Jm Landels

Ceren of the Surf, one of cover artist Bronwyn Schuster's Knights of the Drowned Table, guards the watery portal to our autumn offerings. But more than water flows past the dead in feature author Kate Heartfield's chilling tale of corporate cover-ups, 'The Investigation Is Sealed'. Ravens, monsters, and zombies steal the show - and a few souls - in 'A Fair Exchange' by Tom Jolly, 'Liar's Leap' by Jonathan Sean Lyster, and 'Bad Backup' by Mikayla Fawcett and Gabriel Craven. Meanwhile, artistic adventures in celluloid, paint, and spider's silk await in 'The Painting' by Alan Sincic, 'The Projectionist' by Lisa Alo Seaman, and 'A Weaver's Web' by Barry Charman. The smell of goats and the secrets of ghosts haunt the pages of 'The Shepherdess: Narbonne' by JM Landels and 'Take My Hand: Enter Night' by Mel Anastasiou. And poetry from our Magpie Award Winners Angela Rebrec, Cicely Grace, and Veronika Gorlova reminds us that even the darkest of nights ends in sunrise.

In this issue ... The glowing yellow moon by cover artist Joyce Harumi Kamikura shines on forests, fields, and gardens in fiction by Matthew Hughes, JM Landels, and KT Wagner, while birds, ghosts, time travellers, cyborgs, and footnotes lure us away with stories by Elizabeth Nash, Mel Anastasiou, Finnian Burnett, and Mark Budman. Plus, find notable stories and winning entries from the Jack Whyte Storyteller Award and the Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest

In her search for the Answer to Everything, our intrepid Issue 42 cover heroine, Raygunne, finds dragons in the Rocky Mountains, ghosts in the 1990s, ninjas in suburbia, spies in Cathar castles, and zombie-killers for hire from Kelly Robson, Mel Anastasiou, Preston Lang, JM Landels, and Mikayla Fawcett and Gabriel Craven. Plus more moving stories and poetry from Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho, Nat Kishchuk, and the winners of the Kingfisher Poetry Prize, the Jack Whyte Storyteller Award, and the Raven Short Fiction Contest

Enchantment begins with Dreaming Underwater by Claire Lawrence. Friendship carries us forward in 'The Drink We Spill Out on the Ground' by feature author Claire Humphrey, 'Summer Soup' by Kim Harbridge, and 'Stella Ryman and the Curse of Youth' by Mel Anastasiou. Meanwhile, 'Marty' by Kevin Sandefur, 'When A Man Knows Much More Than We Ever Did' by Kelli Allen, and 'Mayflies' by Liza Potvin remind us that family life offers its own kind of adventures. Jennifer Lott, with 'Thirty Minutes to Live', and Beatrice Morgan, with 'Six-Minute Quiz', show us how to make wise use of our time. Matthew Nielsen's 'Then and Now: An ASD Comic' and Soramimi Hanarejima's 'Vulnerability, Now and Then' offer a spectrum of possibility. With 'The Golden Calf', JM Landels shows us another side of friendship and duty. Poetry by Elina Taillon, Haro Lee, and DS Martin takes us to the moon and madness. Then 'Reap What You Sow' by Alex Reece-Abbott and 'Tourist Trap at the End of the World' by KT Wagner land us back on solid ground.

Feature author Ren e Sarojini Saklikar treats us to a Bramah and the Beggar Boy side tale in prose and poetry. We welcome back Cadence Mandybura, and enjoy slipstream and superheroes from Patrick Barb and Tom Jolly. Mel Anastasiou offers more Pretty Lies and JM Landels shows us the other side of the mirror in 'Zara's Song'. Plus the winners of the Hummingbird Flash Fiction Prize

In the six years since Allaigna left home, killed her betrothed, and joined the Brandishear Rangers, she has hidden her family name and her ability to sing music into magic. Confronted with the dire implications of her grandfather's exploration into long-forbidden arcana, Allaigna must swallow her pride and summon her courage to return home with the ashes of her cousin to prevent yet another war, or worse, an arcane catastrophe to rival that of the legendary Cataclysm.The Allaigna's Song trilogy is a love story, a family saga, and a coming-of-age novel that braids together the stories of daughter, mother, and grandmother.

