Topic
SF/Fantasy
There is some fiction that incorporates aspects of fantasy and science fiction but doesn't have that indescribable flavor that would make it clearly slipstream. Wizards on space ships, robots riding magic carpets, AIs on a quest to find unicorns.
First Dates and Other Action Items
On day 543 of the Great Crunch, I do something foolish: I arrange to meet Tara by the coffee machine, the most dangerous place in the entire office. It's too high-traffic, too exposed, too close to the glass door behind which the Boss lurks. Laugh too loud, look idle for a…
The Counter Poison Pigment
For all the many hues of death Cinna faced every day, today's task began with white. Cinna spread the powder out as evenly as she could. "Careful, that's dangerous stuff," her master said. "White lead." As if she didn't know. As if she hadn't scraped it herself from the equally…
The Forgotten Treaties of Wildfire and Feathers
Mountain fires are bound by ancient promises, sealed in ash and snowpack tears. But each fire is born before the ashes, before the snowmelt bears its memories down the mountain slopes, and so each fire must be reminded. At just the right time. I watched the newborn fire from my…
Songs of Bathsheba Evergreen
...wrap my heart in birch bark my skin scarred in black-and-white calligraphy... In spring, while wet snow still clings to my boughs and frost nips at my roots, a man in rags comes by to ask if he might cut me. The knife in his hand is small and in need of a whetstone. "Just a…
The Whole Of Me
***********Editor's Note: Triggering (themes of abuse)************ Mark is dead for three months when he starts contacting me. The texts come when I'm in the middle of something, half asleep, driving, a meeting at work. I feel the vibration in my pocket, know it's him. The texts…
Susurrus and Sapling
Petrichor stirred and pulled up their roots as the first rays of sunshine caressed their leaves. They sorted through their mycelial dreams. Most of the news gathered from the tangled network of roots and hyphae was minor. A fire burned, but it was well over the sunward horizon…
On the Disappearance of Dragons
There are numerous conflicting theories concerning the disappearance of dragons. These range from the drab (dragons never existed in the first place), to the staggeringly improbable (they constructed a time machine), to the romantic (the many variant explanations that dragons…
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…
Cures for Hiccups
1.Breathe: In. Out. 2. Breathe backwards: Out. In. 3. Retrieve a loved one from the underworld. But this time: Don't look back. 4. Retrieve a loved one from the underworld. But this time, really--really, really--don't look back. 5. Don't look back! 6. Rip out your throat,…
The Vanity of Zombie Publishing
First the Professor came back. "Well," he said, rotting tongue mangling the word, "it seems I now must believe in personal immortality, to compliment the one I might gain through my books." He was a celebrity, of course, now even more than before. What are 500 published works…
Where Have All the Mousies Gone
Does it matter what your last thoughts are when you die? If you could choose them--they would be hope, wouldn't they? A bright future. Waiting. Ready. And you're going to miss it, but wouldn't you rather die looking out on a shining expanse of golden sunlight, reflecting off…
Last Text
Mikala Godfrey receives the final texts that people send before they're murdered. She has a shrine for this in her house; a smartphone on a stand, from where she copies the texts into a series of identical leather notebooks. She calls this 'keeping witness.' She kneels before…
Seven Steps to Immortality
One: Seek I, Thaddeus Galway the IV, am immortal. I didn’t start out that way. I was mortal, human, like everyone else until my twenty-first year. Then I had a mortal moment and realized I was going to die; that I was going to cease to exist someday. From that moment on, I did…
A Guided Meditation for Pandemic Anxiety (As Approved by Our Lord Xanthalu)
*******Editor's Note: Triggering: For all of us.******* Welcome to the Pandemic. It's a stressful time, isn't it? But by participating in this guided meditation, you're already taking the first step for self-care. Congratulations. (Another form of self-care is worshipping Our…
Find Soulmates Near You
We all learned the rules growing up. Tape over your webcam so they can't see you. Don't click any links, no matter what tantalizing things they offer. Don't open packages delivered from the dark web (and if you did, never eat the food inside). Most importantly, never give your…
So You Want to Reach the Witch at the Edge of the Void
