Short Stories
Writing as Bill Cameron and W.H. Cameron
W.H. Cameron Short Stories and Novellas
Hey Nineteen
During one of her first solo body removal jobs as an apprentice mortician, Melisende Dulac discovers an old man’s sad end may not be all that that it seems.
This story is the first in the Melisende Dulac chronology.
Waldo’s Gold
When a grave at the cemetery owned by her family is looted practically under her nose, Melisende Dulac sets out to track down the perpetrator and, in the process, solve a century-old mystery.
This novella follows the events of Crossroad.
Christmas Spirit
When a young mother is accused of drowning her child on Christmas Eve, a surprise discovery during the body transport forces apprentice mortician Melisende Dulac to confront her own ghosts of Christmas past—and help bring the perpetrator to justice.
This story follows “Waldo’s Gold” in the Melisende Dulac Chronology.
The Sheepshooter’s Funeral
Work-in-progress
When a young rancher is found dead at the site of his ancestor’s heroic death, many suspect he took his own life. While arranging his funeral, apprentice mortician Melisende Dulac discovers not only was the death a murder, but everyone close to the victim has something to hide.
When complete, this novella will take place after the events of “Christmas Spirit.”
Bill Cameron Standalone Stories
Wheel of Fortune
An immigrant professor forced into a life of penury takes matters into his own hands in a desperate bid to protect his professional legacy, and get a little revenge on the man who drove him from his home.
Coming soon in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
Best Served Cold
A lifelong quest for revenge has unexpected consequences for a pair of friends who sacrificed everything over a girl.
Counterflow
Dreams of love live and die in an eddy under a bridge.
Kept Woman
Sometimes what we see in other people is only a dark reflection of ourselves.
On the Road to Find Out
A boy is on a journey to discover where he belongs—one filled with violence, longing, and loss.
The Practical Christmas
When Mom takes up with a fixer-upper, two kids find out what life with an honest-to-goodness outlaw is really all about: the loot.
The Princess of Felony Flats
A mysterious dwarf makes a risky play for the statuesque consort of a drug kingpin in a hardboiled retelling of a classic fairy tale. Nominated for the 2011 CWA Short Story Dagger.
Privacy Fence
In a darkly comic clash of neighbors over the height of a fence, the solution for one seems to be kidnapping . . . and possibly even murder.
Slice of Pie
A cynical and overprotective son tries to save his mother from her own good nature, with violent results.
Soul of the Sea
During a hallucinatory trip to the beach a young man loses track of who he is.
A Tall House
Desperate to see his sick mother who is quarantined upstairs in her room, a boy rebels against the overbearing housekeeper who has been keeping them apart. In the process, he discovers the grim secret behind his mother’s illness.
The Thunderhead and the Beast
He opens the door to what he thinks is every boy’s dream. It may be a nightmare instead.
Yo, Karl
A boy’s dark reputation, not all of it fairly earned, shapes his fate.
Skin Kadash Short Stories
Heat Death
In 1971, days before shipping out to Vietnam, a young Skin Kadash joins his best friend for a “so long to the world” blow-out at a cabin in the mountains, unaware they’re pawns in a murder plot.
The Missus
A brotherhood of cops, a boy accused of murder, and the detective who broke ranks to dig out the truth, no matter the cost.
Featuring Skin Kadash and Joey Getchie of Property of the State.
Coffee, Black
Skin investigates vandalism at a Portland coffee shop and stumbles into more than he bargained for—saucy hipsters, coffee snots, petty crooks, and a conspiracy gone off the rails.
Sunlight Nocturne
On Halloween, as cops pursue a gang of violent home invaders, Skin and a neighbor build a bat house, unaware the chase is heading right for them.
The Last Ship
Skin Kadash travels to the windswept Oregon Coast to recover from a gunshot wound and finds himself embroiled in land grab turned deadly.
Daisy and the Desperado
With a discovery of a disembodied foot in an old lady’s back yard, Skin is dragged into a decades-long feud between irascible neighbors.