Far Fetched Fables

First Story: “Unraveling” by David Steffen

(Originally published in the July 2014 Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.)

He passed from his study to his map room. One full wall of the room was covered in a map of the world. A red light pulsed in Michigan. That’s where the alarm had happened. On his own turf, where no other weaver had been known to establish themselves for two hundred years.

From the drawer he pulled out smaller maps and found the glowing light there. The address was only a hundred miles away from his own house. A quick Internet search found that the address was registered to Hilda Freitag. Of the dozen weavers in the world who could make a soulbox, she was the most crafty. No one seemed to know her age, but Cavendish suspected that she was the oldest of them all. She had already been powerful when Cavendish was raised up some six hundred years before. He had died at her hands two dozen times, and he had never once bested her.

David Steffen is a writer, editor, and software engineer. He edits Diabolical Plots, which began publishing original fiction in 2015. He runs the Submission Grinder, a tool for writers to find markets for their work. He recently published The Long List Anthology, which is a collection of 21 stories from the longer Hugo Award nomination list last year. His own stories have been published in many nice places, including Escape Pod, Podcastle, Daily Science Fiction, and StarShipSofa.

Main Story: “Showing Faeries for Fun and Profit” by Julie Frost

(Originally published in the July 2013 Stupefying Stories Showcase.)

I dodged through picketers into the Expo Center, dragging a cart loaded with four aquariums and a box of tiny furniture, and swearing under my breath. Greg Carson waved to me from across the show floor, and I made my way over to him through the general chaos that always attended the Annual Clearfield County Faerie Show. “I saved you a spot, Emily,” he said.

“Thanks.” I rolled my eyes as I set my aquariums on the table. “The faerie rights activists give you any problems?”

Greg drew himself up to his full six-foot, four-inch height, flexed his considerable arms, and deepened his voice.

“Most of them don’t want to mess with me.” Then he laughed, white teeth flashing in his dark face. “They get a rude awakening when they realize that Faerie Show people aren’t just elderly grannies with bifocals and bonnets.”

Julie Frost writes every shade of speculative fiction and lives in Utah with her family, which consists of an equal number of guinea pigs and people, and a collection of anteaters and Oaxacan carvings, some of which intersect. Her short fiction has appeared in Cosmos, Unlikely Story, Plasma Frequency, Stupefying Stories, and others, and was a finalist at Writers of the Future and the Hidden Prize for Prose. Her first novel, Pack Dynamics, was released at Salt Lake ComicCon 2015 by WordFire Press, and sold out there, much to everyone’s delight. She whines about writing, a lot, at agilebrit.livejournal.com.

About the Narrators:

Jonathan Sharp lives and works in a sleepy southern New Mexico town alongside his exceedingly talented wife, Paige. When he is free from the mountains of organic vegetables under which he works, he plays in front of the microphone in the hope it may one day talk back to him. You can reach him online at sharpandvoice.com.

Amy Robinson is a voice artist with a wide range of vocal styling, inflections, and accents. She can be heard in a wide array of radio announcer spots, audiobook narrations, animated series, and even telephone IVR systems, and is a featured player on the Rookery Radio Hour Podcast. You can find her online at amyrobinsonvo.com.

StarShip Sofa is eligible for this year’s Hugo Awards! If you like, you can nominate it here.

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Cover art for this month is by Kassandra Leigh, a photographer, model, and self-professed dweeb with no social skills, chronic ailments, and a supreme appreciation of “me” time. She likes to take peectures of pretty, sexy, and creepy things, soft tacos with no lettuce, spooky supernatural anything, playing mages in Smite, heavy metal, the Sith Code, and things that start with the letter “C”: cats, camera gear, cold weather, cosmetics, clothing, and caffeine — but not candids.

Flash Fiction: “Osiana” by Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold

(“Tales of the Rose Nights” #1, originally published at Daily Science Fiction.)

