October had twenty-one (21) story and poetry posts from me. Here’s a summary of what I recommended.
Inner Worlds published in 2025:
The Monster by Mon Misir.
An excellent allegory of shame.
3 East by Ramez Yoakeim
When family isn’t who you need them to be, and what happens after.
If You Can’t Make Your Own Regret, Store-Bought Is Fine by RJ Aurand
The language in this story is beautiful. The concept is amazing – would you take your loved one’s last memory?
Hoofbeats by J. Nathan
A cozy story of rest and recovery.
Mama’s Labyrinth by Sylvia Heike
A story of family and myths and hoarding. This is very much an Inner Worlds story.
The Deadlands published:
What the Trees Took Back by Marvin Garbeh Davis, Sr. in May.
“Silence was safer than sympathy.” This story runs as deep as roots.
No Mother to Replace by Nosawema O. in April.
We don’t replace those who died. The line “A bridge cut in two” struck me.
We’re Running out of Fingers for All This Counting by Kelsey Dean in May.
This one hurts so much.
On the Anthology Entitled “Frames of Colour and Un-Colour” by Dmitri Akers in February.
I love how the story unfolds over the descriptions of the photos. Vivid and creepy and photographic.
Nine Truths About the Yrsul by Imogen Crowe was published at Diabolical Plots in October.
Lessons of fear. Lessons of love. Memories in a new light.
Otherside published in September:
One Floor, One Phoenix by Crystal Koo.
Finding relationships by app.
The Monster at the End of This Film by Algae Ross.
A final girl? A monster? A doomed boyfriend? Who gets out?
The Illuminated World by Rebecca Schneider.
The story of a limner and a dying world.
We Envy the Mayflies by Emmie Christie was published at The Razor in May.
“Yet still, we do not envy the stardust, or the pine tree, or the clam. We envy the mayflies” — you have to read the story to find out why.
Small Wonders published in October:
a sea witch stole my voice today by Elis Montgomery.
I love the unfolding story and the twist at the end.
Tomorrow Night by Marie Brennan.
A ghost comes to visit to hear the stories.
The Field Where Things That Leave Go by Pravy Jha
A poem of the liminal, of a space, of that which goes missing and the space left behind.
Fame Cycles of Pop-Gods by Cressida Roe was published at Translunar Travelers Lounge in August.
How easily we rise and fall under social scrutiny, especially when one is a god.
kaleidotrope published
“The Bargain” by Mari Ness.
Another story of a mortal and a fairy, a bargain struck, a life made better.
“Takoyaki Tuesday” by K.M. Praschak
The title is really what had me. But the poem has so much more to it.
Glass Houses by Haley Hughes-Darley was published at Crepuscular Magazine in September.
In a museum filled with glass, how close should one look at the exhibits?