Publications as of January 2024

More or less in reverse order, here are my online and print publications again so far:

It’s wonderful to see “Where the Tall Corn Grows” (i.e. Iowa) published in Möbius Blvd, Issue No. 4, now available at all online bookstores. This is another Iowa farm story with speculation about kernels of corn.

I’m so happy and grateful to have my story “Persuasion” published in Black Sheep, Issue No. 7, now available at all online bookstores. The inspiration was the current “political” situation here in Germany. Wolves, legally still a protected species, are returning to the Black Forest. Local farmers are worried.

I’m exceedidngly happy that my story “Epiphany Star Singers” is published by Knight Writing Press (knightwritingpress.com) in Particular Passages: Decked Halls and available at your favorite online bookstores.

My story “Rodney’s Request” (a happy Iowa story) is now available in Issue 56 of Luna Station Quarterly. The issue is available free online, and my story at https://lunastationquarterly.com/story/rodneys-request/
A little information about this wonderful online magazine, which is available in print at amazon and as an e-book at Luna Station Quarterly, https://lunastationpress.gumroad.com/l/lsq-056 at or at your favorite online bookstore.

I am incredibly happy that my story “Where Fasnet Met Space Net” (a science fiction story inspired by the Fasnacht/Fasnet/Carneval – Mardi Gras celebrations in Baden-Württemberg, specifically the area around Rottweil) has been published in Dark Horses, Issue 20, September 2023. This wonderful magazine is available in electronic and print formats at all online bookstores.

My story, “Elsie’s Encounter”, takes place in the area where I grew up. I just never noticed any magic or witches while I lived there. I am so grateful to Leah Cutter for including it in her fantastic anthology Crones. Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue 5, which is available in electronic and print formats at all online bookstores

I’m overjoyed that my story “Death in Advent” (naturally pure fiction with characters that are merely a figment of my imagination, although “inspired” by the 41 years spent at my place of employment) is now published in The Dark City, Volume 8, Issue 4, July 2023 and available in print and electronic formats at all online bookstores. I originally wrote this story in 2018 for a WMG anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon.

My story, “Julienne Cleans Up”, from my Mars collection, is available at The Lorelei Signal, double issue April and July, 2023, https://www.loreleisignal.com/julienne-cleans-up. I’m thrilled to be published in this wonderful online magazine again.

I first wrote “Lose the Oops” available in the July issue (#42) of Fabula Argentea, https://fabulaargentea.com/…/lose-the-oops-by-mary-jo…/ during a WMG science fiction writing workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon, in the fall of 2013. Since then I redrafted it to eliminate the original “low-hanging fruit”, i.e. substituting Cistercian nuns for space aliens. It is a cautionary tale, taking place in an imaginary/alternate-universe Dubuque, Iowa, and I am extremely grateful to Fabula Argentea for publishing two of my stories so far.

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“Dan the Trumpet Man”, the story of a trumpet player and composer on Mars, inspired by Dan Cook (https://pecanvalleymusic.com/) is published in Dark Horses, May 2023, Issue 16, and available in all online bookstores, This is the third story published in Dark Horses so far.

“To Hear the Bats on Christmas Day” featuring Maquoketa B. Dragon, famous resident of the Maquoketa Caves, is published in the wonderful A Flight of Dragons: Anthology, available in all online bookstores in electronic and print format.

“Huey, Dewey, and Lloyd”, a siblings struggle from my Mars collection, can be viewed at the Editor’s Corner of Electric Spec, https://www.electricspec.com/Volume18/Issue1/rabe.feb23.html

“Shriek and the World Shrieks with You”, the fate of long-living robots on Mars, is published in Starry Eyed Press’s ONE-WAY TICKET, a collection of fourteen science fiction tales of action, adventure, suspense, mystery and terror and is available in all online bookstores in electronic and print format.

“Pink on Pink”, the trials and tribulations of a modern witch on Mars, is now published in Dark Horses, the Magazine of Weird Fiction, Issue No. 12, January 2023, available at all online bookstores in electronic and print format.

“Red, Blue,. Green, and Yellow” has its own history. First of all, the most important information:

I am overjoyed, thrilled, and so grateful that “Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow” is now online at 4StarStories 

You can go directly to my story at https://4starstories.com/4StarStories_Archive_Issue25/story_4.htm

The Editor of Four Star Stories, David Gray, was kind enough to write his acceptance of this story beginning with: “I loved it. I thought it was one of the most original stories I have read in a long time.”

Some stories just show up and demand to be written. However, I owe the existence of this story to three amazing writers, T. Thorne Coyle, Dayle Dermatis, and Annie Reed.

After the tragic death of Kip Ward, the owner of the Historic Anchor Inn in Lincoln City, Oregon, writers T. Thorn Coyle, Dayle A. Dermatis, and Annie Reed suggested that we write stories for a charity anthology in honor of Kip Ward called “Tales From the Anchor”. During the Anthology Workshops in Lincoln City, many of us had had the good fortune to stay at the wonderful Anchor Inn. The stories for the anthology were to be inspired by items there. Proceeds would be donated to Kip Ward’s favorite charity. My story, “Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow” was inspired by the multi-colored, glass lamp above the doorway between the restaurant and bar in the Anchor Inn. As happens sometimes, this anthology didn’t come about, and so my story found a home in Four Star Stories.

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I’m overjoyed to have my story “Balance the Books” published online at The Lorelei Signal, https://www.loreleisignal.com/balance-the–books, the October 2022 issue. It has definite autobiographical references from my 41 years in the chancery office library, along with wishful thinking from that time.

My story “Tryst at the Tombaugh Regio” in Draw Down the Moon, another wonderful anthology from Propertius Press, available https://www.propertiuspress.com/our-bookstore/Draw-Down-the-Moon-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p375745328  and in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores. I wrote this love story for an anthology workshop in Las Vegas. It’s happy ending takes place on the Tombaugh Regio, that pink, heart-shaped area on (dwarf)planet Pluto.

I wrote “Spaceship Nursery” for a Dean Wesley Smith online workshop. It is a new perspective of AI with respect to spaceship construction. The nice people at Wyldblood, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Issue 9, available at https://wyldblood.com/product/wyldblood-9/ and at online bookstores in e-book and print formats.

My story “How Fred the Opossum Mobilized the Microbes and Saved the Universe” in Pulphouse, Issue 18, available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/pulphouse-issue-18/ and via https://books2read.com/u/38eNgw. It was kindly reviewed by Tangent Online, https://tangentonline.com/print-bi-monthly/pulphouse-18-june-july-2022/ Fred the Opossum was a frequent visitor on our farm in Iowa, and I’m glad I had the chance to give him the credit he deserves.

Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “And Became Titans” in his Boundary Shock Quarterly, Issue 9, Sea Stories . Here intelligent Martian microbes find a way to get the Earthie colonists to help them gain communication with other microbes in the solar system. It is available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://www.boundaryshockquarterly.com/book/sea-stories/

Once again Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “The Gods of the Black Forest” in Blaze Ward Presents, Issue 6, available in e-book and print formats in all online book stores and at https://blazewardpresents.com/?mbdb_book=small-gods  My small gods live in the streams in the mountains of the Black Forest.

“October Mardi Gras” is published in Dark Horses, the Magazine of Weird Fiction, Issue No. 4, May 2022. It is inspired by memories of various teachers at Miles High School in Miles, Iowa, back in the 1960’s. It is also available at all online bookstores in e-book and print formats

Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Iowa Summer”, my story that I wrote for an anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My Story “The Devil and the Deep Blue Chiemsee”, inspired by my years in the chancery office library and a library conference at Frauenchiemsee, is available online at: https://mysterytribune.com/the-devil-and-the-deep-blue-chiemsee-cozy-mystery-by-mary-jo-rabe/

“Prista Indulges in Tricks and Treats” is published at The Lorelei Signal, https://www.loreleisignal.com/prista-indulges-tricks-and-treats, was published in the January 2022 issue and is no longer online

My two stories previously published in Pulphouse #4 (For the Love of Killer) and Pulphouse #8 (Taking Care of Business) have been reprinted in new Pulphouse issues, as always available in e-book and print format at all online bookstores. “For the Love of Killer” appears in Run!! Creatures, Critters, and Pulphousers and is also availaboe at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/run-creatures-critters-and-pulphousers/?fbclid=IwAR1AgtKTe43OF13MH6BXRfaZuPG93kRzqw-MhcZct0SZU-vbQm5Wbsjo-gc. “Taking Care of Business” appears in Twisted Robots, Oh, My!, and is also available at WMG (https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/twisted-robots-oh-my/?fbclid=IwAR1f1-E4wEW9OhaFuRwNkEsmdgr3oH8jGzJ5VBTke987vi48UJva7r5KlyM)

My story “Gargoyles of the World, Unite!” inspired by the gargoyles of the Freiburg cathedral and featuring Annegret Gumpert, one of my somewhat homicidal alter egos, to my endless delight, is published in The Lost Librarian’s Grave, a wonderful anthology available as an e-book and in print from Redwood Press https://redwood-press.com/, and at every online bookstore.

I wrote “Endless Horizons”, a joyful story about exploring the universe, for the 2019 Anthology Workshop and was overjoyed and eternally grateful when editor Leah Cutter accepted it for her anthology “Explorers, Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue Three“, which of course if available in e-book and print form at all online bookstores and at https://cuttersfinalcut.com/book/explorers/

Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Rescuing Sparty”, my story inspired by the three years that I spent at Michigan State University in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My story “A Squeaky-Clean Reunion” takes place in the Maquoketa Caves (Maquoketa, Iowa). It features one of my recurring characters, Maquoketa B. Dragon, a mellow, Iowa dragon. I am overjoyed to see it published in Crunchy with Chocolate, available in e-book and print format at WolfSinger Publications, https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/crunchy-with-chocolate and at every online bookstore.

Back in 2015 I took a workshop on writing short stories taught by one of the writers I admire most, Dean Wesley Smith. One of the stories I wrote for the workshop was “Tauri”, which the wonderful people at Fabula Argentea have published in their online edition. You can read it at: https://fabulaargentea.com/index.php/article/tauri-by-mary-jo-rabe/

My story “Christmas in the Ruins”, a fictional account of Christmas in Freiburg in 1944, appeared as part of WMG Publishing’s Winter Holiday Spectacular 2020. I am so grateful to Kristine Kathryn Rusch for including it in her anthology, even though it was perhaps darker than what she was looking for.
It is available as e-book and in print at all online bookstores as well as at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/mysterious-christmas/

I wrote “It’s Lechtenbrink, Libby Lechtenbrink” for a science fiction writing workshop in January of 2020. My story features Libby Lechtenbrink, a librarian on Mars, one of my more homicidal alter egos. I am so grateful to Barbara G. Tarn for including me in this wonderful anthology, Sci-Fi Stories Earth Colonies, published in July, 2021. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/sci-fi5

I wrote “We Can Wait But No Longer Want To” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Energetic Martian microbes take advantage of the opportunity to leave their frosty underground lakes. I am overjoyed to have it published July, 2021, in Alien Dimensions #20/21, a wonderful magazine available in electronic and print form.
amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097HMG6FK
amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Alien…/dp/B098VSSQGJ/ref=sr_1_2…

I wrote “If You Lead an Earthling to Water, Who Gets To Drink?” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Martian colonists have to deal with the dilemma of possibly endangering alien life in order to keep their Earth colony running. I am thrilled that Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine chose to publish it in its online magazine, Issue 1, June 2021:

https://www.penumbric.com/currentissue/rabeWater.html

During Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020 I wrote a story I titled “Herr Gehrke, Why Is Everyone Lying to Me?” that took place in an archdiocesan chancery office of a mid-sized German city. In the hopes that it would fit Blaze Ward Presents 5 Crime and …, which was published in June, 2021, I renamed it “Bishops”. I am incredibly grateful to Blaze Ward for accepting this story. Naturally it is completely fictional, but some of the characters are inspired by people I have known. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096CJPLMV/?tag=kydala-20

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/…/B096CYSG1Q/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0…

I wrote “Slim Pickings on Mars” for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. A detective on Mars literally stumbles onto an object at a crime scene that has multi-universal consequences. It was my immense good fortune that Blaze Ward was willing to accept it for his Blaze Ward Presents 4 anthology which was published in November, 2020. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1626771787&sr=1-1

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=blaze+ward+presents+4&qid=1626771873&s=books&sr=1-1

“Father Otto” is a story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Thanks to kind editor Dayle A. Dermatis, it became my first professional sale, appearing in the Fiction River issue 33 Doorways to Enchantment, published in August, 2020. “Father Otto” is an homage to one of my favorite people at the chancery office of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. Naturally all figures are mere figments of my imagination, but inspired by real people. The story itself takes place on the second floor of the historic chancery office building in Freiburg, Germany.
It is available, electronic and print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/u/4NLWMo and of course at WMG Publishing:
https://www.wmgpublishinginc.com/p…/doorways-to-enchantment/
Tangent Online wrote a kind review of my story:

Fiction River #33: Doorways to Enchantment, ed. Dayle A. Dermatis

“Sagan in the Past” is science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. Sagan, a cat, plays an important role in a time-travel story that begins on a university campus that has certain similarities with Michigan State University. Barbara G. Tarn, was kind enough to include this story in her anthology Future Earth Tech. published in July, 2020.
You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/sci-fi3

“Katie’s Visions” is also a product of Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge”, one I worried about finding a home for, since it isn’t science fiction. Maybe you could call it historical fantasy. Katharina von Bora (Martin Luther’s wife) gets visions from Joan of Arc who has her own agenda for wanting to encourage Katharina. The wonderful people at Propertius Press included this story in their anthology Whispers from the Universe, published in June, 2020. It is available, electronic and print, at most online stores but also easily at Propertius Press, which does not charge for postage or handling.
Go to: https://bit.ly/whisperstories or
https://propertiuspress.wixsite.com/bookstore/online-store/Whispers-from-the-Universe-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p209124441

“Taking Care of Business” is a science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An Elvis impersonator on Mars finds a way to deal with devastating health issues, consistent with his reverence for The King. Dean was then kind enough to include this story in Pulphouse, Issue 8 of 2019.published in December, 2020. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/bO6gAQ
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue8/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-8-fall-2019/

“For the Love of Killer” is another story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Killer is a little, white peekapoo, inspired by Puffy, our dog on the farm. It wasn’t chosen for the anthology about female heroines, but Dean Wesley Smith was kind enough to take it for Pulphouse, Issue 4 of 2018, published in December, 2018 You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/47Z9aR?fbclid=IwAR0iZAracjT1yWQnMG4TGHIs0P_Sf58Udvmg_vDMldSEYbH-hkScaOaCAfU
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue4/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-4-december-2018/

Russ Crossley was kind enough to include “Efficient Engineering”, a story I wrote for the anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon, in 2017, in his Rocketpack Adventures anthology in October, 2018. An engineer on Mars decides to build her own rocket and leave for parts unknown. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/rocketpack-adventures

“One Universe Is Never Enough” is a story I wrote Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An administrator on Pluto gets tired of the bureaucratic backbiting and takes a chance on travel to another universe. Barbara G. Tarn was kind enough to include it in her Space Opera Mashup. Published in July, 2018. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
http://books2read.com/u/4AY5XN

Two  of my poems are still archived online:

Salt Water Rafting at Raven Electrick: http://www.ravenelectrick.com/ravenpoetrick/saltwaterrafting.html

Tharsis Lil at Astropoetica: http://www.astropoetica.com/Summer07/tharsislil.html

I have my author pages at amazon where you can see which stories of mine have been published so far:

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1598900121&sr=1-2

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_6&qid=1598900017&sr=1-6

amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4&qid=1598900282&sr=1-4

Publications as of September 2023

More or less in reverse order, here are my online and print publications again so far:

I am incredibly happy that my story “Where Fasnet Met Space Net” (a science fiction story inspired by the Fasnacht/Fasnet/Carneval – Mardi Gras celebrations in Baden-Württemberg, specifically the area around Rottweil) has been published in Dark Horses, Issue 20, September 2023. This wonderful magazine is available in electronic and print formats at all online bookstores.

