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. |
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Newest Books
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Every Halloween night, the candy monster sneaks into Jimmy’s bedroom and steals most of his candy. And no matter where he hides his bag of candy, the candy monster always finds it. But one Halloween morning, Jimmy has a great idea. With the help of his mother and father, Jimmy will teach that mean old candy monster a lesson. Multi-award-winning author of speculative fiction, Donald Firesmith, tells the story of how the idea of a candy monster enables his parents to make sure he doesn’t eat too much candy. #CandyMonster #ChildrensBook #Halloween |
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Fourteen visionary and thought-provoking science fiction gems that will take you on a faster-than-light journey to future worlds of dreams and nightmares. If you enjoyed episodes of the TV series The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, then these short stories are for you. #AI #Alien #HardScienceFiction #Robot #ScienceFiction #TimeTravel |
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The multi-award-winning prequel to the Hell Holes series of alien invasion novels, A Slave’s Revenge, is an epic tale of love, loss, friendship, and survival under the most hellish of conditions. Action-packed and with a strong emotional core and relatable characters, A Slave’s Revenge is a moving story about the power of the human spirit, not merely to survive but to overcome extreme adversity and achieve redemption. If you enjoy science fiction books like The Hunger Games and Divergent that stay with you long after you finish them, you will love Hell Holes: A Slave’s Revenge. #AlienAbduction #AlienInvasion #AwardWinning #Canibalism #ComingOfAge #Death #Demon #Dystopian #FirstContact #Gladiator #Hell #Horror #Love #Revenge #ScienceFiction #Slavery #Survival #Torture |
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A multi-award-winning collection of fourteen creepy short stories and poems that are best read late at night when you’re all alone. If you enjoyed episodes of the TV series The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Tales of the Unexpected, and Are You Afraid of the Dark, then this book is for you. #DarkFantasy #GhostStory #Horror #Occult #Paranormal |
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.