I’m delighted to share that my story “Many Lives Theory” has found a home at a publisher I’ve been following as a reader since almost as far back as their first publication in 2015.  Dim Shores has begun a new anthology series, and my story serves as the opening track for Volume 1.  I can’t think of a better home for it to have found.

“Many Lives Theory” began in response to a prompt for a doppelganger tale, and along the way it wandered through various parts of my own grieving process, constant real-life background horrors related to illness/healthcare and climate change, and meditations on the many ways in which socioeconomic structures are deliberately engineered to alienate people from their own society for reasons that are simultaneously rendered crystal clear and infuriatingly opaque depending on which desk one is sitting at.

Many thanks to all who have read it in various incarnations prior to publication; it wouldn’t have quite the same shape without your thoughtful comments.

Additional details below:

Order from Dim Shores

Goodreads Page

Publisher Copy:

Dim Shores Presents is a new bi-annual anthology series spotlighting some of the best new writing in speculative fiction. Weird horror, strange science fiction, and dark fantasy rub shoulders with each other here, weaving a tapestry of uncanny beauty and fearful wonder.

Pre-order for Volume 1 is open now, and books are scheduled to ship in June.

This is the table of contents for Volume 1:

Christopher Burke – “Many Lives Theory”
Jane Sand – “Vacui”
Chiara Nova – “Walls of White”
Richard Staving – “Silver Bells and Cockle Shells”
Paul L. Bates – “Used Clothes”
Jonathan Raab – “Observer/Experiencer”
Anna Tambour – “The Divorce of Death and Pestilence”
Samuel Moss – “Gallaher Calls”
Victoria Dalpe – “The Rider”
Eric Schaller – “A Study in Abnormal Physiology”
Jen Downes – “Root and Branch”
Jake Marley – “Anemone”
Jess Landry – “I Will Find You, Even in the Dark”

The first 150 copies will be sold through the Dim Shores web store. These copies will be printed on nice creme paper stock, be hand-numbered, and will include an art print. When those copies sell out, I’ll make it available through The Book Depository, Powells, Bookshop.org, Amazon, etc. without these extras. There will eventually be an e-book release as well.

+ 6” x 9” trade paperback
+ Printed on 60# natural paper
+ High-quality print of front cover art
+ New Dim Shores vinyl sticker
+ This edition limited to 150 hand-numbered copies