Welcome to Issue #0 – the pre-launch issue of Wildstacks. In this issue we have excellent fiction from Mike Chinn, Anne Gay and Allen Ashley so sit back and enjoy!
“I didn’t think I’d miss having Duncan as an upstairs neighbour but that was before Laurence moved in. Duncan I’d grown used to: heavy-footed like the proverbial herd of elephants stomping meaningfully over the bare wooden floorboards; sunbathing until late in September in his half of the miniature garden, his genitals and slight paunch barely contained by a pair of blue Speedos; or cooking up exotic dishes in the manner of currently fashionable TV chefs. These latter appealed more to the sensitive smoke alarm than the modern cosmopolitan palate.”
By Right of the Stars by Anne Gay
“I’d never seen anything like it. I was just sitting there at a long table like everybody else. Something massive and strange passed outside the ice-encrusted windows. I slid the old dagger out of my boot and slipped it up my sleeve. Inside our cavern, heads turned until everyone was staring apprehensively, reaching for knives and swords. Even so they flinched, and so did I, as the monster slammed open the door. Tall, it was, with a strange peaked head and leathery skin scabbed with snow.”
“You can do it, you know you can. Just pick up that bread-knife. A little pressure, a deep slice – perhaps a little pain… And then…
No? But you will one day. I know you will. You must.
So – the kitchen makes you restless, does it? Take that chicken sandwich through the breakfast room, then – not much in there for me to work on here: just a table and potted plants – and into the lounge. Yes – sit down and look bleakly at the inactive TV. Enjoy a moment’s respite. I can be generous. I have the time.”
The Alchemy Press 