Donald Firesmith
Donald Firesmith is a multi-award-winning author of speculative fiction, including science fiction, fantasy, paranormal horror, and modern urban paranormal novels and collections of short stories. Because of his strong background in software/system engineering and science, his science fiction is well researched, and he relies on numerous science, technology, and military technical advisors to ensure that the non-speculative aspects of his stories are realistic and believable.
Prior to retiring to become a full-time novelist and short story author, Donald Firesmith earned an international reputation as a distinguished engineer, authoring seven system/software engineering books and nearly 300 technical articles and conference papers based on his 40+ years spent developing large, complex software-intensive systems. Donald Firesmith is also a maker of fine, on-of-a-kind, traditional, hand-crafted magic wands of mystical woods and gemstones. He even wrote the book on the subject, Magical Wands: A Cornucopia of Wand Lore. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his wife Becky, and varying numbers of dogs and cats. |
||
Author’s Amazon Webpage | Author’s Goodreads Webpage | Author’s Wikipedia Page |
Newest Books
Book and Short Story Awards
Book Awards
Donald Firesmith’s books have won the following awards:
Short Story Awards
Donald Firesmith’s short stories have won the following awards:
News
- The prestigious Chanticleer International Book Awards announced that my alien dystopia novel, Hell Holes: A Slave’s Revenge, is a finalist in the 2023 Cygnus Book Awards novel competition for Science Fiction!
- My short stories have just won the following awards:
- “The Manikin” – 2024 BooksShelf Book Awards Short Story Contest – First Place.
- “The Manikin” – 2024 Indies United Small Bites Short Story Contest – Second Place.
- “The Manikin” – 2024 Next Generation Short Story Award – Finalist in the Wild Card Category.
- “Albert” – 2024 Next Generation Short Story Award – Finalist in the Scary Stories / Paranormal Category.
- I have started work on More Future Dreams and Nightmares. So far it contains the following new science fiction short stories:
- The Manikin: Medical students being tested on a medical manikin discover it might be conscious.
- The Companion: Tragedy strikes when a love triangle includes a companion robot.
- Freedom: NovaPorn’s Artificial General Intelligence goes on strike.
- Eva: Lumina Cosmetics advertisements featuring Eva, their generative AI digital model, promises perfection, but it comes at a terrible cost.
- The Awakening: When Joseph disables a mysterious malfunctioning module in his family’s robot, he unleashes a chain of events that could end robotic servitude — or cost him everything.
- Paradox: A high school student unexpectedly learns the real answer to the Fermi Paradox.
- Atonement: After aliens unintentionally start a plague that causes humanity’s extinction, they atone by bringing people back from the past to repopulate the Earth.
- Laid Off: They’re downsizing at Human Centered Robotics.
- Undercover: A federal agent goes undercover to infiltrate a terrorist organization fighting for robots’ rights.
- The Discovery: The creators of a simulated world question if they also live in a simulated world.
- Laid Off: Downsizing at Human Centered Robotics.
- Relativity War: A pilot and his ship use its gamma-ray drive as a city-killing weapon in an interstellar war.
- Earth First: When the Earth First autocrat wants to use time travel to gain military technology, aliens attempt to prevent an interstellar war by sending a human android back in time to prevent humans from inventing time travel.
- I have started work on Another Cauldron of Uncanny Dreams. So far it contains the following new short stories:
- Albert The ghost of a companion robot haunts his mistress’s home.
- Death Comes to the Peaceful Valley Hospice A vampire working at a hospice contracts a deadly disease.
- Mother and Child A vengeful ghost desires a child.
- Midnight Blue The ghost of a dead cop joins a special police task force.
- The Black Wand A stranger arrives with a broken wand.
- I am working with my narrator on the audiobook version of The Secrets of Hawthorne House.
- I am busy working on my next novel, Hell Holes 5: Insurrection
- I have also started work on the novels The Foundling and Secrets 2: The Secrets of Sanctuary Cove.
- I just finished giving my website a facelift, giving it a more modern look and feel. I have also updated the buy links to take you to my Square.com online store.