Plugs

Kat Beyer paints what she cannot write and writes what she cannot paint.

Ken Brady's latest story, "Walkers of the Deep Blue Sea and Sky" appears in the Exquisite Corpuscle anthology, edited by Jay Lake and Frank Wu.

Read Daniel Braum's story Mystic Tryst at Farrgo's Wainscot #8.

Alex D M's story "Snowdrops" appeared in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet no. 22, and "Two Coins" is in Electric Velocipede 15/16.

Read Rudi's story "Detail from a Painting by Hieronymus Bosch" at Behind the Wainscot.

Jason Fischer has a story appearing in Jack Dann's new anthology Dreaming Again.

Sara Genge's story "Godtouched" may be found in Strange Horizons.

"Drowning Atlantis" is a collection of flash fiction by David Kopaska-Merkel, for sale at the Genre Mall, where you can find some of his other stuff as well.

Jason Erik Lundberg's latest book (co-edited with Janet Chui), A Field Guide to Surreal Botany, has just been released, and can be ordered at SurrealBotany.net.

Susannah Mandel's columns in Strange Horizons on the fantastic in classic literature can be found here.

Luc Reid's book Talk the Talk: The Slang of 65 American Subcultures is in bookstores now and is full of odd insights.

Angela Slatter's story 'Frozen' will appear in the December 09 issue of Doorways Magazine, and 'The Girl with No Hands' will appear in the next issue of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet.

Edd Vick's latest story, "The Corsair and the Lady" may be found in Talebones #37.

Trent Walters has a poetry chapbook, Learning the Ropes, forthcoming from Morpo Press.

Jonathan Wood's story "Notes on the Dissection of an Imaginary Beetle" from Electric Velocipede 15/16 is available online.

« Parthenia Rook, Episode 1: The Third Oldest Trick | Main | All My Stories »

One Hole Goes In. One Hole Comes Out.

by Luc Reid

See death. See death conquer. Death conquers all.

See the bloated human corpses. See the alien conquerers. The alien conquerers are squat and mauve and desolated. See them cry. What have they done?

See the alien playleader Contemptuous stride through the ruins. Contemptuous has lost his mating group. They died of a bad missile. Poor, poor mating group. Poor Contemptuous.

Contemptuous likes to play. The alien conquerers like to play. The aliens do not like to kill. They do not kill with malice aforethought.

The aliens play with good missiles. They play with xenoforming nanotechnology. Their missiles do not hurt them. Boom, boom! See?

Humans like to play, too. Why are the humans playing with missiles? They should not play with the alien conquerers. They should not play with Contemptuous. Contemptuous will be cross. Why do humans play with missiles? Sodding bastards.

Now there is movement. Look, Contemptuous, look! There is movement! There are humans! They are not all dead. Death did not conquer them.

See Contemptuous run. He runs with abandon. He runs to the humans, blaring with joy.

The humans have breathing apparatus. The humans have guns. See them shoot Contemptuous! How joyfully they shoot! Their bullets make tiny holes. One hole goes in. One hole comes out.

Contemptuous wants to play with guns. He will play, too. His nanotech symbiants are making a gun. Contemptuous shoots them. What fun to play! The humans fall down. They are good at playing.

Contemptuous loses bodily fluids. Now he is cross. Why must he lose bodily fluids? They pool on the ground like old fryer oil.

Contemptuous sees his mating group. He sees them in a vision. Stay, mating group, stay! The vision is only neurochemical. There is no afterlife. Contemptuous feels cold. Poor Contemptuous!

See darkness. Fall, darkness, fall! Darkness falls fast.


Comments

I can see the illustrations. Those books were so ugly! And boring!

Posted by: David | May 16, 2007 3:54 PM

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