It’s difficult to describe an anthology, especially one containing works of such talent. In an attempt to give readers a better idea about Needles & Bones, I’ve created a more detailed description of the works it contains. The contents are described below, though the descriptions don’t do justice to the beauty of these works.
Please Note: Many of the pieces herein contain adult themes, violence, and sexual situations.
Click here to expand the (very long) Contents and Descriptions: +/-
Someone Has Broken the Looking-Glass Girl
Poetry by Lea C. Deschenes
The invisible-except-as-commodity every girl fairy tale princess is broken.
Light as Mist, Heavy as Hope, A. G. Slatter
In this retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, one might almost think we’ve revisited the fairy tale of our youth, except that Slatter’s Alice, Miller’s daughter, is a little darker, a little less innocent, much less a victim…and the miller is a very bad man. (Read an excerpt on the book’s description page.)
Heart of the Desert, Nyla Nox
In Heart of the Desert, Nox has created a world of sand and song. Califar, a famous singer, seeks to be the prince who scales the glass mountain or climbs Rapunzel’s hair. Here he must solve riddles and survive trials to find the Queen of the Desert and become King, but he cannot do it alone.
The Train, Cindy Lynn Speer
The Train is Hester’s escape, taking her and her unseen companion, Ian, away from the monster who made her. She doesn’t know how many times she’s escaped, or if this is her first. If Ian is real, or if he’s her creation as much as she is the doctor’s. It doesn’t matter. He helps her face her fears, gives her the strength to try (or try again) and if she’s lucky, and Ian stays with her, this may be her last escape.
Sister Night, Sister Moon, Catherine Schaff-Stump
Ted Finch, leading man, is brought from England’s Age of Reason to visit the City of Theopolis, scheduled to appear—for one night only—as Romeo in a place at the juncture of nowhere and everytime. He is a hit … and that may be his downfall.
Subterranean Song, Poetry by David Sklar
Ghosts and music intertwined: to dance their way out of hell, or fall from the gates of heaven.
And At That Time Shall Michael Stand, Berrien C. Henderson
Michael meets Lucifer at The Platter, an all-night diner in the heart of some city. Lucifer is pretty, and famous—a singer—and bitter. Michael is less pretty, obscure, and implacable. It isn’t time for the apocalypse, but perhaps they can share a cup of coffee, chat about old times and consider times to come.
Answer Me, Adrienne J. Odasso
Carl Jelling is an average man in an average life. His secret passion, however, is Egyptiana, specifically illegal artifacts. Once upon a time he dreamed of being an archaeologist, but life, as it often does to average men, got in the way. He has a consolation. Carl has saved enough money, made contact with the right man, and if he can’t be the man he dreamed he would be, at least he can own a tiny part of Egypt. But Egypt isn’t the right place for average men with average dreams, and though he loves it, it may not love him.
Metal Feathers, G. L. Simmons
Rajia sews couture in the House of Thread. She has been there for as long as she can remember, certainly since before the time of the plague. She cannot remember the outside, but she knows the quality of her stitches, the striking beauty of her simplest designs. Rajia is not allowed on the sales floor. She is a barbarian, magical with a needle but untutored in proper behavior. And yet, she is drawn there, to the beautiful clothes displayed without heads or hands.
One day a man comes and looks at her clothing. He is dismissive of its simplicity, and she tutors him in its value. She does not yet know that he is the most brilliant couturier in the city, and her future … if she’s good enough to sew his designs.
Swamp Angels, Andrew S. Taylor
There are things in the swamp. They rarely roam, but when they do it’s in search of young men like Jake. Unfortunately, by the time Jake’s grandfather gives him The Talk it’s too late. A swamp angel has made Jake her very special friend. Jake will never be the same.
The Strange Horses, Poetry by Kristine Ong Muslim
What happens when humanity is faced with the beauty of magic? It’s never anything good.
Mother, J. C. Miller
Once upon a time is how these stories are supposed to begin. In some, there is Rampion. And a prince. Not in this one. This one begins with the birth of an unwanted child. It was smelly. It cried. By the time it was a year old, it was talking to animals and making songs of nothing. The parents sold the child to a witch, and then they no longer mattered at all.
