Twins – Gregory Kane

Our twins visit once a month. They arrive one at a time, passing one another as they move up and down the path dividing the manicured campus. Years ago, we’d gather to watch from the laboratory’s third floor as they ran free on the grass below, dancing and jumping and tumbling, swinging in their parents’ arms like tiny trapeze artists. We rose to our tiptoes and pressed our palms and noses against the cold glass,…

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It came from M. C. Tuggle

M. C. Tuggle’s story “Cathedra” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 13 April 2018. “Cathedra” is a “hard-science” story, inspired by an article in Astronomy magazine on Enceladus, the most promising site for life in our solar system. It’s a tale of faith and one’s discovery of purpose within society. The title and theme came from this anecdote: A man came upon a construction site where three people were working. He asked the first, “What…

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A question for Jonathan Laidlow

Q: What’s a typical writing day like for you?

A: This is the dream of the typical writing day: I rise late and drink good strong coffee while looking back through the previous day’s draft. I then spend the day adding new words to my latest story and they’re all perfect.

The reality is somewhat different. I try to read the previous day’s draft either over a hurried coffee or on my commute to the office.

At lunch I find a quiet spot to sit with my laptop and write. Sometimes I’m working on a story, but a lot of the time I’m doodling with words. I keep the writers’ equivalent of a sketchbook and fill it with story fragments, ideas and scenes. You never know when you’ll find a nugget of gold in there that turns into a story or a novel.

Writing at lunch takes the pressure off, so by the evening I look at the current project. I usually revise the previous day’s words before I add new ones. Sometimes I have to go all the way to the beginning to seed new information and events, so I’m constantly revising as well as adding new material. I like to call this writing method “looping revisionary chaos”….

Jonathan Laidlow’s story “The Astronaut Tier” will be
published on Friday, 26 October 2018.
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About Evan Marcroft

Evan Marcroft is a half-blind yeti-person with a sideways foot and an allergy to the sun. When he was a child he dreamed of writing important works of Earth-shaking beauty and settled for writing fantasy and science fiction instead. He currently lives in Sacramento California with a cat and a loving wife who foolishly believes he’ll someday make real money doing this. You can reach him on Twitter at @Evan_Marcroft and contact him for any reason at Evanmarcroft@hotmail.com.

Evan Marcroft’s story “The Little G-d of Łódź” will be
published on Friday, 2 November 2018.
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Nana Naoko’s Garden – Michael Gardner

I pushed the little girl on the rope swing, guessing she couldn’t be more than seven, knowing she was my mother. The swing groaned as it arced forward, then back, the rope twisting against the bough of the mulberry tree. We were on the periphery of a country garden that surrounded a large, off-white homestead. Beyond the house were barren paddocks — dry grass, sheep, the odd gum tree. I knew this place from Nana…

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