Renowned fiction podcaster Tall Tale TV has published my short story “Winter Star.” Here’s what managing editor Chris Herron had to say: “Have just read your story. I loved it. It feels almost nostalgic in the way you wrote it. Like an 80’s sci-fi movie.“

I’m honored. I was aiming for a retro feel, something along the lines of Stand By Me, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Super 8.

It’s 1988. High school senior Trey Evans borrows his father’s pickup to haul a shortwave radio to the top of Winter Star Mountain, one of the highest peaks in the southern Appalachians. Trey and his friend Booney hope to intercept rare, elusive transmissions with the help of their high altitude monitoring post and a once-in-a-lifetime solar storm.

But their efforts attract unexpected attention from a mysterious visitor.

Tall Tale TV features sci-fi and fantasy authors from around the world. The site was a finalist for the now-discontinued Parsec Awards, which recognized outstanding science fiction podcasters.

This little story is my love letter to the glory days of shortwave radio. In its heyday, shortwave was the Wild West of the radio spectrum, where you might hear spies, drug smugglers, or NASA. There’s also a wistful nod to my camping expeditions of long ago to the dark, magnificent Appalachian Mountains.

Nostalgia, suspense, adventure — it’s all there. It’s also available on YouTube and Facebook.

Patreon subscribers to Hexagon Speculative Fiction Magazine now have early access to its premiere issue. It features my flash fiction story “Mirrors.”

While conducting a solo study of the fauna on Specula C3, Dr. Annette Thatcher witnesses the crash-landing of an alien spacecraft. She rescues Gregarin, the lone survivor of a ship from Etzi, a previously unknown planet. During the weeks Thatcher and Gregarin wait for an Earth rescue shuttle, they learn about each other’s language and culture — and surprising truths about themselves.

The idea for this story came to me while re-reading Dr. Lewis Thomas’ marvelous book, The Lives of a Cell, a beautifully written treasure chest of insights into the interconnectedness of all life. Thomas’ thoughts on collective societies that behave like single organisms got me to imagining how human society would appear to an alien species.

Hexagon Speculative Fiction is a new Canadian publication featuring poetry, fiction, and mixed media from all over the world. Its goal is to blend the fantastic, the absurd, the horrifying, and the humorous.

The debut issue also includes the work of Evan Marcroft, Nicholas C. Smith, Michael M. Jones, and John Grey.

I was pleasantly surprised to see my short story “Hunting Ground” included in DAOwens Publications’ Unbound – The First Collection. It’s an exciting blend of fantasy and science fiction stories, featuring the themes of the successful Unbound series, including Lost Friends, Changed Worlds, and Goodbye Earth.

Here’s what one reviewer had to say: “I enjoyed M.C. Tuggle’s “Hunting Ground” for its unusual antagonist. CHANGED WORLDS (Unbound Book 2) is a great read for those wanting to spice up their lives with something new.” Ben A. Sharpton, author of 2nd Sight.

Available at Kobo. Check it out!

The latest issue of Bewildering Stories features my story “The God Particle.”

Though he’s a rookie engineer at the Ising Particle Collider, Larry Bethany knows the facility’s inner workings better than anyone else. When all safeguards mysteriously fail and the system’s super-magnets overheat, Larry descends into the accelerator’s interior to shut down the power and prevent a meltdown. Racing against time, Larry discovers the impending disaster is no accident, and learns more about the collider – and himself – than he thought possible.

Not long ago, I read there are over 30,000 accelerators slamming sub-atomic particles into each other at near-light speed just to see what they’ll do. Science, however, is insatiable, so universities and research facilities around the world are pouring billions into building even bigger, more powerful units.

That got me to thinking — could there be ANY unforeseen consequences of tinkering with the basic building blocks of the universe? Just wondering …