Dear Reader,

This street is unlike any other.

A frozen tide of pavement flows over pitted cobblestones. Buzzing streetlights vie with the hiss of gas lamps; the hum of the distant highway is muffled by the drumming rattle of a tinker’s cart; an electric guitar squeals only to be drowned out by the caterwauls of drunken swordsmen.

You sniff and grimace, covering your nose at the stench of burnt oil and exhaust, and of offal heaps and middens. Then the wind shifts, bringing the carnival aromas of fried dough and cotton candy and, hauntingly, of burning incense and night orchids.

Standing with one foot to either side of the street sign, you gasp as your garments shimmer and change. Your left foot wears a Reebok sneaker below a pants leg of blue denim, the right is sheathed in a knee-high boot of supple leather. The sensation is strange: a static charge bristling the small hairs of your arms and neck, a chill touch upon your cheek like a glacial breeze—or a corpse’s finger. Shivering, you look up.

City light veils the stars to your left, chimney smoke to your right. Yet, faintly, incessantly, the stars shimmer and beckon in the shrouded skies of both.

Wind teases your hair like a lover, sliding quick fingers beneath . . . your coat? . . . your cloak? . . . grasping you; leading you.

Which way do you turn first?

Dear Reader,

Be transported!

To a future where androids fight our wars, to deep space to solve a murder, and into magical lands where fiances are transformed into... cows.

Inside these pages you'll find eleven stories to astonish, delifht, and touch your heart on the corner of 2nd and Starlight.

Authors:

Jennifer Campbell-Hicks
Rebecca Birch
Holly Heisey
Julie Frost
Robert B. Finegold, M.D.
Dustin Adams
Frank Dutkiewicz
Sean Monaghan
Scott R. Parkin
Sky McKinnon
Rachelle Harp

 

Authors:

Jennifer Campbell-Hicks
Fi Michell
Rebecca Birch
Kary English
Holly Heisey
Julie Frost
William R.D. Wood
Robert B. Finegold, M.D.
Dustin Adams
Frank Dutkiewicz
Sean Monaghan
Stephanie Loree
Scott R. Parkin
Sky McKinnon

 

 

Dear Reader,

In our first anthology you'll find contemporary & high fantasy, hard science fiction, and wildly experimental stories to titilate and delight.

These pages contain fourteen stories old and new, with eyes to the future and to the past.  Dreams of science fiction and fantasy alike.  Sweeping journeys and quiet contemplation.  Love and sacrifice.  I leave you at the intersection between our little slice of reality and the never ending roads of stardust, and hope you enjoy your stay.