Issue 50

Dear Readers,

All I can say is WOW, 50 issues!!! When I started NewMyths I had no expectations of it going this long.

Hopes, yes, but no expectations. Indeed, without the generous support of numerous people the magazine would never have made it. So first of all I want to thank our current editors: Susan Shell Winston—without whom none of this would be possible; Marta Tanrikulu—keeping Susan and me on track; and Candyce Byrne—guiding the book reviews toward a more stable and useful tomorrow; and all the slush readers, assistant editors, and editors over the years who have stepped forward—often for nothing more than a “thanks”—to keep the magazine going. A partial list appears under the About/Contact tab, but I know I’ve forgotten a few. The alumni of Odyssey need a special shout out for doing more than their share.

Now to our contributors and readers. Without you, this magazine is nothing. While we have published some great works over the years, we recognize that something is lagging. And that something is community. So we are working on ways to make NewMyths more than just a magazine, but to turn it into a giant collaboration that will benefit us all, the lovers of speculative fiction and the creators of speculative fiction. Over the next few months our newsletter will begin to outline our plans.

I don’t want to make this intro too long or spoil any surprises, so stay tuned. And now on to our stalwart editor, Susan…

-Scott T. Barnes, March 15, 2020

I would like to add my thanks to all our readers and contributors. You've made NewMyths what it is today!

And a special note of thanks and congratulations to two of our contributors whose poems last year have been nominated for the Rhysling Award—to Gerri Leen for "Why Not?" in Issue 49, December 2019, and to Mary Soon Lee for "How to Colonize Ganymede" in Issue 48, September 2019.

In other news, here at NewMyths, we've started collecting stories and poems for our third anthology due out next year, NeoSapiens. Full of androids developing self-awareness, animals evolving sentience, aliens watching us, and mythical beings hiding among us, each getting their chance to tell us: Move out of our way, humans, you are no longer the only smart kids on the block.

And here in our 50th issue, we offer you a sampling of a few of our new NeoSapien stories that have come in. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did.

-Susan Shell Winston, Editor

Table of Contents

Fiction

Spun of Salt and Stone by Deborah L. Davitt

The weighted spindle dropped from her hand, whirling, while her practiced fingers fed it golden strands of flax from the distaff. Tears prickled at her eyes. They tasted like salt, like blood, but blood had power, and tears had none

A Fairy Tale by Melanie Harding-Shaw

The quiet of the night was broken by the whirring of tiny wings on two figures flying across thRe room. They would have looked a lot like winged snakes if it weren’t for their clawed arms and legs and human-like heads.

High Plains Centaur by Larry Hodges

A tumbleweed rolled along the street between the centaur and the harpy. The centaur whipped the poncho aside, revealing crisscrossing ammunition belts and a pair of holstered pistols—hawkbeak specials, forged in the caverns of Vernado by the giant dwarves of Vern

Raccoon Ascendant by J. D, Moyer

As I sniffed out the chicken coop, the kits woke the hens with their pitched chatter. Finally I found the latch. With a long reach I lifted the clasp and slid open the bolt...

Memri's Requiem by Andrew Roberts

The walls of the lift slipped back into the tube, leaving them standing surrounded by the vast nothingness of the dome, with its three hundred and sixty degree view of the stars and planets through which the ship now passed.

“Look at it. Listen to it,” he said. Then taking her hand in his, added, “That’s music Shizuka-chan. All of that.”

Flash Fiction

The Collective Good by Brit E. B. Hvide

I sniff its feet. Plastic. Metal like spoons from which peanut butter can be licked. Old smoke from the Big Firework. And something familiar underneath it all—strawberry jelly. I back away, the fur on my neck raising. Is it a trick? I will not be tricked.

Its two eyes open, shining bright.

"Beep," the thing says.

Fetch Us Another Round by Chloie Piveral

They flirt, casting her in the guise of the homeport girl...they compete for her love with a song, with stories, with fists. With broken teeth and bloody lips, they call to her.

“Fetch us another round.”

She sweeps a lost molar or incisor into her palm, depositing them in her collection behind the bar. She pulls a tattered rag from her red bucket and wipes the counter clean.

Bayou Luminescence by Laura Sanchez

"Hold the boat still." Jake grabbed the dip net. He leaned over, slipped the net under the creature, and brought it up thrashing. It writhed out of the net and fell into the boat, grazing his knee.

Jake was almost twelve, but he yelped like a puppy. "It shocked me. Don't touch it."

"Shove it in the weird bucket." Tommy reached...for the plastic bucket they used to hold any strange new creatures moving into the bayou.

Swift Vengeance by Dawn Vogel

My daughter is lovely, her gleaming hair already past her waist, her body already like that of an adult human woman, save for the fangs in our maws, the talons at our hands, and the wings that sprout from our backs, that let us soar.

NonFiction

Creatures of the Night by Peter Jekel

Creatures rising from the dead to terrorize the living? Can science root out the cause for vampirism?

Why Natasha Romanoff Didn't Need to Lift the Hammer by Paul Schilling

Despite not having super powers, in Avengers Natasha Romanoff holds her own on a team of super-powered good guys against super-powered bad guys.

Poetry

Creature by John Grey

How to Weave the Stars by Mary Soon Lee

Living Things by Gerri Leen

Thylacines Lost by Linda Neuer