“A Pretty Parcel for a Pretty Price” – A Short Story by A.R. Frederiksen
The parcel is wrapped like a gift, but I know better. It sits on my doorstep, with my name on it, and I want to kick it. A parcel means only one thing these days…
Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Author: L. Marie Wood on Ira Levin
L. Marie Wood is a Golden Stake Award- and two-time Bookfest Award-winning, Ignyte Award and two-time Bram Stoker Award® nominated author. She is also a MICO Award-winning screenwriter, a Rhysling nominated poet, and accomplished essayist. She is also the Vice President of the Horror Writers Association, founder of the Speculative Fiction Academy, an English/Creative Writing professor, and a horror scholar…
“The Chair in the Basement” – A Short Story by Kathleen Palm
I’m going back. The car bounces and skids on the long, forgotten road. The dim light from the radio creeps over the worn gray seats of my worn gray car. Static crackles and spits from the speakers, the noise mimicking the constant din in my head, like a station in my mind that keeps searching for what’s missing. But I know what’s missing…
Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Author: Stephen Graham Jones on Philip K. Dick
This month, it was my absolute pleasure to speak with author Stephen Graham Jones. He’s the New York Times bestselling author of some thirty novels and collections…
“Retirement Party” – A Short Story by Lyndsey Croal
At seventy-seven, Hank Arthurs was Rivers Corp’s oldest retiree, a feat for any employee, never mind a manual labourer. To mark his years of service, the company threw a retirement party. There was cake, fizz, and a card signed by his colleagues—human and automated alike…
Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Author: Paula D. Ashe on Clive Barker
This month’s “Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Author” is the first time one of my interviewees has selected a still-living author as their favorite. It was an absolute honor to chat with Paula D. Ashe about one of horror’s living legends, a master of many forms of media, Clive Barker…
“Your Boundless Hunger” – A Short Story by Z.T. Bright
Your siblings did not see the need to assign themselves a gender as you did. Content with the steel, silicon, and carbon fiber weave of their new bodies, they had no need of such labels. But you were always different, weren’t you…
Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Author: Gwendolyn Kiste on Shirley Jackson
To round out the month of June, I got to chat with a modern queen of horror about one of the genre’s most legendary authors, one who truly broke new ground in the genre just as surely (heh) as she laid the groundwork for much of what we know and love in contemporary horror fiction…
“The Case of The Worm at the Silent Disco” – A Short Story by A.D. Sui
Yeah, this is exactly how I pictured my Sunday going. Ferris is dead at my feet. He’s missing the better part of his skull. His brain is making a Jackson Pollock across the wall to my right…
Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Author: Brian Evenson on Franz Kafka
This month, I had the pleasure with speaking with an author who’s received acclaim in literary and genre circles, demonstrating that crossover is possible between the worlds without the integrity of one being sacrificed for the other…
“Daily Dozen” – A Short Story by Myna Chang
William Burelle knew death was only moments away. The flu had settled into his lungs, his heart. He barely had enough strength to reach across the bed for his wife’s hand, seeking the comfort of her warmth. Meredith’s stiff fingers did not respond…
Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Author: Ai Jiang on Toni Morrison
The family tree of literature, especially speculative fiction, is a vast and many-branched one. With this interview series, I hope to speak with some of the top names—both established and upcoming—in the speculative fiction genres about the authors who have made an impact on them, whether as readers, writers, or both…
“And Contributions from Viewers Like You” – A Short Story by Patrick Barb
What if the end of the world happened years ago, decades even, but we missed it because we’d stopped paying attention? If any lifeform on Earth was stubborn enough to persist and persevere in the face of oblivion, I’d put my money on humankind. Sorry, cockroaches and tardigrades!
“While You Sleep” – A Short Story by Steve Rasnic Tem
While you sleep I will take one.
Did she hear those words, or did she think them? Olivia wasn’t sure…
“Flowers for Mommy” – A Short Story by Tanya Pell
Child-sized footprints snaked through the house from the backdoor. Red clay looked far too much like blood in certain lighting. Tabitha followed the footprints…