Author
Liam Hogan
http://happyendingnotguaranteed.blogspot.co.uk/
The Ten Most Common Trickster Scams
We live in a time of Tricksters, both in our encounters with the fae, and in ill-advised deals with the devil. The wise should always guard against hidden terms and conditions. For a full and updated list of Trickster* Scams, follow the link to Witch? Below are the perennial…
The Ghastly Tale of Princess Lamia
"No," the princess scowls. "How about this one?" I flash her the picture that accompanies the story: a classic damsel, pale-faced and floaty-dressed, chained to rocks, twisting away from a dragon's flames as a Prince in shining armor-- "Definitely no." Her little arms crossed…
Space Unicorns and Magic Ovens
I'm sitting with ma as she prepares dinner. It's one of her rules, of which there are more every year. "I don't mind cooking for you, Jem, while you're young," she says. "But I'm not your servant and I'm not working while you watch TV or read comics. So it's either homework, or…
The Doors in the Castle
All the doors in the castle were tired of being opened and closed, without so much as a by-your-leave, without even a thank you. From the grand portcullis to the lowliest privy door, they were tired of being taken for granted. They were tired, they were fed up, and they were…
Blood Blister
I was in a social bubble with a vampire. His name was--is--William Sadler. No European Count, he. No ancestral castle lurking in the rain-shrouded mountains of Carpathia. Wills was an Essex vampire, though he'd moved away when the neighborhood got reputable, a century and a half…
Necronomiromcom
The Necronomiromcom: the book of dead romances, is, of course, a myth. It doesn't exist and, even if it did, you certainly wouldn't find the ancient tome buried three feet below a locked filing cabinet in the basement of a Soho antiquarian. If you did happen to stumble across…
The Pamphlets Say
The pamphlets say you are not human. That you are a care robot, designed to look after me while I go through chemotherapy, alone. The pamphlets warn you have no emotions, that you are merely a good mimic. They say I should be clear in my instructions. That if I don't like…
The History of the World in Four Sentences
"The history of the world?" the old man growled, his ruined teeth a horror show in what little moonlight filtered through the dense leaves and branches above. "What'dya want that old chestnut of a story for?" The child--the last born human, though neither she nor the old man nor…
A Dragon, Sat
"You traveling the Arkhan road?" the giant crowding my table asks as I move aside to make way for his tree-trunk thighs. As big as he is, his clothes are bigger. They hang loose everywhere except his expanse of belly; clothes made for muscles once even more impressive. This is a…
All Our Futures
All our futures arrived at once. Through a scorched sky, Morlocks flew anti-grav jetpacks above the ruins of a nanotech Statue of Liberty, aggressively buzzing the Apes, who returned potshots from phasers and plasma rifles as holographic adverts extolled the benefits of moving…
Welcome
They saw our message and so they came. Across the City, perfectly synchronized with the end of the Queen's Speech, doorbells chimed, knockers... knocked, and letterboxes flapped. Afterwards, it was clear that not every home had received the Christmas Day visitors. Only those…
To Be a Hero
"So," the crone said, looking up at the tall, muscular man holding a stout cherry-wood pole, "You want to be a Hero, do you?" Her cackle was cut short as he shook his head and his wife stepped forward, a cloth covered bundle in her hands. "Wise woman," she said, tugging back the…