She did not come to her life with intention. Few do, but less so for Osiana. She had been born a bondswoman in a time and place where freedwomen were rarer than talking hens. That she had good hands and clear eyes was apparent even in her extreme youth, so when the Proctors came to winnow the girl-children in her third summer, Osiana was taken aside to be raised on red meat and rough exercise, to see if she could grow into the Kingsguard.

Jay Lake lived in Portland, Oregon until his death in 2014, shortly before his 50th birthday. His books include Kalimpura from Tor and Love in the Time of Metal and Flesh from Prime. His short fiction appeared regularly in literary and genre markets worldwide. Jay was a winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and a multiple nominee for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. In 2015, he posthumously received the Locus Award for his collection Last Plane to Heaven.

Learn more about him and his work at jlake.com.

Ruth Nestvold has published widely in science fiction and fantasy, her fiction appearing in such markets as Asimov’s, F&SF, and Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best Science Fiction. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, Tiptree, and Sturgeon Awards. In 2007, the Italian translation of her novella Looking Through Lace won the Premio Italia award for best international work. She maintains a web site at ruthnestvold.com and blogs at ruthnestvold.wordpress.com.

Jay and Ruth’s collection of short stories, Almost All the Way Home from the Stars, is available at Amazon and via iTunes.

Main Story: “Salt and Sand” by Kate O’Connor

(Originally published in Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show #39.)

The blood­ orange sun was slumping towards the western horizon when the funeral boat came ashore, groaning in defeat as it crested onto the sand. Saesa had watched the boat throughout the day, tracking its slow progress in between settling her other visitors. The little boat had teased her, coming close and then drifting back out with the tide, but it had finally arrived.

Saesa held still, savoring the moment before she went to peel back flesh and crack bones to reveal this next visitor’s story. Her pointed teeth ached with wanting and her mouth watered. There was a lifetime of thought and emotion that would be waiting just beneath the skin of the next corpse.

A board creaked and Saesa froze. There shouldn’t be any noise. Funeral ships only brought one thing. The sound had been sharp and immediate – too sudden for Saesa’s beach and the long line of empty vessels left by her day’s work.

Something shifted just beyond the boat’s railing. Before Saesa had time to react, a thin figure lurched upwards, sprawling over the rail and tumbling down onto the hot sand. Saesa jumped back, her heart thundering in her chest. She had seen living people countless times in memories, but to have one in front of her was another matter entirely.

Kate O’Connor has written science fiction and fantasy since 2011. In between telling stories, she flies airplanes, digs up artifacts, and manages a dog kennel. Her short fiction has most recently appeared in StarShip Sofa, InterGalactic Medicine Show, and Escape Pod.

About the Narrators:

Nicola Seaton-Clark lives in the wilds of (almost) Eastern Europe with her long-suffering husband, phenomenal children and a grumpy cat. Trained as an actress and singer, she has worked in entertainment for over 20 years and currently splits her time between writing speculative fiction, helping her husband run their voice-over company, Offstimme, and voicing everything from commercials and documentaries to public transport announcements. She also hosts this podcast…

Nikolle Doolin is a writer and a voice actor. Her fiction, poetry, and plays have been published and presented; and her voice has appeared in various mediums. Nikolle has performed numerous narrations for a number of popular and award-winning podcasts, such as The NoSleep Podcast, Tales to Terrify, and Far-Fetched Fables. She also narrates classic literature by the likes of Austen, Poe, James, and more in her own podcast, Audio Literature Odyssey. To learn more about Nikolle, visit her website at nikolledoolin.com.

StarShip Sofa is eligible for this year’s Hugo Awards! If you like, you can nominate it here.

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Flash Fiction: “Genie from the Gym” by M.K. Hutchins

(Originally published at Daily Science Fiction.)

First Wish:
I wasn’t stupid. Someone had abandoned that lamp in the gym locker room for a reason. I thought about just wishing to lose weight, but the genie might vaporize my arm or something to meet that requirement. So I wished that I could lose weight.

Overnight, chocolate disappeared from the world. Anyone attempting to bake cookies would open their ovens to find cold, crisp slices of cucumber.

M.K. Hutchins is the author of the YA fantasy novel Drift and numerous short stories. She often draws on her background in archaeology when writing. Find her at mkhutchins.com.

