In Robert Jeschonek’s “Aye, Plank,” the most feared instrument of pirate justice becomes the narrator of its own strange, mythic story—a tale of transformation, belonging, and the unexpected places where second chances take root. Set aboard a ship called the Defiler as it prowls Caribbean waters in 1750, this is nautical fantasy told from a…
In Meyari McFarland’s “Echoes of a Forgotten Day,” Marie sets out alone on a storm-battered hike along the Oregon coast, determined to honor a promise made to friends. But Elakha Bay is more than just a remote, haunted stretch of shoreline—it’s a place where the past lingers, ghosts walk, and ancient tragedies refuse to stay…
This is Southern Gothic at its most intimate—not a crumbling mansion full of strangers, but a family farmhouse where every warped board and rusted hinge carries the weight of generations. When Robert Anderson returns to settle his grandmother’s estate, he expects grief. He expects guilt. What he doesn’t expect is MeeMaw herself, risen from the…
In “The Wind Witch of Weird Water Harbour,” Steve Vernon spins a salt-soaked fable of pride, punishment, and the price of a bargain struck with forces older than the sea. When Captain Donny Parsons accepts a leather cord with three knots of captured wind from Gusty Annie—the Wind Witch—he sets in motion a storm that…
In Alicia Cay’s “Above Us, Hell,” a down-on-his-luck treasure hunter and his grandfather chase a salvage score in the Caribbean—and surface something from the deep that should have stayed buried. What begins as a desperate dive into the Cayman Trench becomes something far more dangerous than debt or drowning, as a World War II submarine…
When Harwood is pulled beneath the waves by the cursed ship Merry Mermaid, he must face not only the monstrous Milady who rules the abyss, but the truth of what it means to love the sea. Interview Questions Did a real place or moment inspire part of your story? The real person who inspired this…
In P. D. Cacek’s “By Still Waters,” a son drives his aging father to a funeral—and straight into the dark heart of a secret that’s been drowning them both for decades. What begins as a quiet act of duty becomes something far more unsettling, as rain falls, memory shifts, and still water reveals what was…
In “The Wreck of the USS Hollander,” a deep-ocean recovery crew descends on a sunken Cold War submarine—and wakes something that’s been waiting in the dark. The past knocks from the torpedo room in patterns no one can explain, and the answer, when it comes, is more human than anyone expected. Interview Questions Did a…
In Annie Reed’s “The Code,” a ghostly enforcer bound to the ocean’s will haunts a dying seaside bar, waiting for a man who broke the oldest law of the sea. Some debts can’t be settled in coin—and the ocean never forgets.cannot be paid with coin, and every storm remembers the name of the thief. Killian…
In “Drip, Drip, Drip,” nine-year-old Tommy wakes to find his little brother standing alone in the dark kitchen, staring into the sink. Something is talking to him from the drain—something that’s been waiting in the pipes since long, long before the house was built. Interview Questions Did a real place or moment inspire part of…