My story, “Elsie’s Encounter”, takes place in the area where I grew up. I just never noticed any magic or witches while I lived there. I am so grateful to Leah Cutter for including it in her fantastic anthology Crones. Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue 5, which is available in electronic and print formats at all online bookstores

I’m overjoyed that my story “Death in Advent” (naturally pure fiction with characters that are merely a figment of my imagination, although “inspired” by the 41 years spent at my place of employment) is now published in The Dark City, Volume 8, Issue 4, July 2023 and available in print and electronic formats at all online bookstores. I originally wrote this story in 2018 for a WMG anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon.

My story, “Julienne Cleans Up”, from my Mars collection, is available at The Lorelei Signal, double issue April and July, 2023, https://www.loreleisignal.com/julienne-cleans-up. I’m thrilled to be published in this wonderful online magazine again.

I first wrote “Lose the Oops” available in the July issue (#42) of Fabula Argentea, https://fabulaargentea.com/…/lose-the-oops-by-mary-jo…/ during a WMG science fiction writing workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon, in the fall of 2013. Since then I redrafted it to eliminate the original “low-hanging fruit”, i.e. substituting Cistercian nuns for space aliens. It is a cautionary tale, taking place in an imaginary/alternate-universe Dubuque, Iowa, and I am extremely grateful to Fabula Argentea for publishing two of my stories so far.

“Dan the Trumpet Man”, the story of a trumpet player and composer on Mars, inspired by Dan Cook (https://pecanvalleymusic.com/) is published in Dark Horses, May 2023, Issue 16, and available in all online bookstores, This is the third story published in Dark Horses so far.

“To Hear the Bats on Christmas Day” featuring Maquoketa B. Dragon, famous resident of the Maquoketa Caves, is published in the wonderful A Flight of Dragons: Anthology, available in all online bookstores in electronic and print format.

“Huey, Dewey, and Lloyd”, a siblings struggle from my Mars collection, can be viewed at the Editor’s Corner of Electric Spec, https://www.electricspec.com/Volume18/Issue1/rabe.feb23.html

“Shriek and the World Shrieks with You”, the fate of long-living robots on Mars, is published in Starry Eyed Press’s ONE-WAY TICKET, a collection of fourteen science fiction tales of action, adventure, suspense, mystery and terror and is available in all online bookstores in electronic and print format.

“Pink on Pink”, the trials and tribulations of a modern witch on Mars, is now published in Dark Horses, the Magazine of Weird Fiction, Issue No. 12, January 2023, available at all online bookstores in electronic and print format.

“Red, Blue,. Green, and Yellow” has its own history. First of all, the most important information:

I am overjoyed, thrilled, and so grateful that “Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow” is now online at 4StarStories 

You can go directly to my story at https://4starstories.com/4StarStories_Archive_Issue25/story_4.htm

The Editor of Four Star Stories, David Gray, was kind enough to write his acceptance of this story beginning with: “I loved it. I thought it was one of the most original stories I have read in a long time.”

Some stories just show up and demand to be written. However, I owe the existence of this story to three amazing writers, T. Thorne Coyle, Dayle Dermatis, and Annie Reed.

After the tragic death of Kip Ward, the owner of the Historic Anchor Inn in Lincoln City, Oregon, writers T. Thorn Coyle, Dayle A. Dermatis, and Annie Reed suggested that we write stories for a charity anthology in honor of Kip Ward called “Tales From the Anchor”. During the Anthology Workshops in Lincoln City, many of us had had the good fortune to stay at the wonderful Anchor Inn. The stories for the anthology were to be inspired by items there. Proceeds would be donated to Kip Ward’s favorite charity. My story, “Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow” was inspired by the multi-colored, glass lamp above the doorway between the restaurant and bar in the Anchor Inn. As happens sometimes, this anthology didn’t come about, and so my story found a home in Four Star Stories.

I’m overjoyed to have my story “Balance the Books” published online at The Lorelei Signal, https://www.loreleisignal.com/balance-the–books, the October 2022 issue. It has definite autobiographical references from my 41 years in the chancery office library, along with wishful thinking from that time.

My story “Tryst at the Tombaugh Regio” in Draw Down the Moon, another wonderful anthology from Propertius Press, available https://www.propertiuspress.com/our-bookstore/Draw-Down-the-Moon-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p375745328  and in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores. I wrote this love story for an anthology workshop in Las Vegas. It’s happy ending takes place on the Tombaugh Regio, that pink, heart-shaped area on (dwarf)planet Pluto.

I wrote “Spaceship Nursery” for a Dean Wesley Smith online workshop. It is a new perspective of AI with respect to spaceship construction. The nice people at Wyldblood, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Issue 9, available at https://wyldblood.com/product/wyldblood-9/ and at online bookstores in e-book and print formats.

My story “How Fred the Opossum Mobilized the Microbes and Saved the Universe” in Pulphouse, Issue 18, available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/pulphouse-issue-18/ and via https://books2read.com/u/38eNgw. It was kindly reviewed by Tangent Online, https://tangentonline.com/print-bi-monthly/pulphouse-18-june-july-2022/ Fred the Opossum was a frequent visitor on our farm in Iowa, and I’m glad I had the chance to give him the credit he deserves.

Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “And Became Titans” in his Boundary Shock Quarterly, Issue 9, Sea Stories . Here intelligent Martian microbes find a way to get the Earthie colonists to help them gain communication with other microbes in the solar system. It is available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://www.boundaryshockquarterly.com/book/sea-stories/

Once again Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “The Gods of the Black Forest” in Blaze Ward Presents, Issue 6, available in e-book and print formats in all online book stores and at https://blazewardpresents.com/?mbdb_book=small-gods  My small gods live in the streams in the mountains of the Black Forest.

“October Mardi Gras” is published in Dark Horses, the Magazine of Weird Fiction, Issue No. 4, May 2022. It is inspired by memories of various teachers at Miles High School in Miles, Iowa, back in the 1960’s. It is also available at all online bookstores in e-book and print formats

Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Iowa Summer”, my story that I wrote for an anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My Story “The Devil and the Deep Blue Chiemsee”, inspired by my years in the chancery office library and a library conference at Frauenchiemsee, is available online at: https://mysterytribune.com/the-devil-and-the-deep-blue-chiemsee-cozy-mystery-by-mary-jo-rabe/

“Prista Indulges in Tricks and Treats” is published at The Lorelei Signal, https://www.loreleisignal.com/prista-indulges-tricks-and-treats, was published in the January 2022 issue and is no longer online

My two stories previously published in Pulphouse #4 (For the Love of Killer) and Pulphouse #8 (Taking Care of Business) have been reprinted in new Pulphouse issues, as always available in e-book and print format at all online bookstores. “For the Love of Killer” appears in Run!! Creatures, Critters, and Pulphousers and is also availaboe at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/run-creatures-critters-and-pulphousers/?fbclid=IwAR1AgtKTe43OF13MH6BXRfaZuPG93kRzqw-MhcZct0SZU-vbQm5Wbsjo-gc. “Taking Care of Business” appears in Twisted Robots, Oh, My!, and is also available at WMG (https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/twisted-robots-oh-my/?fbclid=IwAR1f1-E4wEW9OhaFuRwNkEsmdgr3oH8jGzJ5VBTke987vi48UJva7r5KlyM)

My story “Gargoyles of the World, Unite!” inspired by the gargoyles of the Freiburg cathedral and featuring Annegret Gumpert, one of my somewhat homicidal alter egos, to my endless delight, is published in The Lost Librarian’s Grave, a wonderful anthology available as an e-book and in print from Redwood Press https://redwood-press.com/, and at every online bookstore.

I wrote “Endless Horizons”, a joyful story about exploring the universe, for the 2019 Anthology Workshop and was overjoyed and eternally grateful when editor Leah Cutter accepted it for her anthology “Explorers, Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue Three“, which of course if available in e-book and print form at all online bookstores and at https://cuttersfinalcut.com/book/explorers/

Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Rescuing Sparty”, my story inspired by the three years that I spent at Michigan State University in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My story “A Squeaky-Clean Reunion” takes place in the Maquoketa Caves (Maquoketa, Iowa). It features one of my recurring characters, Maquoketa B. Dragon, a mellow, Iowa dragon. I am overjoyed to see it published in Crunchy with Chocolate, available in e-book and print format at WolfSinger Publications, https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/crunchy-with-chocolate and at every online bookstore.

Back in 2015 I took a workshop on writing short stories taught by one of the writers I admire most, Dean Wesley Smith. One of the stories I wrote for the workshop was “Tauri”, which the wonderful people at Fabula Argentea have published in their online edition. You can read it at: https://fabulaargentea.com/index.php/article/tauri-by-mary-jo-rabe/

My story “Christmas in the Ruins”, a fictional account of Christmas in Freiburg in 1944, appeared as part of WMG Publishing’s Winter Holiday Spectacular 2020. I am so grateful to Kristine Kathryn Rusch for including it in her anthology, even though it was perhaps darker than what she was looking for.
It is available as e-book and in print at all online bookstores as well as at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/mysterious-christmas/

I wrote “It’s Lechtenbrink, Libby Lechtenbrink” for a science fiction writing workshop in January of 2020. My story features Libby Lechtenbrink, a librarian on Mars, one of my more homicidal alter egos. I am so grateful to Barbara G. Tarn for including me in this wonderful anthology, Sci-Fi Stories Earth Colonies, published in July, 2021. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/sci-fi5

I wrote “We Can Wait But No Longer Want To” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Energetic Martian microbes take advantage of the opportunity to leave their frosty underground lakes. I am overjoyed to have it published July, 2021, in Alien Dimensions #20/21, a wonderful magazine available in electronic and print form.
amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097HMG6FK
amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Alien…/dp/B098VSSQGJ/ref=sr_1_2…

I wrote “If You Lead an Earthling to Water, Who Gets To Drink?” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Martian colonists have to deal with the dilemma of possibly endangering alien life in order to keep their Earth colony running. I am thrilled that Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine chose to publish it in its online magazine, Issue 1, June 2021:

https://www.penumbric.com/currentissue/rabeWater.html

During Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020 I wrote a story I titled “Herr Gehrke, Why Is Everyone Lying to Me?” that took place in an archdiocesan chancery office of a mid-sized German city. In the hopes that it would fit Blaze Ward Presents 5 Crime and …, which was published in June, 2021, I renamed it “Bishops”. I am incredibly grateful to Blaze Ward for accepting this story. Naturally it is completely fictional, but some of the characters are inspired by people I have known. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096CJPLMV/?tag=kydala-20

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/…/B096CYSG1Q/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0…

I wrote “Slim Pickings on Mars” for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. A detective on Mars literally stumbles onto an object at a crime scene that has multi-universal consequences. It was my immense good fortune that Blaze Ward was willing to accept it for his Blaze Ward Presents 4 anthology which was published in November, 2020. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1626771787&sr=1-1

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=blaze+ward+presents+4&qid=1626771873&s=books&sr=1-1

“Father Otto” is a story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Thanks to kind editor Dayle A. Dermatis, it became my first professional sale, appearing in the Fiction River issue 33 Doorways to Enchantment, published in August, 2020. “Father Otto” is an homage to one of my favorite people at the chancery office of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. Naturally all figures are mere figments of my imagination, but inspired by real people. The story itself takes place on the second floor of the historic chancery office building in Freiburg, Germany.
It is available, electronic and print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/u/4NLWMo and of course at WMG Publishing:
https://www.wmgpublishinginc.com/p…/doorways-to-enchantment/
Tangent Online wrote a kind review of my story:

Fiction River #33: Doorways to Enchantment, ed. Dayle A. Dermatis

“Sagan in the Past” is science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. Sagan, a cat, plays an important role in a time-travel story that begins on a university campus that has certain similarities with Michigan State University. Barbara G. Tarn, was kind enough to include this story in her anthology Future Earth Tech. published in July, 2020.
You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/sci-fi3

“Katie’s Visions” is also a product of Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge”, one I worried about finding a home for, since it isn’t science fiction. Maybe you could call it historical fantasy. Katharina von Bora (Martin Luther’s wife) gets visions from Joan of Arc who has her own agenda for wanting to encourage Katharina. The wonderful people at Propertius Press included this story in their anthology Whispers from the Universe, published in June, 2020. It is available, electronic and print, at most online stores but also easily at Propertius Press, which does not charge for postage or handling.
Go to: https://bit.ly/whisperstories or
https://propertiuspress.wixsite.com/bookstore/online-store/Whispers-from-the-Universe-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p209124441

