Short stories & other shorts
Little as Stressful
The Piker Press Issue May 13, 2024 (ed. Sand Pilarski)
2024
There's little as stressful as moving.
A Friend of the Family
Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction No. 25: February 2024 (Hobb's End Press)
2024
ISBN 979-8877830448
At
a family gathering in his honour, a boy is rattled by the appearance of
a stranger dressed all in black.
The God You Built
Andromeda Spaceways Magazine Issue 91 (ed. Tom Dullemond, Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Incorporated)
2023
ISSN 2207-2160
A couple disagree about how to (or not to) spend their money after one of them buys a peculiar kind of puzzle; but the acquisition soon proves even more peculiar - and more divisive - than either of them could have guessed.
Buy here (PDF, ePub, mobi).
Andromeda Spaceways Magazine's website.
Andromeda Spaceways Magazine's Facebook.
Whither the Wind Blows
Lovecraftiana: the Magazine of Eldritch Horror. Volume 7, Issue 4, Candlemas 2023 (Rogue Planet Press)
2023
ISBN 9798374964714
A fearsome storm disrupts a woman's more or less pleasant evening on her best friend's roof terrace.
Paperback.
Kindle E-Book.
Lovecraftiana Magazine's Facebook.
Rogue Planet Press's Facebook.
The Attic Hole
The Gallows Tree 1: Decay
2022
A boy dearly misses his recently deceased grandfather. At a costume party at his aunt and uncle's place, his cousin alleges that the old man's ghost is up in the attic, and the boy decides to go see for himself.
The snow is different here.
KIRJAILIJAVIERAITA SYSMÄSSÄ. Villa Sarkia-residenssin asukkaiden kirjoituksia
2021
Blog Post written for a residency in Villa Sarkia.
Back Home for a Bit
Ceci n'est pas une histoire d'horreur (This is Not a Horror Story) (Night Terror Novels)
2021
ISBN 9798486256424
Circumstances force a guy in his late twenties to move back into
his parents' house for a while.
Krampus Night
The Fifth Di... December 2020 (Hiraeth Publishing)
2020
A social outcast finds a place of belonging among the devils of the annual Perchtenlauf. One Krampus Night, however, he finds something else.
That Damned and Damning Short Story
E'ch Pi El #14 (Rainfall Books)
2020
A writer locks himself in his
apartment in a desperate attempt to complete a short story that has been itching under his nails for too long, but it seems something doesn't want him to tell his tale.
Wespenstich (Wasp's Sting)
Abgefuckte Welt (hummel&sahne)
2020
In Paranil gibt es Platz für alle; in Paranil gibt es Arbeit für alle; Paranil ist "Partnerin der Menschen": Dieses Motto lockt viele Leute in die Metropole; aber zumindest einer von ihnen hat die Stadt hassen gelernt. (Paranil has room for everyone; Paranil has work for everyone; Paranil is "Partner to the People": this motto lures many people to the metropolis, but at least one of them has come to loathe it.)
ISBN 9783948243029
Order here.
Editors' Instagram.
The Vanishing Apple
Novel Noctule Issue 10: Isolation (ed. Jacqueline Dyre)
2020
When an apple vanishes out of his hand, into thin air, a man topples into an existential crisis.
Click for Ascension
The Other Side (Devil's Rock Publishing)
2020
Sheila is grateful to take her last breath; but what she encounters after is unlike anything she could have expected.
ISBN Hardcover 9781914021008
ISBN Paperback 9781914021015
Order here.
Publisher's website.
Falsche Person Plural (False Person Plural)
Verzaubert - mein Herz schlägt QUEER (muc Verlag)
2020
Nach einigen einschneidenden Erfahrungen, die sein
ganzes Leben auf den Kopf gestellt haben, versucht ein junger Mann, sich
mit Dating Apps bei Laune zu halten. (After a series of drastic events that turned his life on its head, a young man gives dating apps a try to pass the time.)
ISBN 978-3-9820886-1-7
Paperback.
E-Book.
Publisher's website.
Gute Leben (Good Lives)
Schreibtisch. Literarisches Journal 2020 (edition federleicht)
2020
A poem.
ISSN 2567-1138
ISBN 978-3-946112-59-4
Order here.
Publisher's website.
Himmel (Heaven)
Schatten - Die Anthologie (litac)
2020
Wenn er aus dem Fenster schaut, sieht er nur den Himmel, und die Gitterstäbe davor. (When he looks out the window, all he sees is the sky, and the bars in front of it.)
ISBN 9783952484937
No longer available from the publisher.
