Hi. My name is Greg Stolze, this is my web page, and I write books.

Up For Ransom: Shrimp

If I told you I had a story about the martial arts, you might very reasonably assume it also involves werewolves and explosions. (That would, in fact, be the smart way to bet.) Shrimp, however, is another of my uncharacteristic departures into literary realism, even though it’s set in a modern, American, suburban school of Japanese fighting sciences. The story is about a kids’ judo class, but that’s really just a vehicle to explore the unhappy mind of Ellis Miller, one of the men teaching it. (Oh, of course he’s unhappy! If you’ve read my stories you know I don’t write a lot about the content and well-adjusted.) Shrimp is up for ransom right now: If I get $330.00, the story becomes free for everyone on the Internet. Would you like to say you helped with that?

Mask of the Other, Now Available

Just in time to put it on your new Nook or Kindle, I’m releasing a novel of soul-blasting Lovecraftian horror. Mask of the Other is 326 pages of taut thrills and gut-churning squick, bound together with military honor.

Just off the coast of Japan, there’s an abandoned industrial island called Hashima, a ghost town evacuated with unseemly haste in 1974. Part of the novel is set there.

On the island of Cyprus, there’s a neighborhood that was sealed off and completely abandoned during the Turkish invasion. That neighborhood is called Varosha. Part of the novel is set there. It, too, was sealed in 1974.

The rest? The rest of the novel is about the US soldiers who, during the 1991 invasion of Iraq, stumbled across the wreckage of Saddam’s occult weapons program. It’s about the military investigator who chases them across three continents, from a disastrous mission in Afghanistan through Japan, Australia and the disputed territory of Cabo Bojador in Africa. It’s about the dangers and opportunities that attend on contact with entities beyond human comprehension. It touches on some elements of the story A Wind at the Window but goes farther, gets weirder, and cuts deeper.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Slide on over to the Mask of the Other page for a free sample and order information.

HORIZON: Coming Soon

In 2012, it is my intention to design a game in public, so that people can make suggestions before I get into the tedious layout process. The game is HORIZON and you can read a tiny bit about it on this dedicated blog page.

Dinosaurs... in Spaaace!

The final copies of Dinosaurs... in Spaaace! have been signed, packed, addressed and sent off. If you pre-ordered and it fails to appear within the next couple weeks (or longer, for overseas fans) let me know. (If you have gotten it and it works for you, maybe consider putting up a review? Just a suggestion.)

Even better, the shipment to Indie Press Revolution arrived, meaning you can buy the softcover version from them, with the PDF bundled free if that sort of thing appeals to you. Customers who prefer electronic files can get it both from IPR and from RPGNOW.

Breaking news! A review, it is in!

Emily Speaks, Available Now!

Once more, my faithful fans have backed me so that everyone with Internet access can enjoy Emily Speaks, a free piece of short fiction. In this case, you get the story of two angry, lonesome men and the woman who accidentally helps push a computer through the Uncanny Valley and up a previously uncharted Uncanny Mountain. Emily Speaks also available as an ePub file through my free internet library.

SWITCHFLIPPED in Print

Did not quite get across the goal line with an offset print run of SWITCHFLIPPED but, to continue the seasonally-apt football metaphor, I did fade back and do an OK punt. SWITCHFLIPPED is now available as a bound, dead-tree, print-on-demand volume and clicking on that link can get it in your hands after a reasonable pause. If you remain undecided, try listening to me reading the opening section. That, for good or ill, should decide you.

More Timely Updates

If you have gotten sick of waiting on my intermittent updates here, I don’t blame you one bit. If you want to hear about my projects and updates via email, send me your address and I’ll put you on a notification list. Just between you, me and the Internet, there might be opportunities for some special offers on there, too.

A Reasonable Set of Links

At some point I will redo this web site, but for the time being here’s the duct-tape fix: Links here in the body text to things that really ought to be buttons up top.

My fiction library.

The REIGN Home Page.

Me on Twitter.

...and on Facebook.

If This Is Your First Time...

In addition to the many companies that have employed me, I also self-published a few books, partially as an experiment, partially out of laziness. If lazy experimentalism sounds appealing (rather than appalling) here are some links.

Scary Face, my short story collection, is now available as a .pdf.

GODWALKER, a novel tied in to the game Unknown Armies.

These People Mean Nothing To Each Other is another distribution experiment, this one in charitable fundraising via hard-boiled fiction.