“Taking Care of Business” is a science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An Elvis impersonator on Mars finds a way to deal with devastating health issues, consistent with his reverence for The King. Dean was then kind enough to include this story in Pulphouse, Issue 8 of 2019.published in December, 2020. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/bO6gAQ
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue8/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-8-fall-2019/

“For the Love of Killer” is another story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Killer is a little, white peekapoo, inspired by Puffy, our dog on the farm. It wasn’t chosen for the anthology about female heroines, but Dean Wesley Smith was kind enough to take it for Pulphouse, Issue 4 of 2018, published in December, 2018 You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/47Z9aR?fbclid=IwAR0iZAracjT1yWQnMG4TGHIs0P_Sf58Udvmg_vDMldSEYbH-hkScaOaCAfU
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue4/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-4-december-2018/

Russ Crossley was kind enough to include “Efficient Engineering”, a story I wrote for the anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon, in 2017, in his Rocketpack Adventures anthology in October, 2018. An engineer on Mars decides to build her own rocket and leave for parts unknown. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/rocketpack-adventures

“One Universe Is Never Enough” is a story I wrote Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An administrator on Pluto gets tired of the bureaucratic backbiting and takes a chance on travel to another universe. Barbara G. Tarn was kind enough to include it in her Space Opera Mashup. Published in July, 2018. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
http://books2read.com/u/4AY5XN

Two  of my poems are still archived online:

Salt Water Rafting at Raven Electrick: http://www.ravenelectrick.com/ravenpoetrick/saltwaterrafting.html

Tharsis Lil at Astropoetica: http://www.astropoetica.com/Summer07/tharsislil.html

I have my author pages at amazon where you can see which stories of mine have been published so far:

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1598900121&sr=1-2

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_6&qid=1598900017&sr=1-6

amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4&qid=1598900282&sr=1-4

Publications as of June, 2023

More or less in reverse order, here are my online and print publications again so far:

My story, “Julienne Cleans Up”, from my Mars collection, is available at The Lorelei Signal, double issue April and July, 2023, https://www.loreleisignal.com/julienne-cleans-up. I’m thrilled to be published in this wonderful online magazine again.

I first wrote “Lose the Oops” available in the July issue (#42) of Fabula Argentea, https://fabulaargentea.com/…/lose-the-oops-by-mary-jo…/ during a WMG science fiction writing workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon, in the fall of 2013. Since then I redrafted it to eliminate the original “low-hanging fruit”, i.e. substituting Cistercian nuns for space aliens. It is a cautionary tale, taking place in an imaginary/alternate-universe Dubuque, Iowa, and I am extremely grateful to Fabula Argentea for publishing two of my stories so far.

“Dan the Trumpet Man”, the story of a trumpet player and composer on Mars, inspired by Dan Cook (https://pecanvalleymusic.com/) is published in Dark Horses, May 2023, Issue 16, and available in all online bookstores, This is the third story published in Dark Horses so far.

“To Hear the Bats on Christmas Day” featuring Maquoketa B. Dragon, famous resident of the Maquoketa Caves, is published in the wonderful A Flight of Dragons: Anthology, available in all online bookstores in electronic and print format.

“Huey, Dewey, and Lloyd”, a siblings struggle from my Mars collection, can be viewed at the Editor’s Corner of Electric Spec, https://www.electricspec.com/Volume18/Issue1/rabe.feb23.html

“Shriek and the World Shrieks with You”, the fate of long-living robots on Mars, is published in Starry Eyed Press’s ONE-WAY TICKET, a collection of fourteen science fiction tales of action, adventure, suspense, mystery and terror and is available in all online bookstores in electronic and print format.

“Pink on Pink”, the trials and tribulations of a modern witch on Mars, is now published in Dark Horses, the Magazine of Weird Fiction, Issue No. 12, January 2023, available at all online bookstores in electronic and print format.

“Red, Blue,. Green, and Yellow” has its own history. First of all, the most important information:

I am overjoyed, thrilled, and so grateful that “Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow” is now online at 4StarStories 

You can go directly to my story at https://4starstories.com/4StarStories_Archive_Issue25/story_4.htm

The Editor of Four Star Stories, David Gray, was kind enough to write his acceptance of this story beginning with: “I loved it. I thought it was one of the most original stories I have read in a long time.”

Some stories just show up and demand to be written. However, I owe the existence of this story to three amazing writers, T. Thorne Coyle, Dayle Dermatis, and Annie Reed.

After the tragic death of Kip Ward, the owner of the Historic Anchor Inn in Lincoln City, Oregon, writers T. Thorn Coyle, Dayle A. Dermatis, and Annie Reed suggested that we write stories for a charity anthology in honor of Kip Ward called “Tales From the Anchor”. During the Anthology Workshops in Lincoln City, many of us had had the good fortune to stay at the wonderful Anchor Inn. The stories for the anthology were to be inspired by items there. Proceeds would be donated to Kip Ward’s favorite charity. My story, “Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow” was inspired by the multi-colored, glass lamp above the doorway between the restaurant and bar in the Anchor Inn. As happens sometimes, this anthology didn’t come about, and so my story found a home in Four Star Stories.

I’m overjoyed to have my story “Balance the Books” published online at The Lorelei Signal, https://www.loreleisignal.com/balance-the–books, the October 2022 issue. It has definite autobiographical references from my 41 years in the chancery office library, along with wishful thinking from that time.

My story “Tryst at the Tombaugh Regio” in Draw Down the Moon, another wonderful anthology from Propertius Press, available https://www.propertiuspress.com/our-bookstore/Draw-Down-the-Moon-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p375745328  and in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores. I wrote this love story for an anthology workshop in Las Vegas. It’s happy ending takes place on the Tombaugh Regio, that pink, heart-shaped area on (dwarf)planet Pluto.

I wrote “Spaceship Nursery” for a Dean Wesley Smith online workshop. It is a new perspective of AI with respect to spaceship construction. The nice people at Wyldblood, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Issue 9, available at https://wyldblood.com/product/wyldblood-9/ and at online bookstores in e-book and print formats.

My story “How Fred the Opossum Mobilized the Microbes and Saved the Universe” in Pulphouse, Issue 18, available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/pulphouse-issue-18/ and via https://books2read.com/u/38eNgw. It was kindly reviewed by Tangent Online, https://tangentonline.com/print-bi-monthly/pulphouse-18-june-july-2022/ Fred the Opossum was a frequent visitor on our farm in Iowa, and I’m glad I had the chance to give him the credit he deserves.

Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “And Became Titans” in his Boundary Shock Quarterly, Issue 9, Sea Stories . Here intelligent Martian microbes find a way to get the Earthie colonists to help them gain communication with other microbes in the solar system. It is available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://www.boundaryshockquarterly.com/book/sea-stories/

Once again Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “The Gods of the Black Forest” in Blaze Ward Presents, Issue 6, available in e-book and print formats in all online book stores and at https://blazewardpresents.com/?mbdb_book=small-gods  My small gods live in the streams in the mountains of the Black Forest.

“October Mardi Gras” is published in Dark Horses, the Magazine of Weird Fiction, Issue No. 4, May 2022. It is inspired by memories of various teachers at Miles High School in Miles, Iowa, back in the 1960’s. It is also available at all online bookstores in e-book and print formats

Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Iowa Summer”, my story that I wrote for an anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My Story “The Devil and the Deep Blue Chiemsee”, inspired by my years in the chancery office library and a library conference at Frauenchiemsee, published by Mystery Tribune, is available online at: https://mysterytribune.com/the-devil-and-the-deep-blue-chiemsee-cozy-mystery-by-mary-jo-rabe/

“Prista Indulges in Tricks and Treats” is published at The Lorelei Signal, https://www.loreleisignal.com/prista-indulges-tricks-and-treats, was published in the January 2022 issue and is no longer online

My two stories previously published in Pulphouse #4 (For the Love of Killer) and Pulphouse #8 (Taking Care of Business) have been reprinted in new Pulphouse issues, as always available in e-book and print format at all online bookstores. “For the Love of Killer” appears in Run!! Creatures, Critters, and Pulphousers and is also availaboe at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/run-creatures-critters-and-pulphousers/?fbclid=IwAR1AgtKTe43OF13MH6BXRfaZuPG93kRzqw-MhcZct0SZU-vbQm5Wbsjo-gc. “Taking Care of Business” appears in Twisted Robots, Oh, My!, and is also available at WMG (https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/twisted-robots-oh-my/?fbclid=IwAR1f1-E4wEW9OhaFuRwNkEsmdgr3oH8jGzJ5VBTke987vi48UJva7r5KlyM)

My story “Gargoyles of the World, Unite!” inspired by the gargoyles of the Freiburg cathedral and featuring Annegret Gumpert, one of my somewhat homicidal alter egos, to my endless delight, is published in The Lost Librarian’s Grave, a wonderful anthology available as an e-book and in print from Redwood Press https://redwood-press.com/, and at every online bookstore.

I wrote “Endless Horizons”, a joyful story about exploring the universe, for the 2019 Anthology Workshop and was overjoyed and eternally grateful when editor Leah Cutter accepted it for her anthology “Explorers, Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue Three“, which of course if available in e-book and print form at all online bookstores and at https://cuttersfinalcut.com/book/explorers/

Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Rescuing Sparty”, my story inspired by the three years that I spent at Michigan State University in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My story “A Squeaky-Clean Reunion” takes place in the Maquoketa Caves (Maquoketa, Iowa). It features one of my recurring characters, Maquoketa B. Dragon, a mellow, Iowa dragon. I am overjoyed to see it published in Crunchy with Chocolate, available in e-book and print format at WolfSinger Publications, https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/crunchy-with-chocolate and at every online bookstore.

Back in 2015 I took a workshop on writing short stories taught by one of the writers I admire most, Dean Wesley Smith. One of the stories I wrote for the workshop was “Tauri”, which the wonderful people at Fabula Argentea have published in their online edition. You can read it at: https://fabulaargentea.com/index.php/article/tauri-by-mary-jo-rabe/

My story “Christmas in the Ruins”, a fictional account of Christmas in Freiburg in 1944, appeared as part of WMG Publishing’s Winter Holiday Spectacular 2020. I am so grateful to Kristine Kathryn Rusch for including it in her anthology, even though it was perhaps darker than what she was looking for.
It is available as e-book and in print at all online bookstores as well as at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/mysterious-christmas/

I wrote “It’s Lechtenbrink, Libby Lechtenbrink” for a science fiction writing workshop in January of 2020. My story features Libby Lechtenbrink, a librarian on Mars, one of my more homicidal alter egos. I am so grateful to Barbara G. Tarn for including me in this wonderful anthology, Sci-Fi Stories Earth Colonies, published in July, 2021. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/sci-fi5

I wrote “We Can Wait But No Longer Want To” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Energetic Martian microbes take advantage of the opportunity to leave their frosty underground lakes. I am overjoyed to have it published July, 2021, in Alien Dimensions #20/21, a wonderful magazine available in electronic and print form.
amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097HMG6FK
amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Alien…/dp/B098VSSQGJ/ref=sr_1_2…

I wrote “If You Lead an Earthling to Water, Who Gets To Drink?” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Martian colonists have to deal with the dilemma of possibly endangering alien life in order to keep their Earth colony running. I am thrilled that Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine chose to publish it in its online magazine, Issue 1, June 2021:

https://www.penumbric.com/currentissue/rabeWater.html

During Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020 I wrote a story I titled “Herr Gehrke, Why Is Everyone Lying to Me?” that took place in an archdiocesan chancery office of a mid-sized German city. In the hopes that it would fit Blaze Ward Presents 5 Crime and …, which was published in June, 2021, I renamed it “Bishops”. I am incredibly grateful to Blaze Ward for accepting this story. Naturally it is completely fictional, but some of the characters are inspired by people I have known. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096CJPLMV/?tag=kydala-20

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/…/B096CYSG1Q/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0…

I wrote “Slim Pickings on Mars” for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. A detective on Mars literally stumbles onto an object at a crime scene that has multi-universal consequences. It was my immense good fortune that Blaze Ward was willing to accept it for his Blaze Ward Presents 4 anthology which was published in November, 2020. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1626771787&sr=1-1

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=blaze+ward+presents+4&qid=1626771873&s=books&sr=1-1

“Father Otto” is a story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Thanks to kind editor Dayle A. Dermatis, it became my first professional sale, appearing in the Fiction River issue 33 Doorways to Enchantment, published in August, 2020. “Father Otto” is an homage to one of my favorite people at the chancery office of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. Naturally all figures are mere figments of my imagination, but inspired by real people. The story itself takes place on the second floor of the historic chancery office building in Freiburg, Germany.
It is available, electronic and print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/u/4NLWMo and of course at WMG Publishing:
https://www.wmgpublishinginc.com/p…/doorways-to-enchantment/
Tangent Online wrote a kind review of my story:

Fiction River #33: Doorways to Enchantment, ed. Dayle A. Dermatis

“Sagan in the Past” is science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. Sagan, a cat, plays an important role in a time-travel story that begins on a university campus that has certain similarities with Michigan State University. Barbara G. Tarn, was kind enough to include this story in her anthology Future Earth Tech. published in July, 2020.
You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/sci-fi3

“Katie’s Visions” is also a product of Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge”, one I worried about finding a home for, since it isn’t science fiction. Maybe you could call it historical fantasy. Katharina von Bora (Martin Luther’s wife) gets visions from Joan of Arc who has her own agenda for wanting to encourage Katharina. The wonderful people at Propertius Press included this story in their anthology Whispers from the Universe, published in June, 2020. It is available, electronic and print, at most online stores but also easily at Propertius Press, which does not charge for postage or handling.
Go to: https://bit.ly/whisperstories or
https://propertiuspress.wixsite.com/bookstore/online-store/Whispers-from-the-Universe-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p209124441

“Taking Care of Business” is a science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An Elvis impersonator on Mars finds a way to deal with devastating health issues, consistent with his reverence for The King. Dean was then kind enough to include this story in Pulphouse, Issue 8 of 2019.published in December, 2020. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/bO6gAQ
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue8/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-8-fall-2019/

“For the Love of Killer” is another story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Killer is a little, white peekapoo, inspired by Puffy, our dog on the farm. It wasn’t chosen for the anthology about female heroines, but Dean Wesley Smith was kind enough to take it for Pulphouse, Issue 4 of 2018, published in December, 2018 You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/47Z9aR?fbclid=IwAR0iZAracjT1yWQnMG4TGHIs0P_Sf58Udvmg_vDMldSEYbH-hkScaOaCAfU
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue4/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-4-december-2018/

Russ Crossley was kind enough to include “Efficient Engineering”, a story I wrote for the anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon, in 2017, in his Rocketpack Adventures anthology in October, 2018. An engineer on Mars decides to build her own rocket and leave for parts unknown. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/rocketpack-adventures

“One Universe Is Never Enough” is a story I wrote Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An administrator on Pluto gets tired of the bureaucratic backbiting and takes a chance on travel to another universe. Barbara G. Tarn was kind enough to include it in her Space Opera Mashup. Published in July, 2018. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
http://books2read.com/u/4AY5XN

Two  of my poems are still archived online:

Salt Water Rafting at Raven Electrick: http://www.ravenelectrick.com/ravenpoetrick/saltwaterrafting.html

Tharsis Lil at Astropoetica: http://www.astropoetica.com/Summer07/tharsislil.html

I have my author pages at amazon where you can see which stories of mine have been published so far:

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1598900121&sr=1-2

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_6&qid=1598900017&sr=1-6

amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4&qid=1598900282&sr=1-4

If You Want To Improve Your English as a Second Language

If You Want To Perfect Your English as a Second Language

check out www.businessenglishwithjulie.com

If you notice that your command of the English language is occasionally a little clumsy and that you still make mistakes that hinder accurate communication or just make you look foolish, businessenglishwithjulie.com offers you an excellent, online opportunity to remedy this situation, an opportunity to perfect your English. At Business English with Julie you will find any number of reasonably priced classes and packages, well worth your time and money.

