Mike Jack Stoumbos

Five one-act plays in one convenient place! Mike Jack Stoumbos, author of 'The Baron Would Be Proud' presents five short comedies ranging from the intellectual to the absurd. Enjoy each play in the order they were written, accompanied by context commentary about the process of writing and producing on a college campus.

The Blind Spot (and Other Plays)

Seed in the Sky

Graine Dans le Ciel

Clarence Hemlock

A Roach By Any Other Name

A Man of His Word

Unhelpful Encyclopedia Vol 1

Murderbirds

Mike Jack Stoumbos, a young Seattle playwright, brings you his debut narrative in the form of this fanciful folk tale which demonstrates the triumph of love against even the most daunting whimsy. With its cast of charming characters, historical anecdotes, literary allusions, and a fresh farce with each new day, The Baron Would Be Proud is certainly a story for storytellers everywhere. * * *A mock folk tale, set in early 19th century England, "The Baron Would Be Proud" tells the story of the tiny village of Adleship Isle, which--nestled in a mountain pass along the Scottish border--is almost entirely unreachable. No one can figure out how to get into or out of the town, save for a veteran traveling merchant who has assumed the sacred duty of vacationing in this town once every year around Christmas.Now, as fate would have it, another man, also traveling around the world, gets lost in a storm and stumbles blindly into the town. As both the novice and the veteran and English gentlemen and well-to-do traveling merchants, their being snowed in for the winter creates a 'this town ain't big enough for the two of us' dynamic.However, the narrator will tell you that's not what the story is about; rather it is about the young man named Julian who lives in the town and who has grown quite smitten with the daughter of the mayor. In order to gain her attention, Julian boldly offers to put up the stranger and his servants for the winter weeks, and this stranger--a cheeky fellow who goes by the name of the Baron Pan Bordolo--decides that the only apt way to repay the lad is to help him win his lady.

A Storyteller's Story

The Baron Would Be Proud

If it sounds too good to be true?The Interstellar Initiative Starship Endeavor has been exploring stars and training cadets for almost a year, but their shaky reputation (and an unstable entity in their hull) could get them grounded any day. Or destroyed. Either is possible? and both are likely.But then an opportunity presents itself which just might be a solution to their problems. In the Tsangharee cluster is a moon the locals revere as the source of a coveted power: universal communication. Having the ability to talk to the entity in Delta Section might well save everyone from losing their jobs, or worse, their lives.Whether it's magic or science, real or hoax, Ensigns Lidstrom, Kesiel, Paul Newman, and-if she plays her tiles right-Arrksh will be among the first to investigate. But when the opportunity to obtain this mysterious ability presents itself, will it be worth the price they have to pay?

The Impossible Moon

The once-prosperous Planet Haven has become a warship graveyard, its landscape littered with ship carcasses and craters. Though dangerous, these remains are worth fighting and dying for. And, for the employees of the Salvage Mill-toiling under the watchful gaze and disciplinary claws of the ruling Pushtal-dying is all too common.Rev, an elSha engineer with no ties to the many species on the surface, works for his own survival and the opportunity to escape. Before he can put his plans into motion, though, an encounter with a ravenous predator forces Rev underground where he discovers a long-buried find: a crate of CASPers.Though the suits of oversized armor might be better used as bargaining chips than weapons against the Salvage Mill, witnesses to the find have other ideas in mind, and to protect his interests, Rev enters a symbiotic arrangement with several past and current Mill workers. As Rev gathers more unlikely allies and learns to operate the machines, the new community grows stronger? strong enough to draw the notice of the Pushtal rulers.And, for the first time in years, Rev has something other than salvage that's worth fighting and dying for.

Defenders Rise

The Interstellar Initiative didn't have an easy start. Tensions between species complicated even the simplest tasks, not to mention the perils created by an unstable extra-dimensional entity named Wallace.Then, just as the alliance figures out how to work together effectively, Humanity's first interstellar sins come back to haunt them. What first appears to be an extra star in Earth's night sky is-something else-and it's ready to rain destruction on the planet if the Initiative doesn't figure out how to communicate or counter it.The best hope of saving humanity may once again rest in the hands of four cadets and the starship Endeavor.

Welcome to the Initiative!A declawed reptilian engineer.A furry medic concealing her noble heritage.An insectoid programmed to adore humans.An overeager human pilot named Lidstrom.Everyone already knows that the reptiles adapt, the brutes endure, the bugs explore, and the humans? make war. Together, they aim for a fresh start with a brave new venture: the Interstellar Initiative, the galaxy's best hope for peace, cooperation, and rewriting some nasty first impressions.Unfortunately, this human-led venture is off to a rocky start. Tensions run high, and the species enrolled in the Initiative's Academy are only a few mistranslations from tearing each other apart. They'll have to learn to work together quickly, though, or an uninvited guest will destroy them all first.

The Signal Out of Space

A Secret Within a Secret?Cadet Darren Lidstrom and his multi-species squad are climbing the ranks of the Interstellar Initiative, but their public reputations are burdened by a highly-sensitive secret: the four cadets are the only ones who've successfully made contact with the dangerous spacial entity called "The Wallless." They'd tell you about it?but they're under orders not to.When dangerous phenomena occur on the Initiative's flagship, even experts can't tell if the occurrences are due to sabotage or from some ability-whether intentional or unintentional-of the entity. Tensions ratchet up even further when a warning the squad received from the entity comes true-and then it shows a vision of the ship's destruction that no one knows how to either prove or, worse, prevent. With suspicions and accusations flying in all directions, and the flagship's crew faced with an emergency order to abandon ship, Lidstrom must decide how much trust to place in the flagship's officers and in his fellow cadets-especially since making the wrong choice will probably mean the death of the crew and the Initiative itself.

A Rupture in Time

Chaz Brenchley

Gini Koch

Howard Andrew Jones

Paige L. Christie

Esther Friesner

R.S. Belcher

A.L. Tompkins

Jason Palmatier

Derrick Boden

Andy Duncan

Gabriela Santiago

D.B. Jackson

Diana A. Hart

Mia Moss

Join us for a feast! Step into a roadside diner run by witches. Attend a banquet with aliens who are as crass as they are brutal. Eat oysters on the half shell with a pair of conjurers, or scratch out a meal with warring pilots marooned on a desolate planet. Pity the ghost who must cook her way to freedom, and mourn with the warrior who seeks a final delicacy for his lost love. Search the far reaches of space for sustenance or descend into a hellscape of culinary horrors. In this volume, food is the star! Fantasy and science fiction authors Paige L. Christie, Diana A. Hart, A.L. Tompkins, Esther Friesner, Derrick Boden, Andy Duncan, Chaz Brenchley, Howard Andrew Jones, Mike Jack Stoumbos, R.S. Belcher, Mia Moss, Gini Koch, D.B. Jackson, Jason Palmatier, and Gabriela Santiago have prepared a GALACTIC STEW that will entice and tantalize, nourish the imagination, and sate the most ravenous of literary appetites. But beware! These dishes are not what they seem...

Mike Jack Stoumbos

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