Under the wise gaze of 'The Butterfly Witch' by Melissa Mary Duncan, this issue promises at least two sides to every story. Siblings work through past hurts and begin new journeys in 'Old Gifts' by feature author James Sallis and 'Can-on-a-String' by Alex Kitt. Meanwhile, zombies do double duty in 'Ambience' by Jason P Burnham and 'Caught Dead' by Shawn L Bird. We navigate new lands with Pete Barnstrom in 'Oeufs Dangereux' and Cheryl Skory Suma in 'Adrift off the Shore of Alzheimer Island'. And Anna Zumbro in 'The Dump 'Em Dog' and Mikael Lopez and Enrico Orlandi in 'Forgive My Delay' remind us that, no matter the world in which we live, breaking up is hard to do. Next, triple your literary delight with historical fiction: 'The Shepherdess: Grandm re Paris' by JM Landels, 'Pretty Lies: I Can See for Miles' by Mel Anastasiou, and 'Once Upon a Time in Camelot' by GD Litke. Three's the charm for poetry too, with our Magpie Award winners Cara Waterfall's 'griefbody' and 'Harvest' and Kevin Spenst's 'BigGermanDialectWordClankinglyInsertedHere '.

In This Issue: It's summertime, and the water's fine ... or is it? 'Collector' by cover artist Akem beckons us beneath the surface and between the pages. But in 'A Collection of Secrets' by feature author Rhea Rose and 'The Island' by M Denise Beaton, we discover that some treasures are better left hidden. Back on shore, summer brings around friends both new and old in 'Audrey and the Crow' by Cadence Mandybura, 'The Two Oh Four Six' by Dustin Moon, 'Floaters' by Kevin Sandefur, and 'Whispers in Between My Shoulder Blades' by Christine Breede. Shapeshifers in 'Shadow Work' by Soramimi Hanarejima and 'Gwannyn's Song' by JM Landels show us the secret to sacrifice. And families come together, reshaped, in Kaile Shilling's SiWC honourable mention, 'Death and Laughter'. Allison Bannister in 'The Play's the Thing' and Mel Anastasiou in 'Pretty Lies: Hold On' draw inspiration from the classics. And poetry from Dawn Macdonald and Yuan Changming reminds us that love is classic too.

In this issue, a giant feline swats us into the void with 'Space Cat' by Bronwyn Schuster. And feature author Kate Heartfield leads us on a daring escape through the universe in 'And in the Arcade, Ego'. Hitch a ride into the heat - and heart - of the desert with Kevin Sandefur's 'Out in the Sticks'. And it all goes up in flames in 'Paper, Candles, Hearts & Other Combustible Materials' by Anne Baldo. Natalie Harris-Spencer, in 'The Art of Ironing', and Cara Waterfall, in 'Vessel', illustrate ways of navigating relationships and bodily autonomy. And friendship transcends time and place in 'Fate of Chickens' by Krista Jane May. We delve into familial grief and sacrifice in 'Sap and Seed', by H Pueyo and Dante Luiz, and the opening chapters of 'Allaigna's Song: Chorale' by JM Landels, while 'Pale Pony Express' by Lulu Keating and 'The Echo of Light Footsteps on Parchment' by Kimberley Aslett explore memory and loss through storytelling. Strange science brings us 'The Magic Shuffling Machine' by Derek Salinas Lazarski but can't explain the tiny home intruder in 'The Switch Fairy' by Monica Wang or the supernatural occurrences in 'Pretty Lies: Eyes Full of Moon' by Mel Anastasiou.

Beneath the coastal landscape of Tatjana Mirkov-Popovicki's Helby Island Afternoon, families navigate magic, migration, murder, and mayhem in short fiction from Brenda Carre, Elsa M Carruthers, Hajera Khaja, Graham Robert Scott, Janet Smith, and Colleen Anderson. Matthew Nielsen searches for belonging and the Bumblebee winner alights. Allaigna faces new adventures in Oburakor by JM Landels. And Frankie Ray returns for a final bow in the last installment of The Extra by Mel Anastasiou.