Das Mann
die Klette. Was ist da los in Wr. Neustadt?! 27 / Juli - August 2020 (Mediengruppe 65b, Verein zur Förderung der Medienkompetenz- und Kultur von Jugendlichen)
2020
A satirical mini-manifest.
Lover's Limb
Zwielicht 14 (ed. Michael Schmidt, Achim Hildebrand)
2020
Vincent Voss, mehrfach preisgekrönter Horrorautor: "Eine erst verwirrende und dann umso geilere Geschichte. Das Setting ist
ein Ausflug, der sich immer expressionistischer entwickelt, bis sich
beim Lesenden Unbehagen und bisweilen Unverständnis entwickelt. Genial
dann die Auflösung. Und das auf die Kürze ... Respekt." (Quelle)
(Vincent Voss, award-winning horror writer: "Initially confusing, the story turns out all the more awesome for it. The setting is a trip of more and more expressionistic proportions, to a point where the reader experiences unease and a level of incomprehension. The resoultion is brilliant. And all that in a short story ... respect.")
Ein Liebespaar spaziert durch einen mythenumrankten Wald. (A pair of lovers wanders through a forest shrouded in myth.)
ISBN 979-8656035484
Order here.
Editor's blog.
A Buzzing of Flies
parABnormal Magazine June 2020 (Hiraeth Publishing)
2020
Strange encounters with a homeless man drive Lloyd to the brink.
No longer available from the publisher.
Publisher's website.
The Weeping Well
Ghosts, Spirits and Specters: Volume 2 (HellBound Books Publishing)
2020
Simon, who has heard all the mysterious stories about the old well at the sandpit end of the playground, goes out alone to investigate.
ISBN 978-1948318921
Paperback.
Kindle E-Book.
Publisher's website.
Hotelwände (Hotel Walls)
phantastisch! 78 (Atlantis Verlag)
2020
Aus der Wand ein Tack
... Tack ... Tack ... (From the walls, a tack ... tack ... tack ...)
ISSN 1616-8437
Order here.
Magazine's website.
Three aphorisms in
Mein
wundervolles Sechs-Worte-Tagebuch 2020. Mit Sechs-Worte-Texten und
Schreibanregungen durchs Jahr (Ebbe & Flut Textwerkstatt Monika
Zachhuber)
2019
ISBN 9783950271997
VLB-entry.
Publisher's website.
Urlaub für die Nerven (Vacation for the Nerves)
&Radieschen 52 (Verein ALSO)
2019
Eine sehr kurze Erzählung von einem alltäglichen Abend in einer jugendpsychiatrischen Anstalt. (A very short story about an ordinary evening in a psychiatric hospital for adolescents.)
In die Ecke gedrängt (In a Tight Corner)
zugetextet.com.
Feuilleton für Poesie - Sprache - Streit - Kultur Nr. 7/8 (ed. Walther Stonet)
2019
In einer Welt, die Kälte, Staubregen und
Sirenengeheul geworden ist, denkt einer der letzten Eimenschen in seinem
Versteck über verlorene Liebe und den Wert des Lebens nach. (In a world of cold, dust rain, and siren's wail, one of the last remaining egg people sits in his hiding place pondering lost love and the value of living.)
God Provides the Company
HORLA - The Home of Intelligent Horror
2019
Her mother taught her always to cook more than she could chew; God would, sooner or later, provide the company.
Online magazine offline as of February 2022.
Die Hand (The Hand)
Zwielicht 13 (ed. Michael Schmidt, Achim Hildebrand)
2019
Ein Bub findet in einem trockengelegten Kanal eine Hand, und nimmt sie mit nach Hause. (A boy finds a hand, and takes it home with him.)
ISBN 978-1082560996
Order here.
Editor's blog.
Das Fenster (The Window)
Handjob. Das Literaturblatt | 01
2019
"Wieso springe ich nicht einfach aus dem Fenster?" ("Why don't I jump out the window?")
Collar's Diary
HORLA - The Home of Intelligent Horror
2019
Collar did it: he has a job. For better or for worse.
Online magazine offline as of February 2022.
Gay Beard
Mein heimliches Auge 33. Das Jahrbuch der Erotik 2018/19 (konkursbuch Verlag Claudia Gehrke)
2018
The jury about Gay Beard (2nd place): "In 'Gay Beard' behandelt Thomas Kodnar auf originelle Weise
vielschichtige Queer Identity-Fragen: Kann ich als Schwuler eine Lesbe
begehren? Begehre ich sie vor allem, weil sie mir als
heterosexuelle Tarnung im Familienkreis dient? Und dann ist da noch
die lesbische Rivalin, die den Protagonisten sarkastisch demütigt und
vertreibt. - Ende offen." (In 'Gay Beard', Thomas Kodnar approaches complex questions of queer identity in an original way. Can a gay man desire a lesbian woman? Can he lust for her because of her usefulness as a "beard" for his family? The relationship is complicated further by the lesbian rival, who sarcastically humiliates him and drives him away; the ending leaves question unanswered.) (Source)
ISBN 978-3-88769-533-0
Order here.
