In This Issue

This month’s first story is “Canine 401(k)” by Gina Sakalarios-Rogers. I liked this one (if “like” is the right word — it’s not exactly a pleasant premise) because it’s such a clear vision of different personalities: rule-oriented and results-oriented, emotional and cynical, idealistic and pragmatic.

Next we have “Dragonslayer” by Peter McLean. It’s a fantasy. Well, it would be, except that it turns out that it’s not. You’ll see what I mean, and, I hope, get a chuckle as you do.

Bruce Holland Rogers has a column this month. Bruce’s column is about repetition. Bruce’s column is, as usual, brilliant. His exemplar is called “Love Is Strange,” and it’s one of those interesting stories that, if you described it to me, I would say I probably wouldn’t like; however, as with so much of Bruce’s work, I like it despite what I would have thought.

I rarely like to get a Classic Flash from the same author twice in a row, but I chose a Lord Dunsany tale, “The Hen,” because of a political conversation I had with a friend. I won’t say what the topic was — myopia isn’t limited to any party or ideology — but it was related to the midterm elections, and it reminded me of this story.

For you writers: My apologies that there are still a fair number of stories in queue. I’m continuing to work through them, and I do follow up on every submission.

As I mentioned last month, we’re shifting to a mid-month publishing schedule — so this issue is only a few days late rather than three weeks. 🙂 That means we’ll be seeing you again a little after Hanukah and a little before Christmas for our December issue.