Tom Marcinko
Stories about human and other imaginary beings.
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Tom Marcinko's short fiction has appeared in Rosebud, Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, Science Fiction Age, Ellen Datlow’s EventHorizon.com, and other venues. He is shopping a novel, writing another one, and getting frighteningly close to earning his Master’s in Humanities.
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Fiction
Whiter Teeth, Fresher Breath
Published Jan 17, 2021 · 3,976 words (15 minutes) · 61 views
Author note: Trigger warnings: alien sex; dentistry. This was my first fiction sale ever, to David Pringle at Interzone, in the remote former lifetime that was 1994.
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The Nixon Wrangler's Tale
Published Jan 10, 2021 · 3,089 words (12 minutes) · 39 views
Humor Satire Science Fiction Elvis political satire Marilyn Costa Rica Madonna law enforcement artificial intelligence Kennedy copyright infringement politics Sinatra artificial life gardening cobain Nixon replicant
A warning: This story contains many things that might offend some readers, including semi-explicit sex, "sci-fi violence," four-letter words that somehow retain a certain power, and a general spirit of meanness. Ellen Datlow said she liked it in spite of herself, and published it in 1998 on EventHorizon.com, a site you need the Wayback Machine to find today. The theme park name in this story was stolen from Judith Berman, who I hope forgives me.
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Henry the Human Flea
Published Dec 2, 2020 · 1,017 words (4 minutes) · 74 views
This story was published way back in the last century, in a British magazine called The Edge, edited by Graham Evans. It was originally conceived as a pitch for an anthology of Spider-Man stories, but the editor who sent me a polite rejection said it was "too weird for Marvel." (How's that, again?) It's fortunate that I was able to capitalize on the superhero craze years before it was ripe for monetization.
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A Close Personal Relationship
Published Dec 2, 2020 · 3,714 words (14 minutes) · 89 views
Fantasy Science Fiction theocracy authoritarianism Dinosaurs censorship Theological fantasy Heresy cosmology
Some people might be offended by this story's language, to say nothing of its religious concepts. This story was published in Realms of Fantasy, edited by Shawna McCarthy, in 2010. An earlier version was published in New Writings in the Fantastic, ed. John Grant.
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