I don’t like abridged books. Yes, I understand the unabridged Les Miserables is nearly 1500 pages, and Victor Hugo spends 50+ pages setting up the Bishop who gives Jean Valjean the candlesticks–a scene the movie/play does in 5 minutes flat. Yes, I understand Leviticus is strange and long and full of skin…
Author Archive for Nick Hayden – Page 18
As I was teaching the fine art of interviewing and newswriting to my middle school students, I had them mock interview me about my upcoming book The Unremarkable Squire. One of the students asked an interesting question: “Why isn’t the book about the knight instead of the squire?” That question, in…
I recently read Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man, a collection of 19 short stories written as only Bradbury can write them. I thought I’d share some of the lessons I learned, in no particular order. Space is full of wonder, and Mars is Fairie-Land. Space isn’t full of balls of gas…
Fallen A euphemism for the world. Why not Shattered?: The mirror of God Smashed by His reflection, Lacerating Man, His hand. I know it here, blindly— In the foreign streetlights, The yellow line in headlights, Tired, with hours behind, Dead tired, and hours ahead Unknown. I know it Like failing…
I’ve always been fascinated with serialized, multi-author projects. Back in 2005-2006, I helped organize The Story Project, a two-year, multi-author project consisting of the fictional blogs of 13 characters as their lives intertwined in a New England mansion. A few years later, I helped organize a pulp fiction project where…
My website’s been pretty quiet lately, and I apologize for that. It’s because I’ve been busy on projects and tasks that you’ll see soon. Here are a few of them. The Unremarkable Squire I’ve spent my daily writing time lately going over corrections for The Unremarkable Squire, which is to be…
When scientists stumble across the perfectly preserved body of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the first question is: How? But as one scientist spends his life studying the extraterrestrial crystals that caused its preservation, his questions become deeper, touching his deepest fears of life and death. “House of the Living” is a…
Summary: Vienna is a small Midwestern town like a hundred others, but if you look closely, it has its stories. Collected here are five stories from Vienna, where ordinary people encounter the big questions of life. In “Transitions,” a young man has to decide whether he’s ready to grow up. A…
Summary: Nick Hayden presents a print version of his first 50 flash fictions as originally published at www.worksofnick.com. Along with the original stories, this book contains new author notes on the processes and ideas that helped in the creation of 50 different “worlds.” Proceeds from this print version go toward the…
Summary: Nick Hayden presents a collection of five of his favorite short stories. Holding the collection together is a sense of wonder, desire, and mystery–a sense that something exists that we haven’t quite found yet. Features the Stories: The Memory – It was a memory more precious than any other she had,…
Summary: Natalya is an American mom and wife with a Russian name working as a spy for the Brazilian government in a Midwest American town. Balancing dual identities is dangerous–and sometimes comical–especially when her husband hasn’t a clue. Morana is on a suicide mission to transmit a bestial virus to her…
Summary: Adventurer Fitzwilliam Fitzwallace sails into unknown seas in search of wonders, women, and wealth. But after wrecking upon a lonely island, all he wants is a drink of water. Excerpt: I had willingly joined the legions that dove into the unknown. The romance of this world stirs my soul; I…
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Copyright © 2026 All Rights Reserved