In this issue:
The stunning
Queen of Swords
by cover artist
Tais Teng
guards the gates to this issue’s brave new worlds and words.
In ‘The Bicolour Spiral’ by
Matthew Hughes
, the ever-popular Erm Kaslo explores hostile planets, tracks treasure hunters, and seeks stolen fortune. Matt’s futuristic Sam Spade leaves no bloodstained stone unturned in this space opera of mystery and murder.
Life itself spirals with being and absence in ‘Watershakers’ by
Christi Nogle
and ‘The Birthday Party’ by
Melisa Gregorio
as children witness the ephemeral made real — and the real made memory.
And words themselves whirl and twirl — and crack open secrets — as poets
Patti Pangborn
and
Sarah Summerson
explore the hidden spaces of family life.
Mike Carson
, runner-up for the SiWC Storyteller Award, continues the exploration of memory and family in ‘Deep Water’, considering the limits of responsibility in fragile relationships.
Meanwhile,
Rina Piccolo
, in ‘Double Flush’, reminds us that being human sometimes just means looking out for number one.
It’s buyer beware in ‘Life4Sale’, an epistolary tale for the digital age by Raven Short Story Contest winner
Michael Donoghue
. And threads of desire and longing stitch lives together in ‘Dannemora Sewing Class’ by runner-up
MFC Feeley
.
Two historical heroines return as we rejoin Toinette — ‘La Bergere’ — at the gates of seventeenth-century Paris in part two of
The Shepherdess
by JM Landels, and Frankie Ray and her chum Connie brave the no-less-imposing gates of Monument Studios in part four of Mel Anastasiou’s
The Extra
Abandon the humdrum and enter these realms of wonder and adventure if you dare …