Welcome to February! You may have noticed that we skipped the January issue. For a variety of reasons, that month has always been difficult for me to manage, and this year was the worst in a long time. Next year I’ll bake a double issue into December (Merry Christmas!) and have a planned skip in […]
This is the second column in Bruce Holland Rogers’s new writing series, Technically Speaking. The first column, and the entirety of his Short-Short Sighted columns (dedicated to writing very short fiction), visit his author page. Titles are hard. They have to accomplish a lot in a few words. The ideal title will attract the reader […]
The night my daughter sings my death, I am sitting in the living room floor, sifting through old pictures. I’m on my second glass of wine, white wine because the carpet is new. In this one photo, Emily is lying in her crib, staring up at a mobile that Aunt Linda made for her. Tiny, […]
First we’ll clock you in on the computer and then you can start following me around. Your clock-in number is always the last four digits of your Social Security number, but for tonight you’ll need my number to get to the tables on the screen. Ever use Aloha before? It’s a pretty straightforward system. Go […]
State-Councillor Sharamykin’s drawing-room is wrapped in a pleasant half-darkness. The big bronze lamp with the green shade, makes the walls, the furniture, the faces, all green, couleur “Nuit d’Ukraine.” Occasionally a smouldering log flares up in the dying fire and for a moment casts a red glow over the faces; but this does not spoil […]
The tech at the door wore a heavy toolbelt. He looked angry. The ID collar around his neck pulsed as it broadcast his position to guards at the community gate. Menace radiated from the skeletal body under the rough black clothes and the bony hands under his thin composite gloves. “You called for service?” “Yes,” […]