1. No, you don't. 2. Trust us on this. 3. Personal experience. 4. You're really going to insist on this? 5. Well, first, prepare to spend a lot of credits. And we do mean a lot of credits. "Enough money to buy a medium rank planet," was what we heard, and that turned out to be…
House Hunting
The house crouches among the tall oaks, nearly motionless amid the wild blackberry bushes. I shift my spear from my right hand to my left, palms sweaty. My eight-month-old fetal daughter aims her tiny foot against the side of my womb. I stifle my grunt of pain. We need this…
The Girl Without a Spacesuit
Outside the viewport of my spaceship, a young girl clung. Instead of a spacesuit, she wore a daisy-print shirt and blue shorts. She breathed, but how? We were in space. She should either be gasping for air or frozen solid. Instead she smiled, waved, and gestured towards the…
Toon Apocalypse
"You just take everything too seriously." Even now, two years later, those words still stung. Her therapist always said that if something hurt her that much, there must be some truth to it. How could it bother her so much otherwise? That angered her more than anything else--the…
The Dream Factory
"We have to stop him," Marguerite-2312A grumbles, looking up at the uniformed men chatting with Dr. Hyram on the upper deck of the Dream Factory. Dr. Hyram is moving his hands animatedly and smiling broadly. Down here on the factory floor, we can't hear their conversation. It's…
Unlucky Pennies
The stink of copper assaulted Esme as soon as she entered the house. It used to bother her, back when she first started in the business, but now she didn't even bat an eye. Instead she smiled at the couple that answered the door and allowed them to show her inside. She took out…
Before Us
Once there were no dragons. From Boston to San Francisco, the horizon was empty. Once, fires only happened when you started them. Once, houses were built only to weather time, never considering that a cloud was not a cloud. Once, they called us earthquakes. In the far off past,…
Hiring the New Staff
"We could try growing our own fingers and thumbs," suggested a shaggy marmalade tom, who styled himself as Aslan the Brave. Gloriana, the tabby queen, sneered at him, "That would mean we would have to do all the work of rebuilding." "Unacceptable," growled a grey wisp of a…
How to Submit
IMPORTANT We do not accept submissions of so called "cloned" soulsnips. Soulsnips cannot be cloned. The service you have bought has simply split the quality of the lived experience in two. You might not be able to tell the difference. We can. So don't waste your and our time.…
The Rarest of Prey
"Run," says the unicorn. "Please." Saiya caresses the soft muzzle, the spider-silk mane, breathes the dizzying scents of honeysuckle and musk. "You are a miracle." "I am a trap," it whispers. Obedient to its nature, it lays its head in the maiden's lap. Saiya falls half-asleep…
Goblins
Goblins. At the time, it must have seemed such an elegant solution. On the one hand, much of the underdeveloped world was in a constant and losing battle with starvation. On the other, the developed world was producing plastic waste at a truly staggering rate. The landfills were…
The Best Horses Are Found in the Sea, and Other Horse Tales to Emerge Since the Rise
The residents of Morro greeted me with understandable hesitance. My clothes and accent marked me as a traveler from distant Tehachapi, and saying that I came from the university in search of horse stories made me even more suspect. City denizens rarely ventured this deep into…
Where They Went
No one knew where they went. They could have gone into the river, perhaps, to cascade among banks that never charged interest. Maybe they went to another world, to float free and feel the morning dew from methane clouds. Perhaps they became dark matter, flipping and flopping…
I Am Not Charlotte
Birth order determines so much of life, and I was first from the egg. Certainly, mother loved us all equally. After all, she'd never met any of us. She tucked us in, wrapped in silk swaddling, and glued us to the back corner of the underside of an oak roll-top desk. We waited…
We Are Here to, in some Sense, Destroy You
We are tiny slugs the size of the tip of your pinkie, and we come in peace: all we want is to rent DVD copies of the final seasons of your fantastic historical documentary, Firefly, since the broadcast was interrupted when it reached us (and also the episodes were, we believe,…
Roster
My name is Corey Jones... My name is Ravyn Merlo... My name is Vanessa Mitchell... My name is Phillip Dorn... My name is Arthur Riley... My name is Trina Scotts... ... I'm just an average teenager... ... I'm not your average teenager... ...I've got a big secret... ...I wasn't…
Apologies
