A Dwarven smith-turned-baker teams up with a tea shop owner to mete out justice through deadly pastries. This was a fun story with a dark edge to it; it reminded me very…
Category: Story a Day 2022
“Tanguska, 1987” by Maria Haskins
Eighty years after mysterious and powerful Metallics take control of humanity’s destiny with a mix of benevolence and tyranny, a teen is selected to become part of a world-shaping project. This felt…
“The Brightest Lights of Heaven” by Maria Haskins
Through imagination and ritual, two girls conjure a deadly game into the world. This is a fun story with a couple of interesting twists, almost cute but for the carnage.
“Dream Cargoes” by J.G. Ballard
After her captain and most of her crew abandon ship, a freighter carrying mysterious bioactive chemicals runs aground on an abandoned Caribbean island, causing runaway fecundity. This feels similar in some ways…
“Metal, Sex, Monsters” by Maria Haskins
A woman recounts how she became a sort of vampiric monster to a police officer who was there at the beginning. This is an interesting and subtle story, much more about the…
“The Root Cellar” by Maria Haskins
A dismembered girl who stitched herself back together hunts for her lost brother, and her missing arm, in her grandmother’s horrific root cellar. This is quite a mix of fairy tale and…
“Men, Women, and Chainsaws” by Stephen Graham Jones
A woman discovers a haunted Camaro and uses it to take revenge on her ex-fiance. This is a very Stephen Graham Jones story – nods to horror movie lore, working-class characters in…
“The Volcano Dances” by J.G. Ballard
A man waits in the shadow of an active volcano while everyone around him evacuates. This is an odd little story; it feels of a piece with The Delta at Sunset and…
“The Repugnant Conclusion” by Elif Batuman
College students ruminate on love and sex through the lenses provided by their classes in literature, language, philosophy, and ethics. Not bad for a New Yorker story about affluent young people –…
“Ten Things I Didn’t Do” by Maria Haskins
A girl recounts her encounter with a monster who wasn’t a monster but a man, which didn’t kill her except maybe it did. This is a dark little story, couching generational abuse…