I forgot to announce that my story “Battle at the Pit” sold to Frost Fire Worlds and appears in their May 2015 issue. You can read a sample of the story below and order this and previous issues of the magazine from the Alban Lake store. The contents of the May 2015 issue are:
Stories
Cog by JD DeHart
The Harper of Stone by Sandra Unerman
The Next Step in the Dance by Maureen Bowden
Battle at the Pit by Karl El-Koura
Making Up by Caroline Cutting
Serial
The Adventures of Colo Collins & Tama Toledo in Space and Time by Tyree Campbell – Episode 1: Let’s Find Out
Flash Fiction
A Pet Picnic by Nick Thomas
Merlin’s Sword by Matthew Wilson
Poems
What’s Hot and What’s Not by John Grey
Dragontalk by Richard H. Durisen
Dragon by Richard H. Durisen
The Exiled Tyrant by Matthew Wilson
That’s My Boy by John Grey
Battle of Marlowe’s Field by Matthew Wilson
The Farmer’s Task by Matthew Wilson
Features
The Lauren McBride Page
The Sandy DeLuca Page
Battle at the Pit (sample)
Sebastien didn’t hear Sophie yelling at first. But out of the corner of his eye he saw her waving her arms and, reluctantly, he landed the lawnmower.
“—that thing off already!”
“Okay, it’s off—what’s up, Soph?”
“Steven!” she said in her eight-year-old whine, almost stamping the ground in her agitation. “He’s in trouble. He’s—”
Sebastien sighed, then turned the mower back on. He still had another acre to mow before he could call it a day for chores and get back to his own projects.
Loud as it was, though, the mower’s engines couldn’t drown out Sophie’s screams now that he was attuned to her voice. He retracted the blades and flew towards his little sister, which wasn’t nice because the mower scared her. But this time she stood her ground.
He landed again.
“You don’t understand!” she said, and now he could see that she was on the verge of crying.
“Okay.” Sebastien hopped off the vehicle. “I’m sorry. What’s going on?”
Her blue eyes filmed over with tears. “Steven took your bot! He’s—”
“Soph, where is he?” He grabbed her shoulders. “Tell me!”
“The Pit. He’s at the Pit.”
“Go back inside, Soph. Don’t tell Mom and Dad. Deal?”
Buy the May 2015 issue of Frost Fire Worlds
