Our contributors in this issue reside in places as various as Nova Scotia, the Czech Republic, North Wales, Ohio, Montana and Massachusetts
It’s an equally eclectic bunch of stories, ranging in tone from Maria Greer’s dystopian but very witty Long-Distance Call to the disturbing yet plaintive childhood vignette Stolen Moment by J. M. Faulkner.
The Taste of Pomegranate is further evidence that Maureen Bowden has cornered the market in rendering the ancient world as a sort of early Friends. A big contrast with the controversial subject of alt-right rage at the decadence of modern life in Nicholas Stillman’s All Dissolved.
John Mara’s The Icewomen Cometh is a play on words with the title of Eugene O’Neill’s famous drama of the 1940s, but this is a very different kind of tale, with lots of suspense and a satisfying structure. Also attention-grabbing from the off is Mike Sherer’s Footsteps, again showing admirable economy in the telling.