Stories

Five flash fictions published in Gargoyle

The latest issue of Washington, DC, based literary magazine Gargoyle, number 74, was recently released in print only format. A massive tome at over 450 pages, it includes nonfiction, poetry and fiction by: Kelli Allen, Roberta Allen, Robert R Angell, Cynthia Atkins, Naomi Ayala, Anne Becker, Nina Bennett, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Joanna Biggar, John Bradley, Nick Carbo, Joan Colby, Andy Darlington, Kiki Denis, Buck Downs, Barbara Drake, Patricia Eakins, Dyane Fancey, Richard Flynn, DJ Gaskin, Robert L. Giron, Gabriele Glang, Jesse Glass, Regan Good, Pamela Gordon, Susan Gubernat, Robert Head, Joyce L. Huff, Beth Baruch Joselow, Ken Kakareka, John Kinsella, Roz Kuehn, Patrick Lawler, Willard Manus, Dora E. McQuaid, Nancy Mercado, Gary Metras, Gloria Mindock, Mary B. Moore, Mary Morris, Mihaela Moscaliuc, Fred Muratori, Emile Nelligan, Kathleen Novak, Mary Overton, Che Parker, Meg Pokrass, Suzanne S. Rancourt, Suzanne Rhodenbaugh, Jonathan K. Rice, Jeff Richards, Julia Slavin, Todd Swift, Eleanor Ross Taylor, JC Todd, Pat Valdata, Michael Waters, Tom Whalen, Rosemary Winslow, and tons more.

I’m pleased to be included in this issue with five very short stories. Perhaps you could call them “flash fictions”: “Air,” “Good Sign,” “Guessing Games,” “Lingering,” and “Normal.” The images are integral to each work, although the texts may or may not be related.

Although there doesn’t seem to be an announcement for this issue on the magazine’s website, you could purchase a copy on Amazon.

Cover of Gargoyle 74

For some reason, the story “Normal” is entitled “Unknown” in print!

Science fiction story “Ol’ Rocking Chair’s Got You” published in The Chamber
Picture from The Chamber’s Facebook post for the story.

If you’re wondering what a grandmother sitting in a rocking chair has to do with science fiction, you’ll need to read my short story, “Ol’ Rocking Chair’s Got You,” which appeared yesterday in online dark fiction magazine The Chamber. The grandmother and her chair reside in the future on a distant exoplanet. The chair is a caregiving robot; and its care is not what it seems at the outset. You can read the full story here. The magazine releases a new issue every week, so if you are a fan of dark fiction, you may want to check it out.

My story “The Robot Shell” published in The Chamber magazine

The Chamber is an online magazine of contemporary dark fiction and poetry, with new issues release weekly. Yesterday’s issue included my story “The Robot Shell,” billed as “cyberpunk horror.” The story is set in a near future world where robot police control a population that lives mostly in vast slums. The heroine, Giga, ends up in jail after destroying one of the robots, where she meets her dissident hero and discovers the truth about the police. You can read it here.

Floral Float Flume excerpt published in Var(2x)

Var (2x) is an online literary journal by the makers of X-Peri reserved for the most extreme literary experiments. I’m pleased to have (finally) made the cut with an excerpt from Floral Float Flume: Flue Flit Flip, a novel about AI units engaged in a series of marketplace transactions. This selection comprises about 18 pages, or the first four episodes out of ten. The whole story runs 70 manuscript pages.

The vocabulary of the piece is severely limited to words beginning with “fl-“. What you see is not a random selection of words but a precise narrative with specific meaning and syntax. Four letter words are operations; five letter words are objects. To start with, “Floral Float Flume” is the name of one of the transactional AI units, and “flue flit flip” translates as “enter offer profit,” a kind of “vini vidi vici” for transactional AIs.

If you dare, you can read the selection here.

“The Spider That Laughed at the Sea” short story published in Danse Macabre du Jour

spider laughed danse macabre

Danse Macabre du Jour posts dark and atmospheric fiction and poetry on a daily basis as an adjunct to the periodical Danse Macabre. I’m very pleased that my short science fiction story “The Spider That Laughed at the Sea” appeared today. You can read it here.

In the story, a dysfunctional family lands on an unfamiliar planet, hoping to find a suitable place to set up a home. Their search for food leads them to a a cluster of giant spiders on the beach of a milk white sea. Lured by the temporary paradise they find there, the family becomes part of their new world.

DM du jour-spider

“Pussy Pulls the Trigger” published in Danse Macabre

danse macabre 119

Online literary journal Danse Macabre, “a magazine of the imaginative, the magical, the ethereal, the supernatural, the dark, the absurd, and  the unknown,” released Issue 119 “Les Etrennes” today. The works of the authors you see above are joined by one of my Doom Pussy stories. A violent rant from a Kali-like figure at war with mankind, “Pussy Pulls the Trigger” should come with one of those NSFW warnings, as it is intended only for a mature audience with strong constitutions and a taste for extreme, transgressive literature. Anyway, you can read the full text here.

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“Old MacDonald Had an Ichesthaet” short story published in Former Cactus

former cactus 14

Online literary journal Former Cactus published their final issue, #14, on Dec 1. It includes a wide range of poetry and flash fiction. Among the works is my short science fiction story “Old MacDonald Had an Ichesthaet.” It’s set on a future earth where all surviving humans exist in deep freeze. One man is revived to advise the lead scientist conducting an archeological dig to learn the secrets of Earth’s past. The alien scientist  has found something that he expected, but it comes as a shock to his human consultant. You can read the story here.

ichesthaet-cactus 14

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Short story “Pussy on the Mark” published at Scum Gentry

scum gentry pussy mark

One of my short stories featuring the Doom Pussy appeared yesterday in online in outlaw literary journal The Scum Gentry. Upon accepting it, the editor remarked on its “strong Burroughsean flavor and blatantly trangressive and demented tone,” which I thought nailed it pretty well. He summarized it this way: “Pussy, Doom and Smash lay waste to their world in this experimental psychosexual sci-fi riff.” Needless to say, this involves strong language that is NSFW and for mature audiences only. Read at your own risk here.

pussy mark story

“Love in Space” published at Horror Sleaze Trash

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Online literature and underground culture journal Horror Sleaze Trash published my science fiction story “Love in Space” today. This is one of a few pieces featuring the character Jean Savage. This one should come with some kind of trigger warning for the extreme sexual situations, but there is a deeper literary purpose. You can read it here.

It’s kind of funny how the editor dug up that photo from an Internet search. One never knows the things that are floating around out there.

SF story “Ceramic Eyes” published in Danse Macabre

DM-114

Danse Macabre issue 114, aka “Venusberg” was released last night. It includes my short story “Ceramic Eyes,” mostly science fiction with some weird horror elements. In it, a young woman investigating missing cats finds–and loses–much more than she expected.

You can read it here.

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