The Hivemind’s Royal Jelly | Diabolical Plots #97 | The figure seated on the other side of the plain metal table has a blank look on its face, like its creator gave up halfway through forming its features.

Fisher Witch | Pyre Magazine, Fall/Winter 2022 | Scarlet’s lover called her a witch the day he ended things, even though that wasn’t quite fair—she only knew the one spell.

The Dragon Queen of Mars | James Gunn’s Ad Astra #11 | Regan Drake’s inert body lay against the rust-orange rubble of Martian ground, her silver pressure suit glinting in the sun like a razor blade that had not yet oxidized.

Polydactylism | Tales from the Moonlit Path, Summer 2022 | Something big was coming down the line, some big change in Yusuf’s life.

Play Devil | Bourbon Penn #27 | From the curtained alcove behind the baptismal pool, Jessie could see the entire sanctuary where Pastor Ron was preaching to the congregation.

Freehold | Dark Matter Magazine, October 2021 | It was almost opening ceremony, and I was on corpse duty, dragging fresh dead from the funeral home…

Unnamed Government Agency | Bourbon Penn #21 | The three agents were created white for this assignment, given the ability to blend with and elicit help from the locals.

Triumph of the Skies | Kasma SF | It’s a big galaxy. There’s always a war going on in it somewhere.

Philemaphobia | Cast of Wonders 379 | “Amanda,” Mother said, as soon as she came in from school: “Amanda,” in that tone of voice that said she was so tired of being angry about this.

Leave Your Iron at the Door | Analog, May/June 2019 | Minnie Mirv, long-stepping, smooth-handling, slow-hand, quickdraw, she: got her pockets full of reaction mass, lighting off her rocket spinal-tap at ball-squishing g’s. | Notes

Polydactyl | Bourbon Penn #17 | Even running flat out, you know you will not make it to the broken-down, rusting shell of the school bus before she and he do what they do. 

Selections from the Wolfmonth Catalog of the Fairyland Regional Fürni Store | InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 64 | Klädskåp—made of the highest-quality particleboard. Takes you to a small, kind of rundown vacant lot where it’s always autumn and never Halloween. | Notes

Further Laws of Robotics | Nature Futures, June 13, 2018 | Inspector Warren’s job was to enforce the Further Laws of Robotics. | Notes

Sensorium | Bourbon Penn #15 | Instead of coins, because she had no allowance, Amelia dropped the shiniest pebbles she could find down the garden wishing well, standing on her toes to look over the stone wall and watch them disappear.

The Leftovers | The Colored Lens, Winter 2018 | “There’s more of them suicides on the TV,” Nancy hollers at me from the other room.

Such Were the Faces of the Living Creatures | Beneath Ceaseless Skies #245 | There are parts around here where the mercury hot springs absorb a goodly amount of background radiation and, being metal and all, ‘vaporate straight away into the air.

Smith | Andromeda Spaceways, Issue 69 | All of the lawmen in the state are massing on the street when the man comes around. Their guns in hand.

Falling in Love with Martians and Machines | Clarkesworld, Issue 135 | Audio | I can’t deny the thrill of the race circuit. I like being at his side as he balances on the edge of cryogenics and fireball.

Fresnel Day | Kasma SF | The man on the bandstand is nervous, you can see from here, and not just because that, in order to face the gathered crowd, he has his back to the open pit of a fully populated Dark Lair.

Wiseclock Revolution | TQR | omnia vanitas

Quiverfull | Bards and Sages Quarterly, January 2017 | The hospital eunuchs bring him back awake by adjusting the chemicals in his drip.

Deus Ex Parasitus | Perihelion, December 2016 | The job to cut out Creek’s brain is going perfectly well until it all goes completely wrong.

Jenny Cola | The Colored Lens: Spring 2016 | The vending machine in the science building sometimes glitched and coughed up two cans for the price of one, so I always made the walk across campus to it, even on the days I didn’t have bio classes.

Text Based | Kasma SF (originally published in Aoife’s Kiss) | You are alone in the dark. What do you do?

A Citizen’s Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven | Orthogonal: The War at Home | Max believes that Heaven and God are not real until people make them so, until people build them.

And Then There Were Infinite | New Myths, Issue 32 | Author Interview | “Do you ever feel like you’re standing with your finger in the dam of reality?”

Just Imagine | Passing Out Victorious | Jonathan, he says, where did this bucket of Legos come from?

The Printer Repairman | Kaleidotrope #13 | His shop is filled with enough chemicals to give you a contact high, vapors of ink and solvents that could make you see things, if you spent any amount of time in the backroom…

Sandcastles | Electric Spec, Vol. 5 Issue 4 | I see much from the roof of my house. I like to sit under the white awning that shades me, with a bottle of water, and look at the wonders of my city.

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