All the MASKS stories so far, in one convenient place.

Here are the three short stories I’ve published so far in the Masks universe. You can download them through Scribd if you like, or just read them here. While most of the action in Masks obviously takes place in the books, side stories like these give me a chance to develop my characters and world in a shorter format … and they give you a chance to see what those characters and that world are like before the book actually comes out.

Yes, longtime readers, I know that I have technically published four stories—but I’m not counting “The Curtain” as strictly canonical because I’ve changed some stuff in the plot and characters since then. (For one thing, we now have a completely different story on how Trevor first saw Rae …)

And yes, VERY longtime readers, I know that I published about a hundred short stories about these characters between 1998 and 2005. I’m not counting them, either … until I decide I am.

The first story in the cycle, “Motion Capture”, features Rae and Trevor doing their thing in their native habitats. Specifically, Rae gets in trouble with her school’s mean girls and then gets in a supervillain’s face, and Trevor tries to do the right thing and gets duct-taped to a wall and very nearly lobotomized.

Motion Capture

The second story, “Zephyr Street,” takes place after “Motion Capture” and features Rae solving the murder of one of the dozens of masks killed in the superhero purge a decade back. The case takes her to a sunny little neighborhood with a big, dark secret …

Zephyr Street

And the most recent story, “The Buddy System,” features Trevor shortly after he arrives in Los Angeles after the events of “Motion Capture” as he tries to evade his pursuers and protect a little boy who’s wiggled into the wrong place at the wrong time ….

The Buddy System