation Suit, Twisted Tongue, Issue 14, December 2009. 4,200 words. A Soviet secret policeman plots to save an absent minded professor and his beautiful daughter when the professor’s amazing invention leaves Stalin unimpressed. Our of print. This story was re-published in the We Walk Invisible anthology published by Chupa Cabra Press in November 2013, edited by Timm Tayshun. https://www.amazon.com/We-Walk-Invisible-Short-Anthology/dp/1493777998
27. The Best Part, Sex And Murder, Vol. 1, Issue 7, February 2010. 1,000 words. “T For Trouble” Terry figured himself the baddest pro wrestler there was. He stepped into a punk bar one night looking to kick some ass… sexandmurder.com.
28. The Mayombe Stick/, Dark Gothic Resurrected, Spring, 2010. 4,700 words. Handsome, arrogant Kent Caputo invites trouble when he accepts a beautiful woman’s invitation to learn about black magic while on vacation in the Caribbean. bloodtouch.webs.com/darkgothicmagazine.htm.
29. Whims Of A Living God, Danse Macabre, DM 41 Weltkrieg, 2010. 5,300 words. Aetius, a simple legionary, is compelled by an angry ghost to involve himself in the affairs of the immortal emperor, to his increasing peril. https://dansemacabreonline.wixsite.com/neudm.
30. The People Are Never Alone, Midwest Literary Magazine, October 2010 issue. 4,900 words. Hattie Tom hires Alec Pargrew, cowhand PI, to search for Apaches in the Sierra Madre. Alec anticipates a wild goose chase, but then narcos turn things deadly. This story was also reissued in 2010 by The Quiet Press in a soft cover print anthology, Bearing North. Out of print.
31. Mangas The Beast Fighter, Planetary Stories, Issue 21, Feb. 2011. 4,000 words. Genetically engineered to fight dinosaurs and giant mammals in Da Kolozon Amfyatire, Mangas yearns for his own Greek island. This was an effort at space opera. Out of print.
32. Buzzards Circle Dogtown, Pulp Empire, Volume 4, 2011. Edited by Nicholas Ahlhelm. 9,500 words. The good citizens of Dogtown had everything under control until they picked the wrong cowhand to bother. A long, traditional Western. This story was re-published in Frontier Tales, an online Western magazine, in two parts in August and September of 2013 respectively. www.frontiertales.com.
33. Asshole Factory, Static Movement, Like Frozen Statues Of Flesh anthology, July 2011. Edited by Joe Jablonski. 2,700 words. A man works at a factory just off the Jersey Turnpike making assholes. One night, there’s a horrible industrial accident at the old fart plant. My first venture into bizarro fiction. This is now out of print. https://www.amazon.com/Like-Frozen-Statues-Flesh-Mellon/dp/1617061328 This story was re-published in issue no. 10 of Polluto, a UK magazine. This is their Wage Slave Orgy issue. polluto.com.
34. Annals Of The Allred Clan, Post-Apocalyptic Raids Horror Anthology, Rymfire Books, 2011. Edited by Armand Rosamila. 7,000 words. Polygamous Mormons cope in a near-future American West ravaged by heat and drought. Possibly the bleakest thing I’ve ever written. This is now out of print. This story was reprinted in Mother’s Revenge, an anthology of dystopian fiction from Scary Dairy Press.” scarydairypress.com.
35. A Place For A Cockfighting Man, Criminal Class Review, Criminal Class Press, Vol. 5, 2012. 2,500 words. Another Alec Pargrew story. Against his better judgment, Pargrew hires out as a bodyguard for a gringo cockfighter in a Mexican border town. Out of print.
36. Dribbling In Xibalba, Explorers: Beyond The Horizon, an anthology published by the Dead Robots Society Podcast, 2012. 4,800 words. A charlatan who poses as a Mayan expert discovers that an ancient codex is even more real than he thinks. deadrobotssociety.com.
37. The Golem Of Bidosz, The Mythic Circle, issue no. 34, 2012. 4,550 words. Under siege by Turks, a desperate Austrian officer turns to a Jewish mystic for help. The Mythic Circle is a small literary magazine published annually by the Mythopoeic Society. www.mythsoc.org/mythic-circle/mythic-circle-34.
