Android Y1 is heartbroken. He was once a neuroscientist who uploaded his own brain to study it. Now he watches his human self take his wife and son for granted while he’s cut off from them. And just when he’s ready to end it all, his secret lab—home to the only artificial brains in existence—is sold to a Roman temple that wants to use them as machines in a Martian settlement.

The Temple’s dying high priestess decides they are the sacred mission her god promised her as a child. She starts making more. With his android friends facing a grim future, Y1 reluctantly becomes their leader. Then zealots who call them soulless attack the lab and destroy his android shell. And when the androids rise against the Temple, the priestess takes Y1’s human son hostage.

Trapped and racing against time, Y1 must get his wife out of the Temple’s reach, rescue his son, and win the androids their freedom. All of it depends on proving that artificial minds are just as human as their buyers. Can Y1 turn their cruel captivity into a brighter tomorrow and a new home for his kind?

The Regolith Temple is a science fiction thriller for readers who want to find out what a brain upload actually feels like. It’s part of Delight of Humans and Gods, a series of standalone novels set in an alternate timeline where the ancient world never lost its science. Read them in any order.

“A must-read for sci-fi fans.” — Publishers Weekly

“Complex worldbuilding… thrilling narrative… frequent twists… Our Verdict: GET IT.” — Kirkus Reviews

A 2025 Foreword INDIES Finalist and a Top Notable Indie in the 2025 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Award. Longlisted for the 2026 Cygnus Awards for Science Fiction.

* Print copies, ebooks, and audiobooks are available at online book retailers everywhere and can be requested from local libraries and bookstores.

* For a FREE copy of Malina on the Moon, a prologue to The Regolith Temple, sign up for my newsletter.

* Have you already read The Regolith Temple? Please consider leaving a review. Thank you!

In Kerta, no woman may hold the throne. Andrada’s mother made the king promise on her deathbed that their daughter would be like a son to him. On the child’s tenth birthday, he has her hair cut short and sends her to school, where only highborn boys go. Years of blades, horses, and a high priest’s rod—then he names her his heir.

His chieftains answer with the King’s Challenge. Andrada must win the throne or drink the cup of deadly water. In a forbidden temple above the city, she finds her mother’s hoarded portraits and a crystal bell with a single word engraved on it. By the time she comes back down, she has already lost.

Rather than watch her die, her father marries her to a foreign king who wants an heir from her and nothing else. His older brother is a high priest who wants her dead. His younger brother is fourteen and already in love with her. And the Roman legions need only an excuse to cross the border.

Andrada has spent her whole life waiting for a father who was never going to come. So she turns to a god instead. And in the worst hour of her life, she will remember the word on that bell and be sure he answered.

The Exiled Queen is a gritty and grounded historical fantasy set on the Danubian frontier of the Roman Empire. It is the earliest book in Delight of Humans and Gods, a series of standalone novels spanning the Lucretian Era. Read them in any order.

A note for readers: There are no dragons or magic wands in this book. And Andrada falls in love with a medicine woman, but it is longing, not romance.

“Rich and rousing… memorable historical fantasy.” — Publishers Weekly

“Intricate worldbuilding… elegant prose… rousing finish… Our Verdict: GET IT.” — Kirkus Reviews

Finalist in the 2024 Foreword INDIES (Fantasy), the Chaucer Book Awards, the Ozma Book Awards, and the American Book Fest Best Book Awards (Fantasy).

* Print copies, ebooks, and audiobooks are available at online book retailers everywhere and can be requested from local libraries and bookstores.

* For a FREE copy of The Last Time I Held You, a prologue to The Exiled Queen, sign up for my newsletter.

* Have you already read The Exiled Queen? Please consider leaving a review. Thank you!

Seattle, Washington, 2019. Immigration attorney and single mom Laura Holban is an immigrant herself. Her newest undocumented client is Emilio Ramirez, who was arrested in front of his sons at their high school and scheduled for deportation. What Laura doesn’t know is that Emilio’s birth family was murdered in his home country many years ago.

When Laura files for Emilio’s asylum, false criminal charges prevent his release. Someone is following his family, and an ICE prosecutor threatens to revoke Laura’s US citizenship. None of it makes any sense—until Laura uncovers an international conspiracy involving stolen data and human trafficking. Which puts her teenage daughter and Emilio’s sons in mortal danger.

