Fiction
I write science fiction, fantasy, horror, humor, and occasionally mystery. Subscribe below for new story updates, or contact me at ronfein.fiction AT gmail dot com. I promise I won’t spam you.
2024
- 1,001 Best Hikes on Mars: The Peterson Historic Trail ('Peterson’s Folly') (hard science fiction, experimental format) - Nature, June 2024
2023
- A Line in the Fading Paint (climate fiction in the Middle East) - Nonprofit Quarterly, Oct. 2023; reprinted in Twice-Told Tales anthology (forthcoming 2024)
- Panache! (time travel murder mystery) - Factor Four, Aug. 2023
- Excerpts from After-Action Interviews Regarding the Incident at Penn Station (near-future police procedural) - Nature, June 2023; reprinted in Troopers anthology, Mar. 2024
- A Dragon Looks at Four Thousand (character-driven fantasy) - MetaStellar, May 2023; reprinted in Dragon's Hoard 3 anthology (forthcoming Aug. 2024) and Galaxia 42 (Romanian translation) (May 2024)
- A Daronite Fence (cosmic horror) – Tales of Fear, Superstition, and Doom anthology, Mar. 2023
- Clean Shot (contemporary thriller) - Mystery Tribune, Jan. 2023
2022
- The Magic Box of Le Chat Sauvage de Lyon (dieselpunk crypto)– Phantasmical Contraptions and More Errors anthology, Aug. 2022
- Time-Tested Strategies for Escaping Conversations About Elon Musk - Slackjaw, July 2022
- Upper Beta Great Alcove Very Happy (family/steganography humor) – Daily Science Fiction, July 2022; reprinted in Stupefying Stories (Mar. 2024) and Terrific Tomorrows anthology (July 2024)
- “You Idiots Really Screwed This Up”: A Message from Henry David Thoreau on the Turning of the Seasons, Climate Change, and the Purple Bladderwort – What Would Henry Do? Essays for the 21st Century, Vol. II anthology, July 2022
- Notes on the Debates in the Federal Convention Concerning a Council of Oracles – Sci Phi Journal, Mar. 2022
2021
- Another Beloved Show Goes Off the Rails: The Disturbing Seasons 13-18 of “Your Child’s Life” – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Feb. 2021
2020
- Hercule Poirot Solves the Case of the COVID Comorbidities – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Sept. 2020
- Arkham Board of Health Feedback On Miskatonic University’s Draft Plan for a Safe Campus Reopening – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Aug. 2020; reprinted in LOLcraft: A Compendium of Eldritch Humor anthology (2022)
- The Broken Lives Behind the Illustrative Math Word Problems – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, July 2020
- ”Who’s Laughing Now, Assholes?”: A Letter from Henry David Thoreau to Literature Faculties at Cushy Liberal Arts Schools – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Apr. 2020; 13th-most viewed piece of 2020; republished Dec. 2020 with author interview
Older
- The Way of the Unicorn (literary) – Redivider, spring 2004; reprinted in Bookends Review (2022)
- Regrade rocked by ideological assault – Seattle Weekly, 1998