December 23, 2018, Stories for Young People from 4 to 400, “The Book of Winter“, by Caroline Friedel

In the midst of a howling snowstorm, in a winter that had lasted for years, there came a knock on the cottage door.

November 27,, 2018, Science Fiction, “Spicer’s Modest Success”,
by Jared VanDyke

Dr. Benson Spicer was pleased with his small-town volunteer radio host lot in life.  For him this modest position was success at its highest.  He was reaching and helping his listeners.

But with the station’s ‘new’ salvaged satellite dish, Benson found his audience had become quite a bit more far-ranging and diverse than his little town of Parma, with its six bars, nine gun stores, and enough churches to cover consciences the morning after could account for.

October 31, 2018, Eldritch, “Estevan of the Children“, by E. E. King

The spirit children, the Angelitos, find their way home following the paths of marigolds, leaving their small footprints in the golden petals. 

When they returned to their graves at twilight each Novenber 1st, the paths between the cemetery and the homes of their grieving parents were filled with golden swirls of marigold petals imprinted with each tiny foot.

But Estevan was late returning and lost his way.  If he could not return, he would fade to nothing, not even a memory would be left.

September 30, 2018, Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales, “The Mirror Crack’d” by Jordan Taylor

As Morgan Roswarne moved, shadowy forms flickered in and out of existence around her.

My interview with her parents had not prepared me for this. How powerful must her affinity be, to call these forms out of the aether?

I was engaged to teach her to control her magic. But I didn’t even know how she called these clustering shadows to her. How would I teach her to keep them at bay?

August 30, 2018, Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales, “Rapunzel — A Re-Winding” by Joan Stewart

A woman tended her home and garden, and followed the common customs of the time in the common way, yet she found herself gazing more and more at the uncommon walls of thick old stone surrounding the land of the old woman right beside her.  Surely, they held something marvelous, but she didn’t dare approach the small, formidable figure swathed in black which sometimes in the early morning came out of the woods, tended to mysterious business within those walls, and then with the setting sun walked back into the woods.

Well.  When she was back in those woods, how was she to know who was peering over her wall?

            But deep in those wild woods, in a wide glen encircled by a fence of woven branches hung with feathers, bones, knotted roots, and stones, in the center of the glen, in her dwelling, the eaves and windows hung with things swaying and clacking as with a breeze… the old woman knew.

July 29, 2018, Science Fiction, “Where the Gods Went”, by J. Drake

‘Above us hangs no heaven,
Below us boils no hell,
The Gods they dwell within us,
Where devils swarm as well’.
Blackwolf sat for a moment in the empty conference room. O’Malley had said the planet was where the Gods went, and every devil in hell.  All he had to do was bring back fuel from that death-trap and induce seven cut-throats to help save the captors hauling them in to judicial death while keeping an eye on a possibly insane first mate who would pilot an ancient rust-bucket of a fueler, guide them through nightmare land, and why did she always have to have the expertise that forced him to order her to the front line?

July 22, 2018, Science News and Information

Epigenetics is the new dogma of genetic research. If there’s a gene involved with a disease, or a genetic variant associated with a particular trait, you can bet there is some epigenetic mechanism also contributing to that disease or trait. Our environmental exposures have a major say in the epigenetic control of our genes.

We present a related article from Undark Magazine: Uncertain Inheritance: Epigenetics and the Poisoning of Michigan

June 25, 2018, Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales: “Hima” by Sam Muller

Hima barely noticed the dwarf.

She saw him now and then at dinner, crouched by Mother’s chair. He looked at no one and no one looked at him.

He was a fixture, like old furniture.

Had there been more than one dwarf, once? At first she wasn’t interested enough to ask.

Later she was too frightened.

May 30, 2018, Fantasy: “Cat and Mouse” by L.C Brown

So I’m out front of Jaxon’s, down in the French Quarter, singing for my supper.  For some fool-headed reason he lets this old cat sit on his doorstep and wail on her trumpet, just like in the old days, even though both of us could get taken for it.

So I’m singing for my supper. Me an’ my trumpet, making the magic them tourists wanna hear. They don’t want no sad songs no more. They want happy tunes these days, blues that sounds more like yellows and greens. So I give it to ’em, and they give me a couple credits, and we all walk away happy.

But not today. Today, the Silence finally finds me.

