1597 A.D., KOREA. Lord Admiral, I make my report. We made quick work of invading Korea. They fled before us. We came from all sides. Heads flew like hewn flowers,…

CALL HIM MR. H-MAN Hard meat, sexy sinew, gristle and sleek shimmy skin. His hairless head reflects the infrared and U.V., baleful as a bugzapper at midnight. Naked, handsome chest…

“I hit my fay-the on a caw-r,” I told the dentist. “That’s funny,” he said, muffled by his blue velvet mask. “Most people would say the car hit their face.”…

Coyle was mucking a stall when the villager came running in. “In the flower patch! In the flower patch! There’s a–who’re you?” “The new stable hand,” Coyle said. “Of what…

1. People are generally unfamiliar with our guild’s history. The early founders were literalists. Stole into homes to pilfer grocery lists from scullery maids; broke into college dormitories to swipe…

This is an excerpted chapter from Jim Cheff’s novella Phantom Limb Radio, the first book to be published by 96th of October. The title here is linked to the Amazon…

A croc exhaled at a nearby table, streaming a rainbow mist worthy of a Lucky Charms cereal box. A feathered woman sat next to me, close enough to scrape my…

Maureen lived alone. Truly alone: not only what people think of as alone, that is to say, living without other humans. Not even alone alone, that is to say, without…

The face was unnaturally long. Its cheeks were sunken in. It was not a human face. Of course it wasn’t. What did I expect except a vague approximation? But it…

There are a number of paradoxical parallels between medieval warfare and the waging of World War One. The art of the miner and sapper, once the standby of those who…

There is no end to my love for Jemjasee. I pace the ragged cliffs, searching the sea for her ship. My longing will not cease until I am entwined in…

The Haunted Writings of Lionel Johnson, the Decadent Era’s Dark Angel edited by Nina Antonia, Amazon link here.the publisher, Strange Attractor Press, is well worth a visit. Symbolism, Pre-Raphaelites, the…

(Julia Vinograd’s publisher, Zeitgeist Press, is well worth a visit.) Anonymous Anonymous is dead.I heard the terrible soft soundof his fingers unclenching a fold of blanket like a cliff he…

or, Miracle at St Bede’s Father Malachy had a problem and it was getting worse. A small example: Mrs. Garvey’s rosary. This pious old lady made more noise praying with…

The body lay on the floor. The door had been locked. No one could have gone in or out. There were witnesses in the adjoining rooms, but they’d heard nothing.…

(written with D. M. Burke) “Cookie Puss Crowd” Putting Wrists at Risk of Devastating Disorder You scream, I scream! That next “Fudgy” could give you a handful of trouble, experts…

Bullied By Mondrian The Aesthetic movement (which you’ll call Symbolism or Decadence if you took French in high school) occupied the second half of the nineteenth century. It was a…