Illustration by Brenda Dunn
I was young when it happened. I was looking from the neat apartment I had just moved into, down from my window into the garden just beneath me. I remember it was a lovely garden. There were dark roses, like spilled wine, and a curtain of heavenly blue morning glories. I was daydreaming about the garden that I wanted someday. It would have such roses and glories, and also moonflowers and jasmine, dahlias and evening primrose. Snapdragons, honeysuckle. Lilies, tiger lilies. […] My body met the ground six storeys below with crushing force. I landed feet-first, shattering the bones of my feet, my ankles, driving them up into the splintered pulp of my shins. All my soft organs, shaken and stirred, bubbled weakly and ceased to function. The white-hot glare of my impact did not last very long.
From “Snapdragons and Tiger Lilies,” by Tisha Moor
Here’s what you’ll find in our inaugural issue:
A Prelude to Death, by Amanda Earl
Unicorns, by Amy Einarson
The Break-Up, by Amber Fenik
The Face, by Lorianne Garrison (ill. Gjen Snider)
The South American Friend, by James Greatrex
Water Fairy, by Eli Krystle
Snapdragons and Tiger Lilies, by Tisha Moor (ill. Brenda Dunn)
Zoey’s Kissy-Face for Stacey, by Sean Moreland
Trickster, by Roland Prevost
Weep, by Alexander Robaey
Waking Up, by Hayley Ross
Southvale Junior High Bulletin, April 26th 2013, by Cory Sampson (ill. Mark Slater)
The Winter of Jack Frost, by Samantha Ward
A Matter of Time, by Jesse Adrian Wolfe
This issue also features cover art by Danielle Tunstall, and an excerpt from Nikhil Singh’s novel, Black Coconuts (with an accompanying illustration by Singh). It also includes two interviews: (1) Amal El-Mohtar, author of The Honey Month (conducted by Dominik Parisien), and (2) Glen Hirshberg and Peter Atkins of the Rolling Darkness Revue (conducted by Sean Moreland and James Greatrex).
Postscripts to Darkness 