The Moviegoer
It went down like every other meet in the long history of meets. That should have told me something right there. But I was hungry. Not so much for grocery money—my last brownbag of cash counted out to eight grand—but … 
Afterword by Stephen Graham Jones
You never hit a story that’s only one genre, do you? Westerns tend to have some element of romance, horror uses comedy as pressure-release valve, fantasy’s nearly always got a few solid action sequences, science fiction and spy thrillers trade …
Butter
The Mystery of the Screeching Cat
Joe and Frank and Mr. Hardy were testing a rocket they had built. It blasted off as soon as Tony and Chet arrived. They were out of breath and they distracted the boys and boys’ father from seeing the parachute …
Warmed and Bound: The New Noir
There is no one attribute common to what we call ‘noir,’ and this absence of essence is not always true when we think of other genres. For example, westerns have one thing in common, which is their setting, the West. …
The Fecologist
After my divorce and getting laid off from the plant, I had no reason to stay in Indiana. I’d always regretted not going to L.A. after high school to give acting a real go and was sick of winters, so …
The Rapture of Amee Grape
Red bloomed on the girl’s skin as the Okie shoveled his thumb into her arm. Her eyes wavered like puddles, but she didn’t cry out. Stagger watched from across the bar. He knew how those Okie’s hands broke what they …
Autumn Vertigo
Thomas Boyle watches his wife arrange flowers. On their first date, he presented Miriam with a bouquet of white roses and lilies, as if she was his bride. This year, for their fourth wedding anniversary, he will give her an …