Scott Nicholson - The Echo

Learn more about Head Cases for Kindle at Amazon or Amazon UK

MISSING PIECES

By Scott Nicholson

Ten stories of suspense, fantasy, and the supernatural, including “The Beaulahville Gospel; Jubilee,” “Floating Cathedral Song,” and “Constitution,” as well as three stories making their original appearance. View it for Kindle at Amazon US or Amazon UK.

THESE THINGS HAPPENED

By Scott Nicholson

It’s been a strange life. It’s been my life. Features stories, poems, and essays on relationships, romance, writing, and taking oneself far too seriously. Plus some humor. You may laugh, you may cry, you may decide you want to be a writer, too. You may hate me after if it’s over. That’s okay. You wouldn’t be the first. Learn about These Things Happened. Or view it for Kindle at Amazon US or Amazon UK

IF I WERE YOUR MONSTER

Children’s book by Scott Nicholson, art by Lee Davis

Creatures of the night teach a lesson of bravery in this full-color, illustrated bedtime story for all ages. Let vampires, ghosts, scarecrows, and mummies protect your little one from the bullies and mean people of the world. 24 screens or pages. View it at Haunted Computer or at Amazon US or Amazon UK

TOO MANY WITCHES

Children’s book by Scott Nicholson, art by Lee Davis

When Moanica Moonsweep plans a Halloween party, she needs the perfect potion of stinky stew. But when she asks her friends for advice, she ends up with one big mess and lots of hurt feelings. 28 full-color screens or pages. See it at Haunted Computer or for Kindle at Amazon US or Amazon UK

DUNCAN THE PUNKIN

Children’s book by Scott Nicholson, art by Sergio Castro

A momma pumpkin must teach her young pumpkin all about the dangers of Halloween, while a mysterious creature known as Skeerdy-Cat-Crow watches over the pumpkin patch. 30 full-color pages or screens. See it at Haunted Computer or view it for Kindle at Amazon US or Amazon UK

IDA CLAIRE

By Scott Nicholson, art by Lee Davis

Little Ida is a handful of feisty fun for her harried dad, bursting with imagination and play while Dad tries to keep up. Features 32 full-color screens. View it for Kindle at Amazon US or Amazon UK.

SOLOM (UK)

By Scott Nicholson

When Katy Logan and her teen daughter Jett move to the remote Southern Appalachian community of Solom, they make fun of the local stories about a horseback preacher who haunts the hills.

But the residents of Solom know all about the man in the black hat. The Reverend Harmon Smith has come back more than century after his last missionary trip, and he has unfinished business. But first Katy and Jett must be brought into the Smith family, and the farm must be prepared to welcome him home. Author’s preferred edition of the 2006 U.S. paperback The Farm .

Learn more about the supernatural thriller Solom or view it at Amazon UK

THE GORGE (UK)

By Scott Nicholson

An experimental rafting expedition, an FBI manhunt for a delusional killer, and the worst storm in decades collide in the remote mountain wilderness…and then THEY come out.

Learn more about The Gorge or view it at Amazon UK or view the original screenplay adaptation at Amazon US or Amazon UK.

OMNIBUS EDITIONS

You can also save with the omnibus editions

Ethereal Messenger at Amazon US or Amazon UK (contains The Red Church, Drummer Boy , and Speed Dating With The Dead )

Mystery Dance (contains Disintegration, Crime Beat , and The Skull Ring , and bonus stories and essays) at Amazon US or Amazon UK

Horror Movies: Three Screenplays ( The Gorge, Creative Spirit , and The Skull Ring screenplays) at Amazon US or Amazon UK

Ghost Box : Six Supernatural Thrillers (contains The Red Church, Drummer Boy , The Dead Love Longer, Burial to Follow, Creative Spirit, and Speed Dating With The Dead ) at Amazon US or Amazon UK

Mad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set(Contains Gateway Drug, Head Cases ,and Missing Pieces )

Bad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set(Contains Ashes , American Horror , and Curtains )

Odd Stacks: Short Stories Box Set(Contains The First, Flowers , and Zombie Bits )

Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 1

Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 2

Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 3

Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 4

Are you a writer?Please check out The Indie Journey: Secrets to Writing Success

The sun looked like a cheese pizza that had been broiled in hell’s hottest oven.

Dr. Daniel Chien frowned at the monitor, concerned less with the rippling cheese than the rising bubbles of red sauce. Each bubble erupted with a force equaling 100 billion megatons of TNT, spewing electromagnetic radiation across the solar system. Chien was intellectually aware that the pizza was really a massive star around which Earth and the other planets revolved, but technology had reduced it to little more than a commercial-free reality-TV show.

Sir Isaac Newton nearly blinded himself staring at the sun, and I can do it from the comfort of my air-conditioned cubicle.

The images recorded by the Solar Dynamics Observatory were a marvel of modern technology. Not only was the space-launched observatory performing a continuous, real-time monitoring of solar activity, it used an array of solar panels as its energy source. In turn, the data allowed Chien and other researchers to study the sun’s electromagnetic fluctuations, solar wind, sunspot activity, and particle radiation.

The sublime beauty of the system had lured Chien from a faculty position at Johns Hopkins. Even as a boy in Vietnam, he’d been fascinated by the sun as the giver of life. The Earth’s precarious position at just the right orbital distance counted as something miraculous, although Chien was careful to avoid debates over science and faith. To him, wonder was wonder and did not require further complications. Let the glory hounds like Newton clog the pages of scientific history while Chien and his fellow grunt workers added to the pool of knowledge bit by bit.

But his role as a researcher didn’t diminish his appreciation of solar myth. After all, there was hardly a more apt metaphor for human hubris than Icarus flying too close to the sun and having his wings melt.

The sun, as he liked to tell his friends, was cool.

Chien still found childlike delight in the real-time images of the sun captured in a variety of spectra, available to the public via the NASA website. The array of sophisticated instruments measured multiple wavelengths and offered multiple ways to observe and measure solar phenomena. The main image was the one now commanding his attention, and although he was fully aware of the sun’s petulant temperament, he didn’t like the erratic pulsations appearing on its surface.

Somebody’s burning the pizza.

“Katherine?” he said, calling to the other on-duty researcher at the SDO’s offices in the Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Katherine Swain was several years his senior, a 20-year veteran of NASA, and a woman who held no romantic notions of the sun at all.