With A Foundations of Lies by cover artist Kris Sayer, we emerge from the dark woods with Tatterhood's loyal goat Bokki. Sword in hand (or mouth ), and fierce battle won, we are ready to take on the varied landscapes of this issue, no passport required. In 'The Library Giant' by feature author Shashi Bhat, the struggle with nature - human nature - rages deep within. Meanwhile, in British Columbia and Iceland, ghosts of grief wander with the living as KT Wagner, SL Leong, and Erin Wagner explore the rocky terrain of memory. And whether in a culvert or factory, but most certainly within one's own mind, Mike Gillis and Brandon Crilly remind us how difficult it can be to navigate wreckage of the heart. Forest, river, mountain, ocean - Mother Nature has a starring role in the winning stories for the 2020 Hummingbird Flash Fiction Prize: 'The Weeping Pools' and 'River's Thousand-One Voice' by Cadence Mandybura, and 'Glimpse of a Goddess' by Laura Kuhlmann. Poets Abner Porzio, with 'Californian Illusion', and Michael Penny, with 'Kalaloch Beach, WA', introduce us to two very different wild west coasts. Next, take flight and soar above it all with part three of Joseph Stilwell and Hugh Henderson's comic saga Blue Skies over Nine Isles. And finally, heroines Frankie Ray and Allaigna enter dangerous territory of their own as they search for clues to murder. In 'Sleuth With Star Quality' by Mel Anastasiou, Frankie Ray dons a disguise and braves a brothel. And in 'The Killing Ground', the second part of Allaigna's Song: Oburakor by JM Landels, Allaigna buries the dead in a blood-soaked wasteland.

Our journey begins under the gaze of The Faery Godmother by cover artist Ashley Rose Goentoro. We step into a ghost story 'Man with Golden Helmet' by feature author Ren e Sarojini Saklikar. Dawn Lo in 'Little Snowflake Girls' and Weiwei Xu in 'Chimera' introduce us to young people exploring meaningful questions of identity and belonging. Like trailside inukshuks, memories pile up and tumble away in 'Moons of Saturn' by James Dorr, 'Practising the Art of Forgetting' by Soramimi Hanarejima, and 'Starry Nights' by David Milne. AJ Lee, in 'What Kind of Story', and Magpie winners Charlene Kwiatkowski, Maria Ford, and Cara Waterfall delight with their bewitching words. Solutions to two very different puzzles emerge with Susan Pieters in 'Hoax' and Cameron MacDonald in 'Mourgadze'. Whether by way of closet or carriage, keeping safe means keeping up appearances for Frankie Ray in 'The Sleuth with the Platinum Hair' by Mel Anastasiou and Toinette in 'The Shepherdess: Versailles' by JM Landels.

In this issueSavoury short fiction from Tomson Highway, Jakob Drud, Kim Harbridge, Hannah Van Didden, Dave Gregory, NRM Roshak and R Daniel Lester. Poetry from Erin Kirsh and Peter Norman. Further adventures of Frankie Ray in The Extra from Mel Anastasiou and a brand new Allaigna novella from JM Landels. Plus the winners of the Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest and the SiWC runner up, capped off with a chilling tale from Kris Sayer.

In this issue: Experience the motley horrors of World War II, as featured author JJ Lee reunites us with his man of mystery and monsters in 'The Man in the Long Black Coat: Bekker', and Robin Malcolm unearths long-buried secrets in 'The Bumblebee's Daughter'. The secrets continue in field and forest on Canada's west coast with Chuck Lim's 'The Red Tiger' and KT Wagner's 'Cabin Fever'. Meanwhile, appearances intrigue and deceive in Adam Fout's 'Black Glass' and FJ Bergmann's 'Yellow Paint'. Magpies are the only birds that can recognize themselves in a mirror. Fitting that our Magpie Award for Poetry winners -- Susan Haldane, Jack Waldheim, and Roxanna Bennett -- captivate us with their reflections on humanity. A journey through the generations awaits vampires and travellers alike, as Tyner Gillies in 'The Lord of Lawn Ornaments' and Susan Pieters in 'The Map According to Me' show us that, indeed, wherever you go, there you are. And intrepid adventurers seek their fortunes, whether by horseback to Paris in 'The Shepherdess' by JM Landels, or by Model A to California in The Extra: Frankie Ray Goes to Hollywood by Mel Anastasiou.