Feb 15 2026

Predictive Patreon: An American Werewolf on the Titanic – April 12, 1912

I found the backup of the Half Million on an old hard drive when doing a creative audit a few months ago, and for some reason “An American Werewolf on the Titanic,” which I hadn’t read in 25 years, got under my skin. It was well-written for something I knocked out over a few days when I was 26, but it was also more or less what it said on the tin: a wealthy American werewolf travels on the Titanic with his faithful companion, and when disaster strikes they’re forced to resort to extreme measures to survive. There was no exploration of class, culture, or morals, and the research amounted to “The writer watched ‘Titanic’ once.”

It was definitely time for a rewrite. Trouble is, the movie made everyone an expert, and many of them were fans. I once spent two hours trying to determine if a kid in western Tennessee would have been able to watch “The Lone Ranger” on TV in 1955. I spent the next three months with 26 open browser tabs, exploring everything from the layout to the clothing to the slang, as well as biographies of all the major figures. I read restaurant menus, discovered how much the swimming pool cost to use, and counted the number of available toilets. If I didn’t get all this stuff right, I was going to get letters…

Feb 8 2026

Historic Patreon: An American Werewolf on the Titanic – April 11, 1912

In late 1997, Paramount Pictures released James Cameron’s “Titanic,” an epic romance starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as star-crossed lovers aboard the doomed ocean liner. A week later, Buena Vista Pictures released “An American Werewolf in Paris,” starring Tom Everett Scott and Julie Delpy. One movie went on to great acclaim and multiple Academy Awards. The other…did not.

But it gave me the opportunity, in early 1998, to enjoy my own private Barbenheimer. “An American Werewolf on the Titanic,” I suppose, was inevitable under those circumstances; I went home and knocked out a 10,000 word short story over the course of a few days. At the time, I’d built a website called “The Half-Million,” which served pretty much the same purpose as the Patreon: a repository of stories well-written but difficult to market.

Jan 19 2026

Progress Patreon: Thou Shalt Not… / The Way I Lived, Out Here With You

The three-part “Thou Shalt Not…” comes to an end, dependent on whether Harris Baker can let go of his vendetta. Astute readers might notice that the timeframe is a bit compressed; the events of the story really wouldn’t happen that quickly, but Baker’s bad decisions seem to hustle things along. Meanwhile, Simon is well on his way to discovering who he really is, and finding a family strong enough for him.

“The Way I Lived, Out Here With You” is this week’s free story, about a werewolf struggling to end a difficult period of mourning for the sake of a loved one. How do you move on without feeling like you’re abandoning those you’ve lost?

Jan 11 2026

Obstructive Patreon – Thou Shalt Not… Part 2

One of the things I found interesting in my re-read of this older story is that nothing Harris does inconveniences the Tribe in the slightest. Konac Namaroc isn’t part of the legal team defending his property, so this existential battle is going on entirely in the background. His people just live their lives as Harris throws money at the lawsuit.

But Harris was right about one thing. It isn’t safe for Simon among the Namaroc, and he will get hurt. Not through any fault of the Tribe, and not in the way anyone expects, but there are dangers the Pack hasn’t found – dangers that eventually find Simon.

Jan 5 2026

Obsessive Patreon: Thou Shalt Not…Part 1

“Thou Shalt Not…” was one of two stories I wrote for an anthology.

The story was supposed to center on Harris Baker’s obsession and jealousy with his neighbors, and how that obsession cost him everything. Instead, Simon’s gentler coming-of-age story turned out to be a much more pleasant place to be. The result is reflected in the story, with Harris’s scenes curt, abrupt, and hurried, while Simon’s scenes are lavish and detailed. Which would you rather do – spend an idle summer swimming in secluded rivers, or trying to steal your neighbor’s house?

Dec 28 2025

Protective Patreon: Weasels of the Apocalypse

One wonders why one needs so many different apocalypses, just as one wonders why one might need so many different kinds of werewolves. It’s a little like running a simulation; begin each new version with different parameters and see how your characters react to it. It’s possible all of these are the same apocalypse; there’s plenty of room on the planet, after all.

But “Weasels of the Apocalypse,” an excerpt from a longer novel of the same name, descends specifically from an unexplained event called the “Orange Sky.” Whatever the nature of that event, Anthros set themselves up as caretakers to the surviving humans, who could no longer care for themselves, and eventually inherited the world – with no interest in the works of humans, except to circulate a few comforts of choice. (There’s a scene in the longer story where Tarrant watches his first movie.)

