The knight looked out over the rolling hills, hands on her knees and sword resting on the ground in front of her, ready to be snatched up at a moment’s notice. It was dark, with only the moon and the faint flickering firelight providing any visual on the surrounding area, but her eyes were sharp and well-accustomed to seeing in near pitch-black. The plains where they had made camp seemed to stretch endlessly, grass rippling...
Read moreby Savannah Jade Firm arms wrapped around my body as we lay atop a dark green crocheted blanket in the sand. Each grain molded to the contours of our figures, leaving imprints in the shape of mini sand dunes. Past his shoulder where my chin rested, my fingertips grazed the peak of the nearest dune, tracing the curvature of Earth’s natural occurring memory foam. The sand trickled down, forming a small waterfall that shimmered like...
Read moreby Meahgan Ferral In the dark of the woods, where sunbeams rarely kissed the ground and strangers never stepped, there was a small community, tucked away in the leaves and branches and dirt. I’ve lived my life there, in a cabin with my parents and sister. The two of us spent our childhood roaming beneath the trees with our parents at our heels, whispering in our ears to never wander too far, to never stray...
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Science fiction allures and enthralls because of the unique worlds each story holds. At the core of science fiction, there’s science: some new knowledge, discovery, or breakthrough. Then, there’s technology: how that science is applied, from daily life to a planetary or (inter)galactic scale. When you hear “science,” your mind might jump to physics, biology, chemistry—all those hard sciences. But don’t discount the social sciences, like psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Blending together different sub-sciences leads Read more
Romance is the genre that inspired me to write as a kid. It felt more welcoming and attainable, since I viewed it in an escapist light. I realized I didn’t have to take myself or my writing so seriously, but rather just try to write something fun, interesting and well-written. Another beauty of romance, no pun intended, is how central love is in our lives. Everyone wants to love and be loved in some sense Read more
Our pulse quickens. Our eyes grow wide. We gasp for breath, shudder, and shrink back into our seats. Horror readers—and writers—are a true contradiction. As our favorite genre hurls us mercilessly into our deepest childhood frights, feeds us to monsters, and speeds us headlong into destruction and death, we’ve never felt more alive. What is it about wandering through words, away from the safety of the light, into the terrors of the darkness, through dizzy Read more
Sitting amidst the woods with the golden glow of the sun, you watch satyrs run by with their flutes. Fairies zoom to join them. Well, except for one. She’s barely the size of your finger, but you still manage to see her smile beneath her wide eyes. The fairy offers a hand to you. Sound familiar? Fantasy is a genre known for bending reality in beautiful ways. Whether the world is based on our own, Read more
In thrillers, good and evil are divided. Moral choices stay clear, though risks are high and calls are hard. For all the palpitation-inducing danger, for each acid spurt of adrenaline, what whiplashes protagonist and reader through each thriller’s plot is the knowledge that they have something worth saving. They are the ones who will fight for good. They are the ones who will face down evil. Mysteries can twist the reader’s perception with unreliable narrators, Read more
I read all genres, but mysteries were there for me when the going was rough. During the hardest times in my life I engaged my overactive mind in high-stakes puzzles, in fictional webs of deceit, and in dropped clues and red herrings. Each mystery pointed out the truth: sometimes, life went sideways, the world went wrong, and people went wrong, too. I didn’t want to be gaslit into thinking everyone was safe. I knew that Read more
by Brianne Simone A moss-covered cottage, nestled in the meadow, was obscured from sight by overgrown wildflowers. Fireflies perched on its cobblestone walls as a steady stream of steam drifted out of the chimney. There was a path that led to this cottage, but none traversed it, for parents warned their children never to visit the meadow witch, for she was dangerous, wicked, and cruel. This suited the witch just fine, of course, since she’d never particularly liked Read more
by Talia Leher The Exploration of Light should have been called A Forcible Onslaught of Banned Wavelengths. Or perhaps: The Cabinet’s Monopoly on Light for Purposes of Supposedly Dissecting the Fabric of Your Life. The misbranding frustrated Aviva. “Citizens of Monochra,” the Weaver’s voice boomed through the speakers and echoed off the curved walls of the arena. “Welcome to the one-hundredth Exploration of Light!” He paused for dramatic effect. “We gather here tonight to test Read more
by K. M. Jackson He left me behind—my grand père, my papa. I took too long to get ready. Primping and applying foundation uselessly in the sweltering heat of Louisiana. This time, he would teach me a lesson. He would finally prove that my mouth was the only thing I ran. I hurried down the hideous green shag-carpeted stairs to find everyone gone. A look out of the kitchen window, clouds of dirt road billowing Read more
By Kimberly Jackson There is a shadow of darkness, a looming presence that nips at the neck of progress and laughs at hope. Our terror, our fright, lives with us—or do we live with it? This is a question that sits at the very center of the Ethno-Gothic, a genre where the past refuses to stay buried, and where horror is not a visitor but a long-time resident of the American BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and Read more
By: Zenia deHaven I’ll admit it: I have bought a book based on its cover before, and I will again. There are times when I don’t even read the book’s blurb and just shove that bad boy right into my basket because the cover has a cool dragon. I enjoy coming home to a collection of novels with sprayed edges and art so magnificent and heartfelt that it should belong in a museum. But my Read more