Interview: DeAnna Knippling on “A Shrewdness of Swindlers”

Dames, detectives, and deception…magic meets the decadence of the Roaring Twenties in ten tales of glitter and jazz. The year is 1929. It’s two months after the financial collapse on Wall Street, and the world is bating its breath, unsure of what will happen next. Is it the end of an era? At the Honeybee’s…

Interview: Alicia Cay on “Campbell County Cook-Off”

In Alicia Cay’s “Campbell County Cook-Off,” the oldest of three elderly witch sisters always wins the County Fair’s chili cook-off…but this year, things are going to be different! Rebecca and Leah steal their sister’s prize-winning recipe, whip up their own batch of chili, and head off to the competition ready to surprise their sister—and win…

Interview: James Pyles on “No Place Like Home”

What would have happened if Dorothy hadn’t wanted to leave Oz and return to Kansas? What if the “good witch” Glinda had craved the ruby slippers for her own? What would the transformed Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman, and Cowardly Lion really have been like with their new attributes? You’ll never think of Dorothy and her friends…

Interview: Melissa McShane on “The Smoke-Scented Girl”

Evon Lorantis, magician-inventor of spells for his country’s defense against the power-mad Despot, is stumped by the mystery the government brings him: a rash of spontaneously occurring fires, hotter than any natural force can produce, melting stone and vaporizing flesh wherever they strike. The government believes it is a weapon that will finally defeat the…

Interview: “Clouds of Phoenix” by Michèle Laframboise

Blanche, a young girl walking in a cobbled-up exoskeleton, spends hours watching the strange clouds dancing in the Phoenix sky. She soon realizes that their coordinated figures signals a threat. Alas, the adults are too busy to listen to her. Even her sister Lupianne worries more about the oxygen plant’s dropping quotas and her similarly…

Interview: “Night of the Hidden Fang” by T. James Logan

Mia’s only friend is gone. Adults are acting weird – well, weirder than normal. A rash of strange disappearances around town is going all but unnoticed. When she finds some half-eaten human bones, her safe, suburban world is thrown upside down. Are they her friend’s bones? Three runaway boys seem to know what’s happening. But…

Interview: “Fractured Memories” by Jo Schneider

Sixteen year old Wendy never knew the world before the Starvation. She’s learned to put her trust in her knives and her confidence in her fighting ability. When the Skinnies attack her compound, she’s the lone survivor. Injured and near death, Wendy is rescued and nursed back to health by mysterious strangers. Her saviors offer…