Coffee Robot
Reading Time: 4 minutesOne million, two hundred-thousand seconds later, the reporter from the Tribune sips his coffee and raises his hand. “I just don’t see how people can be expected to trust you after an incident like this.”
Humor
How Chaac the Rain God Moved to Venice and Became a Glutton-Free Vegan
Reading Time: 8 minutesWhen ancient Mexican gods visit Venice Beach, America gets a change of dirt.
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Snoogle Hunt
Reading Time: 4 minutes“Path!” Glinda paused so abruptly the six foot necromancer slammed into her, tangling himself in the wild frizz of her white hair. Glinda waved a white diamante-studded glove at the waist-high grass. “This is hardly a path, Snark. This is a swamp!”
The Fool’s Fiddle
Reading Time: 18 minutesDragons can’t lie, right? That’s what the legends say. So, when Guy finds himself at the wrong end of a failed heist, he puts that knowledge to the test. Compatriots dead. Hope gone. And his last chance at life is convincing a dragon to let him go.
Confederate Cavalry on a Plane
Reading Time: 15 minutesA physics professor and his student on a plane argue about the possibility of infinite alternate universes, while being robbed blind by a bratty kid. The professor bets the student that even the most unlikely event possible must happen, leading to three very confused Confederate Cavalry charging down the aisle.
Talent & Culture
Reading Time: 4 minutesA distant relation is bequeathed to someone whose tenuous employment on the outskirts of humanity makes him a less than ideal custodian.
Affordable Resurrection
Reading Time: 6 minutesLightly amusing modern-feel fantasy mashup about an unlikely partnership between a budget-price necromancer and his student locked in an unusual business model.
Counterfeit
Reading Time: 4 minutesA quick collision of rich space junk collectors, and an expert counterfeiter.
Forever 51
Reading Time: 12 minutesNovel excerpt: Veronica is eternally fifty-one years old with a proclivity for problematic drinking. Like most hormonally-challenged women negotiating the change of life, she is a hot mess. To retain her sanity, she attends weekly AA meetings and adheres to a strict diet of organic, locally-sourced, (mostly) cruelty-free human blood from the hospice facility where she works.
333 Years
Reading Time: 4 minutesHere we have an unexpected intersection of past and present when Fate takes a hand to switch things up.
Nuked
Reading Time: 8 minutesWhen a dead scientist calls a city paper to report a nuclear accident, the night reporter goes out to investigate. What he finds is completely alien.
Neighbors
Reading Time: 4 minutesBeing neighborly isn’t always easy. Morgred has to hold her tongue while her daughter makes other plans.
Magic Makes Fools of Us All
Reading Time: 4 minutesAn unusual family plots a summer camping trip that will satiate their blood-lust. It doesn’t go entirely as planned.
The Update
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen an almost heavenly woman, Sister Mary, dies she expects she’ll go straight to heaven. But the stranger who shows up for her soul has a trick up his cell phone.
I Like To Be Hit
Reading Time: 5 minutes A sentient golf ball that likes to be hit is willing to do what it must to ensure it is on the receiving end of long drives.
Pantsed
Reading Time: 10 minutesKatia hopes to have a pleasant time with Ben, but when it turns out he hasn’t heard a thing she’s told him about herself, she decides to put her programming skills to good use.
Revelations
Reading Time: 5 minutes“Everyone looks to the sky with mixed feelings, some welcoming of the arrival of Others, some dreading it. How we behave in that moment of revelation will speak volumes to those who need merely wait and watch, to know all they need to—about us.”
Occupational Hazards or The Quite Curious Tale of Astridr Grimsdottir
Reading Time: 5 minutesWorking to a deadline can sometimes lead to astonishing conversations, even revelations. Does the artist dictate the art? Or the art the artist?
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Vonnegut’s The Big Trip Up Yonder Casts Hilarious Fun at Generation Gap
Reading Time: 13 minutesThis tale is an excellent example of Vonnegut’s grasp of the hilarious and sometimes macabre nature of humanity.
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Smith’s Helpfully Yours Blends Humor and Culture Clash
Reading Time: 48 minutesDifferent cultures hold different values. The laws and customs of a foreign land can feel downright alien.
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Kuttner’s Ego Machine Takes a Playful Look at AI and the Human Brain
Reading Time: 14 minutesWith public companies creating direct computer-brain interfaces, and the augmentation of human consciousness with AI just around the corner, the core theme of this story hits home in modern times.
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