The child called the witch Mother and Mother called the child Maya. They loved one another very much, and Maya happily learned everything that Mother could teach her.
The prince’s name is Doyle, and his arrival changes everything.
Sleepwalker, Darin C. Bradley
Kenneth Lobert is a gentleman far from his Boston home. He hates the West: the dirt, the bar he owns and reluctantly tends, and the petty, small-minded people. Then one day he’s made an offer he can’t refuse. Unfortunately, the party doesn’t want to buy the bar, they want him to succeed with it, and remake him and everyone else in this dirty small town in the process. The contract is a sigil burned into the bar. Kenneth’s life becomes a fever dream, burning out from the inside. Burning high enough to engulf the whole town.
Gravity, a Fable, Kris Vaagen
Salut is the blood-letter of the Sixth Step. She and her kin are lighter, more righteous, than the creatures of the Seventh Step, but fall short of the glory that is the Fifth Step. They cannot imagine how beautiful the creatures of the First Step must be until a stranger falls from the First. She and her kin are distraught for him. Oh what a terrible thing it is to fall! It would have been better for him, they think, if he had not survived, but he is bright, and light, and very beautiful, and she cannot help but sew him back together with the threads that bind her own heart.
Though Salut cannot imagine the despair that must drive the stranger, Namaste who is stranger no more, when he chooses to fall from the Sixth Step she is horrified. Yet, though she hardly knows why, she must follow him, if necessary all the way to the Steps’ end and into the mouth of the Great Sea.
At Sea, Felicity Bloomfield
Salty is a hard woman and she keeps her pirate crew in line with regular beatings and a smart mouth. She’s content, until the sea turns on her and the life she’s chosen for herself is taken from her and she’s turned into the princess from a fairy tale. Too bad for anyone standing in her way. She’s come a long way from her days as a victim. She’ll get her life back, and it doesn’t matter how much blood she has to shed to do it.
Being Dead, V Addeman
Our hero is dead. He accepts that. It’s okay. Has to happen to everyone sometime, right? But he can’t remember what happened to the love of his life. Where did she go? Why can’t he remember?
Terra Incognita or Drawn, Poetry by David Harrity
What is the body? Where does it lie? To what great force is it connected? Shall we go there, or do we hide?
Benjira’s Bride, Lida Broadhurst
Jalki, Order initiate, dreams of one thing, finding the perfect bride for his master, Benjira. His first attempt was disastrous. The lady’s porcelain skin turned gray in the process. Her eyes dulled. Benjira gives him one final chance to succeed. Jalki knows that when he does Vardis will no longer be the favored one. Jalki will become Benjira’s right hand, and life will be fair again.
Memorabilia, Rudy Ch. Garcia
Tomás Chaneco Martinez, Aztec sorcerer, fights alone. He hasn’t always been alone. There are things in his home, things that whisper to him of memory, of friendship, of warrior kin, and some that whisper to one another of other things. He’s lived too long to remember all his old companions, but not so long that he doesn’t remember when things don’t belong, when the whispers speak of dragon. When it’s time to fight again.
Widow’s Walk, Meredith Holmes
Her love is dead and she is alone. Alone to walk the garden and hear the voices of the leaves. Alone to hear the sea calling, calling her to join him.
Dancer, Daemon, Jason Rubis
Kaso the Dancer has made a daemon, not by intent, but by inaction. When Rija, the servant maiden fell in love with Kaso, it was not by intent, but through foolishness. Yet Rija could not believe her feelings would not be returned. In the space where love turns to hatred, indifference to enmity, there comes a daemon, and it is Kaso’s duty to kill it. Kaso goes on sazai, pilgrimage, to find the daemon and dispatch it, a journey fraught with strange indignities, a remaking of Kaso, an enlightenment of daemons. (Read an excerpt on the book’s description page.)
Rag Woman, Poetry by Lea C. Deschenes
Where are our wise women? What grace is lost with their passing?
Download the free story “Tar” by Felicity Bloomfield featuring Salty, the protagonist of Bloomfield’s Needles & Bones tale, “At Sea.”
Download: Tar
Download a PDF version of the full description of Needles & Bones.
Download:Needles & Bones Flyer
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