You’ve always assumed your school English, enhanced by occasional vacations spent in English-speaking countries, is good enough? What do the people with whom you communicate in English think? Do they immediately understand what you want to say or write? Do they pick up on what you meant, what you wanted them to understand? Do they take you seriously? What kind of impression do you make when you speak or write in English?

Yes, the English language, so effortless and automatic for us native speakers, though quality and precision of expression will vary, can be infuriating and frustrating for everyone who tries to acquire it as a foreign language.

In “The Awful German language” Mark Twain claimed that while a person would need thirty years to learn German, said person could learn English, except for spelling and pronunciation, in a mere thirty hours. His assumption, that anyone could learn English so quickly without help, was wrong.

The English language contains numerous pitfalls for the unwary. It steals inconsistently from other languages, mostly, but not only, Romance and Germanic languages, with the result that spelling and pronunciation often have nothing to do with each other.

When I first came to Germany, an early acquaintance battled the English language heroically but the English language always won. This doesn’t have to be the case. You can conquer the English language and make it your obedient servant. However, a guide can make this process significantly faster.

Precision of language has always been important for me, especially now as a professional fiction writer.

In “Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 years of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop”, Kate Wilhelm said that there are two kinds of writers, storytellers and wordsmiths. At Clarion, which I was never able to attend, though I would have enjoyed spending time on the MSU campus again, the workshop leaders tried to help both kinds. Most people agree that it is better to be a storyteller. I, however, am a wordsmith and love effective use of language. So, of course, I work on improving my storytelling skills, but I appreciate good English. Possibly, I am not the only one.

A good command of English, whether the colloquial or scholarly variety, or both, will always give you the advantage. Consider improving yours.

My Tribute to Auxiliary Bishop Dr. Bernd Uhl

I miss Bernd.

There are many wonderful online tributes to Auxiliary Bishop Dr. Bernd Uhl, for example:

From the Archdiocese of Freiburg, https://www.ebfr.de/detail/nachricht/id/175092-erzbistum-freiburg-trauert-um-dr-bernd-uhl/?cb-id=12103291

From the Konradsblatt (weekly diocesan magazine of the Archdiocese of Freiburg), https://www.konradsblatt.de/aktuell-2/detail/nachricht-seite/id/175149-liebe-verbunden-mit-glauben/?default=true

I can only confirm all the good things that the tributes say about the priest, theologian, canon, member of the archbishop’s council, and bishop Dr. Bernd Uhl. However, beyond all that, I miss my good friend. I had so hoped that I could enjoy his entertaining and intelligent company for many more years to come.

I remember his kindness during our mutual time in the chancery office as well as after retirement, specifically his acts of kindness. I remember the chocolates on my birthday and at Christmas. I remember his constant encouragement.

I always considered him a friend, but my definition of friendship may not match expectations in Germany. As an American in Germany, I never really understood or integrated myself into the two-class system of forms of address in Germany, i.e. the formal you with surname (“Sie” as address) and the familiar you with first name for friends (“du” as address). The “du”-form is similar but not quite the same thing as being on a first-name basis in the U.S. The “du” has more emotional baggage, i.e. it often means more to the person who offers it.

As for me, both forms of address always turned into “you” in my mind when I heard them. I can’t always remember if I am on a “du” or a “Sie” basis with someone. I also always considered anyone who treated me well to be a friend, my feeling being “do me one favor/kindness, and you have a friend for life; screw me over even once, and you are dead meat for all eternity”. I’m loyal.

Every morning when I went to work in the chancery office, I had to remind myself with whom I was on a “du” status and with whom “Sie” so that I didn’t use the wrong form of address and incorrect verbs by mistake. There are various rules for who decides which basis is allowed. Generally and theoretically, only the older person can offer the younger person “du” as a form of address, but people of equal status and approximately equal age can freely suggest a “du” relationship to each other. However, there is also a hierarchical and a status element involved. The 60-year-old secretary can’t offer her 40-year-old boss “du” as a form of address.

In a work environment, especially in a highly bureaucratic structure, things get messy, higher-ups often not wanting to show even the faintest hint favoritism to individual subordinates.

Although we got along spectacularly, my first boss, Dr. Hundsnurscher, director of the archdiocesan archives and library, didn’t offer me the “du” until long after he retired. That didn’t matter to me; he always was and remained my wonderful boss from the day I first met him. No matter what went on, I knew he had my back.

Bernd was just as loyal a supporter of the library and of my efforts. I trusted him, and this trust was never betrayed. He was also generous in his praise and gratitude. He was kindness personified.

Bernd was a voice of reason and sanity in the chancery office.

Bernd offered me the “du” in the fall of 2022. I can only hope I fulfilled any expectations that he might have hoped for. He was one of my favorite people in the chancery office. I honestly admired and liked him. He was compassionate and thoughtful (unfortunately often an exception in this particular workplace), simply put, one of the good guys of this world.

Before I reflect on specific memories, I’ll add one explanatory note. I include the real names of the good people I was privileged to encounter in the chancery office in Freiburg. The villains of the story will remain anonymous (a variation on the Dragnet saying, in this case, “to protect the guilty”).

I worked for a year in the archdiocesan archives (from 1973-1974), another long story. Dr. Franz Hundsnurscher, my wonderful boss, then managed to get me a job in the newly formed archdiocesan library in 1976. From 1974 to 1976 my husband and I earned our respective masters degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

From 1976 to 2008 the offices and open stacks of the archdiocesan library were located in the architecturally impressive chancery office building on the ground floor, room number 6. We had a little corner there in back of the bookshelves with a few tables where people could read newspapers and magazines.

Bernd was from Karlsruhe and often came into the library to read the Badische Neueste Nachrichten, the Karlsruhe paper. After his parents moved into his canon’s residence in the Herrenstraße, his father also came to our library to read the paper.

Bernd was ordained a priest at the age of 28 in 1974, the same year he completed his dissertation. He started his career in the chancery office in 1977. The then vicar general, Dr. Schlund, had wisely chosen Bernd from a number of young priests as a potential successor. He wanted Bernd to learn the chancery office inside out, from the bottom to the top. Bernd, conscientious and hard-working by nature, achieved this goal quickly and easily.

However, things didn’t quite work out the way Vicar General Dr. Schlund planned.

I need to add one more bit of background information. Dr. Schlund and Dr. Hundsnurscher were both so good to me, unbelievably and consistently generous with their appreciation, praise, and support. Unfortunately, for reasons I never understood, they both despised each other with a passion. This resulted in numerous conflicts that sometimes involved the library.

Bernd had the well deserved reputation of being painstakingly honest in all regards and under all circumstances as well as being unfailingly courteous. I often thought that this might come from having his parents live with him. So many of the priests in the chancery office either live alone or have housekeepers who worship the ground they walk on. My theory is that Bernd’s parents kept him grounded in the real world. He had absolutely no delusions of grandeur or importance, not even after his consecration as bishop.

He was responsible for many different areas in the chancery office and Archdiocese of Freiburg, communications, public relations, press and publications, and finally, the area closest to his heart, the Catholic charities. Due to his public relations responsibilities, he became the face of the Archdiocese of Freiburg, something that was no doubt noted in Vatican circles.

However, he also got saddled with extra tasks in the chancery office, over and over again.

From its grudging beginnings in 1975, the library always had to justify its existence in the chancery office. Before 1975, there were just books lying around in all the offices, in the archives, and in the storerooms. Back in the bad, old days, when the people in the finance department didn’t have enough real work to do, one persistent employee took it upon himself to prove that the library was throwing away the chancery office’s money. Instead of doing something useful, he would pore over every bill the library submitted, pondering every title before deciding that certain books were unnecessary purchases. Then he ran to the vicar general with the bill and complained bitterly.

Dr. Hundsnurscher had been burdened with the responsibility for the library when it was founded (with the explanation that a library contained paper, just like the archives), and he delighted in getting his revenge by having the library purchase books that the finance department wouldn’t like. There is a German phrase about making the billy goat your gardener (more loosely and accurately translated as “putting the fox in charge of the henhouse”), which he quoted fairly often. He often asked the library to purchase valuable books, many of which were then only available in our library for researchers in Freiburg.

After Dr. Hundsnurscher had the library purchase a book of photographs of Greek sculptures entitled “Homosexuality in Greek Antiquity”, and the finance department minion ran howling to the vicar general, the vicar general struck back with the typical weapon of a bureaucracy. He established a commission that was to approve every book before the library could order it.

Bernd was named chairman of this commission which was made up of three other members, one lawyer, one elderly priest, and one representative of the school department (another long story; in Germany religion is taught in the public schools, and the church offices have the last word about what gets taught and who teaches it. This necessitates its own bureaucracy.). I had to attend commission meetings, not as a member, but as a lowly clerk who was to write down which books the library would be allowed to purchase.

The commission met once a month, and each meeting was a colossal waste of time, non-stop bickering for an hour and a half to two hours. The lawyer said the departments needed the newest legal books to keep the archdiocese from being sued. The school department theologian wanted the newest theology works. The elderly priest was against the library spending any money and always asked if we couldn’t just wait and see if someone might not give us books as a present. After about a year and a half of this nonsense, Bernd wrote a long report to the vicar general, recommending dissolution of the commission since the books the library wanted to purchase turned out to be justified. I was able to persuade Dr. Hundsnurscher to lay low with his book recommendations for a while.

Around the end of the 20^th century, the archdiocesan library got a wonderfully generous offer from the university library in Freiburg. It would let our library join its network, have our books included in the university library’s online catalog, and use its cataloging software. All we had to do was pay for a separate telephone landline, a ridiculously small amount of money, about $20.00 a month. The new vicar general appointed a commission to decide whether we should be allowed to take this offer. Bernd again was named chairman. I made a detailed report of all the benefits our library would enjoy and the minimal costs involved. At the official meeting, two backstabbers didn’t support me, one of whom actively objected, claiming that costs might increase in the future, and the other one passively said nothing. Fortunately, Bernd said he would support the proposal, because he thought it sounded like a good idea.

Our catalog has now been included in the Freiburg university online library catalog since 2001, benefiting everyone who ever sought a book that can be found in our library.

In the year 2000 the Archdiocese of Freiburg had one archbishop and two auxiliary bishops. Archbishop Saier then requested a third auxiliary bishop, saying that he had health issues and needed the additional assistance. The Vatican consented, and we all wondered who the new bishop would be. Auxiliary bishops in Freiburg get named by the Vatican, unlike the archbishop, who is elected by the bishop’s council from a list of three sent by the Vatican.

So, speculation about the new bishop was a constant topic in the chancery office grapevine. Bernd mentioned to people offhand, that he couldn’t predict who the next auxiliary bishop would be, but he could only be certain that it wouldn’t be him.

Bernd had many talents. Predicting the future wasn’t one of them. The announcement of his selection came around the end of March, 2001. He was consecrated a bishop on May 1, 2001, which didn’t give him or the organizers much time. For his motto on his bishop’s coat of arms, he chose “Caritas Cum Fide”, loosely translated as “charity combined with faith”. Work with the Catholic Charities, which had always had the highest importance to him, would be the major focus of his time as bishop.

For his bishop’s ring, he wanted something that would symbolize acts of charity, and chose roses, referencing the legend of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary who secretly tried to bring bread to the poor, by hidding it under her cloak. When she got caught, she said she was only carrying roses (in the middle of winter), and miraculously the bread crumbs under her cloak turned to roses. What Bernd didn’t consider, and what none of his fellow bishops bothered to warn him about, was that as a bishop, he would often end up shaking many people’s hands, an action that made his fingers rub against each other. The sharp, metal edges of the roses petals engraved on his ring tore the skin off the neighboring fingers and left him bleeding until the sharp edges finally wore down in time.

Obviously, the job as bishop had its ups and downs.

Once he was a member of the German Bishops’ Conference, he took on responsibility for ecology and became an early expert on global warming. Conferences with worldwide experts meant that he had many trips to foreign countries. Every now and then he would ask for help with his pronunciation of English-language texts, but that was completely unnecessary. He was fluently multi-lingual.

He had relatives in Los Angeles and took part in one Bishops’ Conference fact-finding trip to northern California under the leadership of Bishop Marx, then bishop of Trier, who later became Cardinal Marx of Munich and chairman of the Bishops’ Conference. I enjoyed discussions about Bernd’s impressions of the U.S. His conclusions were benevolent, analytical, and spot on.

