A Tour of Fort Helix
Bioengineering armies of killer mutants to fight the War against Evil is a growth industry in 28th Century Australia.
Short Stories
Reflections on a Loaf of Rye
Hansel and Gretel’s love of sweets began long before they met the witch in the woods.
Hotel De Mort
Most folks say death on the premises is bad for business. For Hotel de Mort, it’s life.
Morphing Man
A telemarketing firm is struggling to make a profit. A star top biller is hired to turn the business around, but he presents a greater face of horror than the sight of a shrinking bottom line.
The Way of Water
A woman stands two metres from a public paying water tap, dying of thirst in a water-scarce world rife with corporate/government corruption and global resource warfare.
The Inverness Soliloquies
Horror in an undersea refuge with an acrostic and deliberate reference to Shakespeare thrown in for good measure.
Metallosis
A post-apocalyptic story that mixes cyberpunk with biopunk. It conveys the message of maintaining your humanity while surrounded by so much technology (so much that it feels that you’re becoming a cyborg yourself).
Asexuals of the Cosmos, Unite!
A darkly humorous sci-fi tale of a federation of aliens on a cosmic mission to ‘a-sex’ civilizations throughout the universe, including Earth’s. After reading this piece, you will never think of UFO abduction stories in the same way again.
The Wedding Party
Finding lonely sanctuary in the woods the protagonist finds the only company he has is the waterlogged wedding party bobbing in the pond.
The Uryuom Plight
Trapped on a backward planet hundreds of light-years from home, a brave astronaut hides in plain sight among the resident aliens and laments the dying world he left behind.
Lightning Between Your Fingers
A sordid tale of vice and corruption takes shape as Knight-Sister Arlise Dun investigates the mysterious death of courtesan Emerei Dawson.
In the Shadow of the Stars
When exploring abandoned wrecks within the accretion disk of a black hole Rhea, a inexperienced girl living on the salvage ship Thanaku, discovers the impossible: the body of a female human, dormant within a 100-year old container. Nobody on the ships believes it should be revived but Rhea can’t help feeling kinship with this semi-mythical creature.
Leo
Meet Leo. Experiment, child, or monster? What makes him beautiful is that he is not human. He’s better.
Moira and Ellie
Jenna can’t wait to meet her imaginary friend–but her ghost turns out to have a closer connection to her family than she imagines.
Five Things to do on the Way to the Bottom of the Sea
Benefits and pitfalls of undersea tourism exposed!
A Mother Knows
After fertility reached an all time low, fertile women are inseminated in an effort to save humanity. While caring for her dying child, one mother takes measure to ensure she won’t have another baby.
A Last Word
An author must tell his three elderly leading characters that he is handing them over to someone else.
Heartsick
In a world where it is illegal to be unhealthy, a young doctor must choose between her heart and the career she’s fought so hard for…
Mmanwu Festival
Centred on the Igbo Mmanwu Festival, Chinaza’s words dance between the past and present, capturing the essence of family ties and spirituality of this time of year.
Honeybee and the Blot
An unusual rendezvous takes place in outer space. The synthetic creature known as Honeybee brings a young man’s soul to her lover, an entity called the Blot. Yet Honeybee begins to question her relationship with the Blot after it treats her poorly.
Sugar Plum Ghosts
A ballerina who’s always dreamed of the spotlight finds herself in the shadows when she makes a dangerous deal with a ghost.
Kill Your Darlings
What happens when meeting the star of your favorite childhood show and everything goes awry?
Neither Here Nor There
An exploration of that arcane quantum realm where one skids and slides between decision.
Never Gone
Gertrude haunts an office chair at night. But how to get rid of a slightly-annoying ghost?
The Tended Field of Eido Yamata
A Shingon Buddhist successfully accomplishes Sokushinbutsu, the practice self-mummification. Once achieved, however, what initially appears to be confirmation of that philosophy turns out to be something quite unexpected.
The Biggest Thing That Ever Happened to Johnny Breeze
First generation rock’n roll. The influence of way too many 60s sitcoms. Mix it into a drink and…is this story the drunk or hangover? Who knows – but I hope everyone loves it!
Not the Pizza Girl
In the battle of man’s stomach versus his immortal soul, the stomach wins every time.
The Heartless Boy
Tom might not have emotions but he has brains and creativity that go a long way managing timeless evil.
The Most Reasonable House in Faerie
A recent member of Faerie’s nouveau riche attempts to get his hands on an elusive status symbol but in the process gets a little more than he bargained for.
Retribution
Is having everything you have ever wanted or desired as good as it is supposed to be? What if it is more of a curse than a blessing?
The Finite Magic of Little Monsters
When Hanna gets her acceptance letter to magic school, she’s willing to risk everything, including her gift, to join the ranks of the Guild.