A Look Back at Genre History with Amy H. Sturgis: “The Demon of Brockenheim; or The Enchanted Ring” by Anonymous (part two)

Amy H. Sturgis holds a Ph.D. in Intellectual History and specializes in the fields of Science Fiction/Fantasy and Native American Studies. She lives with her husband, Dr. Larry M. Hall, in the foothills of North Carolina, USA. She can be found online at amyhsturgis.com.

A pdf copy of “The Demon of Brockenheim” is available on Amy’s blog.

Main Story: “In the Gardens of the Night” by Siobhan Carroll

(Originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #74.)

In the open court they call her Nakshedil, “Embroidered on the Heart,” as the prince does. But in the shadows they call her “the Great Whore” or “the Viper,” and they watch her with narrowed eyes. She is beautiful. Nobody can deny that, though there are many beautiful concubines in the palace and many who are less ambitious than Nakshedil. But when she dances, she is more than beautiful. Even those like me, who wish her dead, cannot help but love her a little.

When not globetrotting in search of dusty tomes, Siobhan Carroll lives and lurks in Delaware. She is a graduate of Clarion West, the indefatigable OWW, and the twin ivory towers of Indiana University and U.B.C. Her fiction can be found in such magazines as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Realms of Fantasy, and Lightspeed. Sometimes she writes under the byline “Von Carr”. Both versions of herself firmly support the use of the Oxford Comma. For more, visit voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com.

About the Narrators:

Chris Lade is a Leipzig-based orchestral conductor, pianist, and English teacher by day, and an avid reader by night. When not doing either of the four, you can usually find him listening to music, reading classical music blogs, riding his bike, or trying to cook something Italian in his kitchen. Life goals include motorcycling through Europe on a Triumph Bonneville, and owning a Bernese Mountain Dog, preferably at the same time.

Katherine Inskip weighs galaxies for a living, and builds worlds in her spare time. She is addicted to chocolate and Japanese logic puzzles.

StarShip Sofa is eligible for this year’s Hugo Awards! If you like, you can nominate it here.

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Flash Fiction: “Daddy’s Glasses” by Molly Flynn
(Originally published at Every Day Fiction.)

I peer into my drawer of glasses, deciding, and empty eyes stare back. Most people don’t notice the images pressed into the lenses, like the negatives of old photographs, but Daddy and I do. He keeps his glasses in the garage, but I’m not allowed in there.

I select my pink ones with scratches on the lenses and Hello Kitty printed on the arms. They creak as I force them to fit and the plastic presses into my skin, but the memories are worth it. While Mummy watches TV, I watch snippets of old time imprinted in the glass.

Molly Flynn is a writer from Lincolnshire, UK, and is currently studying a BA in English Literature at the University of Sheffield. She is a part-time artist, writer, and procrastinator, and is seeking representation for her first novel.

A Look Back at Genre History with Amy H. Sturgis: “The Demon of Brockenheim; or The Enchanted Ring” by Anonymous (part one)

Amy H. Sturgis holds a Ph.D. in Intellectual History and specializes in the fields of Science Fiction/Fantasy and Native American Studies. She lives with her husband, Dr. Larry M. Hall, in the foothills of North Carolina, USA. She can be found online at amyhsturgis.com.

A pdf copy of “The Demon of Brockenheim” is available on Amy’s blog.

Main Story: “American Golem” by Weston Ochse

(Originally published in Operation Arcana, published by Baen Books and edited by John Joseph Adams. Also available at Audible.com.)

On Tuesday, I stalked the old section of Kabul where the minarets stand impervious to the constant bombings. Men halted their chatter and peered at me as if they knew what I was about. Women sheathed in powder blue burqas hurried away. Even children scattered as I limped through their gaggles, worried at what seemed to be a white man trolling through their midst, his face wrapped in a black and white shemagh, body clothed in Pashtun long shirt and pants, but unmistakably American to those who would know the difference.