In November, 2006, Bernd celebrated his 60th birthday with a gathering of exactly 60 guests in the restaurant that was then in the Kolpinghaus. He had a large circle of friends and there were many people he had dealings with as a bishop, and so I was amazed that I got an invitation. I certainly didn’t expect one. In the invitation, he specifically requested that anyone who wanted to give him a present should donate the money they wanted to spend instead to the Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Freiburg.

It was a wonderful party with an excellent buffet, many speeches, wonderful music, including a fantastic singer. As a side note, it was fascinating to see which higher-ups from the chancery office were not present.

Music was always important to Bernd. He had a sonorous voice that reminded me of Carl Sagan. He sang beautifully and could easily have earned his living as a professional piano player. He said once that he only considered himself a hobby musician, though, since he couldn’t practice more than four hours a day.

One of my efforts to add a little American culture to the German chancery office in Freiburg was baking and distributing chocolate chip cookies twice a year (on my birthday and at Christmas). Bernd and his mother took a liking to my cookies and always praised them effusively, something I appreciated.

I looked forward to every opportunity to talk to him in the chancery office. He was a very thoughtful and entertaining conversationalist. Unfortunately, once he became an auxiliary bishop, he wasn’t in the chancery office as often as before. He had many more tasks outside the building.

When his parents’ health began to fail, first his father’s, and then his mother’s, he got them a placement in the Protestant nursing home around the corner from his residence in the Herrenstraße. By this time in the region of Baden in Germany, denominational differences no longer played a role with any church. The archbishop of Freiburg and the Protestant bishop for the Baden region have long since both agreed that with respect to denominational rivalry, the “clocks run differently”, i.e. harmoniously here.

When Bernd wasn’t on the road for his bishop’s duties, he always ate meals with his parents and spent all his free time with them. His father died in 2013, a huge loss for Bernd. He often talked about how his father always took him to soccer games as a child and to church every Sunday. After Bernd’s parents moved to Freiburg, Bernd’s father made the seminary church across the street from the chancery office his favorite church, the place where he found his new spiritual home.

Unfortunately, Bernd was hit with all kinds of health issues. Kidney cancer in 2002 resulted in his losing a kidney, which, however, didn’t incapacitate him. However, it did mean that he had to watch his nutrition and his health carefully. In 2013 he suffered his first bout of leukemia. Fortunately, the treatments with the harsh side-effects worked, and in 2014 he was in remission. He soldiered on with all his bishop’s tasks. In 2017 he was diagnosed with leukemia again and additionally with lymphoma. This time he decided to retire, which he was allowed to do in 2018. He wanted to recover as quickly and as completely as possible because his mother’s health was taking a serious turn for the worse.

The treatments worked again, and in 2018 he was in remission. When he retired that year, he moved into the assisted living section of the Protestant nursing home his mother was in, around the corner from the residence in the Herrenstraße. The balcony of his apartment provided an excellent view of the cathedral, something he had never had in the Herrenstraße. When Covid arrived in 2020, and visitors’ access to nursing homes was highly restricted, he was still able to spend hours with his mother since his apartment was in the same facility.

His mother died in 2021, and in the fall of 2022 Bernd was again diagnosed with lymphoma. Despite six rounds of chemotherapy, he wasn’t able to defeat the disease this time and died alone in his apartment in the nursing home on January 22, 2023.

I visited him in his assisted living apartment a few times after he moved there (Covid made this impossible and irresponsible in 2020 and most of 2021), and we were often in touch.

It was wonderful talking to him. He was highly intelligent, educated, and well-read as well as very interested in everything going on around him.

We never really discussed any theological topics. He did mention once that when he had trouble sleeping, often during and after his cancer treatments, he used the time to pray. He also said he kept an extensive diary. I pleaded with him to make sure that the archdiocesan archives would inherit it, since he said he included many comments about events in the chancery office.

However, he also enjoyed exchanging information from the chancery office. We often had heard different things since we had different sources.

Although he wasn’t a fan of science fiction, he always encouraged my writing efforts and tried to read my published stories. He only gave up on “hard science fiction” like “Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow”.

He sent me an e-mail on January 12, 2023, in which he said his blood work was now good again with no more cancer cells detected. His doctors said he could stop the chemotherapy. Bernd said he just needed to get his strength back and was looking forward to all the things he could now plan for the spring and summer of 2023. I was so relieved and happy that I forgot that Bernd was never very good at predicting the future.

Rest in peace, Bernd. You made the universe a better and kinder place for me and so many others.

Bernd’s bishop’s coat of arms:

Photo: Bernd and his mother in the nursing home

What an amazing book!

If you think that the brilliant writer Susan J. Kroupa has a special insight regarding the minds of teenagers and dogs, you are only partly correct. She also has an amazing knowledge of indigenous American spirituality and Irish lore and is an impressive mystery writer. All these elements make her newest book, TreeTalker, the masterpiece that it is, a book that not only middle-graders will enjoy, but also much older readers.

TreeTalker is a mystery, a crime drama, a fantasy, and a bit of Irish folklore shown from the viewpoint of the teenagers who get dragged into the action. The crisis begins with a shapeshifter who usually, but not always, displays the shape of a dog.

While the main characters are the teenagers and the shapshifter, this multifaceted, multilayered story will captivate all readers.

The teenagers, as usual, are the first to recognize evil when they encounter it. The surrounding adults are a little slow on the uptake, if not absolutely clueless, but they display good will and courage when the teenagers show them what they need to do.

While escaping captivity and bringing criminals to justice in the material and magic worlds, the teenagers also deal with their real-world issues, tensions in a patchwork family, migrants’ economic fears, bullies at school.

The supernatural challenges overcome, the teenagers return to their lives in the material world. At the end, the teenagers are able to forgive their imperfect parents and recognize that the adults who love them are doing the best they can under imperfect circumstances. The adults are able to recognize what they need to do.

TreeTalker is an exciting book, a thriller with a satisfying and happy ending. Do yourself a favor and buy it for yourself and everyone you know.

Publications as of December, 2022

More or less in reverse order, here are my online and print publications again so far:

“Pink on Pink”, the trials and tribulations of a modern witch on Mars, is now published in Dark Horses, the Magazine of Weird Fiction, Issue No. 12, January 2023, available at all online bookstores in electronic and print format.

“Red, Blue,. Green, and Yellow” has its own history. First of all, the most important information:

I am overjoyed, thrilled, and so grateful that “Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow” is now online at 4StarStories 

You can go directly to my story at https://4starstories.com/4StarStories_Archive_Issue25/story_4.htm

The Editor of Four Star Stories, David Gray, was kind enough to write his acceptance of this story beginning with: “I loved it. I thought it was one of the most original stories I have read in a long time.”

Some stories just show up and demand to be written. However, I owe the existence of this story to three amazing writers, T. Thorne Coyle, Dayle Dermatis, and Annie Reed.

After the tragic death of Kip Ward, the owner of the Historic Anchor Inn in Lincoln City, Oregon, writers T. Thorn Coyle, Dayle A. Dermatis, and Annie Reed suggested that we write stories for a charity anthology in honor of Kip Ward called “Tales From the Anchor”. During the Anthology Workshops in Lincoln City, many of us had had the good fortune to stay at the wonderful Anchor Inn. The stories for the anthology were to be inspired by items there. Proceeds would be donated to Kip Ward’s favorite charity. My story, “Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow” was inspired by the multi-colored, glass lamp above the doorway between the restaurant and bar in the Anchor Inn. As happens sometimes, this anthology didn’t come about, and so my story found a home in Four Star Stories.

I’m overjoyed to have my story “Balance the Books” published online at The Lorelei Signal, https://www.loreleisignal.com/balance-the books. It has definite autobiographical references from my 41 years in the chancery office library, along with wishful thinking from that time.

My story “Tryst at the Tombaugh Regio” in Draw Down the Moon, another wonderful anthology from Propertius Press, available https://www.propertiuspress.com/our-bookstore/Draw-Down-the-Moon-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p375745328  and in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores. I wrote this love story for an anthology workshop in Las Vegas. It’s happy ending takes place on the Tombaugh Regio, that pink, heart-shaped area on (dwarf)planet Pluto.

I wrote “Spaceship Nursery” for a Dean Wesley Smith online workshop. It is a new perspective of AI with respect to spaceship construction. The nice people at Wyldblood, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Issue 9, available at https://wyldblood.com/product/wyldblood-9/ and at online bookstores in e-book and print formats.

My story “How Fred the Opossum Mobilized the Microbes and Saved the Universe” in Pulphouse, Issue 18, available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/pulphouse-issue-18/ and via https://books2read.com/u/38eNgw. It was kindly reviewed by Tangent Online, https://tangentonline.com/print-bi-monthly/pulphouse-18-june-july-2022/ Fred the Opossum was a frequent visitor on our farm in Iowa, and I’m glad I had the chance to give him the credit he deserves.

Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “And Became Titans” in his Boundary Shock Quarterly, Issue 9, Sea Stories . Here intelligent Martian microbes find a way to get the Earthie colonists to help them gain communication with other microbes in the solar system. It is available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://www.boundaryshockquarterly.com/book/sea-stories/

Once again Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “The Gods of the Black Forest” in Blaze Ward Presents, Issue 6, available in e-book and print formats in all online book stores and at https://blazewardpresents.com/?mbdb_book=small-gods  My small gods live in the streams in the mountains of the Black Forest.

“October Mardi Gras” is published in Dark Horses, the Magazine of Weird Fiction, Issue No. 4, May 2022. It is inspired by memories of various teachers at Miles High School in Miles, Iowa, back in the 1960’s. It is also available at all online bookstores in e-book and print formats

Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Iowa Summer”, my story that I wrote for an anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My Story “The Devil and the Deep Blue Chiemsee”, inspired by my years in the chancery office library and a library conference at Frauenchiemsee, is available online at: https://mysterytribune.com/the-devil-and-the-deep-blue-chiemsee-cozy-mystery-by-mary-jo-rabe/

“Prista Indulges in Tricks and Treats” is published at The Lorelei Signal, https://www.loreleisignal.com/prista-indulges-tricks-and-treats

My two stories previously published in Pulphouse #4 (For the Love of Killer) and Pulphouse #8 (Taking Care of Business) have been reprinted in new Pulphouse issues, as always available in e-book and print format at all online bookstores. “For the Love of Killer” appears in Run!! Creatures, Critters, and Pulphousers and is also availaboe at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/run-creatures-critters-and-pulphousers/?fbclid=IwAR1AgtKTe43OF13MH6BXRfaZuPG93kRzqw-MhcZct0SZU-vbQm5Wbsjo-gc. “Taking Care of Business” appears in Twisted Robots, Oh, My!, and is also available at WMG (https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/twisted-robots-oh-my/?fbclid=IwAR1f1-E4wEW9OhaFuRwNkEsmdgr3oH8jGzJ5VBTke987vi48UJva7r5KlyM)

My story “Gargoyles of the World, Unite!” inspired by the gargoyles of the Freiburg cathedral and featuring Annegret Gumpert, one of my somewhat homicidal alter egos, to my endless delight, is published in The Lost Librarian’s Grave, a wonderful anthology available as an e-book and in print from Redwood Press https://redwood-press.com/, and at every online bookstore.

I wrote “Endless Horizons”, a joyful story about exploring the universe, for the 2019 Anthology Workshop and was overjoyed and eternally grateful when editor Leah Cutter accepted it for her anthology “Explorers, Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue Three“, which of course if available in e-book and print form at all online bookstores and at https://cuttersfinalcut.com/book/explorers/

Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Rescuing Sparty”, my story inspired by the three years that I spent at Michigan State University in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My story “A Squeaky-Clean Reunion” takes place in the Maquoketa Caves (Maquoketa, Iowa). It features one of my recurring characters, Maquoketa B. Dragon, a mellow, Iowa dragon. I am overjoyed to see it published in Crunchy with Chocolate, available in e-book and print format at WolfSinger Publications, https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/crunchy-with-chocolate and at every online bookstore.

