Issue 28: 4th Quarter 2008

"Whoever battles monsters should take care not to become a monster too, for if you stare long enough into the Abyss, the Abyss stares also into you."
—Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, chapter 4, no. 146

Announcements:

Editorial:

SpecFicWorld Interviews Wendy S. Delmater, by Doyle Eldon Wilmoth, Jr.

Short Fiction

Troy And The Aliens
by Ruth Nestvold

      Despite the appellation "beer tent," it wasn't actually a tent, it was a wooden structure as big as a football field filled with folding tables and benches, row upon row of them. On one side of the building, an oompah band played atrocious music while everyone sang off–key.
     And smack dab in the middle, in front of the oompah band, four aliens were dancing on the table. Their arms were linked, and they swayed to the horns, much as their German compatriots on nearby tables.

Angry Rose's Lament
by Cat Rambo

     She claimed that her friend had been one of the first explorers to make contact with the Solins.
     "Then they got to him, I dunno how. They left his body there, sitting, drooling...smiling. Smiling like he was at his momma's tit. I was on the ship that recovered him. The Solin talked to me, said he had Luke inside him now, and that Luke didn't want me to worry about him. We took the body off planet to a medfactory, but he died a month or so afterwards.
     Still smiling."

Snips And Snails
a tale from the DMA casefiles
by Patrick Thomas

     Mandi used the remote to turn on the TV. We had rigged all our security systems into the cable system. Any alarms would override the programming and flash on the screen. Plus we had another agent outside, blending into the woods on the neighbor's property, not so close to scare off the kidnapper. We were on communications silence for obvious reasons. We needed to capture or follow the perp in order to find the missing children, hopefully before it's too late....There were enough wards on that place to make sure nobody got in, so if the perp was looking for another baby, we were literally the only game in town.

Orange Is Just Another Color
by S.K. Richards

     I think I invited Ledowski up because he knew my tattoo wasn't code for I–organize–orgies. He wanted something he wouldn't talk about out here in the open. Not sex – we'd settled that – and sure as hell not a new training vid. What was left?

Flash Fiction

Musings On Flesh And Other Prisons
by Jennifer Greylyn

     It was the sheath that enclosed her flesh, visible like the flicker of ice on her skin, that separated her from time and made her a stranger even to it.

Poetry

Clay Companion
by Kurt Kirchmeier

Dark Flow
by Francis W. Alexander

The Other Rooftops
by Randy Schroeder

The Ignorant Sand
by Lee Stern

Dog Star Man
by Howie Good

Untitled Scifaiku
by Greg Schwartz

Awards

Colophon and Affiliations