I ignored them. Purpose-­made, I was on mission to kill the man who’d killed my brother. Not my real brother, of course, but the one from whom my existence derived. He, the child of Shira and Emil Drachamn, me the man raised from the mud and sand of New Mexico — ­­land of his birth, land of my birth, and the land where he was buried on the same day I was born.

Weston Ochse is a former intelligence officer and special operations soldier who has engaged enemy combatants, terrorists, narco smugglers, and human traffickers. His personal war stories include performing humanitarian operations over Bangladesh, being deployed to Afghanistan, and a near miss in being cannibalized in Papua New Guinea. His fiction and non-fiction has been praised by USA Today, The Atlantic, the New York Post, the Financial Times of London, and Publishers Weekly. The American Library Association labeled him one of the Major Horror Authors of the 21st Century. His work has won the Bram Stoker Award, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and won multiple New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. A writer of more than 26 books in multiple genres, his military-supernatural series SEAL Team 666 has been optioned for a movie starring Dwayne Johnson. His military sci-fi series, which starts with Grunt Life, has been praised for its PTSD-positive depiction of soldiers in peacetime and at war.

He blogs at Blogspot and can also be found online at westonochse.com.

About the Narrators:

Lauren Swan Edwards has made a name for herself on the operatic and concert stages as a “capitivating young mezzo-soprano with serious chops”. She is a District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Award and a first-place District Winner of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Originally from Los Angeles, she currently resides in Leipzig, Germany.

She can be found online at laurenedwardsmusic.com.

Eric Luke is the screenwriter of the Joe Dante film Explorers, which is currently in development as a remake, the comic books Ghost and Wonder Woman, and wrote and directed the Not Quite Human films for Disney TV. His current project, Interference, a meta horror audiobook about an audiobook… that kills, is now available on Audible.com.

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Flash Fiction: “An Old Warrior’s Final Countdown” by Kat Otis

(Originally published at Every Day Fiction.com.)

Ten spiraling stone steps led down to the dungeon. I dashed down them, the flames of the wall sconces wavering with the wind of my passage. Although I still held my sword at the ready, I found no one left to fight. When I reached the bottom, I sheathed my sword and drew my lock-picks instead.

Nine brave warriors had given their lives to get me this far. One by one they had fallen to our enemies’ arrows and bolts, spears and axes, swords and daggers. If the tower had been better defended, we would never have stood a chance. But if the tower had been better defended, more obviously significant, it also wouldn’t have taken us so long to find.

Eight weeks it took, for me to realize this squalid tower on the edge of the king’s lands was the place he had fortified to hold his greatest prize. They were the worst weeks of my life, in which I vacillated between the blackest of rage and despair. Now, I lived with a hope so painful I feared my aging heart might burst.

Kat Otis lives a peripatetic life with a pair of cats who enjoy riding in the car as long as there’s no country music involved. Her fiction has appeared in Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, Daily Science Fiction, and Flash Fiction Online. She can be found at katotis.com or on Twitter as @kat_otis.

Main Story: “A Night For Spirits and Snowflakes” by Aidan Moher

(Originally published in Sword & Laser Anthology.)

The dead man watched with glazed eyes as I dug his grave. My blade bit into the frozen earth. I pulled hard and it came grudgingly free. I struck again and hit a stone — a new dent in the dull sword. I was too cold to feel the shock, too tired to care.

The grave — the first of four — came slowly, revealed one swing at a time.

The forest was still, a twisted play on the chaos that had whipped through the trees just hours before. Those moments of slaughter, that maelstrom of death’s laughter, were over. The only reminder of the battle was me, weary and digging graves for my fallen brothers. It is what my long-dead, never-buried father would have done.

The other bodies, those of the barbarians who had set upon us, could rot — picked clean by howling wolves until they were nothing more than the skeletal remains of fathers, brothers, and sons.

For all I cared, they could feed the spirits of the dead and be forgotten.