38. A Rare Chance At The Enemy, Battlespace, Military Science Fiction Anthology, Knightwatch Press, 2012. 4,900 words. This was an excerpt from Napoleon Concerto, published as a short story. One spring day in 1806, the frigate HMS L’Oiseau receives a nasty surprise while cruising off Boulogne. Note: proceeds from the sale of this anthology go to Warrior Cry, a group of volunteers who provide wounded soldiers with musical instruments and then teach them to play. https://www.amazon.com/Battlespace-Various-Authors-ebook/dp/B008GXA602/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Battlespace%2C+Military+Science+Fiction+Anthology%2C&qid=1623293952&sr=8-3 The story was reprinted in 2017 in an anthology entitled Altered Europa by Martinus Publishing. www.martinus.us. https://www.amazon.com/Altered-Europa-Martin-T-Ingham-ebook/dp/B01NC2SQ0F/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=altered+europa&qid=1623293881&sr=8-1
39. Raw Meat For The Great God Pan, Beyond The Pillars anthology, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, October 2013. 2,500 words. Young Oulixes is tasked by his father with taking a sacrifice to Pan, but along the way a greedy satyr interferes. neosalexandria.org/bibliotheca-alexandrina/current-titles/fiction-anthologies/beyond-the-pillars-an-anthology-of-pagan-fantasy.
40. The Pocket Lord Of Luna, Planetary Stories, issue no. 29, October 2013. 2,800 words. A journalist of the far future is trapped in the lunar pleasure palace of a decadent plutocrat. This is basically a space opera reworking of Don Giovanni. Out of print.
41. Easter Blood Sacrifice, Noir Nation, issue no. 3, November 2013. 4,000 words. The fourth published Alec Pargrew story. Pargrew travels to Mexico to rescue an alcoholic English professor. www.noirnation.com.
42. Death Of A One-Percenter, Thuglit Magazine, issue no. 10, MAR/APR 2014. 4,900 words. The fifth Alec Pargrew story. Alec is hired to be a bodyguard for an incredibly rich and venal Texas good old boy. Out of print.
43. Grand Larceny Aboard GDI Raffaello, Tigershark Magazine, issue no. 4, Tigershark Publishing. May 2014. 3,100 words. Valuable jewels are stolen aboard a nuclear powered airship and it’s up to Chief Purser Campoleone to get to the bottom of the crime. You’ve heard of steampunk? This is Fellini punk. tigersharkpublishing.blogspot.com.
44. Forbidden Branson, Crimespree Magazine, issue no. 57, November 2014. 2,800 words. The sixth published Pargrew story, the first humorous one. Alec plays hell looking for his old buddy R.T. in the decadent fleshpots of Branson, Missouri. crimespreemag.com/crimespree-store/back-issues.
45. Vacation’s End, Elementals 4: Wings Of Air (Latchkey Tales), vol. 4, November 2014. 3,000 words. A spoiled brat in the near future insists on a tour of a ruined New York City and learns that life really isn’t a bowl of cherries.Another bleak, dystopian yarn. http://www.amazon.com/Elementals-Wings-Air-Latchkey-Tales/dp/0994110669/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1422034252&sr=8-3&keywords=latchkey+tales
46. The Hippie Hunter, Over My Dead Body!, December, 2014, 2,700 words. A New York City punk poses as a park policeman at outdoor music festivals so he can roust hippies and shake them down for their drugs. www.overmydeadbody.com/hiphunt.html.
47. The Badger Game, Hardboiled: Crime Scene, March 16, 2015, Dead Guns Press, John L. Thompson, ed. This is an excerpt from The Confessions Of Septimus P. Nasby, my unpublished Civil War crime novel, and deals with the world’s oldest con, using sex to rob someone. www.amazon.com/Hardboiled-Crime-John-L-Thompson/dp/1499157886/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454446886&sr=8-1&keywords=hardboiled%3A++crime+scene.
48. In Wilde Pursuit, Midnight Circus, issue no. 7, Alternative History Issue, April 2015. Frank Harris and G. Bernard Shaw intervene to save Oscar Wilde in this alternate history story. The yarn was inspired by one of Harris’s many boasts in his autobiography, My Life And Loves. www.amazon.com/Midnight-Circus-Alternate-History-7/dp/1508793050/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1454446982&sr=8-13&keywords=%22midnight+circus%22.
49. Valley Of The Meth Head Rustlers, Yellow Mama, issue no. 52, October 2015. The seventh Alec Pargrew story. Alec’s old friend R. T. realizes someone is rustling his stock and asks for help. http://blackpetalsks.tripod.com/yellowmamaarchives/id566.html.
50. Trainwreck, Near To The Knuckle, Nov. 18, 2015. Close To The Bone. Criminals deliberately wreck a train to loot it. I got the idea from reading a biography of psychopathic criminal Carl Panzram. This is a pastiche of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op stories. _www.close2thebone.co.uk/wp/?cat=496.
51. The Arrest, NonBinary Review, Zoetic Press, Issue No. 8, The Art Of War by Sun Tzu, March 2016. This is an excerpt from my novella, Escape From Byzantium. Simon Rosencreutz is arrested at the front and seems to face certain execution, until a surprising turn of events intervenes. https://www.zoeticpress.com/.
