Author
James Van Pelt
http://jimvanpelt.livejournal.com/
NPC
For the right fee a player can enter the virtual MMO, Castles, Wights and Heroes, permanently. So my girlfriend and I did. We left mundane lives, let the technicians wire us into the game. "There is no coming back," the company rep told us. She became a warrior queen. Silver…
Small Worlds of Black and White
The women I've loved are all decades dead. Myrna Loy in The Thin Man movies, of course, wise cracking and elegant, and Katherine Hepburn in Stage Door with her unforgettable voice, and the sad and cynical Bette Davis in All About Eve. Everyone moving through their stories with…
Gun Safe
The gun is reluctant. Jason Tipford presses the barrel against his temple. The gun contacts the cloud, the collective voice of connected smart devices. The fingerprint matches the authorized operator. The locking no-fire cover has been removed, sending the signal to activate the…
In the Blue Buzz
I went to the gym on the day before the world ended. No one greeted me at the door when I came in, but I scanned in my member number anyway, surprised that the place was open. The bank of elliptical machines was empty except for a young woman in a college sweat shirt and pink…
Norwegian Wood
George walked the long, curving street, head up, watching the shadows. A midnight stroll wasn't safe--too many animals that used to avoid the suburbs had lost fear--but at night he could convince himself the neighborhood was the way it had been a year before. He pretended…
Fine Dining During the Apocalypse
Spices and creative thinking in the kitchen offer the diner looking for the best culinary experience no reason to despair in these new and challenging times. The stores have long ago been sacked, of course, shelves cleared, and many burned to the ground, but they were obvious…
Maybe if One Person Less
The spaceship Calliope breathes without pause, inhaling through mouths on the floor and exhaling from mouths overhead. Seaweed streamers on the ceiling vents wave in the continuous sigh. Lying in my bunk, eyes closed, the humming, breathing, great bear of a ship holds me close…
Weaponized Ghosts of the 96th Infantry
"Until now, vengeful ghosts have been documented in history but never seen by science," said General Kilborne as he led the Secretary of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff into the forward bunker. "The army has known about them for years. We've studied the types of persons and…
Writing Advice
Never start with the weather. But what if the weather is the whole story? Solar weather to start with, but also the weather as I write this? Wind rattles the windows. It whistles, moans, and whispers like sheets sliding on sand. Rain taps its fingernails against the glass.…
The Lies
Bri told me the lift ships to Terra Station took off Tuesday and Friday mornings from Campbell Field. They made the cabin look like an old-time luxury liner, like a zeppelin crossing the Atlantic, with wooden wainscoting and brass fittings. She said stewards in white jackets and…
Experience Arcade
***Editor's Note: Adult story. Mature themes. Not for the wee ones*** The Japanese do the cool stuff and worst stuff first. They're the fad makers: video games, reality TV, bizarre game shows, weirdness in fashion, hentai, must-own electronics--they do it first. So, Experience…
Everything's Unlikely
Happy and scared and thinking about odds, I turn from Forest onto Broadway, setting sun behind me, a mile from The Haggard Traveler, a sports bar where the afternoon phone crew meets for FAC. Broadway's a miserable stretch of road between Forest and the bar: ten unsynchronized…
The Story Will Win a Hugo
"That woman is asking about you again, Dustin," said Lucienne, the grad assistant. She'd braided her hair into a blonde rope that hung down her back. Like all his grad assistants, she didn't look old enough to drive. Dustin ground the heels of his hands into his eyes. The…
The Time Travel Device
I'd assembled my time travel device out of circuits, microchips, and clever wiring; but the gods or magic or fate controlled it. Perhaps an inventor who loves to read puts too much of himself into his creations. Or perhaps a literatus who engineers cannot separate his own…
Values, Vision and Mission
Across the tracks from the train platform, a dog barked into a cell phone lying on the sidewalk, a small brown dog that might have had some Cocker Spaniel in its lineage, but was otherwise undistinguished. My briefcase hung heavily, and I was afraid to shift it to the other…
Values, Vision and Mission
Across the tracks from the train platform, a dog barked into a cell phone lying on the sidewalk, a small brown dog that might have had some Cocker Spaniel in its lineage, but was otherwise undistinguished. My briefcase hung heavily, and I was afraid to shift it to the other…
Late Homework
"Miss Linderman," said the voice--it sounded like the principal's secretary--"there's been an accident. Two of our students were killed driving home from a haunted house. Cathy Jackson and Melinda Cranford." Miss Linderman held the phone tight in the dark room. On the dresser,…