I have been a tiny bit remiss in my posts because July and August have been a whirlwind of publications for me! I’ve had two more flash pieces and two short stories come out in four different professional publications!
First is “Your Space Between” that came out in Apex Magazine’s Issue 132.
This is a story told in a nostalgic way, with an older sister speaking to her younger brother across the years after a tragic situation occurs. It deals with a few complexities: of the lower-classes only being able to afford the cheapest alternatives of productions and how defects and losses at that level are accepted; how the juggernaut companies are able to utilize journalism, social media, and public opinion by the very nature of having more clout, wide-spread reach, and a stronger, money-backed voice to control the narrative of situations; and, of course, the complicated effects of sibling dynamics.
This story was published online and in an audio podcast, with Parrish Davis-Sauls lending her voice as the narrator. Thank you to Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner and everyone on the Apex Team for believing in this story the way I do <3
There is a content warning on this story. It is available to read and listen to for free on Apex Magazine’s site.
Next up is “All the Boys in the Sea.” This story was published in the very last issue of Fireside Magazine! I’m incredibly glad that I finally sold a story to Fireside before they closed their doors for it’s been a dream of mine for a long while.
“All the Boys in the Sea” started from a prompt based around sensory details, where I had to pick one, specific sensory detail and write a story from it. I chose the taste of saltwater while I was visited the beach in 2021 and crafted a narrative about a seaside village’s tradition of sacrificing a boy to the sea each year.
Ultimately, the story became one about misguided traditions that continue long after whatever benefit of them has been lost, about responsibilities or lack thereof, and of those liminal spaces where life and death can potentially coexist.
Thank you to L. M. Davis for her incredible edits, to Chelle Parker, L. D. Lewis, and everyone else in the Fireside Team who made so many issues throughout the years. Getting to join the ranks of the authors who can say they are a part of Fireside’s legacy is an amazing feeling.
Please note that there are content warnings in this story (as noted about the human sacrifice above). While this story is available now to buy with issue 103, I will post again with links to this story when it becomes available to read for free on Fireside’s website.
Where my last story was published in the final issue of a magazine, my flash story, “As the ‘Scrapers Cast Long Shadows,” was published in Space Fantasy Magazine’s inaugural issue! Which is an incredible honor!
This piece is a science-fantasy story about shipseeds and hope and a futuristic world where the earth has become an ecumenopolis and many are desperate to escape from its confines. It’s got a lot of heart and a bunch of world-building packed into a tight space, the kind of story that’s rife for more stories to spawn from its origins.
Thank you so much to Taylor Rae at Space Fantasy Mag! The entire issue is gorgeous and filled with so much of one of my favorite genres–magic + space!
There are no content warnings for this story. It’s available now to read for free on Space Fantasy’s site and will be forthcoming in print form at a later point.
On August 1st, my flash story, “Instructions for Bottling Tornadoes: Please Read Before You Leave” was published in Flash Fiction Online’s August issue. This was an absolute whirlwind of a sale, with the editor plucking my story from the slush in July in the desire to publish it the next month and that warmed this little author’s heart immensely.
“Instructions for Bottling Tornadoes: Please Read Before You Leave” is a list-type story where a mother lists instructions for her daughter with her thoughts in-between about their relationship, her hopes, and the paths that may or may not be true both in the past and in the future.
It’s a love letter about letting go and allowing a child to seek out the life and world they wish to have.
Thank you to Emma Munro and Anna Yeatts and the entire Flash Fiction Online Team. Appreciate so much getting work with you all!
This story is available to buy online within the issue and I will post again when it is available for free to read on FFO’s website.
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I’m a bit flummoxed about all this news. I love all four of these stories so much. I think they give a really good sense of what I write, the emotional relationships I tend to draw out in my work, with fantastical qualities and a focus on atmosphere, while still giving a satisfactory linchpin at the end of the narrative.
This might be the most busy publication-wise I’ll be for the entire year and I’m just going to enjoy these moments, enjoy the fact that so many editors have loved my work enough to showcase it in their pages. I hope dearly you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing them <3
Marie Croke 