Pulp Literature Spring 2020

<p>In this issue:</p><ul> <li>The stunning <em>Queen of Swords</em> by cover artist <strong>Tais Teng</strong> guards the gates to this issue’s brave new worlds and words.</li> <li>In ‘The Bicolour Spiral’ by <strong>Matthew Hughes</strong> the ever-popular Erm Kaslo explores hostile planets tracks treasure hunters and seeks stolen fortune. Matt’s futuristic Sam Spade leaves no bloodstained stone unturned in this space opera of mystery and murder.</li> <li>Life itself spirals with being and absence in ‘Watershakers’ by <strong>Christi Nogle</strong> and ‘The Birthday Party’ by <strong>Melisa Gregorio</strong> as children witness the ephemeral made real — and the real made memory.</li> <li>And words themselves whirl and twirl — and crack open secrets — as poets <strong>Patti Pangborn</strong> and <strong>Sarah Summerson</strong> explore the hidden spaces of family life.</li> <li><strong>Mike Carson</strong> runner-up for the SiWC Storyteller Award continues the exploration of memory and family in ‘Deep Water’ considering the limits of responsibility in fragile relationships.</li> <li>Meanwhile <strong>Rina Piccolo</strong> in ‘Double Flush’ reminds us that being human sometimes just means looking out for number one.</li> <li>It’s buyer beware in ‘Life4Sale’ an epistolary tale for the digital age by Raven Short Story Contest winner <strong>Michael Donoghue</strong>. And threads of desire and longing stitch lives together in ‘Dannemora Sewing Class’ by runner-up <strong>MFC Feeley</strong>.</li> <li>Two historical heroines return as we rejoin Toinette — ‘La Bergere’ — at the gates of seventeenth-century Paris in part two of <em>The Shepherdess</em> by JM Landels and Frankie Ray and her chum Connie brave the no-less-imposing gates of Monument Studios in part four of Mel Anastasiou’s <em>The Extra</em>.</li> <li>Abandon the humdrum and enter these realms of wonder and adventure if you dare …</li></ul>