Fiction
"A man in a hazmat suit stood at the front door. Allie had watched through the window as his van came up the driveway and around a tree that sprouted from a crack last summer, and she started to cry. She might be only 9, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew why the man had come."
"Goron turned the full malignancy of his stare on the underling who quickly changed color in an attempt to blend in. Goron licked his own eyes, tasting the dry dust that had accumulated on the clear covering."
"A drink arrived that Culin hadn’t ordered. No one sent drinks to the crowded annex where Culin sat, crammed in with seven other people, all with contagion bands on their sleeves and matching tattoos on their arms. Sending drinks was an affectation Culin didn’t see much in the Dead Engine at all." Text and Audio.
"Every night, before going to bed, Rina checked the refrigerators. There were two in the kitchen, on separate circuits, one with a fancy ice dispenser on the door. There was one in the living room holding up the TV, and one in the bedroom doubling as a nightstand."
E-Zines
• "The Manufacturing Of Sorrow" by Bob Thurber.
"When the bell rang, signaling mid-morning break, the floors of the factory shook as workers scrambled away from their stations, rushing to vending machines or out exit doors for a smoke. Morning break was eight minutes."
• "The Barchildren and Drive-Thru" by Héctor Ramírez.
"Your local sports bar & grill closes at 2:00AM, but the barchildren aren't released until 3:00AM. The barchildren are kept on the childplatform, which lies beneath the foosball tables, under the floorboards. The barchildren are released by a timed mechanism that pulls the floor open and raises the childplatform."
• "The Decay of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" by Thomas Strømsholt.
"My love, turned into a magpie of the European variety, perched on the capital of a tilted Ionic column. These things happen from time to time. The slender column was detached, supporting nothing but my plumaged love. Creepers crept and coiled up around the eroded grooves of the column, its base, stylobate and krepis covered by a luxuriant growth of plants and flowers."
• "It Pours" by Sarena Ulibarri.
"The first drops fell before I noticed the clouds that had gathered in the corner of my bedroom. I heard them, a slow drip that I attributed to a leaky faucet, or an overflowing bathtub from the upstairs neighbors that I heard fighting all the time."
• "The Enchanted Tree" by Srinjay Chakravarti.
"Once upon a time there lived a young man named Aniket. He had no one in the world, his parents were long dead, and he had no home to speak of. He was a wanderer, who moved from one town to another, looking for a place to settle in. One day he arrived in the strange town of Advutnagar."
• "A Work of Art" by Robina Williams.Flash Fiction
"An alabaster trinket spotted on a market stall turns out to possess ancient and dangerous powers."
• "Believe" by Leslie Roy Carter.
"A young illusionist sorceress has to prove herself on a covert military mission - but it's not her illusion magic she's wanted for."
• "Bob the Annihilator" by R. Scott Russell.
"It was an uneasy retirement in a haunted land and the only thing the settlers sought was peace amid solitude. Butwhen an old enemy appears offering hope is it the last spasm of a bitter war...or an honorable means to heal old wounds?"
• "Cry Wolf" by MR Tomson
"He may be the victor of a thousand battles and the hero ofa hundred wars, but age is catching up with the king's champion -- and so are the dire wolves."
• "The Dirty Fairy" by Deborah Walker.
"My mother said, 'I never should play with the fairies in the wood.' When I asked her why, she said, 'They drink.' Her voice was a stone."
• "Good News, Bad News and Both" by Joyce Frohn
"When you wander through worlds in your sleep there are bound to be some rough awakenings, but the roughest could be coming home. At least for two flower children of the 60's who discover some things have changed since they left and what will they do with the hitchhiker they picked up?"
• "The Healer's Apprentice" by Jason Lairamore.
"All was well in the peaceful bounty surrounding Lifebringer Mountain until Brinol, a dwarf, brought tidings that threatened to ruin everything."
• "One Day in Feradon" by Darryl Fifield
"A stranger causes trouble in the small Hamlet of Feradon."
• "Paying for Death" by C.L. Holland
"When her sister marries the man Mirri loves, she wantsrevenge. She's willing to pay for it, but does she reallyunderstand what it is she's buying?"
• "Trail" by Michael Tager
"Set in Baum's world of Oz, follow a single precious stonefrom its uncovering in the Nome mines to its arrival in the Emerald City."
- At Daily Science Fiction: "The Love Letter" by Brynn MacNab.
- At Every Day Fiction: "A Year of Cat Ownership" by James Reinebold. Fantasy.
- At 365 Tomorrows: "A Game Of Inches" by Clint Wilson. Science Fiction.
"While the harbormaster fidgeted at his desk, Treya checked her pipes. They were, of course, in perfect condition: the leather supple and the drones polished. She’d brought her double-chantered smallpipes today, in case the negotiations grew complex." Audio and Text,
"North of us a shaft of light shot half way to the zenith. It came from behind the five peaks. The beam drove up through a column of blue haze whose edges were marked as sharply as the rain that streams from the edges of a thunder cloud. It was like the flash of a searchlight through an azure mist. It cast no shadows." First published in The All-Story, January 5, 1918.
• “Liberty: Seeking Support for a Writ of Habeas Corpus for a Non-Human Being” by Samuel Peralta. Science Fiction.•
• "CatAssassins!" by Veronica Belmont.
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