It’s 2018, y’all! That means …
2017 SHORT FICTION ROUNDUP TIME!
In 2017, I published three short stories. Woo! Subjects include DEFYING BIG OWL, HARBINGER OF DOOM, VERY BAD WENDIGO MOVIES, and APACHE VICTORIAN GHOSTS! Word lengths range from about 3400 to 5000 words, they’re eligible for the Nebula, Hugo, and other awards for short spec fiction. Let’s round ’em up!
THE FAMINE KING
Mythic Delirium
Story link: https://mythicdelirium.com/featured-story-•-february-2017
Irene is tormented.
By her guilt.
By her desire.
By the shadows and the voices.
And by a sinister new wendigo movie called THE FAMINE KING.
This is one heck of a weird story, and I love it. The monster is literally a bad wendigo movie.
It begins: I was a seven-year-old prisoner of sleep paralysis. My eyes, which could move side to side like marbles in a doll’s head, observed a human silhouette behind the closed bedroom window. Face pressed against the glass, it said, “Hey, Irene. I have a secret for you. People rarely starve like they used to.”
THE WHALEBONE PARROT
The Dark
Story link: http://thedarkmagazine.com/the-whalebone-parrot/
Podcast link: http://thedarkmagazine.com/?powerpress_pinw=2712-podcast
Can two Apache sisters and their kitten survive the most haunted island in the North Atlantic? A story of loss, family, and tragedies befitting the Reef of Norman’s Woe.
I discuss the bleak history underlying Emily’s story in this thread:
It begins:
[Emily Riddell’s Journal]
June 26th 18–– A.D.
Today, on a teetering skiff, I reached Whalebone Island. Mister Franklin crosses the inlet twice a month to deliver mail and supplies. In three years, he has never seen Loretta’s face. She hides behind a veil.
Why?
The Whalebone Parrot was also reviewed by A.C. Wise in Apex Magazine’s “Words for Thought”: https://www.apex-magazine.com/words-for-thought-october-2017/
OWL VS. THE NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
Strange Horizons
Story link: http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/owl-vs-the-neighborhood-watch/
Podcast link: http://strangehorizons.com/podcasts/podcast-owl-vs-the-neighborhood-watch/
When Big Owl, harbinger of doom, moves into her little Appalachian neighborhood, a professor races the clock to stop the doom He portends …
This story is a meditation on hope. It also features Big Owl, one of my favorite morally ambiguous creatures.
Owl vs. The Neighborhood Watch was reviewed by Charles Payseur in Quick Sip Reviews: http://quicksipreviews.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-monthly-round-july-2017.html
It begins: When Nina first met Owl-with-a-capital-O, harbinger of death, destruction, and despair, He resembled Athene cunicularia, a wee burrower. Owl perched on a twig outside her bedroom window as Nina toiled over seventh grade geometry homework. Between questions eleven and twelve, she glanced outside; yellow eyes met brown.
CW: Attempted suicide (by a member of the main character’s family) is briefly mentioned.
Weeeelll that’s it for short fiction. Stay tuned for my PUBLISHED COMICS POST next week! ❤ Thank you for reading.
Little Badger Diary 