Review: Halfling’s Court
While much of modern fantasy makes use of similar tropes and settings, The Halfling’s Court by Danielle Ackley-McPhail takes fantasy to a new level: blending the familiar with the unexpected, timelessness with modernity and— believe it or not — faeries with a biker gang. Ackley-McPhail first introduced this world through two stories she wrote for collections she edited, Bad Ass Faeries 1 and 2. Even though those collections focused on revisiting the mythological world of faeries, her stories stood out for their fresh perspective. She has clearly done her research into the biker...
Read MoreCat Stanley Final Photographs
Show poster mock-ups of missing adventures Final Photographs is from the series SHADOWMASTER: Traveling Medicine Show presents Dr. Mysterium, the faith healer SHE, adventuress Cat Stanley, with performer Dman Dread and Sideshow Kids. The series entertains the human feeling that someone else is there, a numinous view. More at http://www.ceceliachapman.com/video.html Wild Transitions...
Read MoreOuter Lands – 1915
John said so, even before we built our home in the Outer Lands neighborhood by the ocean — there would be nothing but wind. It gusted so hard, and often, the effect was comical at first. We’d laugh at the extremity we faced, so that I loved to say the word “wind.” Sometimes I’d sing it, whisper it, my breath blowing on my sister’s new baby’s cheeks. The big girls would dance crazy and free with me; we’d turn Ma’s living room into a field. That’s why they loved me. Called me Aunt Wind. I was not long past child yet, my legs a gust...
Read MorePancakes Cure Cancer
“What are you doing to that poor cat?” I parked my doctor’s bag next to Nida’s briefcase. Curled at the table, my wife tucked old Bella’s forepaw into her fragrant teacup. “Give me a kiss, Aloysius. I’m bathing her infected claw with chamomile tea.” “Why don’t you take her to the vet?” I pecked Nida’s bony nose. “She’d waddle away if she didn’t like this.” “Couldn’t get far.” Our two crammed rooms abut an intake to the Queensboro Bridge. Lead-lined curtains and roaring air conditioners hide the traffic, but our living room unit drips into a bowl: tick,...
Read MoreFaces in Odd Places
I thought I saw John Lennon peering from behind a palm frond on a Hawaiian shirt once. I’d been rummaging through a table of men’s clothing at the Millwood Church’s annual bazaar. His bespectacled, contemplative face seemed so clear for that instant, but when I looked closer, it was only part of the overall busy, splashy pattern. I didn’t buy the shirt, but I would have if I hadn’t been mistaken about the face. It’s funny how we look for faces in inanimate places. One of the marbled floor tiles in front of my refrigerator camouflages a distinctly overweight...
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