Hello Readers. A reader (and contributor) let us know that today's story was evidently plagiarized from another story published by another site on the internet. Please visit the Arcanist to read Ephemera by Avra Margariti. We are reaching out to both the Arcanist and to Avra…
Before Blindness
The man and his wife began speaking to one another in sign language. Neither had ever spoken this way before. And yet, suddenly, in the middle of an argument, they'd lost their ability to hear and started signing as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I can't believe…
The Raleigh Temple of Artemis
The Raleigh Temple of Artemis closes at midnight. It's 11:52. The altar sweeper, a plump, snake-haired girl in a UNC Chapel Hill sweatshirt, glances at me as she Windexes the statue of Lady Artemis in the center of the pavilion. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting," I say, suddenly…
Memoirs of an Intergalactic Thespian, Chapter XI: No Holds Bard
"But if we're not allowed to speak the name of the play, how on Earth are we to advertise it?" one of my Players enquired. "It is between actors the name must not be mentioned!" I explained. "That's a tad difficult since the principal character is called Macbeth. And there's an…
All She Could Afford
Today was her seventh birthday, and today she would receive her first emotion. She held as tightly onto that fact as she held onto the aluminum box. In fact, she gripped it so fiercely her hands shook. Her mother had told her not to lose it; it was a hand-me-down, which she…
Ashes to Ashes
The tracks on her cheeks could be rain. Shanylla would not cry, not this time. She watched with an icy heart as the flames licked the tiny body. The shroud caught easily, and yellow fire enveloped the empty, fever-ravaged shell of her daughter. The sonorous humming of the…
Crimson Skies
Dragons flew along the skyline. Their crimson scales reflected off the towering buildings of the city washing the streets below in red. The sun festival was my favorite event of the year. Thousands filled the streets to watch the dragons fly, others lined up to eat at the myriad…
The Flight of Francie
Here's the ending I'd like to tell you: In every heroine's journey, a moment comes when, despite all fears and doubts, she must make a leap of faith. High atop the Memorial Arch, Francine stepped from the shadow of a winged statue to the observation deck's ledge. Through my…
Ghosts
The second ghost I met called himself Pedro Sinclair. He lived under a flyover between Junction 1 of the North Circular, and the office supplies wholesaler at Staples Corner. He had built himself a home of scaffolding and tarpaulin which cast geometric shadows in the setting…
Touch
Noon sun. Busted streetlamps and rusted shutters. Graffiti in layers of peeling paint. Brick walls and stalls of the Newtown Bazaar. The press of the crowd. Mad Hour, we call it, and rightly so: who would enter the marketplace with so many people about, each one a potential…
A Wedding Gown of Autumn Leaves
The day before my wedding, my dress is a pile of birch leaves. I sort through them and pluck out all the worms and bugs. The leaves are vibrant yellow and orange, fresh from the tree and still pliable enough to sew. Birch is a symbol of beginnings, a good choice for weddings. I…
Yona's Android
"Tell me again about the dragons." Yona's android stands at the edge of the dome, pressing her hand against the glass wall and looking out into the wastelands of the asteroid. "I have told you about the dragons, Ha-yoon. Come away from there," Minji says. Irrationally, she wants…
Godfall
With the launch of Earth's first inter-nebula craft, we thought we were finally solving the mystery of dark matter. Instead, out among the clouds of the Helix Nebula, we found the gods. Frozen in rigor mortis, grimaces of pain on each of their faces. Some we recognized…
The Earth Looks Different from Here
I hummed classic David Bowie lyrics and looked out the cupola. It always struck me how different Earth looked from the space station--magnificent, of course but somehow fragile and strange, too. I drifted alone down the corridor in zero g. The sun set every ninety minutes, but…
One Magic Minute
No one knows how it happened. Science, religion, and light entertainment all failed to explain it. Soon, no one cared how it had happened. The world could get used to changes in reality with obscene haste, quickly, turning the astounding into tomorrow's mundane. Society dressed…
Classified Selections
Little Space With Lots To Offer www.classifiedtwits.com RECYCLED U-Build-It Monster Kit. Some pieces missing. Doomsday Machine for sale. Used once. General Disaster Raygun. Needs power pack. Master disaster plan. Needs some revisions. Cerebral Cyber Interface adaptor. Software…
The Ballad of the Toothpick, Yes it exists!
