Fictional Worlds

Some kids do that---they imprint on empty objects, they give them stories and opinions and a will, until they feel half-inhabited even to grownups, who have to pretend that they care how Chrissy’s blanket feels about things for so long that one day when Chrissy’s at school they step on the blanket and apologize. I did it with anything, when I was young; my toys were always in the middle of some intense plot that nobody outside could understand.

The woman began as an idea, as so many women do. She couldn’t be entirely beautiful, because that would stretch credibility too far. She couldn’t be ugly, either, though. via Pocket

Even though your creative fiction professor fawns over Joyce, you don’t understand the copy of Ulysses you checked out from the library, so you hide behind it while you stare at your classmate whose skin flickers. His blue and green skin is speckled…

The worst day of Wells the Magician’s life begins pleasantly enough, with a shot of whiskey at the Lost Kingdom bar. via Pocket

How to tell your boyfriend you are in love with a robot: Tell him, “I may possibly be in love with a robot,” because absolutes are difficult for biological brains to process. He won’t be jealous. via Pocket

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We were getting coffee, which we used to do all the time, when Tierney told me she was thinking of having it done. I’d hurt her feelings. I hadn’t meant to. As I tried to think of what to say I followed the line of her eyes to a woman who’d just wal…

It is the business of the Dream Curator to choose, and at the moment he is doing so. On his left, an uninspiring rococo fantasia on a childhood humiliation; on his right, a fractured symbolist nightmare of mollusks and walls of televisions. via Pock…

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I’m fourteen the first time I bargain with the indigo snake. I find it basking on the rocks that are piled against the south side of our house, a lazily drawn line of black, like a cursive letter that has gotten away from itself. It lifts its head a…

NASA died two hundred and three nautical miles above the planet Mars. It died when Daniel Chen, the last surviving crew member of Pilgrim 2, ran out of breathable atmosphere. At that point, Chen pulled himself close to the nearest camera lens. via P…

Home. He recognizes the name of the street. But he doesn’t remember the landscape. He recognizes the address on the mailbox. But he doesn’t remember the house. His family is waiting for him on the porch. Everybody looks just as nervous as he is. He gets out. The police cruiser takes back off down the gravel drive, leaving him standing in a cloud of dust holding a baggie of possessions.

We have original science fiction by Carolyn Ives Gilman (“On the Shores of Ligeia”) and Woody Dismukes (“My Children's Home”), along with SF reprints by Violet Allen (“The Synapse Will Free Us From Ourselves”) and Charlie Jane Anders (“A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime”). Plus, we have original fantasy by Maria Romasco Moore (“Self Storage Starts with the Heart”) and Ashok K. Banker (“A Problem of Progeny”), and fantasy reprints by Richard Kadrey (“Ambitious Boys Like You”) and Kat Howard (“Those Are Pearls”). All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotligh...

We have original science fiction by Carolyn Ives Gilman (“On the Shores of Ligeia”) and Woody Dismukes (“My Children's Home”), along with SF reprints by Violet Allen (“The Synapse Will Free Us From Ourselves”) and Charlie Jane Anders (“A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime”). Plus, we have original fantasy by Maria Romasco Moore (“Self Storage Starts with the Heart”) and Ashok K. Banker (“A Problem of Progeny”), and fantasy reprints by Richard Kadrey (“Ambitious Boys Like You”) and Kat Howard (“Those Are Pearls”). All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotligh...

We have original science fiction by Carolyn Ives Gilman (“On the Shores of Ligeia”) and Woody Dismukes (“My Children's Home”), along with SF reprints by Violet Allen (“The Synapse Will Free Us From Ourselves”) and Charlie Jane Anders (“A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime”). Plus, we have original fantasy by Maria Romasco Moore (“Self Storage Starts with the Heart”) and Ashok K. Banker (“A Problem of Progeny”), and fantasy reprints by Richard Kadrey (“Ambitious Boys Like You”) and Kat Howard (“Those Are Pearls”). All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotligh...

We have original science fiction by Carolyn Ives Gilman (“On the Shores of Ligeia”) and Woody Dismukes (“My Children's Home”), along with SF reprints by Violet Allen (“The Synapse Will Free Us From Ourselves”) and Charlie Jane Anders (“A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime”). Plus, we have original fantasy by Maria Romasco Moore (“Self Storage Starts with the Heart”) and Ashok K. Banker (“A Problem of Progeny”), and fantasy reprints by Richard Kadrey (“Ambitious Boys Like You”) and Kat Howard (“Those Are Pearls”). All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotligh...

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