Back in 2015 I took a workshop on writing short stories taught by one of the writers I admire most, Dean Wesley Smith. One of the stories I wrote for the workshop was “Tauri”, which the wonderful people at Fabula Argentea have published in their online edition. You can read it at: https://fabulaargentea.com/index.php/article/tauri-by-mary-jo-rabe/

My story “Christmas in the Ruins”, a fictional account of Christmas in Freiburg in 1944, appeared as part of WMG Publishing’s Winter Holiday Spectacular 2020. I am so grateful to Kristine Kathryn Rusch for including it in her anthology, even though it was perhaps darker than what she was looking for.
It is available as e-book and in print at all online bookstores as well as at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/mysterious-christmas/

I wrote “It’s Lechtenbrink, Libby Lechtenbrink” for a science fiction writing workshop in January of 2020. My story features Libby Lechtenbrink, a librarian on Mars, one of my more homicidal alter egos. I am so grateful to Barbara G. Tarn for including me in this wonderful anthology, Sci-Fi Stories Earth Colonies, published in July, 2021. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/sci-fi5

I wrote “We Can Wait But No Longer Want To” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Energetic Martian microbes take advantage of the opportunity to leave their frosty underground lakes. I am overjoyed to have it published July, 2021, in Alien Dimensions #20/21, a wonderful magazine available in electronic and print form.
amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097HMG6FK
amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Alien…/dp/B098VSSQGJ/ref=sr_1_2…

I wrote “If You Lead an Earthling to Water, Who Gets To Drink?” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Martian colonists have to deal with the dilemma of possibly endangering alien life in order to keep their Earth colony running. I am thrilled that Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine chose to publish it in its online magazine, Issue 1, June 2021:

https://www.penumbric.com/currentissue/rabeWater.html

During Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020 I wrote a story I titled “Herr Gehrke, Why Is Everyone Lying to Me?” that took place in an archdiocesan chancery office of a mid-sized German city. In the hopes that it would fit Blaze Ward Presents 5 Crime and …, which was published in June, 2021, I renamed it “Bishops”. I am incredibly grateful to Blaze Ward for accepting this story. Naturally it is completely fictional, but some of the characters are inspired by people I have known. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096CJPLMV/?tag=kydala-20

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/…/B096CYSG1Q/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0…

I wrote “Slim Pickings on Mars” for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. A detective on Mars literally stumbles onto an object at a crime scene that has multi-universal consequences. It was my immense good fortune that Blaze Ward was willing to accept it for his Blaze Ward Presents 4 anthology which was published in November, 2020. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1626771787&sr=1-1

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=blaze+ward+presents+4&qid=1626771873&s=books&sr=1-1

“Father Otto” is a story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Thanks to kind editor Dayle A. Dermatis, it became my first professional sale, appearing in the Fiction River issue 33 Doorways to Enchantment, published in August, 2020. “Father Otto” is an homage to one of my favorite people at the chancery office of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. Naturally all figures are mere figments of my imagination, but inspired by real people. The story itself takes place on the second floor of the historic chancery office building in Freiburg, Germany.
It is available, electronic and print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/u/4NLWMo and of course at WMG Publishing:
https://www.wmgpublishinginc.com/p…/doorways-to-enchantment/
Tangent Online wrote a kind review of my story:

Fiction River #33: Doorways to Enchantment, ed. Dayle A. Dermatis

“Sagan in the Past” is science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. Sagan, a cat, plays an important role in a time-travel story that begins on a university campus that has certain similarities with Michigan State University. Barbara G. Tarn, was kind enough to include this story in her anthology Future Earth Tech. published in July, 2020.
You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/sci-fi3

“Katie’s Visions” is also a product of Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge”, one I worried about finding a home for, since it isn’t science fiction. Maybe you could call it historical fantasy. Katharina von Bora (Martin Luther’s wife) gets visions from Joan of Arc who has her own agenda for wanting to encourage Katharina. The wonderful people at Propertius Press included this story in their anthology Whispers from the Universe, published in June, 2020. It is available, electronic and print, at most online stores but also easily at Propertius Press, which does not charge for postage or handling.
Go to: https://bit.ly/whisperstories or
https://propertiuspress.wixsite.com/bookstore/online-store/Whispers-from-the-Universe-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p209124441

“Taking Care of Business” is a science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An Elvis impersonator on Mars finds a way to deal with devastating health issues, consistent with his reverence for The King. Dean was then kind enough to include this story in Pulphouse, Issue 8 of 2019.published in December, 2020. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/bO6gAQ
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue8/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-8-fall-2019/

“For the Love of Killer” is another story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Killer is a little, white peekapoo, inspired by Puffy, our dog on the farm. It wasn’t chosen for the anthology about female heroines, but Dean Wesley Smith was kind enough to take it for Pulphouse, Issue 4 of 2018, published in December, 2018 You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/47Z9aR?fbclid=IwAR0iZAracjT1yWQnMG4TGHIs0P_Sf58Udvmg_vDMldSEYbH-hkScaOaCAfU
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue4/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-4-december-2018/

Russ Crossley was kind enough to include “Efficient Engineering”, a story I wrote for the anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon, in 2017, in his Rocketpack Adventures anthology in October, 2018. An engineer on Mars decides to build her own rocket and leave for parts unknown. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/rocketpack-adventures

“One Universe Is Never Enough” is a story I wrote Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An administrator on Pluto gets tired of the bureaucratic backbiting and takes a chance on travel to another universe. Barbara G. Tarn was kind enough to include it in her Space Opera Mashup. Published in July, 2018. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
http://books2read.com/u/4AY5XN

Two  of my poems are still archived online:

Salt Water Rafting at Raven Electrick: http://www.ravenelectrick.com/ravenpoetrick/saltwaterrafting.html

Tharsis Lil at Astropoetica: http://www.astropoetica.com/Summer07/tharsislil.html

I have my author pages at amazon where you can see which stories of mine have been published so far:

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1598900121&sr=1-2

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_6&qid=1598900017&sr=1-6

amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4&qid=1598900282&sr=1-4

Scary Fantasies

Shivers, Scares, and Goosebumps by Vonnie Winslow-Crist

This is such a wonderful book, perfect for its preteen readers who won’t be able to put it down once they start reading it!

Shivers, Scares, and Goosebumps includes stories, poems, and drawings. Vonnie Winslow-Crist is an amazing artist and brilliant writer!

These unforgettable works (whether stories, poems, or drawings) are scary, but they are scary fantasies, often with a new take on fairy tales and folk tales. The horror fantasies don’t describe the scary reality that so many children can neither avoid nor influence (i.e. the evening news information about what is going on in the real world). Instead, this book is a welcome escape into a frightening, but completely imaginary world.

What to look forward to when you read this book, in addition to the masterful writing style that will keep you reading and sorry when the book ends far too soon:

A drawing of amphibians with teeth.

The story: A ravenous mudpuppy and its equally gluttonous offspring devour a clueless, well-intentioned little girl who only wanted to help.

A drawing of a goblin with elongated fingers who peeks out from under something.

The story: When a little boy neglects cleaning his room, the goblin residing in the mess under his bed takes him to the cold, dark, smelly basement where he is devoured by the goblin family that lives there.

A sketch of a cross-eyed canine in front of the moon.

The poem: A poem reflects on stages of the moon from the perspective of the wolf.

A drawing of watchful dogs, all with blank, dead eyes.

The story: Undead dogs rise from their graves and kill people who deserve to die, like the one who killed a kind man who took care of dogs.

A drawing of a giant toad emerging from the water.

The story: Ignoring their aunt’s warnings, a brother and sister venture too close to the ocean where the boy is pulled under the waves by the evil undertoad.

A drawing of a teenage girl in front of a bakery window.

The story: The ghost of girl just killed in a traffic accident visits her cousin, who is working in her mother’s bakery, in order to say good-bye.

A drawing of the head of an antlered deer with the rest of his skeleton bones hung on a wall.

The story: At a family reunion a so-called great hunter shows off the trophy heads of animals he has killed, all decorating the walls of his cottage. On Midsummer’s Eve the heads come alive and reunite with their bodies. The next morning the head of the hunter hangs on the wall.

A drawing of a black ghost and a vampire bat in a cemetery.

The poem: In a touching poem a vampire bat with black wings looks for a window he can enter.

A drawing of a man with a scary face stands behind a fence of twigs. In the background, children seem to be frozen in motion.

The story: Around Easter in Helsinki children bring twigs to houses, knock on doors, and ask for candy. Behind the door of one home, they see statues of children. One girl enters the house and the other runs away, followed by the man from the house who touches her shoulder and turns her to stone.

A drawing of birds with long beaks and happy eyes.

The story: A boy feeds feral cats. Soon, there are no more other small animals who used to frequent the yard. Instead, vultures perch on the railing and steal the cats’ food. The boy then feels threatened by vultures who arrive when he is alone.

A drawing of a young person sitting on a stone block surrounded by bushes and a tree.

The Story: A girl talks to her uncle at the cemetery even though he has been dead for twenty years, but she sees him.

A drawing of a scary doll in front of a fairy.

The Story: The tooth fairy brings a doll to life who rats on a girl’s little brother because he has stolen the girl’s tooth money from under her pillow. The tooth fairy then takes her pliers and extracts two teeth from the little boy even though he is wide awake but paralyzed and mute from the fairy’s spell.

A drawing of a man wearing a threadbare shirt and bib overalls, holding a shovel and a trowel.

A woman with little money stops at a tidy, white farmhouse in the hopes of buying some flowers for her mother. The farmer gives her four azalea plants for free. Upon leaving she sees that the farm has long since been abandoned with the buildings now in disrepair. But four holes in the ground are where the azaleas had been.

A drawing of a woman wrapped in a robe with a hood in front of ghosts.

The Story: A boy walks past a cemetery late at night, smells corpses and decay. He sees Kalma, the Goddess of Death and Decay. She and other ghosts rise from their graves.

A drawing of scary, alien figures and a happy little dog.

The Story: A girl babysits for three little boys and their rambunctious dog. Aliens burst into the house. The girl flees with the boys and dog into a bedroom, locks the door, and calls the police while she wonders what will burst through the bedroom door.

A drawing of a scarecrow standing in a field with mice scampering at his feet.

The Story: Walking past her grandparents’ cornfield, a girl feels uneasy, although she only sees mice and owls. A scarecrow climbs down off his post, grabs the girl and forces her to dance with him. Her grandparents find her the next morning next to the scarecrow’s post with holes worn in the soles of her shoes and her lap full of mice. No scarecrow is to be seen, but the corn leaves whisper for her to come and dance.

A drawing of pumpkins with eyes, unhappy expressions on their faces, and long, clawed fingers.

The Story: A girl doesn’t like watching her father and sister carve the jack-o-lantern. She feels for and with the pumpkin. She leaves. The next morning her father and sister are found strangled with pumpkin vines.

A drawing of the head of Frankenstein’s monster.

The Poem: A poem describes Frankenstein’s monster’s feelings of unrequited love.

A drawing of two hands with long fingernails that emerge from the soil.

The Story: A boy wants to scare his sister and her friends while they go trick or treating. He hides in an old cemetery along their path and gets pulled into a grave by rotting hands.

A drawing of two cats and a jack-o-lantern.

The Story: On Halloween boy sees a girl pet a stray, black cat with green eyes. He leaves, but when he returns, the girl is missing and two black cats with green eyes look at him, the smaller one mews for help, visibly unhappy and desperate.

A drawing of a multi-layered fountain with snakes wrapped around the poles, surrounded by brambles.

The Story: Two girls take a forbidden shortcut through the woods, go behind a stone wall and see a fountain surrounded by rose bushes. The woman there says they have to drink from the fountain while snakes slither over their hands. Back at home, they see snake birthmarks on their arms, rose bushes around the house face them, and a snake-like voice hisses that it will see them soon.

A drawing of two spooky, boney hands in front of a church.

The Story: Two children enter an abandoned church and discover corpses. An animated corpse growls. They run, and a corpse zombie follows them. One of the children stumbles.

A drawing of a nature spirit surrounded by little wrens.

The Story: A boy refuses to kill a wren so that three brothers can parade it through town and beg for money, supposedly to bury it. Later the three brothers are found dead in the woods.

A drawing of an old woman in front of a tree with mittens hanging from its branches.

The Story: A witch, trying to do without witchcraft, is annoyed by inconsiderate, unkind neighbors. She knits mittens, each with one of her own hairs knitted into the strands. She gives the mittens to the neighbors and now has power over them and their surroundings.

A drawing of scary branches and trees in front of the moon.

The Story: A boy has to watch his younger sister and goes for a walk with her into the woods. Because there is a full moon, his grandmother, who believes in fairies and goblins, insists that they each take a nail in their pockets and watch out for the ogerhunches who look like dead trees, fallen branches, and piles of leaves. The ogerhunches pursue them when the girl loses her nail. The grandmother rescues them with a flaming torch which scares off the ogerhunches.

A drawing of a girl along the road.

The Poem: A poem describes a lonely ghost who seeks company. She causes an accident and death, after which she is no longer lonely.

A drawing of a bird with a long beak.

The Story: A girl is afraid of the night ravens that her grandfather told her about. The night ravens snatch children. Her father doesn’t believe this. When a night raven comes to her bedroom, she is kind and polite, and the night raven leaves her alone, saying that she is a good child, that they are now friends, and that he will visit her often. He sings her a lullaby to put her to sleep and then leaves to snatch bad children.

Publications as of November, 2022

More or less in reverse order, here are my online and print publications again so far:

“Red, Blue,. Green, and Yellow” has its own history. First of all, the most important information:

I am overjoyed, thrilled, and so grateful that “Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow” is now online at 4StarStories http://4starstories.com/

You can go directly to my story at http://4starstories.com/story_4.htm

Co-Editor of Four Star Stories, David Gray, was kind enough to write his acceptance of this story beginning with: “I loved it. I thought it was one of the most original stories I have read in a long time.”

Some stories just show up and demand to be written. However, I owe the existence of this story to three amazing writers, T. Thorne Coyle, Dayle Dermatis, and Annie Reed.

After the tragic death of Kip Ward, the owner of the Historic Anchor Inn in Lincoln City, Oregon, writers T. Thorn Coyle, Dayle A. Dermatis, and Annie Reed suggested that we write stories for a charity anthology in honor of Kip Ward called “Tales From the Anchor”. During the Anthology Workshops in Lincoln City, many of us had had the good fortune to stay at the wonderful Anchor Inn. The stories for the anthology were to be inspired by items there. Proceeds would be donated to Kip Ward’s favorite charity. My story, “Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow” was inspired by the multi-colored, glass lamp above the doorway between the restaurant and bar in the Anchor Inn. As happens sometimes, this anthology didn’t come about, and so my story found a home in Four Star Stories.

I’m overjoyed to have my story “Balance the Books” published online at The Lorelei Signal, https://www.loreleisignal.com/current-issue . It has definite autobiographical references from my 41 years in the chancery office library, along with wishful thinking from that time.

My story “Tryst at the Tombaugh Regio” in Draw Down the Moon, another wonderful anthology from Propertius Press, available https://www.propertiuspress.com/our-bookstore/Draw-Down-the-Moon-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p375745328  and in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores. I wrote this love story for an anthology workshop in Las Vegas. It’s happy ending takes place on the Tombaugh Regio, that pink, heart-shaped area on (dwarf)planet Pluto.

I wrote “Spaceship Nursery” for a Dean Wesley Smith online workshop. It is a new perspective of AI with respect to spaceship construction. The nice people at Wyldblood, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Issue 9, available at https://wyldblood.com/product/wyldblood-9/ and at online bookstores in e-book and print formats.

My story “How Fred the Opossum Mobilized the Microbes and Saved the Universe” in Pulphouse, Issue 18, available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/pulphouse-issue-18/ and via https://books2read.com/u/38eNgw. It was kindly reviewed by Tangent Online, https://tangentonline.com/print-bi-monthly/pulphouse-18-june-july-2022/ Fred the Opossum was a frequent visitor on our farm in Iowa, and I’m glad I had the chance to give him the credit he deserves.

Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “And Became Titans” in his Boundary Shock Quarterly, Issue 9, Sea Stories . Here intelligent Martian microbes find a way to get the Earthie colonists to help them gain communication with other microbes in the solar system. It is available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://www.boundaryshockquarterly.com/book/sea-stories/

Once again Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “The Gods of the Black Forest” in Blaze Ward Presents, Issue 6, available in e-book and print formats in all online book stores and at https://blazewardpresents.com/?mbdb_book=small-gods  My small gods live in the streams in the mountains of the Black Forest.

“October Mardi Gras” is published in Dark Horses, the Magazine of Weird Fiction, Issue No. 4, May 2022. It is inspired by memories of various teachers at Miles High School in Miles, Iowa, back in the 1960’s. It is also available at all online bookstores in e-book and print formats

Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Iowa Summer”, my story that I wrote for an anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My Story “The Devil and the Deep Blue Chiemsee”, inspired by my years in the chancery office library and a library conference at Frauenchiemsee, is available online at: https://mysterytribune.com/the-devil-and-the-deep-blue-chiemsee-cozy-mystery-by-mary-jo-rabe/

My two stories previously published in Pulphouse #4 (For the Love of Killer) and Pulphouse #8 (Taking Care of Business) have been reprinted in new Pulphouse issues, as always available in e-book and print format at all online bookstores. “For the Love of Killer” appears in Run!! Creatures, Critters, and Pulphousers and is also availaboe at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/run-creatures-critters-and-pulphousers/?fbclid=IwAR1AgtKTe43OF13MH6BXRfaZuPG93kRzqw-MhcZct0SZU-vbQm5Wbsjo-gc. “Taking Care of Business” appears in Twisted Robots, Oh, My!, and is also available at WMG (https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/twisted-robots-oh-my/?fbclid=IwAR1f1-E4wEW9OhaFuRwNkEsmdgr3oH8jGzJ5VBTke987vi48UJva7r5KlyM)

My story “Gargoyles of the World, Unite!” inspired by the gargoyles of the Freiburg cathedral and featuring Annegret Gumpert, one of my somewhat homicidal alter egos, to my endless delight, is published in The Lost Librarian’s Grave, a wonderful anthology available as an e-book and in print from Redwood Press https://redwood-press.com/, and at every online bookstore.

I wrote “Endless Horizons”, a joyful story about exploring the universe, for the 2019 Anthology Workshop and was overjoyed and eternally grateful when editor Leah Cutter accepted it for her anthology “Explorers, Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue Three“, which of course if available in e-book and print form at all online bookstores and at https://cuttersfinalcut.com/book/explorers/

Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Rescuing Sparty”, my story inspired by the three years that I spent at Michigan State University in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My story “A Squeaky-Clean Reunion” takes place in the Maquoketa Caves (Maquoketa, Iowa). It features one of my recurring characters, Maquoketa B. Dragon, a mellow, Iowa dragon. I am overjoyed to see it published in Crunchy with Chocolate, available in e-book and print format at WolfSinger Publications, https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/crunchy-with-chocolate and at every online bookstore.

Back in 2015 I took a workshop on writing short stories taught by one of the writers I admire most, Dean Wesley Smith. One of the stories I wrote for the workshop was “Tauri”, which the wonderful people at Fabula Argentea have published in their online edition. You can read it at: https://fabulaargentea.com/index.php/article/tauri-by-mary-jo-rabe/

My story “Christmas in the Ruins”, a fictional account of Christmas in Freiburg in 1944, appeared as part of WMG Publishing’s Winter Holiday Spectacular 2020. I am so grateful to Kristine Kathryn Rusch for including it in her anthology, even though it was perhaps darker than what she was looking for.
It is available as e-book and in print at all online bookstores as well as at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/mysterious-christmas/

I wrote “It’s Lechtenbrink, Libby Lechtenbrink” for a science fiction writing workshop in January of 2020. My story features Libby Lechtenbrink, a librarian on Mars, one of my more homicidal alter egos. I am so grateful to Barbara G. Tarn for including me in this wonderful anthology, Sci-Fi Stories Earth Colonies, published in July, 2021. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/sci-fi5

I wrote “We Can Wait But No Longer Want To” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Energetic Martian microbes take advantage of the opportunity to leave their frosty underground lakes. I am overjoyed to have it published July, 2021, in Alien Dimensions #20/21, a wonderful magazine available in electronic and print form.
amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097HMG6FK
amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Alien…/dp/B098VSSQGJ/ref=sr_1_2…

I wrote “If You Lead an Earthling to Water, Who Gets To Drink?” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Martian colonists have to deal with the dilemma of possibly endangering alien life in order to keep their Earth colony running. I am thrilled that Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine chose to publish it in its online magazine, Issue 1, June 2021:

https://www.penumbric.com/currentissue/rabeWater.html

During Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020 I wrote a story I titled “Herr Gehrke, Why Is Everyone Lying to Me?” that took place in an archdiocesan chancery office of a mid-sized German city. In the hopes that it would fit Blaze Ward Presents 5 Crime and …, which was published in June, 2021, I renamed it “Bishops”. I am incredibly grateful to Blaze Ward for accepting this story. Naturally it is completely fictional, but some of the characters are inspired by people I have known. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096CJPLMV/?tag=kydala-20

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/…/B096CYSG1Q/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0…

I wrote “Slim Pickings on Mars” for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. A detective on Mars literally stumbles onto an object at a crime scene that has multi-universal consequences. It was my immense good fortune that Blaze Ward was willing to accept it for his Blaze Ward Presents 4 anthology which was published in November, 2020. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1626771787&sr=1-1

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=blaze+ward+presents+4&qid=1626771873&s=books&sr=1-1

“Father Otto” is a story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Thanks to kind editor Dayle A. Dermatis, it became my first professional sale, appearing in the Fiction River issue 33 Doorways to Enchantment, published in August, 2020. “Father Otto” is an homage to one of my favorite people at the chancery office of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. Naturally all figures are mere figments of my imagination, but inspired by real people. The story itself takes place on the second floor of the historic chancery office building in Freiburg, Germany.
It is available, electronic and print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/u/4NLWMo and of course at WMG Publishing:
https://www.wmgpublishinginc.com/p…/doorways-to-enchantment/
Tangent Online wrote a kind review of my story:

Fiction River #33: Doorways to Enchantment, ed. Dayle A. Dermatis

“Sagan in the Past” is science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. Sagan, a cat, plays an important role in a time-travel story that begins on a university campus that has certain similarities with Michigan State University. Barbara G. Tarn, was kind enough to include this story in her anthology Future Earth Tech. published in July, 2020.
You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/sci-fi3

“Katie’s Visions” is also a product of Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge”, one I worried about finding a home for, since it isn’t science fiction. Maybe you could call it historical fantasy. Katharina von Bora (Martin Luther’s wife) gets visions from Joan of Arc who has her own agenda for wanting to encourage Katharina. The wonderful people at Propertius Press included this story in their anthology Whispers from the Universe, published in June, 2020. It is available, electronic and print, at most online stores but also easily at Propertius Press, which does not charge for postage or handling.
Go to: https://bit.ly/whisperstories or
https://propertiuspress.wixsite.com/bookstore/online-store/Whispers-from-the-Universe-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p209124441

“Taking Care of Business” is a science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An Elvis impersonator on Mars finds a way to deal with devastating health issues, consistent with his reverence for The King. Dean was then kind enough to include this story in Pulphouse, Issue 8 of 2019.published in December, 2020. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/bO6gAQ
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue8/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-8-fall-2019/

“For the Love of Killer” is another story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Killer is a little, white peekapoo, inspired by Puffy, our dog on the farm. It wasn’t chosen for the anthology about female heroines, but Dean Wesley Smith was kind enough to take it for Pulphouse, Issue 4 of 2018, published in December, 2018 You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/47Z9aR?fbclid=IwAR0iZAracjT1yWQnMG4TGHIs0P_Sf58Udvmg_vDMldSEYbH-hkScaOaCAfU
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue4/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-4-december-2018/

Russ Crossley was kind enough to include “Efficient Engineering”, a story I wrote for the anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon, in 2017, in his Rocketpack Adventures anthology in October, 2018. An engineer on Mars decides to build her own rocket and leave for parts unknown. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/rocketpack-adventures

“One Universe Is Never Enough” is a story I wrote Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An administrator on Pluto gets tired of the bureaucratic backbiting and takes a chance on travel to another universe. Barbara G. Tarn was kind enough to include it in her Space Opera Mashup. Published in July, 2018. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
http://books2read.com/u/4AY5XN

Two  of my poems are still archived online:

Salt Water Rafting at Raven Electrick: http://www.ravenelectrick.com/ravenpoetrick/saltwaterrafting.html

Tharsis Lil at Astropoetica: http://www.astropoetica.com/Summer07/tharsislil.html

I have my author pages at amazon where you can see which stories of mine have been published so far:

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1598900121&sr=1-2

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_6&qid=1598900017&sr=1-6

amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4&qid=1598900282&sr=1-4

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Publications as of November, 2021

Posted on December 17, 2021 by maryjorabe

More or less in reverse order, here are my online and print publications so far:

My two stories previously published in Pulphouse #4 (For the Love of Killer) and Pulphouse #8 (Taking Care of Business) have been reprinted in new Pulphouse issues, as always available in e-book and print format at all online bookstores. “For the Love of Killer” appears in Run!! Creatures, Critters, and Pulphousers and is also availaboe at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/run-creatures-critters-and-pulphousers/?fbclid=IwAR1AgtKTe43OF13MH6BXRfaZuPG93kRzqw-MhcZct0SZU-vbQm5Wbsjo-gc. “Taking Care of Business” appears in Twisted Robots, Oh, My!, and is also availaboe at WMG (https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/twisted-robots-oh-my/?fbclid=IwAR1f1-E4wEW9OhaFuRwNkEsmdgr3oH8jGzJ5VBTke987vi48UJva7r5KlyM)

My story “Gargoyles of the World, Unite!” inspired by the gargoyles of the Freiburg cathedral and featuring Annegret Gumpert, one of my somewhat homicidal alter egos, to my endless delight, is published in The Lost Librarian’s Grave, a wonderful anthology available as an e-book and in print from Redwood Press https://redwood-press.com/, and at every online bookstore.

I wrote “Endless Horizons”, a joyful story about exploring the universe,  for the 2019 Anthology Workshop and was overjoyed and eternally grateful when editor Leah Cutter accepted it for her anthology “Explorers, Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue Three“, which of course if available in e-book and print form at all online bookstores and at https://cuttersfinalcut.com/book/explorers/

Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Rescuing Sparty”, my story inspired by the three years that I spent at Michigan State University in his online magazine, Short Story Town, URL https://www.shortstorytown.com/?fbclid=IwAR2yFO3f5LXFXW6xv-hK8uIdhXumw-TFVV0a76fQQlv43iAiXc_JYv6QMII with the date of October 18, 2021.

My story “A Squeaky-Clean Reunion” takes place in the Maquoketa Caves (Maquoketa, Iowa). It features one of my recurring characters, Maquoketa B. Dragon, a mellow, Iowa dragon. I am overjoyed to see it published in Crunchy with Chocolate, available in e-book and print format at WolfSinger Publications, https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/crunchy-with-chocolate and at every online bookstore.

Back in 2015 I took a workshop on writing short stories taught by one of the writers I admire most, Dean Wesley Smith. One of the stories I wrote for the workshop was “Tauri”, which the wonderful people at Fabula Argentea have published in their online edition. You can read it at: https://fabulaargentea.com/index.php/article/tauri-by-mary-jo-rabe/

My story “Christmas in the Ruins”, a fictional account of Christmas in Freiburg in 1944, appeared as part of WMG Publishing’s Winter Holiday Spectacular 2020. I am so grateful to Kristine Kathryn Rusch for including it in her anthology, even though it was perhaps darker than what she was looking for.
It is available as e-book and in print at all online bookstores as well as at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/mysterious-christmas/

I wrote “It’s Lechtenbrink, Libby Lechtenbrink” for a science fiction writing workshop in January of 2020. My story features Libby Lechtenbrink, a librarian on Mars, one of my more homicidal alter egos. I am so grateful to Barbara G. Tarn for including me in this wonderful anthology, Sci-Fi Stories Earth Colonies, published in July, 2021. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/sci-fi5

I wrote “We Can Wait But No Longer Want To” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Energetic Martian microbes take advantage of the opportunity to leave their frosty underground lakes. I am overjoyed to have it published July, 2021, in Alien Dimensions #20/21, a wonderful magazine available in electronic and print form.
amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097HMG6FK
amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Alien…/dp/B098VSSQGJ/ref=sr_1_2…

I wrote “If You Lead an Earthling to Water, Who Gets To Drink?” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Martian colonists have to deal with the dilemma of possibly endangering alien life in order to keep their Earth colony running. I am thrilled that Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine chose to publish it in its online magazine, Issue 1, June 2021:

https://www.penumbric.com/currentissue/rabeWater.html

During Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020 I wrote a story I titled “Herr Gehrke, Why Is Everyone Lying to Me?” that took place in an archdiocesan chancery office of a mid-sized German city. In the hopes that it would fit Blaze Ward Presents 5 Crime and …, which was published in June, 2021, I renamed it “Bishops”. I am incredibly grateful to Blaze Ward for accepting this story. Naturally it is completely fictional, but some of the characters are inspired by people I have known. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096CJPLMV/?tag=kydala-20

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/…/B096CYSG1Q/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0…

I wrote “Slim Pickings on Mars” for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. A detective on Mars literally stumbles onto an object at a crime scene that has multi-universal consequences. It was my immense good fortune that Blaze Ward was willing to accept it for his Blaze Ward Presents 4 anthology which was published in November, 2020. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1626771787&sr=1-1

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=blaze+ward+presents+4&qid=1626771873&s=books&sr=1-1

“Father Otto” is a story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Thanks to kind editor Dayle A. Dermatis, it became my first professional sale, appearing in the Fiction River issue 33 Doorways to Enchantment, published in August, 2020. “Father Otto” is an homage to one of my favorite people at the chancery office of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. Naturally all figures are mere figments of my imagination, but inspired by real people. The story itself takes place on the second floor of the historic chancery office building in Freiburg, Germany.
It is available, electronic and print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/u/4NLWMo and of course at WMG Publishing:
https://www.wmgpublishinginc.com/p…/doorways-to-enchantment/
Tangent Online wrote a kind review of my story:

