“Bootcut” by Allison Pottern – 3.6
Haven Spec Magazine, January 2026 The narrator of this second-person story is a young woman scraping by as a waitress at a tacky Italian restaurant called Arrivedercheese, enduring daily harassment…
“Like Thorns on Her Tongue” by R.Z. Held – 4.1
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2026 “Like Thorns on Her Tongue” by R.Z. Held — Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #450Trist is a blood mage traveling the settlements along the great Mother…
“A Dirge for the Mirrorbirds” by Emily C. Skaftun – 4.0
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2026 The narrator is a Yem — a species unique in the universe for their ability to direct their own reincarnation using meditative tones, returning life…
Three Fortunes on Alcestis as Told by the Fraud Baeliss Shudal by Louis Inglis Hall – 3.8
Clarkesworld, February 2026 Baeliss Shudal is the last of a once-revered lineage of seers on the pastoral world of Alcestis, but she harbors a devastating secret: she’s a fraud. The…
Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi (Novel) – 1.1
Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi is a noir detective novel set in a French colonial city in West Africa during the dry Harmattan season. Plot Overview Boubacar, a down-on-his-luck "chercher"…
A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library by Chris Willrich – 3.4
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, September 2025, Issue #443 This metafictional fantasy story follows an unnamed book thief who infiltrates the legendary Goblin Library in the city of Palmary on a dangerous…
Garden of the Bloodpotter by Erin Brown – 4.1
Psychopomp Magazine, September, 2025 Issue 14 In a war-torn kingdom ruled by a relentless king, War Sorcerers known as Bloodpotters resurrect elite fighters called HighSoldiers by creating magical gardens from…
Handsomest Gentlest by M.R. Robinson – 4.6
Haven Spec Magazine, March 2025 This tender ghost story follows Jackie, an eleven-year-old boy who has recently died and finds himself alone in the woods. Frightened and grieving his own…
The Jealous Wives of the Sea by Alaya Dawn Johnson – 4.5
Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology, 2025 In a post-apocalyptic future where rising seas have forced humanity into underwater cities called SeaCities, Oriana—a twenty-three-year-old settlement woman—travels to SeaCity Oranto to…
Steel Holds the Heat’s Memory by Rick Hollon – 3.6
Kaleidotrope, Summer 2025 A nameless girl travels with her father, a stage conjurer who performs under false names while teaching her the secrets of illusion. Their journey takes a dangerous…