Well, it's Friday the 13th, so obviously I should release a short story compilation about devils, space aliens, magic, and L.Ron Hubbard, right?

YES.

The Devil Still Has My Lawnmower & Other Tales of the Weird is now available on Smashwords! Once again the excellent Kent Mudle of http://www.beretcomic.com has come through with another stunning cover.

Initially the collection was $2.00, but it is now free. These are old stories, crafted years ago, some of which were concieved in less-than-clearheaded moods, but all of which I am nonetheless proud of.

The complete collection includes:

The Chicken Nugget of Peace: A spectacularly boring man finds the secret to universal peace, prosperity, and happiness in his chicken nugget. Now he has to decide: is he too uninteresting to do anything about it?

The Panel: Hostile aliens have taken over Earth. An emergency panel at the House of Representatives is assembled to address it. Hopefully, they'll actually get something done this time.

8-ball & Ouija Board: By sheer coincidence, a genuinely magical 8-ball and a possessed Ouija board have wound up in the same house and under the same Christmas tree. Now it only remains to be seen whether there is room in this world for both of them.

The Ancient Persian: While cleaning house, a college student finds an old Persian carpet that turns out to be both magic and ill-tempered.

A Shot in the Dark: A frustrated writer launches her manuscript into deep space with the incredibly slim hope of getting published on another world. Unfortunately the aliens that find it take it just a bit too seriously.

Danny Dizzle: A powerful Rudyard Kipling poem about a soldier being hanged... translated into much less powerful Snoop Dogg. (With apologies to Mr. Kipling).

A Marriage of Magic and Science: Aleister Crowley, L. Ron Hubbard and Jack Parsons travel to the middle of a Nevada desert to cast a spell that will end the world. Stop me if you've heard this one.

The Devil Still Has My Lawnmower: Alan is a loving father, good neighbor, and stand-up American citizen, so of course he has no problem loaning his lawnmower to his neighbor. But when it comes time to mow his own lawn, he learns that his neighbor is not who he once believed, and that he must venture into the fiery pits of Hell to get his lawnmower back. Either that, or face a fine by the Homeowners Association.

All told, it's about 80 pages and it's free.

As you can see, there 's quite a few stories on there that aren't anywhere on the website! It's formatted beautifully for any ebook reader (i've tested it myself!), and Smashwords distributes everywhere in the world except for the moon (and some parts of Mars).

Please consider clicking on that cover above! You can download a sample chapter yourself to see if it's your cup of tea. No cups of tea actually appear or are harmed in the compilation.

Check it out!