Marie Croke

I’m a little behind in my story announcements at the end of this year, a few that simply need a bit of photography love before I post. However, I would like to craft a fully-fleshed out eligibility post for awards season now rather than even later since I’m already awfully late.

This year I had 9 original stories published—the best publication year I’ve ever had, and far more than I ever dreamed of having!! I’ve listed them mostly in order of what’s available to read online and what is behind a paywall.

I’d really appreciate if you would give at least the first one, “To Seek Himself Again,” a read if you only have time to read one. The first four are all available online for free for you to check out my writing :)

Thank you for your consideration!!

(Please note: if you are nominating for awards and would like a copy of any of these stories in order to consider it, please email me at mariecroke(@)gmail.com to request)

8 Short Stories

1) “To Seek Himself Again” in Apex Magazine (Oct 2021) FREE TO READ HERE!

Keba, who has spent his life helping people craft the bodies that most represent themselves. From rabbits with bat wings and children with gills, he has built a reputation.

Only, when a lady shows up at his home, wanting a trade without being willing to part with a single part of her “pure” body, Keba is brought into a situation where life as he knows it, how the world knows it, might be lost forever.

2) “Flock of Words and Wonder” in Apparition Lit Wonders Issue (Oct 2021) FREE TO READ HERE!

The Library of All is an incredible place that can travel between worlds and houses every written work from every realm. These words arrive each day, differently shaped, a multitude of languages represented, they fly into the Library of All in the hopes of being sorted to their proper place.

3) “Aunt Taveaj’s Wolf-Friendly Sweet Shoppe” in Uncharted Magazine (Dec 2021) FREE TO READ HERE!

In those days, Aunt Taveaj’s Sweet Shoppe was a children’s delight, but the world is not always kindly to wolves. Come, let me tell you about my youth helping her bake, about the children I played with outside the shoppe walls that no longer exist. And I shall explain why our world looks the way it does now…

4) “Dance of Wood and Grace” in Zooscape Magazine (Mar 2021) FREE TO READ HERE!

This story is about a sauropod-like creature named Dirt of CrystalSleep who is born into a city where the caste-system is stringent and specific. Yet, that doesn’t stop him from harboring a whisper-want for something different.

5) “Ragged Roots of the Blossom Born” in Upon a Thrice Time (Air & Nothingness Press Nov 2021) READ HERE!

I used both Thumbalina and The Twelve Dancing Princesses in a mash-up of two fairy tales. I altered the ending of Thumbalina and made her and the swallow from her story my lead characters and gender-swapped the twelve princesses to princes. The story is botanical in nature, with the princes being of the trees in their forest, so that instead of dancing their shoes to worn bits, they are grinding down their very roots each night. And it’s Lina’s job to save them.

6) “Ten Poisons That Cannot Kill the Queen” w/ANNA MADDEN in Lackington Botanicals Issue (Dec 2021) READ HERE!

She wants to avenge her brother’s death and so sets out to assassinate the queen. Also botanical in nature, this time of the dangerous quality, with the story thematically dealing with the dangers women face in powerful positions, the higher sacrifices made, and the insidious beliefs that lead to wrong conclusions.

7) “Drop Shipment Standard Procedure” in Dark Matter Magazine (May/June 2021) READ HERE!

The short story revolves around a drop shipment with a spattering of language and translation difficulties interspersed within.

8) “How Many Crab Pots Does it Take to Destroy a Neighborhood?” in Dark Moon Digest (Jan 2021) READ HERE!

I set this mystery/horror story in a bayside community similar to the one of my youth, with a young girl investigating strange occurrences, partially to tap into my own history, partially to capture that sense of feeling off in one’s own skin, in one’s own home.

And then things turned creepy quite quickly.

Novelette

1) “Veins of My Sister” in Deep Magic (Spring 2021) READ HERE!

Long after a war base has been deserted, it still thrives, now as a city called Tews, led by Jes, woman of grit who will stop at nothing to keep her home safe.

But it’s not just the people who give Tews its reputation as a force to be reckoned with, for it was a veined city, moveable through space, weapons reacting as fast as the thoughts of whoever controlled her. Only now, there are problems. One such being Jes’s sister returning abruptly, arriving into Tews completely ignorant of the bounty Jes has put on her head. And she didn’t come alone…