It’d be nice to revisit this particular apocalypse again at some point and see how this trio of weasels are getting by at home in Winnepesauke. The story is available on “The Voice of Dog,” read aloud by Khaki, May 02, 2022.

Dec 21 2025

Parched Patreon: Hot

I wrote “Hot” in the dead of winter, coldest day of the year, with the wind howling outside the windows and the thermometer reading 8F. I was thinking about how my earlier complaining about the snow and cold would soon give way to complaining about the suffocating summer heat, giving the impression that one could never be truly satisfied with the weather.

The story went a long way toward cementing the Tribe as a running series; after writing it, I edited older stories to match its setting. The town of Ashton, Maine, a former mill village with a population of around 9,600, puts in its first appearance, 24 miles from Carver Cabin in Carver Gore, the territory of the Tribe and the 152 werewolves who call its dozen or so square miles of unincorporated land their home. The Tribe’s leader, called simply “The Master,” is a young visionary celebrated throughout the Pack for his problem-solving skills, though the people remain largely ungoverned. The Pack’s freedom is partly due to the legal maneuvering of Gabriel Blaine, a member of the Pack who passed the bar and created a non-profit trust granting the Pack stewardship of Carver Gore.

The werewolves of the Tribe are an indolent, goofy lot, though they do have the ability to lock-in when one of their own is in danger, and they have little tolerance for hostile humans. “Hot” asks a lot of its two protagonists: what do you do next when you’ve achieved your greatest dream? When does ennui turn into depression? How do you encourage someone else to take the reins of your life? And is the problem really just the heat, or is it something deeper? As Breakwater and Patrick stumble out of the woods on their fool’s quest to briefly join civilization, they’re confronted by their neglect of a part of themselves as beautiful as any beast.

Dec 8 2025

Post-pubescent Patreon: Path of the Hunters, Part Two

I feel like I want to come back to this world at some point. Two mighty tribes have been at war so long that there hasn’t been a battle in centuries, and their conflict has evolved into a rigid slate of rules and courtesies designed to prevent violence from flaring up and involving both tribes. Two fierce warriors of these opposing tribes meet in the ruins of an ancient city, and cautiously dance around each other, trading insults and shaking weapons to cement their antagonism. Waltz of the frenemies.

Torvik continues to struggle with growing up; he thinks it’s a stupid idea and doesn’t want to do it, not that he has a choice. His body has been making some bad decisions for him lately, and he’s feeling churlish and short. His easygoing Kahjah opponent pities him somewhat, which outrages him further, and he’s picked a fight he hasn’t a prayer of winning…

Dec 3 2025

Penalty Patreon: A Pocketful of Stars – Entrance of the Gladiators, Part 1

“Say, whatever happened to Chancellor Damon and Emperor Kellin after the Battle of the Caldera in ‘Found: One Apocalypse?'” said literally no one. But the original plot to the story that became this behemoth series was the entire Galaxy and all its various factions targeting the broken-down battleship for their own purposes, so it was time to wheel in another faction.

They’re pronounced “ZAY-tuss,” and that’s singular and plural. I suppose they’re a response to all the honor-before-reason barbarian species cooked up to keep science fiction moving. They look like seven-foot-tall anthropomorphic dragons, and they have a little gland at the base of their skulls that creates a hormone that makes them brutally competitive. Put two Zatus in a room together and they’ll beat each other up as soon as they get bored.

It doesn’t take long for Damon to realize that this civilization of death-before-dishonor barbarian lords is all hat and no cattle, and that when your civilization is death-before-dishonor, you end up generating a society of rules lawyers and backstabbers. Everyone aboard the Silver Star has great talent and abilities, none of which are valued by a society of skull-thumpers. So Damon is left to navigate this culture as best as he can. At least they’re honest with him.

Nov 30 2025

Post-Apocalyptic Patreon: Path of the Hunters, Part One

I was going over this story for about the third time before posting it to Patreon when a random neuron fired and I suddenly remembered a story I first read in high school called “By the Waters of Babylon,” by Stephen Vincent Benet. Suddenly, scenes from it sprang fully-formed in my mind, images I haven’t thought of in nearly forty years.

I’ve written a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction that uses an urban environment being crushed by encroaching nature, and in the abstract, “Path of the Hunters” is just another in the conga line. None of it was written with “By the Waters of Babylon” in mind, at least not consciously, but this story probably falls closest to it on the scale.