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Issue 163 Volume 16 June 2012

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Archives Editorial Serials and Long Fiction Poetry and Filk Music Short Stories Features Series

Editorial

Dan L. Hollifield

The Senior Editor's usual rants about whatever…


Serials and Long Fiction

The Treaty
Robert S. C. Cutler
The daughter of a U.S. senator, Mia Alexander has seen her fill of foreign policy meetings. On a warm day in July, Mia was introduced to a new type of treaty. An insidious race from the blackness of space had given the U. S. government what they had always wanted; all they had to do was pay. Now Mia and others like her had become mere commodities in the battle for world domination.

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Short Stories

A Single Kiss
Tina Anton
The man had kidnapped Jetta Lee at gunpoint because he knew that she could raise a demon from its skeletal remains…with a single kiss.

Feast Before the Fast
McCamy Taylor
The island of Boymere is overrun ghosts, or would be if they were not confined in places like Father Friday Cemetery. Agatha, apprentice to the pitre Dominy, stil has much to learn about the duties that will someday be hers.

Gears and Mud
William Jang
Ruphus had briefly been associated with the would-be revolutionary, Villovous, until his mentor had been killed in a raid the Gears, the corporations that ran the world. Now he lived in the Wallows outside the city, eking out a living among those who lived off the mudflows carrying the detritus of the rich and powerful.

Leopold and the Emperor
Sergei Servianov
Civilization lies in ruins, with the beast-like drunzhek roaming the land and devouring whomever they can catch. There is no real central government, but there are plenty of small armies led those who think they can rule what is left of the world.

Light Source
E. S. Strout
Something is going wrong with the new orbital laser platform, and Dr. Paula Lynch must find the cause and the solution — even if the problem goes far beyond any technical glitch.

Stiffing the Blademaster
Kurt Heinrich Hyatt
Taragon thought she could wiggle out of paying the Blademaster Falle on a technicality. After all, the assassin hadn't directly killer her target…

Stranglehold
Albert Betzler
Minor magic users are dying in impossible ways, indicating the presence of apostates or worse, Maleficari, descendants of the fallen angels. Enter John Blackthorn, Witch-hunter…

The China Doll
Rachel Eliason
Eric Armstrong was head of the teleportation project and its first human test subject. And the process worked perfectly…didn't it?

The Devil You Say!
Roderick D. Turner
Jack Bigwin was no saint, but he never expected to be trapped into a bargain with the Devil. Still, even the proprietor of a wine shop has a trick or two of his own.

Warm
Nick Seabra
Phil was used to waking up with someone beside him — sometimes his wife, sometimes not — but a soul-devouring demon was not on the list, even if it was in a dream. But dreams didn't jam doors or freeze windows.
**** CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE AND SITUATIONS ***

May 2012 Forum Flash Challenge

Congratulations to I. Verse, author of the favorite entry in the May 2012 Forum Flash Fiction Challenge. Check out "Chekhov's Pun" and six more tales of interspecies murder investigation

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Poetry and Filk Music

The Time Machine
Richard Tornello

It Be Yer Wurds
Robin Lipinski

Zombie Prom
Mike Berger

The Robots In Sodom
John M. Marshall

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Articles and features

Thoughts on Writing #38: It Isn't Good Just Because It's Bad.
Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire takes apart the engine of writing to find out how it works, and offers her insights into how to put it back together again.

Piano No Mori: A Manga Review
McCamy Taylor
McCamy reviews Makoto Isshiki's manga for grown-ups (as opposed to "adult" manga).

Tales From A Goth Librarian
Review by Dan Hollifield
Dan reviews Kimberly Richardson's new collection of Goth tales.

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