"The World's Most Famous Debutante" appears in the July issue of JMWW! And so, the surgery was performed on Beverly just after her sixteenth birthday, and she emerged from it in a constant state of pain, which made her nauseous and unable to eat. She dropped nearly fifteen pounds while the screws were turned twice daily, even though she had to lay still for nearly six months. Once, when her mother came into her room and noticed Beverly's thin wrist on the comforter, the bones protruding so elegantly, Louisa smiled in her prim way. She then touched it with the same hand that held her cigarette—her nails a lustrous poppy red—and said, 'good girl.'" Read the whole story here!
"When Clark woke up after midnight in a mood mean enough to do what he felt needed to be done, he went out with his 12-gauge and shot up the metal cage once, then put another shell in the chamber and hit it a second time, blowing out the trap door. The sound of the gun dissipated some of his rage, but the noise made his head clatter. He sat down a few feet from his handiwork, not really looking at it. On this moist plot of crab-grassed soil, he put the shotgun down beside him and, under the waxing gibbous moon, waited for his headache to pass. The boys, who woke up after hearing the gun go off the first time, came outside. They stood behind their father. Jimmy was holding the skunk like a baby."
"The Only Thing You Will Ever Give Birth To" appears at Foundling Review In the meantime, an excerpt: "This was not what you had expected to come from him. Something inappropriate yes, but not this. You look at him for a moment, frozen, but with the sensation that your face has gone red with heat. Your ears tingle with an influx of blood. The man continues to smile, percolating now with an unsettling chuckle. The strange, bright eye bulges further and travels left. The other one continues to focus on you."
(CN) "Charlotte, The Apparition" now appears at Dogzplot. "Afterwards, when Charlotte reconstituted herself as pure ionized energy outside the woman’s body, Irene was always ill. It gave the doctor the impression that his wife was pregnant again, and for a week, the couple rejoiced."
(CN) Read a tiny portion of Charlotte's Nexus by clicking on the segment title below. "In Letters to Rudel" "She sent painless electrical impulses through his neurons, and consequently, he lost the pathways that lead to memories of his experiments, memories he had reveled in during his most profound moments of desolation."