Ephemera
“Get yer head outa yer ass, Boots!” Bowman yelled back at the youngster sleeping at the back of his wagon. “Time to earn your keep.” Boots jerked awake to a smattering of guffaws and low chuckles. She grinned back at the other gravediggers riding in the wagon. Wiping drool from
Perish the Thought
“If this boat hits one more swell, I swear I’ll hurl that slop they called breakfast back up on the deck.” Venus, AKA Captain Eyepatch’s, gravelly complaint dragged Terra back to the here and now. “Huh? “This,” Venus waggled her pinky, shaking ash loose from the tip of her cigar.
Shelter
Twilla’s Beast was hollow-bellied, the lumbering juggernaut, a comfy shelter built just for her. Light years away, amid a war waged in space, an enemy warhead had blown a gaping hole into the back of its head, leaving a gnarly mess of scorched metal, wires and tubes exposed. The damage
Witch and Spider
Whips of lightning cracked the dreary night’s fragile shell. The sea was a harridan, driving away what little warmth was left in the wind. The beastly sky rumbled. The earth trembled. The explosive boom of a star ship taking off ripped a hole into the distant horizon. The earth had
Kingdom of Lethe
“I’ve lost all my beautiful memories.” The woman who uttered those words perched on the edge of Nedra’s leather chair with all the grace of a Queen of Sheba. When she leaned forward tiny diamonds crested at the curves of her eyebrows making her over-large eyes seem abnormally bright, almost
Memento Mori
Ivy arrived on the ragged edge of a storm. It was wet, wild, and humid in the Myakka boonies. At first, she simply sat there in the borrowed red Corolla, watching the windshield wipers dance back and forth. After a few minutes, she killed the car’s headlights, then the engine.
Devious Machines
Ginger conjured a river. A cool, dark river. The bottoms of her feet tingled, slipping over smooth rock in the virtual riverbed. She lowered her body into the wetness. Frightened river fish darted between her legs. The chaotic chirping of birds resonated through the boughs of the trees blanketing her
Green Day
Debbie Dent wore pastel pink to work on the day the world went straight to hell. That morning she’d come by the coffee shop where I worked, batting her fake eyelashes and bragging about her lavish Bora Bora vacation with her stinking rich husband. I remember wondering who even goes
Bargaining
Beakman showed up at dawn. He didn’t knock or call out for Else. He just stood there at her door, silently waiting for her to notice him staring at her through the glass. He was an oddity. Else wasn’t sure what kind. The only form she’d ever seen him take
Tribute
Rasta man gone astray; the devout artist had adopted flesh for his canvas. Everything about him was dark, the curl of his brows, and even his countenance when he eased back and stood, studying his handiwork. The silent woman in the claw-toed tub sat leaning forward. The thick braid of
Vertigo
A quintet of scared birds makes a mad dash for the ragged cliff’s edge. They take to the sky, a flurry of frantic appendages. I, the usurper having stolen their dusky roost, crouch there gasping for air. The muscles in my legs are burning. I can almost hear that snap-snapping
Mermaid
Say the only dream you ever had was blue, a cool brilliance that engulfs everything in the universe. All you know of your place in the monochromatic everything is webbed feet, jewel fingers and a certain unnamable longing. You reach upward and out, straining to grasp the hazy glow of
Starchaser
Laila sets out across the galaxies in search of the ultimate trump card to help her to wrest control of the leviathan ship, Hegira from
Slumfairy
Hegira is a behemoth, home to thousands of alien races. The ship of legend is a powerhouse barreling across galaxies. Many seek to take control
In the Making
At first St. John didn’t know why she was there, in that brightly lit place. She was naked, laid out flat on her back on the freezing exam table like a corpse prepped for an autopsy. Her vision blurred and brightened, and blurred again. She blinked furiously trying to clear