Publication: Maudlin House

  • To the Other Side by Mari Klein

    A dreamlike vision of the apocalypse that begs to be turned into something longform. The mood of this story is haunting: There must have been thousands or tens of thousands of people marching along the winding streets ahead and behind them, but in the thick of the crowd, all they could see was an endless…

  • Lemonade Stand Deliverance by Andrew Rutledge

    This is written from the perspective of a 6(?) year-old kid, and the narrator’s voice is perfect. Tears of laughter. By the second paragraph you’ll be hooked. Anyways, so, like, back when the internet went beep boop beep boop bzzzzzzzt, my brother, he says these culdy sack kids down the road in Cherry Hills, ya know…

  • The Wizard of Ozempic by Amber Baird

    I don’t want to spoil any of this story. The narrator has an eating disorder and is looking for help with it, and then it gets absolutely wild. The narrator’s voice is so distinct and foreboding: Pizza, every kind: floppy New Yorks and Chicago casseroles and California thin crusts and midwestern squares with cured pork…

  • Lessons by Kevin Sterne

    My stepdad would throw knives at me. It was a like a reflexes thing, catching a fly with chopsticks. Character building, a boy’s first funeral. I learned to write my name with bandaged fingers. That’s how I became a lefty. Rick threw knives like a pitcher throwing long toss. It’s how I got these gnarly…

  • Blueberries by Chris Scott

    This story is way too short. It’s a bit of a John Marrs-type concept – people start getting texts from alternate-universe versions of loved ones. Put me on the preorder list for the novel already.

  • This Didn’t Happen

    A story of a possible crime, told in all a clever way: What would you do if you saw something worse? Maybe a car slamming into another and driving off? Or a brick being thrown through a window? Or a murder? You might have guessed that I saw one of those. I can neither confirm…

  • Unlikeable Female Protagonists

    It’s a stunner of a short story about the way society values women by their appearance.

  • Review: The Hands are Coming Too

    A review of a fictional film that sounds a bit like Evil Dead. It’s clever and funny: ‘The Hands are Coming Too.’ (2023) is the unneeded sequel to 80’s box office flop turned reluctant cult classic ‘The Feetening.’