DeAnna Knippling

A string of grisly murders and missing persons cases puts a young police officer at risk of becoming food for worms in "Lot's Crawlers" by Joel V. Kela, the featured story in the Winter 2012 issue of Big Pulp (cover art by Ken Knudtsen). This issue also features Michael Andre-Druissi's alternative history "Hitler's Hollywood", in which Rita Hayworth's career takes a strange turn and alters the course of WWII, and "Children of an Angry Sea", a horror tale set in the aftermath of a major Pacific tsunami, by Michael D. Turner. In all, this issue features more than 25 stories and poems, including work by Patricia La Barbera, David Birch, KJ Hannah Greenberg, L. B. Sedlacek, William Doreski, Gerri Leen, Terrie Leigh Relf, Brian Trent, Walter Giersbach, Emanuele Pettener, DeAnna Knippling, F. J. Bergmann, Sean McGrath, Benjamin Kensey, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Holger Nahm, Catherine Boyle, Tony Haynes, and Frank Skolnik.

You need to write, I told the newbie writers at the writer's conference. Unused gifts turn to poison. What I didn't tell them was that I was currently drinking that poison myself. Liz Hicks is a mystery writer whose husband, Jack, died a year ago during a motorcycle accident on a rainy, winding mountain road. One of the first things she did after the funeral was investigate his death. She already had a working knowledge of how to kill people: poisons, sniper rifles, drug overdoses, locked rooms, improvised weapons, and, most importantly, how to get away with it. Flashy deaths, interesting methods, exotic motivations. Jack's death, on the other hand, hadn't been the least bit suspicious. Just an ordinary accident. But still. She has to know. Why does Jack's death feel like it wasn't an accident? Six months past Liz's latest book deadline, grief still owns her, body and soul. Then one night after a writer's conference in the rain, Liz returns home to find that someone has trashed her entire house but has stolen only one thing......her dead husband's favorite possession. Then the phone rings. It's Liz's elderly friend Maddy, reminding her about a card party at Maddy's house. Everyone on their whole mountain road promised to be there, making it the perfect place to ask everyone in the neighborhood a few discreet questions. Seriously, though. Who wants to annoy someone whose profession involves researching murder and getting away with it? Join Liz for a dark and cozy mystery on a dark and stormy night

YOU DON'T HAVE TO FACE THE WITCH HOUSE ALONE Jayla Jackson is a witch. Or is she? She dresses in black, has zero friends, is super-smart, and doesn't fit in. But that doesn't make her a witch......right? When Jayla's English teacher makes her class start writing in journals for class-but says they don't have to tell the truth in them-Jayla boldly declares that she's a witch. She starts making up spells, talking about her familiar (a ghost cat), and writing stories about all the terrible things she's done. She didn't mean to hurt anyone, she says, but that doesn't make her feel any better. Her English teacher just smiles and praises her for being creative. But Jayla has real secrets hiding underneath her made-up confessions. There is a witch in town. And Jayla must face her if she wants to save her family and her new friend, Lola, too. A middle-grade novel about finding one's own strength in the face of overwhelming magic.

REVENGE IS BEST SERVED FOR DESSERT. With her first cooking class (as a teacher ) coming up, her catering business starting to take off, and her heart starting to recover from her divorce, Sam Genoise wants nothing more than an easy night of blogging at her playful foodie website, www. FoodSlutOnline.com. Then a Horrible Internet Troll does the unthinkable: he threatens her souffl s. Sam blows it off as a prank... ...but two batches of souffl s fall. During her cooking class. After she just tried to explain to her students that souffl s are easy. Sam Genoise's souffl s don't fall. Ever. Now Sam's out for revenge, investigating ex-husbands, ex-chefs, so-called friends, and movie-star foodies while a serial dessert killer slaughters her best work. Will Sam be next? An offbeat cooking cozy, first in the Sweet Granadilla series, for foodies with an adventurous palate.

Eleven visionary indie writers deconstruct The Human ConditionTM in this mind-bending collection of short stories in a variety of genres. Each of these unique voices explores a divergent world as unnerving as it is unknown, unsettling, and unresolved. These stories are guaranteed to take up residence in your head. Don't say we didn't warn you.

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 Sting, a speakeasy in the basement of a laundry, a group of unusual figures meets to discuss the past-and perhaps some possible futures: the Detective turned writer, the Dame who's older than she looks, the Vampire who's been riding the financial markets for generations, the Spy from across the ocean, the Actress who's only just learned the truth about Hollywood, and more. But one of their number is missing, a man connected to the mob, a man who holds the prize for a mysterious storytelling contest-a prize that can give you your heart's desire. Ten stories, woven together in the style of The Canterbury Tales, follow the contest along a long, dark night where nothing is what it seems and the best way to tell the truth is to lie. Pour yourself a cocktail and join us at the liar's table for the divine, the slapstick, the tragic, the transcendent 1920s today

