The Penumbra Series

What Is The Penumbra?   The Penumbra is:   The very edge of the border between light and shadow.   A series of connected, interrelated fictions spanning the supernatural, horror, and science fiction genres, along with their cousins.   An homage to anthologies of speculative fiction in TV, comic book, and prose form.   Two strangers in different places and circumstances find themselves drawn to each other, and to increasingly world-altering events. What will they find out about The Penumbra? All other stories that follow fan out from this occurrence.    *This is the first story in the sequence, but the rest are largely standalone stories in anthology format.* 

What Is The Penumbra?   The Penumbra is:   -The very edge of the border between light and shadow. -A series of connected, interrelated fictions spanning the supernatural, horror, and science fiction genres, along with their cousins. -An homage to anthologies of speculative fiction in TV, comic book, and prose form.   In this volume: -Two strangers in different places and circumstances find themselves drawn to each other, and to increasingly world-altering events. What will they find out about The Penumbra? All other stories that follow fan out from this occurrence.  -A creature of light and shadow sits on a stage, trapped by its captors, forced to tell them the tales of its conquests as they choose whether it should live or die. -An aging actor from a bygone age of TV and film sits in the remote Yukon, writing to an old flame about his past, along with his embrace of his true wild self.

What Is The Penumbra?   The Penumbra is:   Literally, the very edge of the border between light and shadow.   A series of connected, interrelated fictions spanning the supernatural, horror, and science fiction genres, along with their cousins.   An homage to anthologies of speculative fiction in TV, comic book, and prose form.   In this volume:   While working at a local horror filmfest, a young woman receives a special gift from the guest of honour, and then embarks on a night of very personal terror at the movies.   A sick but brash young artist wanders the streets of his futuristic postwar city, looking for inspiration for his latest remix until he pushes himself too far and faces the unexpected.   The new caretakers of The Penumbra try to keep their senses together while trapped in Charles Gloaming's mansion for the winter. Things cannot hold and they have their limits tested while the denizens from beyond push them towards a new goal.

What Is The Penumbra?   The Penumbra is:   Literally, the very edge of the border between light and shadow.   A series of connected, interrelated fictions spanning the supernatural, horror, and science fiction genres, along with their cousins.   An homage to anthologies of speculative fiction in TV, comic book, and prose form.   In this volume:   A festival in ancient Greece includes a theatre competition and grisly murders. A local group's strange play might be the link between them and a darker secret.   On a remote frozen planetoid, an ages-old colony with unique language and customs has grown. Two local hunters receive a message of incoming ships from beyond the stars and need to decipher if the senders are friend or foe.   On the isle of Papua, a storyteller gathers an audience around a fire to tell them of a mythic  hero, his legendary deeds, and his terrible curse.

What Is The Penumbra?   The Penumbra is:   -The very edge of the border between light and shadow. -A series of connected, interrelated fictions spanning the supernatural, horror, and science fiction genres, along with their cousins. -An homage to anthologies of speculative fiction in TV, comic book, and prose form.   In this volume:   -A musician and storyteller in 14th century Mali discovers a mysterious song that shows him other times and places and is sent on a perilous quest to find out what it means.    -A cursed witch has lived almost a thousand years, but a seemingly chance meeting with a man who is immune to her Gift leads her to examine her past and future.   -There are new arrivals in the house of Charles Gloaming, brought there from places farther than expected. As people gather, they try to unravel the mystery surrounding them, and of the cabin in the woods deep behind.