Eric's Short Fiction

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Otherworldly: An Anthology

Strange stories about familiar things—and familiar stories about strange things.

Eric C Ross' debut publication, a collection of very short stories: The Foe, Incomplete, Floaters, Thinning the Herd, All, and Welcome to Dysmetropsia.

The story “Incomplete” won Gold in Flash Fiction and “Best Short Prose of the Year” at the 2025 Florida Writers Association’s Royal Palm Literary Awards, and “All” won a monthly short story competition on a long-gone website called WeBook. The collection as a whole made it as a top-three finalist in the 2026 American Fiction Awards hosted by American Book Fest.

Initially, each story was published separately for Kindle, but since some of these fall in the flash fiction category, it didn't seem right to charge even the minimum amount for them; thus, the anthology was born.

Below, I've included a little blurb about each story, as well as a "cover" for each one. I included these covers in the paperback version, which made the book more expensive to produce, but overall better quality. Since the first edition of this book, I have replaced all of the AI-generated art with artwork from real people, in an effort to keep humanity in the creative workforce. As of June, 2026, this publication is free of AI.

Enjoy it here: Otherworldly: An Anthology, Available in paperback or through Kindle.

If you didn't gather from the art, The Foe is about an alien invasion. One man attempts to stand up while others fall in line. This short clocks in at around 3,700 words.

One of my friends is a bit of a wizard in Photoshop. He makes all kinds of stuff for fun, so one day I asked him to do a cover for me. This is a photograph that he worked his magic on and delivered just what I was asking for.

OK, so I get that the title reminds you of poop that doesn't sink, but Floaters is actually a very short story about a man who descends into paranoid madness. Or does he? Check it out, this one is a short horror, with some humor as well.

This cover art was the first that I tackled by myself. With machine learning programs creating some really cool art, I figured I would try my hand at it for my covers. It came out good, however...

While AI is a useful tool, I prefer to allow real artists to showcase their work. So, while the initial cover is in some copies as a placeholder, I am changing all the AI art to art completed by real people. Eric Hammond completed the new art for this title, seen on the right (below on a phone).

Incomplete is a very short story about an unfinished coffee shop and the characters within. I was very surprised to win Gold in Flash Fiction at the 2025 RPLA for this story, and even more surprised to win the grand prize: "Best Short Prose of the Year." Thank you, Florida Writers Association!

This is my second machine learning cover and looks cleaner than Floaters because of the subject matter, but probably just cleaner in general.

Again, the replacement piece by Eric Hammond follows this text:

I never wanted to write a werewolf story; too cliché and overdone. However, someone asked me to write one for a collaboration project, and I liked the idea so here we are. The project fell apart when not everyone else wrote their stories, but mine still stands as part of my own anthology.

The cover is another machine learning art that I heavily edited in a paint program. The AI could not make the full moon properly, so I took a photo of the moon and added it to the background. I also did the background gradation, as well as touching up some parts of the werewolf that looked weird. I realized only too late that the wolf doesn't have a complete right leg. Good job, AI.

Another great work of art from Eric Hammond replaces the AI-generated cover.

All is a very short story about practicality giving way to the unreasonable in the face of the illogical when a strange object appears on someone's doorstep.

This cover art was made by a friend of mine and fellow writer, Christian Cote, who just happens to own a graphic design company. I asked him if he could make the image and he came through for me. I, of course, paid him for his time and effort; support small businesses! Check out his company here: Grafiks

We were part of a writing group that critiqued each other's work for quite some time, until the website hosts had to discontinue it. That was a sad day, and we never fully recovered. We tried, but the magic was gone. We had monthly writing contests, which this particular story won once. It was the first time I had ever won a prize for my writing, and even though it was only a $25 gift card on a small website, it was more the fact that I beat several great writers that I looked up to and thought very highly of their work. It marked the moment that I considered my writing good enough that others might want to read it.

"Welcome to Dysmetropsia" is the newest short story I've written as of the publication date of Otherworldly. It's about a man trying to unlock the secrets of a small, mysterious box. Placing it as the last story in Otherworldly was intentional, as it marks the current stage of my writing journey.

Yet another AI-generated art piece. It didn't perfectly capture what I was going for, even though it looks photo-realistic.

You will notice the artwork of Eric Hammond following this text.

Fragments

Florida Writers Association Collection, Volume 18

You can find one of my short stories in the 2026 edition of the Florida Writers Association's annual anthology. Collections 18: Fragments was released on October 23rd, 2026, and you can buy a copy here. You can also follow the FWA on Amazon to be notified of future releases. I intend to submit a story to the anthology every year, and I will also announce if I'm accepted every time.

My story is called "Money Can't Buy Happiness," and it's about teenage love, addiction, and loss in a world where emotions can be literally bottled and traded.

It was originally named "Talk is Cheap," but I think the new title embodies the theme much better.

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