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Stories, Podcasts, Interviews, and Articles, 2023:

 

Here’s hoping for a

Happy New Year

for us all.

New Story

December 31, 2023, in Fantasy

“New Year’s Angel”

E.E. King

 

The first time Able saw Ana, he thought she was an angel. Maybe because the light outlined her in gold and lit a halo around her hair.

Or possibly because her smile was so radiant she seemed more than human.

But probably, it was due to the large, white wings strapped to her back.

 

New Story

in Stories for Young People of All Ages

The Flip Side”
by Hall Jameson

 

I had arrived in a box with an orange kitten the Keepers called Carrot and a speckled kitten they called Dot. Me, they called mostly, OhNo! but sometimes, StopThat! or GetDown!

Then I fell off the beam in the Basking Room, and landed in a very different place…

 

A New Story

 

October 25, 2023, in Fantasy

 

Terms and Conditions

by Douglas Schwarz

The man who appeared at my elbow after the accident was obviously a demon.  I had other things on my mind though, like the paramedics desperately trying to keep my body alive.

Then he told me he was there to collect me according to the terms of my contract. 

What contract?

 August 31, 2023, in Science Fiction

“The Tattooist of Triton”

by Hesper Leveret

 

‘No flash,’ said the man, shaking his head. ‘I want something… custom.’

 

 May 28, 2023, in Science Fiction

“Wish Upon a Star”

by Rob Nisbet

Annie sat on her garden swing letting her eyes slowly adjust to the darkness, just like Daddy had shown her.
The brighter stars appeared first, then the smaller, fainter stars, until the black sky was dotted with the tiny flecks of light.
It was a perfect night for star gazing.
No moon, no cloud.

Inside, something was happening.
Men from Daddy’s work were talking with Mummy. And Uncle Trevor had come round.  There was something wrong

Something they all wanted to talk about without her listening

So, Annie had been bundled out to look at the stars.

 

A New Story

In Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales

April 30, 2023, in Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales

“Soul Arbitration”
by Rustin Lovewell

Hel arrives first.

The ground at the northern beachhead opens like an inverted gate, rocks and black pebbles sloughing away in a fall that drowns out the crashing surf.

My skin prickles.

I clutch the armrests of my stone seat as the goddess emerges from the depths,

moonlight reflecting off her bone crown.

Mist clings to her garments like phantom hands.

New Story

March 29, 2023, in Science Fiction

“Presto Change-O”

Warren Brown

 

Just playing checkers in the park.

Talking about the latest toy they would produce.

All by themselves.

New Story

 

Valentine’s Day 2023

February 14, 2023 in Science Fiction

Tomorrow Is a Difficult Proposition”

by Kris Bowser

 

“We’ll talk later.” I tell you, with such casual smoothness you have no idea how poor my grasp of “later” actually is.

Then I expand out to formless thought-feeling-presence. I am around your ship, through your ship. I have no edges, no body, only a calmness like shade and meditation and cool water.

I unfold within a nebula, a fair harbor for thought, while patterns form in the blooming and exploding of stars as millennia sweep by.

I return to where you were, but find I have lost you.

You could be anywhere. I’m hazy on the time as well, and so I search backwards and forwards.

I rush through all the reaches of the cosmos where your people have explored and built civilizations, and I rummage through planets and systems like opening and shutting drawers in rapid search.

And all I have to aid my search is a set of dingy keys.

 

New Story

January 31, 2023, in Science Fiction

“BCALLI, SINGER OF THE STRING”

George Guthridge

 

I directed the 800,000 planetesimals in my sector of the inner edge of the Öpik-Oort Cloud encasing the Solar system. 

We were deployed to keep the germs’ madness quarantined until they blew up their world.

Always on our toes and never sleeping, millennia passed quietly, as it does on watch,

just an occasional comet shooting off toward the inner system.

Then came a song.

On the String.

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