Aidan Moher is the author of Tide of Shadows and Other Stories and founder of the Hugo Award-winning A Dribble of Ink. A regular contributor to Tor.com and the Barnes & Noble SF&F Blog, Aidan has written about science fiction and fantasy since 2007. Raised among the selkies and sirens of British Columbia’s Gulf Islands, Aidan now lives with his family in Victoria, BC, where he works as a web developer for the Royal British Columbia Museum. Visit him online at aidanmoher.com and on Twitter at @adribbleofink.

About the Narrators:

Martin Reyto is an educator, writer, and musician. He has worked in an eclectic variety of fields, including 18 years as a technical writer and software developer; 16 years as a teacher of creative writing, computer science, and business communication; and shorter stints as a symphony musician and audiobook narrator. He has published short fiction and two collections of his poetry.

Alex Weinle writes and narrates from a bunker in Fulbourn, an isolated village of cthulian professors. You can find him on Twitter as @alexweinle.

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“Manannan’s Children” by Russell Blackford

(Originally published in Dreaming Again.)

Vain gaiety, vain battle, vain repose…

— W.B. Yeats

They’d chased a deer, which had bolted in terror from the forest, then run to a round grassy hill and vanished over the top. At the top of the hill, Finn and Oisin pulled back on their horses’ reins and wrapped their heavy cloaks more tightly against the bitter cold wind from the sea. Down on the shore was a lady, also on horseback, with the lapping waves and the sinking red sun behind her.

Oisin’s breath caught and his heart seemed to melt like heated gold within his ribs. She was incomparable!

The lady rode a majestic, shimmering stallion, as black as adamant. She called out to the heroes, father and son, and they rode down to meet her, white-bearded Finn going ahead. Oisin couldn’t take his eyes from her.

Her horse had a jeweled bridle of fine leather, but she rode without a saddle. She wore a long white gown, embroidered in crimson, which she’d gathered around her thighs, leaving her legs bare and free. Sea water dripped from her pale feet. Her hair was long and yellow, woven with gaudy flowers, crimson, gold and purple. Her eyes were blue as mountain ice, her lips full and red. On a golden chain slung round her neck, she wore a silver horn, scarcely longer than a man’s hand.

She seemed to gaze into Oisin’s heart, as she spoke. “You are sad, heroes.”

Russell Blackford is a philosopher, literary critic, and author of many books, short stories, articles, op-ed pieces, and other publications. His published fiction includes an original trilogy of novels for the Terminator franchise, Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles. With Van Ikin and Sean McMullen, he is coauthor of Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction. He is editor-in-chief of The Journal of Evolution and Technology, and holds a conjoint appointment in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle. He can be found online at russellblackford.com.

About the Narrator:

Anthony Babington is a voice in the internet’s head. He looks almost, but not quite, exactly how you expect him to. He currently resides in Houston, Texas, but hastens to add that it was not his idea. He can be found on Google Plus.

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Short Fiction: “Darkening Skies” by Oliver Buckram

Main Story: “The Angel of Death Has a Business Plan” by Heather Lindsley

(Originally published in The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination: Original Short Fiction for the Modern Evil Genius.)

Carl has a pair of purple knee-length boots in one hand and a black PVC codpiece in the other. “Sorry, Angie, I’m running late,” he says. “I just need to get changed.”

“We can do it in street clothes, Carl.”

“No, no — it’s not the same without the costume. I’ll be quick, I promise.”

Carl is a regular client, and one of my first, so I cut him some slack. I should have been able to help him years ago, but I keep coming because he seems to get closer every week. Or maybe that’s just what I tell myself. Living in Megapolis is damn expensive, and a little steady income doesn’t hurt.

I take seat on Carl’s couch, clearing away a stack of Commander Justice comics first. He says he’ll be quick, but I’ve seen him struggle in and out of those boots too many times to believe him.

The comic on the top of the stack catches my eye. Is this the end for Commander Justice?  I wish, but of course it isn’t. I flip through the first few pages before tossing the candy-colored propaganda aside.

“You really shouldn’t read this crap,” I tell Carl when he finally comes back into the room. “It can’t be doing anything for your confidence.”

“I need to keep up with his latest crime fighting techniques.”

