Happy Halloween, everyone! I thought I would do something special to mark the occasion, so here’s an absolutely free downloadable short story. I wrote the first page of this in Ray Bradbury’s house, hoping to capture some of that elusive Bradburian magic. “The Shadows Behind the Trees” is a title I heard Ray Bradbury say in passing one day and I said, “That’s a great title for a short story.” He encouraged me to use it and so, I did!

I set out to write a melancholy ghost story about a little girl...