Ellis Horsback, in his book "The Decline of Logic in Fantasy," devotes a whole chapter to the omission from this imaginative literary genre of the subject of toothpicks, their use and their origin. How is it possible, he asks, in a narration so rich with feasts and meat…
Breath
I never knew I could hold my breath for so long. But every time I heard the door open, every time the footsteps came towards me, time felt slower. The footsteps took longer to hit the floor, and my breath took twice as much time to go in and out of my lungs. I didn't want to…
We Do Not Know What Happened to the Children
The rats, we know. We drowned them in nets in the river, and now our town is paved with bones. Thighbones, rib bones, vertebrae, fibulas. Even finger bones. Rat fingers look remarkably like human ones when stripped down past the skin. We ate them, then we used them to decorate…
So You've Been Hired to Work at the Sorcerous Supercollider
Congratulations! You are one of a select group of graduates chosen to plumb the deepest secrets of the magical force. You will be working with some of the top experimental researchers in modern magic, and we pride ourselves on offering a stimulating and creative professional…
The Dressing Room
The ancient mouse slouched in front of the dressing room mirror, haunted by his reflection. His great black ears drooped; his body was a burden. It hadn't always been like this. In the early days, the work had been fun. He had reveled in the creative thrill of making something…
Dance Like Nobody's Watching; Love Like You Know It Will Last
No one but us thought we'd work out. You with your ley-lines and feng shui; me with my PhD in astrobiology and the weekly column blasting non-skeptics. I found you in the comments section. I'd argued that anyone who discouraged planetary settlements outside our galaxy was…
Time and Time Again
"Smoke break?" My co-worker Paul leaned back in his chair to peer around the side of the wall separating our two cubicles. "You said you were quitting," I said, pretending to focus on my monitor even as my adrenaline spiked at the thought. "Not cold turkey," Paul countered. My…
The Ripe Stuff
Everyone knows that the moon is crawling with bacteria, which give it that ripe, green sheen so admired in our night's sky. The moon is pockmarked with impact craters and bubbles of carbon dioxide gas, which give it that distinctive, hole-riddled look so beloved of the poet and…
The DSF Rejection Ceremony
"Worthy author Benjamin... we thank you for your contribution to our cause." The words were almost too much for the editor to speak; as the silver casket rolled into the airlock, he paused and lowered his eyes, readying himself for the next solemn line. "Your creation,…
The Paper Dragon
Near the end of the war, my sixth grade teacher took me and some of my classmates hiking on Mount Diablo, and we found a black origami dragon in a dry pine thicket. It was bigger than my father's P-51 Mustang. Or had been. Its wings hung in tatters from the trees. Saplings and…
Since We've No Place to Go
Secret Santa bursts into the War Room with a snarl, cheeks bright red, eyes shooting a look that says he's checked his list twice and some motherfucker is going to pay. "I want everything we have on the Seattle Seven," Santa says. "On the big board. Now." The team scrambles to…
Ghosts of Mars
At the end of a long, slow journey across space, the expedition finally arrived at Mars. The great copper disk hung below the mothership, ominous, enticing. The lander detached from the mothership, leaving only Pasternak behind to mind the store; he had drawn the short straw and…
President Monster
We elected it, so we had only ourselves to blame. Even though it was a monster--everyone knew that since movies had been made about the devastation it caused in the past and would cause again--we sat it down in the White House and set advisors at its feet like hors d'oeuvres.…
Seeking the Great Current
"You're going the wrong way!" The ghost of the dead girl stamps the boat's deck. With long, measured strokes, the morguist pulls the oars, taking solace in the gentle splash sparkle of the moonlit ocean. An S-shaped-hook in brass, pointed at the tip, swings like a pendulum from…
The Day the Moon Caught Fire
One day the Moon caught fire. Scientists insisted that an accumulation of hydrocarbons and industrial chemicals was to blame, but the popular feeling was that this was a left-wing conspiracy. Moonlit nights were red now, not silver, lending a more sordid tone to rustic midnight…
Grey
The sky was gray like an old man's beard as the snow started to drift down into the forest. Drahk wished his eyes were the same color as the sky's, but his eyes were darker, that of storm clouds right before lightning flashes overhead. Scoffing at his own existence, he plopped…
Afterhours at the Eversure Insurance Company
Maria wondered how her employer could afford to replace his skin as often as he did. He looked more like an intern than the vice president of the Eversure Insurance Company. But then Mister Bakewell possessed all the accoutrements befitting his standing in the gerontocracy. He…
The Hidden Plague
