Short Stories

Apologia: Judas in Savage Parallax

Drawing upon and interweaving many contradictory tales about Judas Iscariot’s life and death, “Apologia” presents a narrative reminiscent of Robert Coover at his most metafictional. Brian Hodge called this story “a deconstructionist gospel, as irreverent in its language as its theology.”

Fractures of the Heart

This story will appeal to any reader who has put his or her heart and soul into a new relationship, only to be savagely shamed and cut loose by a new lover who had seemed, moments before, fully onboard. It first appeared in Alan M. Clark's anthology,
Imagination Fully Dilated.

God’s Madmen: Van Helsing's Wondrous Elixir of Serenity and Good Will

After besting Dracula, Dr. Van Helsing finds and perfects Dr. Jekyll’s disastrous potion. He brings his peace-inducing concoction to the first international peace conference in The Hague (1899), spiking the refreshments in order to bring out the better angels of the unpromising military and political attendees.

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Nocturne a Tre in B-Double-Sharp Minor

Prepare to meet an elderly vampire, her young female lover, and a renowned conductor who hires himself out to conduct trysts for those willing to pay top dollar. Which of the players in this bizarre dance of sex and death will most fully satisfy their burgeoning hunger? I’ll never tell, but my story most assuredly will.

Ridi, Bobo

Conveyed entirely in mime, “Ridi, Bobo” is a dark tale of clown betrayal and revenge. Upon being given proof of his wife’s adultery, Bobo turns viciously rogue, while his Emmett-Kelly-like detective can only sadly shake his head at the violence he witnesses.

A Slow Red Whisper of Sand

A World Fantasy Award Finalist for 1994, this tale first appeared as the final story in Poppy Z. Brite’s vampire anthology,
Love in Vein. Brian Stableford called it “an extraordinary tour de force.”

What the Eye Sees, What the Heart Feels

A unicorn whose task is to witness death while connecting heart-to-heart with the dying being is reaching her own end. This story was anthologized in Peter S. Beagle’s
Immortal Unicorn.

Zombie Mashup

This story first appeared in John Skipp’s Mondo Zombie with the title “Holy Fast, Holy Feast.” In this metafictional tale chockful of sensual delights, contradictory events, and narrative gambits realized and then revoked, the only certainty is that oodles of love and mayhem wait around every corner.

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Previously Published Short Fiction

  • "God's Madmen" (Farthing #4, August 2006)  

  • "Holy Fast, Holy Feast" (Mondo Zombie, ed. John Skipp, July 2006)  

  • "Li'l Miss Ultrasound" (Gathering the Bones, ed. Dennis Etchison, Jack Dann, and Ramsey Campbell, 2003)  

  • "Apologia" (The Museum of Horrors, ed. Dennis Etchison, 2003)  

  • "Stone-Crunch, Axe-Thud, Bone-Grind, Home" (Whispers and Shadows, 2001)  

  • "On the Dangers of Simultaneity, Or, Ungh, Mmmm, Oh-Baby-Yeah, Aaah, Oooh...UH-OH!" (Embraces: Dark Erotica, ed. Paula Guran, 2000, reprinted in The Best American Erotica 2002, ed. Susie Bright)  

  • "Grounded" (Cemetery Sonata, ed. June Hubbard, 1999)  

  • "Nocturne a Tre in B-Double-Sharp Minor" (The Darkest Thirst, 1998)  

  • "Pine Supine" and "Pullover" (Horrors!: 365 Scary Stories, Fall 1998)  

  • "Fractures of the Heart" (Imagination Fully Dilated, May 1998)  

  • "Cloven Comfort" (Phantasm #3, 1996)  

  • "Displaced" (Colorado High Fantastic, March 1996)  

  • "The Slobbering Tongue That Ate the Frightfully Huge Woman" (It Came from the Drive-In, February 1996) (Bram Stoker Award finalist)  

  • "What the Eye Sees, What the Heart Feels" (Peter S. Beagle's Immortal Unicorn, October 1995)  

  • "Pelle Katt and the Troll-Maiden" (Cyberpsychos AOD, 1994)  

  • "A Slow Red Whisper of Sand" (Love in Vein, November 1994) (World Fantasy Award finalist)  

  • "Clap If You Believe" (Crank!, October 1993)

  • "First Date" (Bizarre Bazaar 93)  

  • "Ridi Bobo" (Weird Tales, Spring 1993, reprinted in Datlow/Windling Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Seventh Series, Fall 1994, and in Karl Edward Wagner's Year's Best Horror, November 1994)  

  • "Grace Under Pressure" (Bizarre Sex, September 1992)  

  • "Bucky Goes to Church" (MetaHorror, ed. Dennis Etchison, July 1992)  

  • "Spell Check" (Bizarre Bazaar 92)  

  • "One Flesh: A Cautionary Tale" (Iniquities 3, Fall 1991)  

  • "Fructus in Eden" (Pulphouse 9, November 1990)  

  • "Showdown at Stinking Springs" (Hustler Fantasies, June 1990, reprinted in A Skull Full of Spurs, Dark Highway Press, 1999)  

  • "Running With a New Pack" (The Overlook Connection, 1989)

Robert Devereaux

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