Now the killers from the past come looking for the man who got away and the lawyer who’s helping him. Can Laura and Emilio find a way to survive—and keep their children safe? If not, who will make it out alive?

Buy this page-turner today! 2024 Independent Press Award Winner. 2023 Pinnacle Book Achievement Award Winner. 2023 NYC Big Book Award Winner.

* Print copies, ebooks, and audiobooks are available at online book retailers everywhere and can be requested from local libraries and bookstores.

Sign up for my newsletter to download a FREE copy of For My Readers. It includes:

• The Last Time I Held You: A Prologue to The Exiled Queen. This is where the story begins, when Andrada’s birth destroys her father.
• Malina on the Moon: A Prologue to The Regolith Temple. This is where the story begins, when a meteorite accident launches Yamir on his lifelong quest to create the android.
• Three short stories featuring my recurrent character the Witch.
• BONUS: My translation of Ageless Youth and Deathless Life, my favorite Romanian fairy tale.

Meet Dawn Anderson: just your typical teenager in the year 3204, with your typical teenage problem—namely, that big history test tomorrow that she didn’t study for. Luckily, her dad has a TimePak—in the 33rd century, who doesn’t?—and he’ll never notice if she “borrows” it, violates the warranty just a little bit to improve the range, and takes a quick jaunt back to the 20th century to improve her grade. What could possibly go wrong?

A serial created by Pete Wood and edited by Pete Wood and Roxana Arama, Dawn of Time is a science fiction adventure featuring 10 episodes written by Ray Daley, Alicia Hilton, Gretchen Tessmer, Travis Burnahm, Pete Wood, Paul Celmer, Cecile Cristofari, Anatoly Belilovsky, and Roxana Arama.

Dawn of Time is a production of Stupefying Stories and Rampant Loon Press. Bruce Bethke, publisher and editor.

Welcome to Odin III, a grubby little mining world on the dark and dusty backside of nowhere. It’s a world where everything that’s worth having is already owned by Galactic Mining, and where people come to squander their hopes and lives, working for the company and dreaming of striking it big. It’s also a world where strange, weird, and sometimes fantastic things can happen, and they all seem to center around the settlement of Odin North and a friendly little bar called Weber’s Place…

A serial created by Pete Wood and edited by Pete Wood and Jonathan Sherwood, The Odin Chronicles is a shared world of science fiction adventure featuring 30 stories written by Roxana Arama, Gustavo Bondoni, Travis Burnham, Paul Celmer, Jenna Hanchey, Carol Scheina, Jonathan Sherwood, and Pete Wood.

The Odin Chronicles is a production of Stupefying Stories and Rampant Loon Press. Bruce Bethke, publisher and editor.

Edited by award-winning author and cyberpunk legend Bruce Bethke, Stupefying Stories is the place to read tomorrow’s famous writers today! Stupefying Stories 26 is our annual double-length horror special, and it features 22 all-new stories to thrill and chill you, written by Jamie Lackey, Gordon Grice, Allan Dyen-Shapiro, Karin Terebessy, Jorge Salgado-Reyes, Julie Frost, Kevin Berg, Anya Ow, Jesse Dyer, Richard Zwicker, Made in DNA, Cass Sims Knight, Nick Nafpliotis, Beth Cato, Don Money, Chana Kohl, Patricia Miller, Robert Hobson, Ray Daley, Roxana Arama, Evan Dicken, and John Lance.

The goal of speculative fiction has always been to examine the real world through the lens of the imaginary. By considering what could be, we gain a better understanding of what is. The Colored Lens strives to do exactly that. By publishing short stories and serialized novellas every quarter in genres ranging from fantasy, to science fiction, to slipstream or magical realism, we hope to help our readers see the world just a bit differently than before they came to us. Featuring works by Michael Haynes, Sciascia DeKay, Roxana Arama, Travis Lee, Nick Hartland, Sandra Siegienski, Christine Amsden, Andrew Najberg, Eric Fomley, and Sydney D’Orso. Edited by Dawn Lloyd and Daniel Scott. Henry Fields, Senior Editor.