From the desk of Cornelious Jameson Eldrich the Third, Emeritus Wizard, Third Class. Dear Sirs and Madams, In my studies of worldly phenomena, the varieties of magical forms out there have never ceased to amaze and delight me. That is, true magical phenomena, of course. What I…
The Eternal Army
I'm always the first pulled from the blessed Elysian Fields, leaving behind the peace and comfort of the afterlife to wear a mortal body again. Well, the semblance of one, pulled from whatever dust or rocks are handy. My own body rotted away millennia ago. I could smell a hint…
The Sinner
May the gods forgive me, for I must have sinned. It began six months ago when I broke out in great welts all over my body. Every pore of my skin was on fire. This wretched condition finally subsided, but then the skin started peeling off my hands and the soles of my feet. When I…
A Hero, I Am
I am a hero. Heroes are brave, selfless, and kind. They never skip the village's weekly archery practice or fight with their father about it while they're supposed to be quietly stalking deer. They don't freeze when the bandits come pouring into the clearing, don't run and hide…
Qibla
Arif stood beside Lisa in the middle of the huge, holographic Milky Way that dominated the flight deck, his prayer mat tucked under his right shoulder. "I appreciate your help, as always, Lieutenant Newsom," he said. Her smile was warm despite the icy blue light illuminating it.…
We Did Not Believe
We did not believe in freedom. And so when the end came, it was truly an end. The screens went blank. The machines glided to a halt. The voices stopped.We were bereft. The wail of our voices filled our dying city. We performed the gestures and rituals so seldom used, praying…
A Balloon Ride
It was a Monday morning, and I was already late for work. Hurriedly, I shuffled into my coat, and took my hat off the rack. It was an overcast day, which meant there would be huge traffic in the stratosphere, up above. I tied my yellow balloon to my hat, and off I flew. "I'm…
A Big Question
Insecurities, angst, and confusion--the kids have it all. That's why the University had me. Ty, my next appointment, was supposedly very special. Aren't they all? The brightest ones seemed to get younger every year. The file said the kid had severe adjustment issues. As he slid…
Empath
I could feel his warmth the day we met. I fell in love with the glowing feeling that grew in my chest when I looked into his eyes. I fell in love with the way he loved me--I could feel the adoration, the excitement, the joy he felt when we were together. I could feel his love…
The Things You Do When the War Breaks Out
Your stomach does this funny lift, when they activate the anti-grav. Nothing crazy, like you'd get if you were on a roller coaster, but my dad, he was never a roller-coaster guy. He had it in his head that the train was going to crash, clutched the armrests with both hands and…
For The Things We Never Said
She fits the god's heart, blood dripping gold onto shaking fingers, into the compartment she'd sawed into her golem. It spasms and then slackens, turgid ventricles relaxing into stillness. Her breath catches against the roof of her mouth, pinned in place by a dry, chewed-on…
Exposure
She really did mean every picture. I picked up the closest photograph from the scattered pile and had a closer look. It took a few seconds to spot him amongst all the people, but my eye caught a shock of black hair near the upper right of the picture, and there he was. Late…
Medusa's Revenge
"She's planning something terrible," the old woman said for the fifth time since entering his office. Sergeant Percy smiled pleasantly at his visitor. His office was crammed with a dozen other items requiring his attention--a boxful of photos to be reviewed, paperwork from last…
Department of Truth
Emmett Wright had never told a lie. In the year 2230, employed with the Department of Truths, 20th Century Historical Accuracy and Time Travel Division, he needed to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Until this morning. He increased his hover-car's speed. An unfamiliar…
First Faces
I love October. That's when I can wear the mask and people ask the right kinds of questions, like who made it, where'd I get it, and what it's supposed to be. The answers vary according to my mood. I never tell the truth--an ancestor made it, it's come down from mother to oldest…
Galactic Weather Report
This Monday, the speed of light is expected to decrease by ninety percent. We've issued a travel warning and recommend that interstellar travel only commence if there are no other options. If necessary, please proceed through specially designated wormholes. Fortunately, gravity…
Dreamscapers Inc.
"Sarah!" Ah, let's see. According to the chart, it appears one of our clients, Mr. James A. Levitz, has just awakened. If you'll accompany me, we'll debrief Mr. Levitz together, acquainting you with the formalities of this magnificent and quite lucrative new science. Come along,…
Little Galaxies
I'd come to kill a god but she was not what I expected. Thousands of universes hung from her neck, each one a precious intaglio charm glittering like a gem. Her eyes mimicked them, lambent little galaxies that were nothing but an illusion. She lifted a charm and whispered,…
Congratulations on the Purchase of Your new Universe!
