How does your garden grow? Dan Coxon’s, needless to say, grows supernaturally, with infinite, unruly species. The author’s new mini-collection Green Fingers is a secret garden of horror stories: shadowy, motley, but robustly knotted together by one thematic root. We jump from cabin in the woods to waggon in the snow, stumbling across invasive pot-plants,
‘The Husband & Wife’s Lung is magnificent.’ You take Ruben’s advice. He orders the Duck Sang-Froid. Your waiter wheels over a bulky apparatus. It has a cylindrical body, enormous funnel, a hand wheel, and a spout. The moment he’s gone, you ping! the apparatus with your dessert spoon. Ruben’s smile collapses so abruptly it’s like
Especially the Bad Things is a strange collection that sparks the reader’s own imagination, challenging our previous perceptions of form, plot and character relationships. Gerke has set out to bend traditional ideas of what a flash fiction/short story should be, cramming his pieces with humour, sadness, twists and the odd sprinkling of something rather beautiful.
Stephen Bacon is a writer of mostly horror short stories. He has one previous anthology, Peel Back the Sky, published by Grey Friar Press in 2011. In this collection, published by Luna Press, most of the stories have previously been published in magazines and anthologies including Black Static, Cemetery Dance, Crime Wave, and several Best
Guy in a pizza uniform gets on the train. His face is shot full of holes. ‘Do you mind if I sit here,’ he says, voice high, ice-green eyes unblinking. I move my feet. ‘Not at all.’ I know what he is, but good manners cost nothing. He sits down opposite and I count the
Tales from the Shadow Booth Vol 4 is an anthology of stories that are in many styles; from horror, to steampunk, from fantastic to modern, from yesterday, to tomorrow, from the today we know to a today that is from another dimension. This book can easily satisfy all the needs of any avid reader who
There’s a spider in the bathroom, I tell him. It’s six feet tall, I say. I wake him up and tell him to save me. I pee a few times a night and can’t imagine slipping into the cold bathroom alone, facing this spider head-on. It’s frigid here in Siberia. Outside, nothing can live for
1. He reads labels. Even perfume labels. Rides the double-decker buses so he can watch from above. I poke at the halo around his shorts with my wayward finger. “You have strange ideas, Mary-of-the mushroom-teas,” he says, mussing up my hair, not noticing the finger, like, at all. 2. His eyes dilate when he
Tim Major has published numerous science fiction and horror short stories in magazines including Interzone; three novels, including Snakeskins, which was published this year to critical acclaim; and the novella Caius and Mitch, which is reprinted here in House Lights. This is his first short story collection. Most of the stories in this collection have
I’m ashamed to say I’d never heard of Nancy Stohlman up until a few weeks ago, you see I’m quite new to flash fiction, so I’m playing catch-up all the time, discovering new and brilliant voices daily. But a few weeks ago I had the chance to attend the Flash Fiction Festival in Bristol and