52. Last Of The Aztec Riders, Deadman’s Tome, Oct. 7, 2016. A biker horror story, based on Jay Dobyns’s autobiographical exposé of his time spent as an undercover outlaw biker. deadmanstome.net.The story was reprinted in August 2017 in issue 002 of Gehenna And Hinnom, an extreme horror magazine. https://www.amazon.com/Hinnom-Magazine-Issue-C-P-Dunphey-ebook/dp/B074X1CHHW/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=gehenna+and+hinnom&qid=1618112189&s=digital-text&sr=1-2.
53. Prodigal Son, Suspense Magazine, Best of November/December Issue 2016, 3,300 words. The eighth published Alec Pargrew story, excerpted from the full length, unpublished novel, Sticky Wicket. Alec tracks down a runaway druggie who doesn’t appreciate being found. suspensemagazine.com/blog2/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Suspense-Magazine-Best-of-Issue-2016.pdf.
54. The Great Man’s Iron Horse, Principia Ponderosa, Third Flatiron, Feb. 2017, 4,400 words. A thinly veiled attempt to write the short story equivalent of a W. C. Fields movie. https://thirdflatiron.com/2021_TF_WP/.
55. A Gallant Southern Cavalier, Historical Feathers, January 2018, 4,900 words. Another excerpt from Nasby, my Civil War crime novel, a fictional account of Earl Van Dorn’s ignominious death, the only general killed in the war by a jealous husband rather than the enemy. This magazine went out of print, but is still available online. issuu.com/historicalfeathers/docs/hf_-_jan_18.
56. Melkart The Herdsman, Mythaxis, February 2018, 13,500 words. This novelette is the longest story ever published in Mythaxis, a UK speculative fiction magazine with a durable history. My first story featuring the Phoenician Powerhouse, Melkart the Mighty, it reworks the myth of Heracles and the cattle of Geryon in pre-Roman Italy. www.mythaxis.co.uk.
57. Woe, Babylon Besieged, Trigger Warnings, February 2018, 2,930 words. An H. P. Lovecraft pastiche. Trigger Warnings is an extreme horror magazine published in Denmark, “the lit mag that doesn’t give a shit about your sensibilities.” https://triggermagdotorg.wordpress.com/2018/01/31/woe-babylon-besieged/.
Woe was reprinted as the lead story in the 2019 Walpurgisnacht issue of Lovecraftiana, the magazine of eldritch horror. https://www.lulu.com/shop/rogue-planet-press/lovecraftiana-walpurgisnacht-2019/paperback/product-24089170.html?page=1&pageSize=4.
58. Isle Of The White Worm Spice, Infernal Ink, April 2018, 4,160 words. Infernal Ink was an erotic horror magazine published by Hydra M. Star. Spanish conquistadors find a tropical paradise, seek to conquer, and die. One of my rare stories that deals with sex. www.amazon.com/dp/B07BPGZP32. www.facebook.com/infernalinkmagazine.
59. Two Friars Came To Montestregae, Dark Fire Fiction, July 2018, 2,900 words. Dark Fire is a UK horror magazine. An excerpt from a fantasy novel set in Renaissance Italy, City Of Witches. A randy monk sticks his junk where it doesn’t belong and pays a heavy price. darkfire.epizy.com/fiction_Mellon0718.html.
60. The Mustanger, Concho River Review, vol. 32, no. 2, Fall/Winter 2018, 2,640 words. Robert Lemmons was a black Texas cowhand in the bad old days who trailed wild mustangs in South Texas until they considered him part of the herd. This is my version of his exploits. I read this story at the 2018 Elmer Kelton Literary Conference at Angelo State University in Texas. ASU also publishes the Concho River Review. conchoriverreview.org.
61. High On Mexican Lucky, Story & Grit, Jan. 2019. The ninth published Alec Pargrew story. When a famous country singer dies from an overdose of a mysterious new drug, Pargrew is tasked with running in the manufacturer. Out of print.
62. Fortune Teller, Horror Sleaze Trash, April 17, 2019. 4,275 words. A hedge fund manager finds a hotline to the future in an ancient Greek fortune teller, but ultimately regrets it. https://horrorsleazetrash.com/2019/04/17/mark-mellon/. This story was reprinted on June 17, 2019, as part of a collection of HST works, Prose In Poor Taste. https://www.amazon.com/Horror-Sleaze-Trash-Prose-Taste/dp/1074416082. Fortune Teller also appears in an anthology, Host Of Many: Hades And His Retinue, published in Nov. 2020 by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (see also entry no. 39), ed. Terence P. Ward. https://neosalexandria.org/bibliotheca-alexandrina/current-titles/devotionals/host-of-many-hades-and-his-retinue/.
63. Death Finds The Hippy Hunter, Mysterical-E Magazine, April 2019, Winter/Spring issue. A 17,000 word murder mystery novella featuring my punk pseudo-cop protagonist, Kurt Malaparte (see entry no.46). This was my first effort in this genre and I’m grateful it was published. https://mystericale.com/article/death-finds-the-hippy-hunter/.