Fiction River #33: Doorways to Enchantment, ed. Dayle A. Dermatis

“Sagan in the Past” is science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. Sagan, a cat, plays an important role in a time-travel story that begins on a university campus that has certain similarities with Michigan State University. Barbara G. Tarn, was kind enough to include this story in her anthology Future Earth Tech. published in July, 2020.
You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/sci-fi3

“Katie’s Visions” is also a product of Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge”, one I worried about finding a home for, since it isn’t science fiction. Maybe you could call it historical fantasy. Katharina von Bora (Martin Luther’s wife) gets visions from Joan of Arc who has her own agenda for wanting to encourage Katharina. The wonderful people at Propertius Press included this story in their anthology Whispers from the Universe, published in June, 2020. It is available, electronic and print, at most online stores but also easily at Propertius Press, which does not charge for postage or handling.
Go to: https://bit.ly/whisperstories or
https://propertiuspress.wixsite.com/bookstore/online-store/Whispers-from-the-Universe-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p209124441

“Taking Care of Business” is a science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An Elvis impersonator on Mars finds a way to deal with devastating health issues, consistent with his reverence for The King. Dean was then kind enough to include this story in Pulphouse, Issue 8 of 2019.published in December, 2020. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/bO6gAQ
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue8/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-8-fall-2019/

“For the Love of Killer” is another story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Killer is a little, white peekapoo, inspired by Puffy, our dog on the farm. It wasn’t chosen for the anthology about female heroines, but Dean Wesley Smith was kind enough to take it for Pulphouse, Issue 4 of 2018, published in December, 2018 You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/47Z9aR?fbclid=IwAR0iZAracjT1yWQnMG4TGHIs0P_Sf58Udvmg_vDMldSEYbH-hkScaOaCAfU
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue4/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-4-december-2018/

Russ Crossley was kind enough to include “Efficient Engineering”, a story I wrote for the anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon, in 2017, in his Rocketpack Adventures anthology in October, 2018. An engineer on Mars decides to build her own rocket and leave for parts unknown. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/rocketpack-adventures

“One Universe Is Never Enough” is a story I wrote Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An administrator on Pluto gets tired of the bureaucratic backbiting and takes a chance on travel to another universe. Barbara G. Tarn was kind enough to include it in her Space Opera Mashup. Published in July, 2018. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
http://books2read.com/u/4AY5XN

Two  of my poems are still archived online:

Salt Water Rafting at Raven Electrick: http://www.ravenelectrick.com/ravenpoetrick/saltwaterrafting.html

Tharsis Lil at Astropoetica: http://www.astropoetica.com/Summer07/tharsislil.html

I have my author pages at amazon where you can see which stories of mine have been published so far:

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1598900121&sr=1-2

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_6&qid=1598900017&sr=1-6

amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4&qid=1598900282&sr=1-4

Publications as of October, 2022

More or less in reverse order, here are my online and print publications so far:

I’m overjoyed to have my story “Balance the Books” published online at The Lorelei Signal, https://www.loreleisignal.com/current-issue . It has definite autobiographical references from my 41 years in the chancery office library, along with wishful thinking from that time.

My story “Tryst at the Tombaugh Regio” in Draw Down the Moon, another wonderful anthology from Propertius Press, available https://www.propertiuspress.com/our-bookstore/Draw-Down-the-Moon-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p375745328  and in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores. I wrote this love story for an anthology workshop in Las Vegas. It’s happy ending takes place on the Tombaugh Regio, that pink, heart-shaped area on (dwarf)planet Pluto.

I wrote “Spaceship Nursery” for a Dean Wesley Smith online workshop. It is a new perspective of AI with respect to spaceship construction. The nice people at Wyldblood, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Issue 9, available at https://wyldblood.com/product/wyldblood-9/ and at online bookstores in e-book and print formats.

My story “How Fred the Opossum Mobilized the Microbes and Saved the Universe” in Pulphouse, Issue 18, available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/pulphouse-issue-18/ and via https://books2read.com/u/38eNgw. It was kindly reviewed by Tangent Online, https://tangentonline.com/print-bi-monthly/pulphouse-18-june-july-2022/ Fred the Opossum was a frequent visitor on our farm in Iowa, and I’m glad I had the chance to give him the credit he deserves.

Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “And Became Titans” in his Boundary Shock Quarterly, Issue 9, Sea Stories . Here intelligent Martian microbes find a way to get the Earthie colonists to help them gain communication with other microbes in the solar system. It is available in e-book and print formats at all online bookstores and at https://www.boundaryshockquarterly.com/book/sea-stories/

Once again Blaze Ward was kind enough to publish my story “The Gods of the Black Forest” in Blaze Ward Presents, Issue 6, available in e-book and print formats in all online book stores and at https://blazewardpresents.com/?mbdb_book=small-gods  My small gods live in the streams in the mountains of the Black Forest.

“October Mardi Gras” is published in Dark Horses, the Magazine of Weird Fiction, Issue No. 4, May 2022. It is inspired by memories of various teachers at Miles High School in Miles, Iowa, back in the 1960’s. It is also available at all online bookstores in e-book and print formats

The late Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Iowa Summer”, my story that I wrote for an anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My Story “The Devil and the Deep Blue Chiemsee”, inspired by my years in the chancery office library and a library conference at Frauenchiemsee, is available online at: https://mysterytribune.com/the-devil-and-the-deep-blue-chiemsee-cozy-mystery-by-mary-jo-rabe/

My two stories previously published in Pulphouse #4 (For the Love of Killer) and Pulphouse #8 (Taking Care of Business) have been reprinted in new Pulphouse issues, as always available in e-book and print format at all online bookstores. “For the Love of Killer” appears in Run!! Creatures, Critters, and Pulphousers and is also availaboe at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/run-creatures-critters-and-pulphousers/?fbclid=IwAR1AgtKTe43OF13MH6BXRfaZuPG93kRzqw-MhcZct0SZU-vbQm5Wbsjo-gc. “Taking Care of Business” appears in Twisted Robots, Oh, My!, and is also available at WMG (https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/twisted-robots-oh-my/?fbclid=IwAR1f1-E4wEW9OhaFuRwNkEsmdgr3oH8jGzJ5VBTke987vi48UJva7r5KlyM)

My story “Gargoyles of the World, Unite!” inspired by the gargoyles of the Freiburg cathedral and featuring Annegret Gumpert, one of my somewhat homicidal alter egos, to my endless delight, is published in The Lost Librarian’s Grave, a wonderful anthology available as an e-book and in print from Redwood Press https://redwood-press.com/, and at every online bookstore.

I wrote “Endless Horizons”, a joyful story about exploring the universe, for the 2019 Anthology Workshop and was overjoyed and eternally grateful when editor Leah Cutter accepted it for her anthology “Explorers, Cutter’s Final Cut: Issue Three“, which of course if available in e-book and print form at all online bookstores and at https://cuttersfinalcut.com/book/explorers/

The late Steven Lester Carr, kindly published “Rescuing Sparty”, my story inspired by the three years that I spent at Michigan State University in his online magazine, Short Story Town, unfortunately no longer available on the Internet.

My story “A Squeaky-Clean Reunion” takes place in the Maquoketa Caves (Maquoketa, Iowa). It features one of my recurring characters, Maquoketa B. Dragon, a mellow, Iowa dragon. I am overjoyed to see it published in Crunchy with Chocolate, available in e-book and print format at WolfSinger Publications, https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/crunchy-with-chocolate and at every online bookstore.

Back in 2015 I took a workshop on writing short stories taught by one of the writers I admire most, Dean Wesley Smith. One of the stories I wrote for the workshop was “Tauri”, which the wonderful people at Fabula Argentea have published in their online edition. You can read it at: https://fabulaargentea.com/index.php/article/tauri-by-mary-jo-rabe/

My story “Christmas in the Ruins”, a fictional account of Christmas in Freiburg in 1944, appeared as part of WMG Publishing’s Winter Holiday Spectacular 2020. I am so grateful to Kristine Kathryn Rusch for including it in her anthology, even though it was perhaps darker than what she was looking for.
It is available as e-book and in print at all online bookstores as well as at WMG, https://wmgpublishinginc.com/project/mysterious-christmas/

I wrote “It’s Lechtenbrink, Libby Lechtenbrink” for a science fiction writing workshop in January of 2020. My story features Libby Lechtenbrink, a librarian on Mars, one of my more homicidal alter egos. I am so grateful to Barbara G. Tarn for including me in this wonderful anthology, Sci-Fi Stories Earth Colonies, published in July, 2021. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/sci-fi5

I wrote “We Can Wait But No Longer Want To” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Energetic Martian microbes take advantage of the opportunity to leave their frosty underground lakes. I am overjoyed to have it published July, 2021, in Alien Dimensions #20/21, a wonderful magazine available in electronic and print form.
amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097HMG6FK
amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Alien…/dp/B098VSSQGJ/ref=sr_1_2…

I wrote “If You Lead an Earthling to Water, Who Gets To Drink?” during Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020. Martian colonists have to deal with the dilemma of possibly endangering alien life in order to keep their Earth colony running. I am thrilled that Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine chose to publish it in its online magazine, Issue 1, June 2021:

https://www.penumbric.com/currentissue/rabeWater.html

During Dean Wesley Smith’s story a week challenge in 2019 and 2020 I wrote a story I titled “Herr Gehrke, Why Is Everyone Lying to Me?” that took place in an archdiocesan chancery office of a mid-sized German city. In the hopes that it would fit Blaze Ward Presents 5 Crime and …, which was published in June, 2021, I renamed it “Bishops”. I am incredibly grateful to Blaze Ward for accepting this story. Naturally it is completely fictional, but some of the characters are inspired by people I have known. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096CJPLMV/?tag=kydala-20

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/…/B096CYSG1Q/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0…

I wrote “Slim Pickings on Mars” for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. A detective on Mars literally stumbles onto an object at a crime scene that has multi-universal consequences. It was my immense good fortune that Blaze Ward was willing to accept it for his Blaze Ward Presents 4 anthology which was published in November, 2020. The anthology is available at all your favorite online bookstores, to name a few

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1626771787&sr=1-1

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Cloak-Dagger-Blaze-Ward/dp/B08NYYBPM2/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=blaze+ward+presents+4&qid=1626771873&s=books&sr=1-1

“Father Otto” is a story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Thanks to kind editor Dayle A. Dermatis, it became my first professional sale, appearing in the Fiction River issue 33 Doorways to Enchantment, published in August, 2020. “Father Otto” is an homage to one of my favorite people at the chancery office of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. Naturally all figures are mere figments of my imagination, but inspired by real people. The story itself takes place on the second floor of the historic chancery office building in Freiburg, Germany.
It is available, electronic and print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/u/4NLWMo and of course at WMG Publishing:
https://www.wmgpublishinginc.com/p…/doorways-to-enchantment/
Tangent Online wrote a kind review of my story:

Fiction River #33: Doorways to Enchantment, ed. Dayle A. Dermatis

“Sagan in the Past” is science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. Sagan, a cat, plays an important role in a time-travel story that begins on a university campus that has certain similarities with Michigan State University. Barbara G. Tarn, was kind enough to include this story in her anthology Future Earth Tech. published in July, 2020.
You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection:
https://books2read.com/sci-fi3

“Katie’s Visions” is also a product of Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge”, one I worried about finding a home for, since it isn’t science fiction. Maybe you could call it historical fantasy. Katharina von Bora (Martin Luther’s wife) gets visions from Joan of Arc who has her own agenda for wanting to encourage Katharina. The wonderful people at Propertius Press included this story in their anthology Whispers from the Universe, published in June, 2020. It is available, electronic and print, at most online stores but also easily at Propertius Press, which does not charge for postage or handling.
Go to: https://bit.ly/whisperstories or
https://propertiuspress.wixsite.com/bookstore/online-store/Whispers-from-the-Universe-A-Collection-of-Short-Stories-p209124441

“Taking Care of Business” is a science fiction story I wrote for Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An Elvis impersonator on Mars finds a way to deal with devastating health issues, consistent with his reverence for The King. Dean was then kind enough to include this story in Pulphouse, Issue 8 of 2019.published in December, 2020. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/bO6gAQ
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue8/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-8-fall-2019/

“For the Love of Killer” is another story I wrote in 2016 for the 2017 Anthology Workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. Killer is a little, white peekapoo, inspired by Puffy, our dog on the farm. It wasn’t chosen for the anthology about female heroines, but Dean Wesley Smith was kind enough to take it for Pulphouse, Issue 4 of 2018, published in December, 2018 You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/u/47Z9aR?fbclid=IwAR0iZAracjT1yWQnMG4TGHIs0P_Sf58Udvmg_vDMldSEYbH-hkScaOaCAfU
or naturally at WMG Publishing: https://pulphousemagazine.com/the-magazine/issue4/

Tangent Online reviewed this issue of Pulphouse: https://tangentonline.com/print-quarterly/pulphouse-fiction-magazine/pulphouse-4-december-2018/

Russ Crossley was kind enough to include “Efficient Engineering”, a story I wrote for the anthology workshop in Lincoln City, Oregon, in 2017, in his Rocketpack Adventures anthology in October, 2018. An engineer on Mars decides to build her own rocket and leave for parts unknown. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
https://books2read.com/rocketpack-adventures

“One Universe Is Never Enough” is a story I wrote Dean Wesley Smith’s “Write 30 Stories in 60 Days Challenge” back in 2017. An administrator on Pluto gets tired of the bureaucratic backbiting and takes a chance on travel to another universe. Barbara G. Tarn was kind enough to include it in her Space Opera Mashup. Published in July, 2018. You can find the magazine, electronic or print, at all online bookstores, here a selection
http://books2read.com/u/4AY5XN

Two  of my poems are still archived online:

Salt Water Rafting at Raven Electrick: http://www.ravenelectrick.com/ravenpoetrick/saltwaterrafting.html

Tharsis Lil at Astropoetica: http://www.astropoetica.com/Summer07/tharsislil.html

I have my author pages at amazon where you can see which stories of mine have been published so far:

amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1598900121&sr=1-2

amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_6&qid=1598900017&sr=1-6

amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mary-Jo-Rabe/e/B007MMFCPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4&qid=1598900282&sr=1-4