Publisher's website.
Donaukanal-Blues (Danube Canal Blues)
&Radieschen 47 (Verein ALSO)
2018
Über einen Mann Mitte zwanzig, der sein bestes (?) Wiener-Leben lebt. (About a twenty-something guy living his best (?) life in Vienna.)
Der gelbe Ritter (The Yellow Knight)
Reiseziel Utopia (Edition Roter Drache)
2018
Ein Satellit mit Ein-Personen-Besatzung ist auf der Suche nach Leben im Universum unterwegs. (A one-person-crew satellite is looking for signs of life in the universe.)
ISBN 978-3-946425-45-8
Aphorism in
Jenny: Denken, Behaupten, Großtun. Ausgabe 05 (De Gruyter Verlag)
2017
ISBN 978-3-11-056054-1
Order here.
Magazine's website.
Das mittlere Kind (The Middle Child)
zugetextet.com (ed. Walther Stonet)
2017
Nachdem eine Mutter bei der Geburt ihres
fünfzehnten Kindes stirbt, fühlt sich das mittlere Kind - sieben ältere
Geschwister vor ihm, sieben jüngere nach ihm - für das Baby
verantwortlich. (After a mother dies during the birth of her fifteenth child, the middle child - seven older siblings, seven younger - feels responsible for the baby.)
Die türkise Tür (The Turquoise Door)
kalmenzone 11 (ed. Cornelius van Alsum)
2017
Zwei Frauen befinden sich in einem Raum mit einer einzigen Tür. Die Tür ist eine Mauer. (Two women are in a room with one single door. The door is a wall.)
Read here on page 37.
Magazine's website.
Schweigeminute (One Minute's Silence)
Pappelblatt 8 (Edition sonne&mond)
2016
Eine Tote nimmt an ihrem eigenen Begräbnis teil. (A deceased attends her own funeral.)
ISSN 2311-0341
Publisher's website.
Himmlisch (Heavenly)
DUM 77 (ed. Wolfgang Kühn)
2016
"Meine
Familie ist klein, dafür hält sie zusammen. Mutter und ihre Schwester
sorgen dafür, dass alle von uns für jeden anderen und jede andere da sind. Vater ist nicht immer von ihren Methoden begeistert. Aber meistens
findet er gut, was sie tun. Was sie sagen. Was sie kochen." ("My family is small, but it sticks together. Mother and her sister take care that all of us is there for each other. Father isn't always thrilled with their methods. But mostly he approves of the things they do. The things they say. The things they cook.")
Brumm (Vroom)
&Radieschen 36 (Verein ALSO)
2015
"Während ich mich übergab, warf Sophia den Autoschlüssel aus dem Fenster." ("While I threw up, Sophia tossed the car key out the window.")
Turm (Tower)
beautiful losers (Verein Alltag Verlag)
2015
"Nichts
war ihm im Leben so leicht gefallen wie der Tod." ("Nothing in life came as easy to him as death.")
ISBN 978 3 902282 56 9
https://www.vereinalltagverlag.at/
Kreisverkehr (Roundabout)
beautiful losers (Verein Alltag Verlag)
2015
"Sie setzten sich ins Auto, und Hannes seufzte.
'Was, Hannes?'
'Nix, Schatzi.'"
("They sat in the car, and Hannes sighed.
'What's that, Hannes?'
'Nothing, dear.'")
ISBN 978 3 902282 56 9
https://www.vereinalltagverlag.at/
Ein prosaisch-poetisch-philosophischer Brief an eine verwahrloste Stadt (A prosaic-poetic-philosophical letter to a depraved town)
beautiful losers (Verein Alltag Verlag)
2015
"In
mancherlei Hinsicht hatte Nietzsche schon recht: Der Mensch ist wohl
ein Kamel." ("In some respects Nietzsche was quite right: the human spirit is indeed that of a camel.")
ISBN 978 3 902282 56 9
https://www.vereinalltagverlag.at/
Sauball (Sow's Ball)
Handschlag (Forum Land / Österreichischer Agrarverlag)
2015
"In aufrechter Haltung schritt der Bauer einher, sich stolz seiner Sache gewiss." ("Straight and upright the farmer strut in, proudly certain of himself.")
ISBN 978-370402488-6