Heather Lindsley’s stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, and Lightspeed, as well as John Joseph Adams’s dystopian anthology Brave New Worlds. She has been featured on Escape Pod as a writer and on Podcastle as a reader, and her stories have been published in Polish, Romanian, Russian, and French translations. She currently lives in Brighton and works in London, which gives her more time to write her novel on the train.

You can follow her on Twitter as @RandomJane.

About the Narrators:

Nikolle Doolin is a writer and a voice actor. Her fiction, poetry, and plays have been published and presented; and her voice has appeared in various mediums. Nikolle has performed numerous narrations for a number of popular and award-winning podcasts, such as: The NoSleep Podcast, Tales to Terrify, and Far-Fetched Fables. She also narrates classic literature by the likes of Austen, Poe, James, and more in her own podcast Audio Literature Odyssey. To learn more about Nikolle, visit her website at nikolledoolin.com.

Janice Joos hails from the Midwestern United States where she lives in a constant state of motion with her husband, two children, one dog, two cats and a turtle. Trained and working as a classroom teacher of all levels, she realized she talked all the time or read stories so why not become a voice talent too. Since 2013 she has been listening to herself talk. For more information contact her at [email protected].

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Flash Fiction: “Junk Silver” by Michael Canfield

(Originally published at Daily Science Fiction.com.)

Albe ignored Tic, who exclaimed “huh!” after stabbing another Wikipedia article in his usual overly-enthusiastic way. Albe then watched Tic push the article off the sharp end of his poker into the bag. Tic wiped his hand on his leg, as he did every time he cleared his poker of trash.

Albe had gotten himself knee-deep in Myspace pages, which had started to seep through his garments and cling to his skin, so he didn’t care what Tic chose to vociferate about.

“Junk silver,” said Tic, unswayed by Albe’s lack of response. “That one was about junk silver. Know what that is?”

Albe didn’t, and he didn’t care.

He knew Tic would tell him anyway.

Michael Canfield writes about monsters, superheroes, couples, bank robbers, babies, astronauts, paranoids, background artists, obsessives, and other people. He has published mystery, fantasy, science fiction, horror and just-plain-odd stories in the magazines Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, Realms of Fantasy, Black Gate, Flytrap, and others.

You can find him on Twitter as @michaelcanfield and at MichaelCanfield.net.

Main Story: “The Wind-Catching Wizard” by Danny Adams

(Originally published in Mythic 2.)

Ogrin nearly turned himself to stone to keep from recoiling in horror when the old wizard offered him a pouch of gold.

The wizard chuckled at his bodyguard’s reluctance. “What’s the matter, Sergeant Venn? You’ve earned it. Your men have earned it. This is your reward for good service.”

The warrior shifted as if straightening a sword stance. “Ogrin, sire,” he corrected, though he had been in Gettir’s service for four years. Venn was Gettir’s bodyguard generations before Ogrin was born.

“Yes, so I said. My apologies if I was mumbling again.”

“And sire,” the warrior said even more quietly than usual, “you have already paid us for this month.”

Gettir’s sag-­wrinkled eyes blinked under his single white brow. He straightened the simple violet sleeping robe that he had taken to wearing throughout the course of every day.

“Don’t be foolish, Ogrin. I’m not losing my mind. I… I’m…” He stared at the bag in his hand as if it were about to come alive and bite him. “You misunderstand me. This is a — bonus.”

Danny Adams is the co-author, with the late Philip Jose Farmer, of the short science fiction novel The City Beyond Play (PS Publishing). His shorter work has appeared in Abyss & Apex, Asimov’s, Ideomancer, Mythic Delirium, Not One of Us, Paradox, Space & Time, Star*Line, and Strange Horizons. He lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where he is a librarian at Ferrum College and a reviewer of science fiction and fantasy books for Publishers Weekly.

You can find him on Goodreads.

About the Narrators:

Kenny Park is a video editor by trade, but having trained and worked as an actor, director and writer, he maintains it’s all just storytelling. He’s been involved with Starship Sofa since the early days of Tony and Ciaron, filming their interview with the legendary Michael Moorcock in Paris, and he still does narrations and wee video intros when Tony can pin him down. He can be found online at KennyPark.com.