64. Sea Jackals Of Dubai, Into The Ruins, issue no. 13, Summer 2019. 4,250 words. A post-apocalyptic short story about brave men who sail from a now tropical Antarctica in a frail boat powered by a crude methane engine on an incredibly long voyage to plunder the ruins of a desolate Persian Gulf. Now out of print, Into The Ruins focused on “deindustrial” fiction, i.e., a future where industry was no longer possible. https://intotheruins.com/store/.
65. An Etruscan Tomb, Tigershark Magazine, issue 24, Winter 2019, Night Terrors. 2,900 words. McCrae Spenser, a Scots gentleman on his Grand Tour, accepts an invitation to see an ancient tomb at night only to learn his hosts are hell bent on killing him. This is my second story published in Tigershark. See entry no. 43. https://tigersharkpublishing.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/tigershark-24a.pdf.
66. Cackle Bladder, Thriller Magazine, vol. 2, issue 2, Jan. 2020. 2,500 words. An excerpt from my crime/horror novella, The Bigger Con. A Midwestern hick expects to make a killing in a Florida land deal only to lose his shirt and become embroiled in an apparent murder. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thriller-Magazine-2-Issue-ebook/dp/B081B77PZ9/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=ammar+habib&qid=1573667772&sr=8-1. https://thrillermagazine.org/.
67. The Mongol Kurgan, Aphotic Realm, March 6, 2020. 3,800 words. Aphotic Realm is an online extreme horror magazine. Kurgan is about a claustrophobic Red Army officer with PTSD who’s dragged into his superior’s mad scheme to break into Genghis Khan’s tomb. https://aphoticrealm.com/tag/the-mongol-kurgan/.
68. Trick Roller, Coffin Bell Journal, vol. 3, issue 3, May 2020. 3,460 words. Rather than have sex with them, a Vegas whore drugs her johns and runs off with their money in this crime/horror story. https://coffinbell.com/volume-3-issue-no-3/.
69. The Rag, Stories Of Southern Humor And Southern Crime, May 8, 2020, Blue Room Books, 388 pp. 3,980 words. Another story excerpted from The Bigger Con. A wealthy Ivy Leaguer speculates on the market while on vacation, but soon knows bitter regret. https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Southern-Humor-Crime-Anthology/dp/1950729044. https://blueroombooks.com/upcoming-anthology-southern-humor-southern-crime/.
70. Melkart In The City Of The Dead, Swords And Sorcery Magazine, July 31, 2020. 5,965 words. The second published story featuring Melkart, the towering Tyrian. Melkart voyages to mysterious Khemi and the city of Inbu-Hedj, where the dead are more welcome than the living, on a dangerous quest to save his master, Abibaal, Lord of Tyre, from a maleficent curse and a doomed afterlife. http://swordsandsorcerymagazine.com/archive/category/mark-mellon.
71. The Yacht As Big As Manhattan, Tall Tale TV, Aug. 24, 2020. 3,850 words. Available as a podcast and as online prose. Inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, The Diamond As Big As The Ritz, Yacht is about plutocrats run amuck on a boat literally as large as the Big Apple itself. Kudos to Chris Herron, podcaster extraordinaire. http://talltaletv.com/the-yacht-as-big-as-manhattan/. https://youtu.be/nKRA7m6IsQY. https://www.facebook.com/TallTaleTV/posts/1955894294534500. https://pinecast.com/listen/ffc12c55-d04a-43e7-9207-0172712817b8.mp3.
72. Melkart The Castaway, Cirsova Magazine, Fall 2020 issue. 7,450 words. The third published Melkart story. When a powerful triton destroys his ship, the Phoenician giant Melkart washes up on a foreign shore-and is rudely welcomed by a tyrant who would enslave him! This story had favorable reviews in Tangent Online and Castalia House. https://cirsova.wordpress.com/. https://www.amazon.com/Cirsova-Magazine-Thrilling-Adventure-Suspense/dp/1949313387/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=cirsova&qid=1604528020&sr=8-1 http://www.castaliahouse.com/melkart-the-castaway/. https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/cirsova-fall-special-1-september-2020/.
73. Aphrodite’s Cleft, Cauldron Anthology, issue no. 12, Feb. 2021. 2,400 words. The second published story featuring McCrae Spenser, a doughty, young Scots gentleman on his Grand Tour. This time, I arranged something pleasant for him, a meeting with Aphrodite the Seaborne herself. This differs from my usual stuff in that there’s no violence with an erotic focus instead. This story also marks the first time I’ve been published as the sole male author among female contributors, a nice honor. http://cauldronanthology.weebly.com/blog/issue-12-live.