The Summer Issue of The Colored Lens is now available on Amazon, with my new short story, “Murphy’s Traverse,” a somber science-fiction tale about Murphy, the Chief Mechanic aboard a colony sleeper ship and the series of events that lead to wholly unexpected results that prove the law that bears his name.

The Colored Lens is a speculative fiction magazine edited by Dawn Lloyd and Daniel Scott, and published by Light Spring LLC. The Summer issue is Issue #12.

In addition to “Murphy’s Traverse,” the issue also includes stories by Kristen Hatten (“Bioluminescence”), Bo Balder (“The Knack Bomb”), R.E. Awan (“The Mark”), Judith Field (“Psychopomps”), Imogen Cassidy (“Beta Child”), Jenni Moody (“Sister Winter”), Diane Kenealy (“A Scratch, a Scratch”), Daniel Rosen (“The Hands That Coded Heaven”), Julie Jackson (“Everything I should Have Told Her”), and Jarod K. Anderson (“A Junker’s Kiss”).

“Murphy’s Traverse” begins simply enough:

“Murphy, wake up.”

The soft female voice seemed distant.

-Beep-

-Ch-click-

-Hsssssst-

“Murphy …”

He tried to roll and found himself restrained.

“Let us disconnect those,” she said.

He cracked an eyelid. The gray, curved interior of his hibernation chamber crowded him.

Awareness returned.

“What?” he croaked.

“There is a problem.”

That assertion proves to be a slight understatement, but soon, as one problem leads to another, the magnitude of that understatement shifts rapidly.

I hope you enjoy the story. Issue 12 of The Colored Lens is presently available from Amazon. The Colored Lens also puts stories online at its site, staggered, for free reading, if you would like to wait.  Stories from the Spring Issue are currently up.