Short Stories 366:226 — “Lot,” by Bryan Washington

Oof, this story. Okay, like many (half? a third? I'm not sure) of the stories in Lot: Stories, this one returns to a single family, and is told through the voice of the youngest son, who is gay and coming to grips with that, and who has already seen his father walk away by this …

Short Stories 366:225 — “Michael in the Library,” by Alex Jeffers

The thing about Alex Jeffers's Not Here. Not Now. is how incredibly well it shows off his ability to evoke other times and places (and yes, I get most would infer such from the title right there, but listen, sometimes I'm slow to twig to things, okay?). "Michael in the Library" dives all the way …

Short Stories 366:224 — “Inscribed,” by Craig Laurance Gidney

I'm trying to remember if I've read another story that upped the creepy factor in a similar way to "Inscribed," and I'm drawing a blank. Found in Skin Deep Magic: Short Fiction, this story is interspersed with excerpts from "Mercurial Magic: the Language of Hermes and Thoth," by Byron Davies, the white (and, soon revealed, …

Short Stories 366:223 — “A Scent of Roses,” by Catherine Lundoff

If you've been around this blog at all in the last few years, you know I love a queer re-telling. I love writing them (I try to do one every holiday season, even, a tradition I started with my retelling of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), and I adore reading them. It's not difficult to understand …

Short Stories 366:222 — “Difficult at Parties,” by Carmen Maria Machado

Oh wow, this story. Before I start, I just want to be one hundred precent clear that if you've not already picked up a copy of Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, you should grab a copy. I'll wait. Okay? Good. "Difficult at Parties" is the final story in the collection, and …

Short Stories 366:221 — “The Rainbow Collection,” by Nathan Azinger

Very often in science fiction set in the far future, the only entertainment pieces that seem to make it through from our contemporary point in time are so often things that we already consider classics: classical music, for example. This latest story from The Clan Chronicles: Tales from Plexis had me pretty much grinning from …