The MagicLand Chronicles
Free Short Stories from the MagicLand timeline. Find the full list here, plus a cheesy video.
When MagicLand was released, I created a cheesy video that I never really pushed onto an unsuspecting public because I’m terrible at social media. I still am, but I’m going to share it with my readers now because, even though sales of the novel are rather putrid, it has good reviews, and the few people who have bought it seem to like it.
So here it is…
I made the video using stock art and Adobe Premiere. To be honest, I swear, a big reason I created it was just to play with the software, which I hadn’t done much of before making this video.
The novel is geared primarily for a younger audience, which may be too jaded these days to appreciate its positive message.
It’s also a lot less “harsh” than the short stories associated with the novel, although most of these short stories, like the novel, eschew F bombs and raw language.1
One thing that is consistent about both the novel and the stories: They take place in a world where the one percent has eradicated the pesky masses instead of facing things like climate change head on.
The result, 2,000 years later (in the novel), is that humanity has split into two species: One, those who become augmented, and two, people of magic.
This is a list of stories from the MagicLand Chronicles: Free short stories involving characters who do not appear in the novel but are part of the 2,000-year timeline leading to the events of the novel, MagicLand.
The Dragons Amongst Us
… a species that has achieved complete mastery over genetics. Some say these beings live in the cylindrical moon, others say they dwell beneath the earth. If they exist, nobody has seen them. But evidence sometimes emerges with a destructive, mysterious force.
Triage
She looked across the lake at sculptures morphed from the ruins of old steel mills. Hammond, Indiana, she thought. That used to be Hammond. Her dad had taken her fishing here as a child. Wolf Lake had its charms during her childhood despite being in the middle of old industrial parks. The bluegill always looked fat and happy, even as they flopped on the …
The Fires of Easterly
Some say it’s been two hundred years since the Third Eradication. I don’t know. How would I? I don’t keep a calendar. I don’t have a way to tell time aside from the sun’s location against the burnt trees. I can tell you the day, the month, the time of year. But I can’t tell you what year. I don’t know anybody else who knows, either. If it mattered, I sup…
The First Reckless
This short story takes place about 1700 years before the events of my debut novel, MagicLand. The characters in this story do not appear in the novel.
The Death of Charlie Hollywood
I I’ve got about, oh, I dunno, maybe twenty million in crypto. But nowhere to spend it. The magicians have hacked the net. How do magicians hack a net? They’re magicians, not hackers. I don’t get it. I spend most of my time dodging eradi…
The Graft Queen
Eureka Mounds felt his heart race as he ran under the ancient bridge. The bridge was covered in vegetation and vines, but he could see concrete railings that must have been designed to keep Old Earth vehicles from crashing to his current vantage point.
Where Is MagicLand?
The storms this year have been even worse than usual. This means, of course, that survival hinges more on luck than things like skill, or shelter, or even the ability to wage combat with bandits, thieves, and marauders. It doesn’t help that the Gath relentlessly hunt those of us who are descendants of non-augmenters.
The House of Nadab
This story is set nearly 2,000 years before the events in the novel MagicLand. “It’s not another pandemic,” says Gareth as he winds a long, loose thread from the sleeve of his flannel shirt tightly around his wrist. This has the effect of creating a wrinkled plaid funnel aimed at his worn, black hand.
There’s an App for That
Apparitions. Ghosts. Angels. Demons. All living among us, but nobody really sees them. Until now. The story of how I created an app that captures the images of these beings is one born out of an accident. It happened during what some people call The Eradication.
Mary Catches Fire for Free
Chance is so old she wears her skin as if it could all peel off tonight in her sleep. But her stories make us happy enough we’d die to protect her. And her peeling skin. “For centuries, our people were at the mercy of The Gath,” she is telli…
The Wanderer
Nothing remains of Pittman. As we watch its remnants smolder, I know deep in my soul that every one of us has the same picture in our mind, that of the grand and stately old hall, a stubborn old man of a building frowning at its more modern surroundi…
The Cesspool Mermaid
She looked at me with a battered, peeling face that expressed such forlornness that the treachery of sadness was crushing my heart. “I’m not from here,” she said. “I’m just some psycho’s invention.” She was a mermaid. And when she looked up as she said this, I knew where the psycho liv…
The Futurists
“Hi, Tom,” I said to the stranger walking past me on a sidewalk colored by an animated carpet made from this year’s autumn leaves. Continuing his gait, he looked at me and asked, “Do I know you?” as leaves danced and swirled around his passing steps.
Scarlett’s Kitchen
Scarlett’s an old Black lady who ain’t never worn a stitch of red clothing in her life, far as I know. She don’t even like that color. Red. I know this because I’m her husband. I’m an old white man, Scarlett’s age, been with her these fifty-five years now. When people ask, we like to joke that we are both about eighty years old but we ain’t sure. We
The War Dogs of Lamar
Duke tears into a fellow pit bull’s neck while Rocket, a thicker than normal Doberman, launches his jaws into one of its hind legs, sloppily severing it like it’s nothing more than a dried branch of pine.
Welcome to You+
A special guest post by Tom Bandolier, CEO of Geneticsys, Inc. You may not have heard of us yet, but You will soon. My name is Tom Bandolier, and I started You+ because for years I’ve been burrowed deep in the world of genetics and robotics working on creating a better me.
The Dragons of Sierra
It is a time of conflict. A never-ending war between magicians and augmented humans known as The Gath. Now, a new menace threatens both races. A menace from the sky, created by the refugees living in the Cylindrical Moon. This is the prologue to a novella (still in progress) that will be part o…
The Cutting
1 Charon grabbed Gabby’s small wrist like it was about to fly away. “That’s not for you. Let go of that.” The little girl let go. Charon snatched the knife from the table and walked it over to Peyta. “What’s wrong with you? You know better than that.” She dropped the knife in front of her startled sister.
The Rise of the AI Reich
This story is a prequel to my first novel, MagicLand. It takes place about 2,000 years before the events of the novel. Humanity has not yet split into two separate species, augmented humans and magicians.
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Notes
Video Music: A Battle for the Future by Eoin Mantell; licensed via Adobe Stock
Footnotes
This happened mostly by accident. The characters didn’t strike me as expletive deleted types, and since they were young, the morals of the story began to unfold as “teachable” moments that some adults might react to by saying, “Well, duh.” I never heard that reaction, but I sort of felt it while writing it. The publisher also only publishes stuff without curse words, so I removed the two or so that seeped into the narrative.
Yippee. More to read.
Really not so terribly cheesier than some of the made for streaming series/movies. At first I thought it was like Eternaut or WWZ.
I don't remember posing for the role of the young woman.