The sisters stared into the flames, fingers clasped around their matching glass pendants, threaded with small beads of different smoky hues. Mina’s pale blue, and Winnie’s pink. The colours reflected firelight, sending patterns dancing over their skin. Behind them, Penny and Edith strung together branches and felled palm leaves to form a shelter large enough…
The Tale Writes Itself by Lawrence Berry
One of the things I did for fun in 2018 was put together Monstrous Friends, a series of interviews with well-known horror writers. In pursuing an interview with Stephen Graham Jones on writing and submitting short stories to current markets, he advised throwing out the first four ideas before carefully weighing the originality of ideas…
An IN THE AIR Excerpt: “Then You May Hear My Whisper: by Brendan Foley
My name was Cornelius Stack, and I have been lost to the wind for over a hundred years. Or so I think. I suppose I was once like you. I can remember the feel of skin, of my fingertips as they brushed against pieces of paper, played against the bark of a tree. I can…
An IN THE AIR Excerpt: “Abra” by Lawrence Berry
Abra slips out a doorway webbed with shadows and walks down Ninth Street, kicking at rain-dimpled puddles of water, the air around him roaring with the steady cadence of the rainstorm. Street lamps gleam above the worn cement like demon’s eyes, seeming to bend and examine Abra’s soul. Twilight is an hour away, but an…
An IN THE AIR Excerpt: “Aeolian Variations” by Robert Walton
We stepped onto his apartment’s balcony. Like most Upper L.A. apartments, Felix’s balcony had no railings. We admired the unimpeded view for a moment. Then, Felix stepped over the edge. The building was on the job, of course, and instantly provided him with an energy path that looped over to connect to the nearest permanent…
An IN THE AIR Excerpt: “The Fictionals” by Shaun Avery
Not to do so something silly, you understand—I was still mostly loving life, saw no reason to end it. No, just to be wild and reckless and crazy and shave my face in a jacuzzi, just because it was something I’d never done before. But it wasn’t so wise a move, as I got too…
Tim Jeffreys, an IN THE AIR Author Interview
On the verge of a new anthology, we are celebrating IN THE AIR with a behind the scenes view of authors and their stories. Here’s a look at Tim Jeffreys and his story “The Birdman of Bishopsbourne.” ABOUT THE STORY Tell me a little about your story and the world you’ve created. The story is…
An IN THE AIR Excerpt: “The Treasure of the Wind-Walker” by Bryan Dyke
The sea around him turned choppy. The palm trees convulsed. The shallows blossomed with odd waterspouts and turbulence. Even closer, an unnatural twister formed across the beach dunes and rushed toward him and his claim, the air charged and alive. Within the tumult, the outline of a human figure formed: tall and muscled, garbed with a…
Blake Jessop, an IN THE AIR Author Interview
On the verge of a new anthology, we are celebrating IN THE AIR with a behind the scenes view of authors and their stories. Here’s a look at Blake Jessop and his story “A Funeral for Crows.” ABOUT THE STORY Tell me a little about your story and the world you’ve created. “A Funeral for…
An IN THE AIR Excerpt: “Float” by Alex Zalben
As the wind whipped and pulled at Laney’s hair, she paused on the last snap. If she did this—really did this—that was it. She was gone, forever. But honestly, who would care? Her heart pounded, blood rushing over the wind in the park. Do it, she willed herself. You coward. Was this cowardice, though? Giving…
An IN THE AIR Excerpt: “Burke’s Mission” by Victor Hawk
He gave himself back over to the mechanical work of bicycling. Put enough leg effort into something, you don’t have the glycogen available for putting thoughts together. The sun rolled across the blue backdrop. “Posted. No trespassers.” Throop had put in a new cattle guard. Treacherous things on a road bike. Hickey had once caught…
Darkening Air by DJ Tyrer
It’s in me. I can feel it in me as I drive down the darkening highway. It’s in me – and, it wants to get out. Growling, howling, demanding me to let it free. I can feel the ripple of it beneath my skin. It wants to get out. I wince. My head hurts. My…
