Issue 39

NewMyths.com

A quarterly ezine by a community of writers, poets and artists.

Issue 39, June 2017

Fans of NewMyths.com,

First off, New Myths Publishing has some exciting announcements. We will be publishing more of my short stories in the coming months as stand alone print and electronic editions. "Charlotte's Cove" is already available (featuring a cover by producer/artist/actor David McGrath), and "Fey Prison Warden" and "Zombie Nation" will soon be available. In addition, we are reissuing a classic science fiction novel from 1977, Encounter Program by Robert Enstrom. If you haven't read this yet, it is not to be missed. Coming in August, 2017.

After ten years of editing New Myths, my schedule finally caught up with me. My girls, 6 and 8, are of an age when I want and need to give them lots of attention, and my other responsibilities have not declined. Therefore I have decided to turn over the magazine editing responsibilities to the very capable Susan Shell Winston. Susan and I have been working together on New Myths for years, so there won't be significant changes to editorial content. And I will still be lurking here in the background...

Enjoy,

Scott T. Barnes, Editor

Hello, Dear Readers,

Scott once noted that several of our issues have stories and poems with a common thread that even the issue editor didn’t recognize until, perhaps, we sit down to write the introduction of all the stories we’ve selected and see it staring us in the face. This is such an issue. The surprise for me this time is that almost every story in this issue deals with the end (or boundary) of the character’s world. How that could happen is a mystery to me. I certainly did not start out selecting stories with a common theme. Nor do I remember an inbox full of nothing but end of the world stories. Yet here they are–every story I loved this time is a wonderful and unique variation of that theme.

(Now... how did that happen?)

As always, I hope each and every one of you will enjoy reading these stories and poems as much as I did. Just hold onto your seats and remember: this is not the Twilight Zone. there’s nothing in the air, or cereal, or climate change, or asteroid belt that’s secretly trying to warn us here that there’s a change coming to our world too. Fiction is just fiction. Right?

–Susan Shell Winston

Table of Contents

Fiction

The Emperor’s Dragon by Timothy Gwyn

I crouch in my tiny saddle. Despite the huge wing spread on the ground behind me, I do not feel like a dragon.

Ms. Solevacj’s Leaf-Mould by Chip Houser

Ms. Solevacj was in the middle of her 72-lap morning mile, the early sluggishness in her muscles burned off, leaving her feeling strong, a machine gliding through the water.

Once and Future by Dan Micklethwaite

Early mornings, before the tourists show up, Gordon Barrow likes to lean against the hotel roof and watch the trains. There are two of them, the engines no bigger than his size eight shoes.

Waiting on Annette by Bill Schwarz

She lay in the tank before him, floating in the last portion of a once-great ocean, a naked goddess waiting to rise from the sea. Annette the Beloved, Annette of the Multitudes, Annette of the Dying Days.

The Wall at the End of the World by Edoardo Albert

“The painted people!” The legate shook his head and spat into the fire before reaching for the cup and taking a swallow of the wine I’d brought with me. “I’ve spent too many years fighting them to spend my off-duty time talking about them.”

Flash Fiction

Fenrir by Christina Sng

We first found him as a pup, lost and starving in a ditch by our house. He was tiny, fitting perfectly in the palm of my hand.

Love in the Time of Lightspeed by Rob Greene

The matchmaker’s heels clicked like a bored Geiger counter as she led Jared Sadiq down the hall to the interview room. “Are you nervous?” she said.

NonFiction

Our Destiny by Peter Jekel

Humankind has demonstrated in a very brief span of time a remarkable technological advancement. In less than one hundred years, we saw the achievement of the first flight by a human being (Wright Brothers on December 17, 1903) to the landing on the Moon (July 20, 1969).

Poetry

The Book by Rohinton Daruwala

Hell’s Gardener by Shannon Connor Winward

Sunken by Lev Mirov

When Stones Awaken by Beth Cato