Graeme Dunlop is a software solution architect and voice actor living in Melbourne, Australia. He is the co-editor of the fantasy podcast Podcastle, and used to host the YA podcast Cast of Wonders. You can find him on Google+ and he occasionally tweets as @kibitzer on Twitter.

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The cover art for this month is Icaria by Tomislav Tikulin, whose distinctive and stylish art is very reminiscent of the ’70s and ’80s and has graced the covers of many legendary SF, fantasy, and horror books, including Larry Niven’s Ringworld Engineers, Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine (50th anniversary edition), and Stephen King’s Carrie. He can be found online at tomtikulin-art.com.

(Both of our stories for this week were originally published in the anthology Dead Man’s Hand: An Anthology of the Weird West.)

Short Fiction: “Dead Man’s Hand” by Christie Yant

Deadwood, Dakota Territory, 1876

The whisper of the cards as they’re shuffled is a deception, a ritual enacted to make you believe that your hand will be fairly dealt.

The fly that lands on the whiskey glass by the dealer’s hand means that the deck is cut three cards deeper than it would have been. The hand you’re dealt is not the one that would have been dealt a moment before.

Your cards are dealt anew every moment of every day. So are the cards of the other players.

A ♦ A ♣ 8 ♠ 8 ♣

Christie Yant is a science fiction and fantasy writer, Associate Publisher of Lightspeed Magazine and Nightmare Magazine, and editor of the Women Destroy Science Fiction! special issue of Lightspeed, which won the British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology in 2015. Her fiction has appeared in in print and on the internet in such places as Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011 (Horton), Armored, Analog, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, io9, Wired.com, and China’s premier science fiction magazine, Science Fiction World. She lives on the central coast of California with two writers, one editor, two dogs, three cats, and a very small manticore.

For more information about Lightspeed‘s special double-issues devoted to showcasing the work of underrepresented and marginalized creators, visit destroysf.com.

Main Story: “Neversleeps” by Fred Van Lente

Monument Valley, Near Navajo Territory, Northbound on the Northwest Pacific Express, 120 years after the Awakening:

There were three Pinkertons. There were always three. One was a white man, one was black, and the other was a Celestial. They may have been something else before, but now they were Pinkertons. Same brownish- grey tweed suits, same bowler hats, same obese-caterpillar mustaches lurking below their noses.

Simon Leslie was playing hold-’em in the parlor car when the train slowed between two mesas in Monument Valley with a puff of steam and a sigh. Through the window he saw the Pinkertons get off and march in a flawless triangular phalanx up the nearest brick-red ridge. From the looks of it, they emerged from the express car in the center of the train; maybe the railroad kept them stacked in crates with the sacks of parcels and the safe where they laid, stiff-necked, their tattooed eyes open and unblinking, waiting to be needed. They were nicknamed “Neversleeps” for a reason. Simon Leslie knew. It had not been so long since he was one of them.

Fred Van Lente is the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning writer of comics such as Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Action Philosophers! (American Library Association Best Graphic Novel for Teens), and Cowboys & Aliens (with Andrew Foley), the basis for the feature film. His many other titles include Resurrectionists, The Comic Book History of Comics, The Incredible Hercules (with Greg Pak), Taskmaster, Marvel Zombies, and The Amazing Spider-Man. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the playwright Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats. Fred loves hearing from readers at [email protected]. You can find him online at fredvanlente.com.

“Neversleeps” was shortlisted for the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy in 2015.

About the Narrator(s):

Seth Williams is the avatar for a three-kilometer sentient starship that is parked (probably uncomfortably) close to the third planet. Surprisingly he has not yet been discovered. He is very happy that the inhabitants have discovered enough technology to that he can communicate in this limited fashion. Any communications can be directed to theboojum.org.

