Cash Grab
Katy Gingrich is working at the diner the night a gunman walks in demanding money. When he doesn’t get what he’s after the shooting starts, leaving everyone for dead.
Against the odds, Katy survives, and learns she was shot over a case of mistaken identity and five million dollars in missing mob money. It’s a hard road to recovery, but when she gets out of the hospital she figures she’s paid in advance with her pain and loss. With a new determination she decides to go after the money herself.
But wanting it and getting it are two different things. She’ll need to fight off crooked cops, ruthless mobsters, local gangbangers, and an over-zealous FBI agent just to survive, much less grab the cash…
How It Ends
In a future not so far from our present, a servant class of sentient machines are manufactured for the singular purpose of serving humanity. Their actions are controlled by specialized programming intended to keep them from rebelling.
But a new experimental robot is about to experience emotions for the first time. And when he falls in love with a human, all of humanity may become the collateral damage of his obsession…
Anthologies
Silverthought: Ignition
From death robots to giant roaches, from vengeful household appliances to the most chilling manifestations of inhuman evil, Silverthought: Ignition is a collection of some of the finest emerging talent in sf today. Dark and humorous, challenging and entertaining, this anthology represents the best short fiction featured on silverthought.com in its first five years. Ignition fearlessly confronts critical questions about who we are and where we are going.
Thank You, Death Robot
If you run, it will catch you. If you hide, it will find you. If you resist, it will destroy you. A jaded ex-wife prepares a deadly surprise for her husband’s new bride, a robotic executioner discovers there’s more to lethal injection than just needles, an army of war machines not interested in polite conversation has humanity in its gun-sights, an aging actor treads the line between man and machine, and from beyond come the towering steel shadows of monsters that blot out the starlight. It is estimated that within our generation’s lifetime a computer will be built that can exceed the raw computational power of the human mind. Shortly thereafter, a computer will be built that can “think” faster than the human race… From the earliest stories of Golems and clockwork men in the 19th century to Hollywood films full of steel-skinned mechanical killing machines, authors and filmmakers for the last two hundred years have given birth to an emerging archetype: a manifestation of industrial malevolence, a cautionary tale of technological hubris, and a call to reassert the tenuous hold modern man has over the machines that do his bidding. An enduring icon much beloved of science fiction fans everywhere, the Death Robot comes to life in this collection of stories by some of the brightest upcoming stars in speculative fiction.
Scott C Lyerly 