Cucurbital 2

CUCURBITAL 2 is not simply speculative fiction; it's a peek into the writing process itself. Writers are always asked two questions: "where do you get the idea for your story?" and "how do you go from idea to finished work?" This anthology offers insight into the second question by handing the book's authors the answer to the first one. Here are seven short stories that began with the same three prompts: watermelon, turtle, sex worker. They cover the spectra from comic to mythic, absurd to poignant, pragmatic to breathtaking. And all from three simple prompts: watermelon, turtle, sex worker.

Richard Baldwin

E. Catherine Tobler

Cheryl Holland

Melissa Mead

Jessica Otis

Mike Rimar

Catherine Schaff-Stump

Science & Math

Paper Golem

Cassilda's Song is a collection of weird fiction and horror stories based on the King in Yellow Mythos created by Robert W. Chambers entirely authored by women. There are no pretenders here. The Daughters of the Yellow Sign, each a titan of unmasked fire in their own right, have parted the curtains. From Hali s deeps and Carcosa s gloomy balconies and Styx-black towers, come their lamentations and rage and the consequences of intrigues and follies born in Oblivion. Run into their embrace. Their carriages wait to take you from shadowed rooms and cobblestones to The Place Where the Black Stars Hang. The 1895 release of Chambers best-remembered work of weird fiction was salted with nihilism and ennui, and ripe with derangement, haunting beauty, and eerie torments. Poe s influence was present in the core tales and one could easily argue Chambers may have been influenced by the French Decadents and the disquieting transfigurations of the Symbolists. All this and more can be said of the works collected in this anthology. Carcosa, accursed and ancient, and cloud-misted Lake of Hali are here. The Hyades sing and the cloud waves break in these tales. The authority of Bierce s cosmic horror is here. The talismantic Yellow Sign, and the titular hidden King, and The Imperial Dynasty of America, will influence and alter you, as they have the accounts by these writers. Cassilda and other unreliable narrators, government-sponsored Lethal Chambers, and the many mysteries of the mythical Play, are boldly represented in these tributes to Chambers. Have you seen the Yellow Sign? The contents of this anthology include: Black Stars on Canvas, a Reproduction in Acrylic by Damien Angelica Walters She Will Be Raised a Queen by E. Catherine Tobler Yella by Nicole Cushing Yellow Bird by Lynda E. Rucker Exposure by Helen Marshall Just Beyond Her Dreaming by Mercedes M. Yardley In the Quad of Project 327 by Chesya Burke Stones, Maybe by Ursula Pflug Les Fleurs Du Mal by Allyson Bird While The Black Stars Burn by Lucy A. Snyder Old Tsah-Hov by Anya Martin The Neurastheniac by Selena Chambers Dancing The Mask by Ann K. Schwader Family by Maura McHugh Pro Patria! by Nadia Bulkin Her Beginning is Her End is Her Beginning by E. Catherine Tobler &amp; Damien Angelica Walters Grave-Worms by Molly Tanzer Strange is the Night by S.P. Miskowski

Cassilda's Song

Literature & Fiction

Damien Angelica Walters

Chesya Burke

Maura McHugh

Lynda E. Rucker

Joseph S. Pulver

Allyson Bird

Selena Chambers

S.P. Miskowski

Ann K. Schwader

Genre Fiction

Chaosium, Inc.

Wilde Stories 2016: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction

Reality and memory; imagination and oblivion. Somewhere between these signposts can be found the events of Wilde Stories 2016: a future world has forbidden the songs of dancefloor divas but on one night the show returns as a cautionary exhibition; high school outcasts create a fictional scapegoat and then his body is found; and let us not forget that colonial Mars needs Oscar Wilde, but then, who doesn't?

Chaz Brenchley

Rich Larson

Benjamin Parzybok

Jonathan Harper

Richard Bowes

Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

A. Merc Rustad

Sam J. Miller

Haralambi Markov

David Nickle

Paul Evanby

Jared W. Cooper

Richard Scott Larson

Lethe Press

There are fantastical stories with actual transgender characters, some for whom that is central and others for whom that isn't. And there are stories without transgender characters, but with metaphors and symbolism in their place, genuine expressions of self through such speculative fiction tropes as shapeshifting and programming. Transgender individuals see themselves in transformative characters, those outsiders, before seeing themselves as human protagonists. Those feelings are still valid. But though the stories involve transformation and outsiders, sometimes the change is one of self-realization. This anthology will be a welcome read for those who are ready to transcend gender through the lens of science fiction, fantasy, and other works of imaginative fiction.

Transcendent: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction

Everett Maroon

Molly Tanzer

Alexis A. Hunter

Nino Cipri

Jack Hollis Marr

Holly Heisey

Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Bogi Takács

B.R. Sanders

E. Saxey

Margarita Tenser

Penny Stirling

Short Stories & Anthologies

Plagued by the creeping loss of her memory, diplomat Bréone Hemmerli continues to negotiate peace in an increasingly climate-devastated world. The Necessity of Stars brings the alien Tura to Bréone's Normandy garden, a place removed from the world's ruin. Within the garden's shadows, Tura will show Bréone a way forward, even if she can't remember it.

The Necessity of Stars

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Science Fiction

Neon Hemlock Press

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Books by E. Catherine Tobler