Tim Maroney has an endless fascination with ideas and invention, the things that keep life spicy and interesting! He believes everyone’s got a tale to tell and enjoys “Talking Story!” He enjoys playing music, mostly on guitar. He’s even been the opening act for a 10-band rock concert. Learning new things, like podcasting, excites him. He’s been on four of the seven continents and has seen some of the wonders of our Earth. While in the Navy, he earned the rare and coveted dual Snake Plisskin Award: he escaped from New York AND LA, same as Snake (though they were two of the five submarines he served on). Not too bad for a guy from a small town in North-Central Florida!

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First Story: “Never Idle” by David Steffen

(Originally published in Specutopia, July 2012).

Jeremiah listened to each car as he walked through the busy mall parking lot, looking for one who could serve as both transportation and companion.  A minivan dreamt of frequent trips with her family to the soccer fields to watch the children play.  No, her family needed her, and they treated her well.  A sports car dreamt of blurred landscape and the feel of the wind pushing her to the ground.  No, too impulsive.  He needed someone dependable.  She might leave him at any time and never come back. 

An aged sedan caught his eye.  The poor thing showed more rust than paint and her oil hadn’t been changed as often as it should have been.  Her seats were littered with trash.  She dreamt of an owner who was more neglectful than abusive, but she was ready for a change, before lack of maintenance was the end of her.

Jeremiah placed his hands on her hood and closed his eyes.  The warmth grew deep in his gut and spread through his fingertips into the car.

The car woke.

David Steffen is a writer, editor, and software engineer. He edits Diabolical Plots, which began publishing original fiction in 2015. He runs the Submission Grinder, a tool for writers to find markets for their work. He recently published The Long List Anthology, which is a collection of 21 stories from the longer Hugo Award nomination list last year. His own stories have been published in many nice places, including Escape Pod, Podcastle, Daily Science Fiction, and StarShipSofa.

Second Story: “This is How You Disappear” by Dale Bailey

(Originally published in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2013).

This is how you disappear:

Twilight, Kristina at the stove, Amanda at her homework at the kitchen table. She’s a willowy twelve years old by then, sixth grade, with her mother’s dark eyes and hair, her mother’s ready smile. Susan too is an echo of her mother, and now that she has gone away—a sophomore, you can hardly believe it—you feel her absence like a hollow place inside your heart. The years fly by. Amanda too will soon be gone, leaving you and Kristina to rattle around in a suddenly too-big house. Beyond that decline and death.

How you long to cling to this moment in the kitchen even as it slips like rain through your outstretched hands: the smell of garlic and onions simmering in olive oil, lights in the windows, the cat curled up nose to tail upon the sofa. You’ve made a salad: a bed of tomatoes, arcs of purple onions, topped with perfect white spheres of mozzarella cheese. The leftovers will go into a plastic container, the container will go into the refrigerator—but no one will eat them, no one ever does. Soon enough, you’ll scrape the remnants into the disposal, tomatoes white and soft, cheese slick with some unpleasant exudate. This is you, this is how your mind works. “Why worry?” Kristina sometimes says, and how you long to tell her how thin the world is, how deep is the abyss. But there are no words, there are never any words.

A winner of both the Shirley Jackson Award and the International Horror Guild Award, Dale Bailey published two books last year, The End of the End of Everything: Stories and The Subterranean Season, a novel. He is also the author of The Fallen, House of Bones, Sleeping Policemen (with Jack Slay, Jr.), and The Resurrection Man’s Legacy and Other Stories. His work has twice been a finalist for the Nebula Award and once for the Bram Stoker Award, and has been adapted for Showtime Television’s Masters of Horror. He lives in North Carolina with his family and can be found online at dalebailey.com.

About the Narrators:

Seth Williams is the avatar for a three-kilometer sentient starship that is parked (probably uncomfortably) close to the third planet. Surprisingly he has not yet been discovered. He is very happy that the inhabitants have discovered enough technology to that he can communicate in this limited fashion. Any communications can be directed to theboojum.org.

Rish Outfield is a writer, actor, and podcaster that can be heard as host of The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, which presents genre stories with a full cast. He also performs audiobooks for Audible, and occasionally becomes a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms, and the moon is full and bright.

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