April 23, 2018, Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales: “The Witching Hour” by Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald

I stood balanced at the top of the oldest palm tree, the one that grew at the south end of the village. I was in my element — pitch black night. This was my dawn. The murmurs of glowing spirits mixed with the chitter of living insects. The hoot of an owl reminded me there was work to be done, battles to be fought — silent, undeclared, but raging all the same. And old Mama Ishaka was on the other side of them. With a sigh, I leapt from the tree, fell free, and caught one of the power lines that led to a human spirit. The link was strong. The call of this spirit sang the music of its soul to me. It called me back home.

March 22, 2018, Fantasy: “Liqeni i Zi” by Corey Mallonee   Ela and Ismail spent evenings huddled around a crackling radio, listening to news of the invaders, men who had drilled into their own skulls and grafted bronze masks to their faces. Of hungry bullets etched with curling script, which burrowed through flesh to the heart. Often, in those days, Ela would sit on the bare stony shore of the lake and look out at the ruined temple, columns like broken bones guarding an altar of black stone where the village ancestors had sacrificed sheep and goats and sometimes men. Where, she was told, men would waken the gods.

Beginning Feb. 28, 2018, Literature and Media:  Anybody Can Write a Novel,  by Joseph Blake Parker

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”

―Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Anybody Can Write a Novel, is a guide to teach one style of writing a novel, as well as a tool for beginning and intermediate writers alike to learn to dissect and analyze the elements of a good story. It is the collection of writing techniques that I have learned through the years, my experiences with them, and an account of my success/failure with each. It is designed to give guidance to those who are lost in the process and need some direction, as well as to give other authors various ideas that they might not have considered before.

For writing advice and inspiration — this guide will be published in regular weekly sections.  The introduction is now up.

Feb 21, 2018: Science: Interview with 3-D Nebulae Artist Teun van der Zalm

We at Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores recently had a chance to sit down with artist Teun van der Zalm and chat with him about his work. Teun uses mathematical modeling and computer rendering to create stunning, 3-D images and videos of nebulae. His work can be seen in art galleries across the globe and the videos he creates have been used in short films and other visual media in the last few years. His work is both exquisite and inspiring and we are excited to be featuring some of his work over the coming weeks, starting with the first of his Nebulae Short Films

Video Feb 21, 2018: Science, “Nebulae Short Films, Series One:  Interstellar Clouds“, directed and designed by Teun van der Zalm Music by Xavi Mendoza

An experiment to visualize what lies beyond the edge of the Observable Universe…

“A cloud that veils one of nature’s secret places. This is a stellar nursery, a place where stars are born. They condense by gravity from gas and dust until their temperatures become so high that they begin to shine. Such clouds mark the births of stars…” – Carl Sagan,    Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, Episode 1: The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean

We suggest viewing this video in high quality and full screen for the best in inter-nebulae trips.

Please see the related Interview with Teun van der Zalm

Feb 14, 2018: Science Fiction, “Got Time?”, by Lee Rutty

If his lawyer hadn’t gotten so creative with his contracts, Guy would have had something more to do than sit in his cheap apartment and play Doom.

On the evening he prepared to beat his personal best he ignored the knock on the door, and ignored it again, but on the third knock the Doom tingle evaporated and Guy opened the door to find himself standing there.  Looking quite good too.

Alternate Guy had an explanation, and a Plan.  And he thought it would all be very simple and easy…

Jan. 28, 2018: Young People of All Ages: “Olaf and Lars“, by Kevin Lauderdale

Olaf was Lars’ ice bear, and Lars was Olaf’s person. They were a team.

Olaf was intelligent and skilled. When he danced around a sword or walked a tightrope it was as much a performance as that given by any human acrobat.

But he would perform only for Lars. Sure, the King might be there  —- a thousand people might be there -— but anything Olaf did, he did for Lars alone.

So they were on their way to perform before the King, But just now they were looking at the chimney smoke rising over the hill.  They might soon be at the castle, but meanwhile they wouldn’t mind spending the night with a roof over their heads.

Jan 22, 2018: Artist interviews, “Interview with a Space Artist”

Planetrix interviews Swedish concept artist and illustrator, Gabriel B Stiernstrom, about tools, techniques, and easiest and hardest parts of the work he does.

Along the way we get to see some of the beautiful and powerful images Gabriel creates.

Jan 14, 2018: Eldritch, “Ice”, by Diana Silver

Dutch language version translated by Ashley Cowles

·

It was on the Ice and in the Storm that I crossed paths with Edmund Hawkings.

Had I known how much he’d give up for my sake, I wouldn’t have tried to kill him.