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I have a 4200-word short story, "A Post-Scarcity Christmas," in the new ebook bundle Santa's Secret Transfic Stash Vol. 3. The bundle has twenty-one stories totaling over 180,000 words. My story is available in epub and pdf format for $2, but buying the bundle for $8 would be a lot more fiction for your money.
Here is an excerpt from my story:
Connie stood on the doorstep of Matt’s apartment, holding the tray of brownies in one hand and the gift bags in the other and trying to ring the doorbell with a finger of the hand that was holding the gifts. She managed it without dropping anything, and a few moments later, Matt opened the door.
“Oh my goodness, Connie, I saw your selfie after your change but you look so much cuter in person! Come on in, let me take that off your hands,” they said, taking the brownies from her. “Is this sweet or savory?”
“Sweet – it’s brownies,” she said, following him into the apartment. Ellen was sitting on the sofa; she waved to Connie, but didn’t say anything right away, perhaps because her mouth was full. And one of the aliens was sitting in the beanbag chair. She remembered Matt saying they’d made friends with one of the aliens at their job, but couldn’t remember their name.
“Any nuts or fun additives?”
“Hmm?” She was startled out of her thoughts by Matt’s question. “Oh, no, no nuts, no weed. Just chocolatey goodness.” She set her gift bags under Matt’s small artificial tree.
“Got it.” Matt set the tray down, wrote “brownies without nuts” on a post-it and stuck it on the table in front of the tray. “You already know Ellen, but maybe Ellen hasn’t seen the new you?”
“I saw your selfie post,” Ellen said, after swallowing her food. “But you look even better in person.”
“Thanks,” Connie said, her face feeling hot. “I feel great, too. I love being smol. And I’m stronger than I look.”
“And this is Perseus,” Matt said, gesturing to the alien. “Perseus, this is my friend Connie.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Perseus said in perfect American English. “Matt has told me about you.”
“Hi,” Connie said, taking him in. He was probably a Crab, one the founding species of the coalition of aliens who’d taken over Earth and started fixing humanity’s mess, but she supposed he could be a Owl or a Mantis who’d gone in for extreme body modification. He was typical of his species in having six legs and four arms, but atypical in being extremely fluffy; where most of the Crabs had hairless exoskeletons in various colors, Perseus had lush white fur all over his body and legs, though not his arms. Connie longed to pet him, but reprimanded herself for thinking of him like a cat or dog. Two of his arms ended in pincers and two in small, vaguely human-like hands, with three fingers and a thumb. And he had two mouths, one that was typical of his kind to eat with and speak his native language, and a human-like one for speaking English – or whatever other Earth languages he spoke. Connie had heard that around here all the Coalition aliens spoke at least English, Spanish, and Korean. “Um, how do you like Earth?”
“I am enjoying it a great deal,” Perseus said. “Most humans I meet are very nice, although in large groups you seem to have a problem with the worst of your kind gravitating to leadership positions.”
“Yeah, we’re kind of messed up that way. Thanks for saving us from ourselves, by the way.”
“You’re welcome, as far as my small part is concerned.”
“We’ve got three more people coming,” Matt said. “You know Todd, of course.” Matt, Connie, Ellen and Todd had all gone to high school together. “And there’s Ocean and Iris – have you met them?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, Iris works with me and Perseus on panacea distribution, and Ocean I met at the trans group I keep bugging you to visit. Fae is an artist like you; y’all should have a lot in common.”
“Oh, cool.”