Congratulations on the purchase of your new universe! Your SingUlarityTM is the product of entirely natural universe-formation processes within the greater multiverse, and has been carefully handpicked to offer you a literally infinite range of possibilities! And thanks to our…
They Fell Like Comets
It's a sin to kill a lightning bug. Its guts will not turn a whiffle-ball bat into a light saber. Smearing its green butt on your face will not make you a fairy. We knew it was wrong in our hearts. But we did it anyway. That summer, they paid us ten dollars a jar to catch…
When Robot Mermaids Attack
When robot mermaids attack, you should flee. Go inland. When robot mermaids attack, don't pause to wonder why they're attacking. Don't stand on the beach gawking, orange Popsicle melting in your hand, as the ocean roils with metal fins. Don't ask who made the robot mermaids and…
Vincent's First Bass
"Go ahead," his father said. "Stand up." Vince was a Vanderpender ninth-grader, and he'd seen flat-bottomed punts in his art history courses. Not that he liked art history. He was a math boy, but he'd seen pictures of men fishing from boats like his dad's. They'd started rowing…
Iron Roses
Roses don't grow around New London any more. Cast-off trolleys, engines, scrap metal, and rusted airship frames press up against the city's edge, not trees. The Fraser River resembles a tongue of burnt milk licking the Pacific Ocean. This is the realm of the scrap-runners,…
St. Valentine's Day Mashup
On this day in February 2020, first contact was made with an alien kind. More specifically, a Volkswagen bug-sized flying saucer landed on a Little League baseball diamond, and Cupid stepped out; buck naked, pink bow and arrow clutched in his pudgy little hands; wearing an…
Marrakech Express
***Editor's Note: Adult language and situations.*** Marrakech Express hurdles its great bulk through stringspace. There is no speed in stringspace, but hopping as it does from one planet to the next and trading for a day or two at each, Marrakech Express could be called slow. It…
Worldbuilding
Bob shuffled into his editor's office with all the confidence of a cat venturing into a kennel. "Peter," he nodded. Peter waved him over. "Come in, come in. Have a seat." "I got your message," said Bob. "What's the bad news?" "Why do you presume it's bad news?" asked Peter.…
The Dollmaker's Grief
The silver doll sat quietly at the corner of 9th and Park, in front of the Ace Hardware. Jack Lattimer did not want to stop. In fact, Jack Lattimer saw the silver doll, looked away, and drove right past. If he could unsee the doll, he would. But he couldn't, and so he spent all…
The Wheel of Fortune
Skull: When your last breath issues out, it will be with thanks. Thanks that you are not bedridden with combat injuries or nerve damage. Thanks that you are not interrogated at dagger-point over the whereabouts of your world's supply of silicon and chromium. But before this last…
Forgiving Dead
Her first customers of the day were teenagers, a brother and sister. Too young to remember the one they sought. Dolores kept the curtains drawn in her little shop, not for atmosphere, but for the privacy of her customers. From these two, however, she expected no tears, no…
Smaug, MD
Doctor Longtooth tapped at the x-ray images with a single gold-sheathed talon. A troubled series of clicks rattled at the back of his throat. Smoke dribbled from the corners of his mouth. "I am sorry, Mr. Callahan," his voice rumbled. "It is at stage four. And the tissue is…
The Lady Electric
There was a hole in the fabric of your favorite dress and the light seemed to bend around it. Light always favored you, softening or illuminating to give you an ethereal beauty at all times. I didn't say anything to you about the hole. I knew how angry you would be. I knew what…
Downsizing Pluto
Hades sat in his office, high atop his dark tower. He put the finishing touches on his black painted fingernails and held his hand up to the light to inspect his work. Perfect. The shade of black exactly matched his hair, his eyes, and his coordinating shirt and pants. Only his…
Electric Company
When my television died I grieved. It had been a faithful little TV, bringing life to the house for many years with its bright pictures and chatter. I'm something of a Luddite ordinarily, preferring non-interactive appliances, but TVs are special. It's been that way ever since…
Butterfly Shaped Objects
It was a gift, they said, that let her see the quiet, sun-drenched field as a rolling, primal sea. An artistic worldview that heralded great things and a bright future. The wild green grass and sudden bursts of flowers became breaking waves and tiny coral islands. She was only…
Barnaby: Or, As Luck Would Have It
22 September 1917 Dearest Janet-- I write to announce I have safely arrived in Paris, my zeppelin passing over the unfortunate disagreements in the Channel. I have been well received at L'H�tel des Vapeurs. I have had to tear myself from examining the most wonderful devices that…
The Thinning
Becky was in her kitchen, mixing up a batch of love potion, when the electric people knocked at her door. For weeks they had been working in her neighborhood, the engines of their trucks roaring and sputtering, brakes squeaking, voices of the men shouting away the early morning…
Mercury In Hand
They held mixed feelings about Dain on the ship. The respect came automatically: he was a Zero-rank, and that meant when he converted starlight into fuel for the Maiden's Crescent he lost nothing to entropy. On the other hand, he'd given up being a Generator to work as a…