Hello my Earthling Hello my starling Hello my space-time alien gal A baker's dozen of tales about creatures from outer space who may or may not have boldly gone where they really shouldn't have. Tales of aliens who test the creatures of Earth...tales of Earthlings who test the creatures from other planets...aliens who attack...aliens who defend...and aliens who are a little too close for comfort. Prepare to discover realms at the furthest edges of human imagination. From the depths of outer space... To the depths of the sea... To Portland...and beyond Featuring stories by: Travis Heermann - Rebecca Hodgkins - Charles Eugene Anderson & Jim LeMay - Meyari McFarland - Jason Dias - Debbie Mumford - Ron Collins - Shannon Lawrence - Jamie Ferguson - Stefon Mears - Thea Hutcheson - Robert Jeschonek - DeAnna KnipplingAMAZING MONSTER TALESAmazing Monster Tales is a series of monster anthologies full of fast-paced action-adventure stories. Whether you love monsters or fear them, they are the coolest This series features a mix of classic monsters and monsters that you've never seen before NEXT ISSUELook for INTO THE BRINY DEEP...and watch out for the sea monsters

Monsters start growling......head out on the highway Ten tales of road trips, vacations, tourist destinations, and pits stops that go horribly, horribly wrong. These monsters are out for adventure But they may not have filled up the gas tank first. Put on your shades, slather on your sunscreen-(Especially if you're a vampire )-and load your swimsuit and your best beach bod in to the car, because it's time to roll out for the summer-scales, tentacles, and all Featuring stories by: Mark Leslie - Ron Collins - Shannon Lawrence - DeAnna Knippling - Jeff Wood - Rebecca Hodgkins - Jamie Ferguson - Meyari McFarland - Jason Dias - Sharon Kae ReamerAMAZING MONSTER TALESAmazing Monster Tales is a series of monster anthologies full of fast-paced action-adventure stories. Whether you love monsters or fear them, they are the coolest This series features a mix of classic monsters and monsters that you've never seen before NEXT ISSUELook for IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE ...and watch out for hitchhikers

Through the looking glass, the dead rise-and love becomes the most dangerous reflection of all. Alice Pleasance Liddell steps once more into Underland, guided by the enigmatic, undead Charles Dodgson. Now a woman grown, Alice faces uncomfortable truths about her society and her family within the haunting echoes of Through the Looking-Glass. Amid whispers of rebellion and a deadly new strain of the zombie plague, Alice confronts the shadows of her past and the peril of her heart. As gaslamps flicker and secrets fester, the Reverend Mr. Dodgson reveals his true nature behind the congenial, charming zombie who once entertained Alice and her sisters-not just man, not just monster, but someone who has learnt to navigate the line between both. Alice has avoided him for years, trying to escape the fame of being that Alice, questions about the famous Reverend Mr. Dodgson (whom she hasn't spoken to for years), and nasty rumors fostered by her mother. And yet face him she must, caught between her forbidden love for Prince Leopold and her tangled bond with the mysterious Dodgson. The line between friend and foe blurs in the gloom. Alice must face the ultimate question: Is love-is life itself-worth the price of her soul? As the undead rise and betrayal surrounds her, she must decide whether to rewrite her fate-or let the shadows consume her. Return to Underland-where the undead reign, hearts break, and wonder turns to dread.... For fans of dark fantasy books with tragic love stories, gaslamp fantasy with dark romances, Victorian fantasy novels filled with political intrigue, Victorian mysteries with supernatural twists, and romantic fantasy novels with themes of loss and redemption. Alice's Adventures in Underland is a duology: -The Queen of Stilled Hearts (covering the events behind Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)-The Knight of Shattered Dreams (covering the events behind Through the Looking-Glass)

At sunrise and sunset, the sky burns like it's on fire and the old broken bridge over the railroad tracks on the far side of town stretches across the universes. At the end of the bridge are the fairies... Della Rae is only in this podunk Midwestern university town for the full-ride biology scholarship she's getting. In a year or two, she's going to Oxford as an exchange student, she knows it. Her eventual goal: to cure cancer. Only life doesn't go like that. The way you planned. Something's going on in the basement of the science building, something that's tied up every single professor and sends the summer work-study students running. Rumors are going around that the professors are performing a vivisection. And nobody wants to see that. But it's probably not going to be performed on the lab rats. Because this town has always had something weird going on. Something that involves Della Rae's best friend, Merc, and a few other kids in town, all with the same face...

Everyone fears death, the great unwinding... Ticking clocks echo through an enormous English country house. A watercolor over the mantle ripples. A woman sleepwalks, pulled by moonlight and dreams, until she stands under the painting, the last gift she was given by author Lewis Carroll, on the eve of her wedding. Her name is Alice. And on the other side of the painting, Wonderland is calling to her. One last time. Tick...tock...tick... In Wonderland, one only works in one's sleep. All proper Wonderlandians spend all night, every night, hard at work, winding the great clock of Wonderland - the Master Chronometer - of which all other Wonderlandians are but synchronized slave clocks. At night, one understands that one is made of clockwork, although, of course, one pretends otherwise when one is awake. To do otherwise would make the current madness of the daylit Wonderlandians look like stark sanity. Besides, it's only polite.