original fiction by Karen Heuler  •  “He never actually saw the fish take off — he always caught them flying, instead — but he had to assume they did a kind of leap first, so he put up a higher fence.”

original fiction by Erik Amundsen • “Men are a sentimental lot, and sentiment, as any toad knows, rots the carbuncle. Or the brain, whichever it might be.”

original fiction by Kurt Newton  •  “Fitz scurried out of the way until Delia came to rest once again, then he hurriedly polished the length of her long smooth carapace. He knew what she liked most, where she liked it, and for how long.”

original fiction by Mary Catelli  •  “Slowly, a head rose above the water: a regal woman, her black hair streaming down like a wave. Though she was as naked as the other mermaids otherwise, a crown of gold and pearls rested on her head. She rose up to contemplate her subjects.”

original fiction by Mikal Trimm & Marcie Lynn Tentchoff  •  “Seamus stared down into the grave, shaking from more than just the frost-tinged air. She’d been pretty once, true, but not now, surely not now.”

original fiction by Lisa Mantchev  •  “Men find it hard to fall in love with a dead girl. They tell her it’s a turn-off that they take her hand at the movies and a finger lands in the popcorn.”

original fiction by Scott William Carter  •  “With your mind firmly on the person you lost, circle the block five times, then turn and go five times the other way. If it is a one-way street, do it anyway, and ignore the blaring horns.”

original fiction by Carrie Vaughn  •  “The dragon would probably take a boy virgin as well as a girl. But there’s no way to tell with boys, and the priests won’t take a chance of making a mistake.”

original fiction by Natalia Lincoln  •  “Tadpole banged through the back yard and up wooden bungalow stairs, past the screen door. ‘Mama! Mama, there’s a haint under the Killing Tree!’”

original fiction by Richard Parks  •  “I suppose you could just say that I’m a tomb wight and let it go at that. But what is that? Wight simply means ‘creature,’ so that doesn’t really help much, does it? It’s not like saying ‘ogre’ or ‘troll’ or even ‘farmer,’ which are fairly specific terms.”