MYTHIC #18: January 2022: MYTHIC, #18

By Shaun Kilgore

A new issue of MYTHIC has arrived! 

This latest one, Issue #18: January 2022, is the first scheduled in the now monthly occurring publication of the popular science fiction and fantasy magazine. Inside you'll find original short fiction "Reading the Leaves" by Nina Shepardson, "The Oracle of Sand" by Dean N. D'Amico, "Prank Day" by Marlaina Cockcroft, and "Close Your Eyes" by Warren Benedetto, plus reprints "A Slender Darkness" by D. A. D'Amico, and "Adramelech" by Sean Patrick Hazlett. Also included: A new book review by Kieran Judge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Founders House Publishing LLC
• Release date: Jan 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201833954

Shaun Kilgore

Shaun Kilgore is the author of various works of fantasy, science fiction, and a number of nonfiction works. His books appear in both print and ebook editions. He has also published numerous short stories and collections. Shaun is the editor of MYTHIC: A Quarterly Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine. He lives in eastern Illinois.

Book preview

Contents

Editor’s Note: A New Way | Shaun Kilgore

Our Patrons

Reading the Leaves | Nina Shepardson

The Oracle of Sand | Dean N. D'Amico

Close Your Eyes | Warren Benedetto

Prank Day | Marlaina Cockcroft

A Slender Darkness | D. A. D'Amico

Adramelech | Sean Patrick Hazlett

Book Review: The Unbroken by C. L. Clark | by Kieran Judge

Copyright

MYTHIC

A SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY MAGAZINE

ISSUE #18 | JANUARY 2022

Editor’s Note

A New Way

Shaun Kilgore

Welcome to the first monthly issue of MYTHIC: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine. Yes, you read that right. I’ve moved the magazine from a quarterly to a monthly publication schedule. You might be wondering… Are you nuts? Well, maybe a little, but I’m crazy for the right reasons. MYTHIC and the stories written by all of the wonderful and talented writers included in these pages are my reasons. Since 2016, they’ve been my reason for carrying on when things circumstances seemed think I should do otherwise. The power of this passion project and my love for sci-fi and fantasy fiction as well as the feedback of you, the fans and readers, have all kept me from ceasing the publication more than once.

As I write this introduction, I’m still ironing out all of the details of this format change for MYTHIC. There is a subscription drive going on and a planned Kickstarter will likely start before many of you will receive this issue. For those of you who’ve read print issues of the magazine since it was started, the biggest change will be the trim size of each paperback issue. Since deciding on monthly issues, I’ve made the decision to shrink it from the previous 7 x 10 inches to 5.5 x 8.5 inches (a digest size, more or less.)

The frequency of issues and finanical factors have also influenced my decision to drop the number of stories to at least 4 originals, 2-3 reprints as well as occasional nonfiction features like articles, essays, and reviews. I’ll probably experiment with other features as well and and am even including a throwback feature in the form of Letters to the Editor. Who knows what might happen? I do know that overall you’ll receive more fiction each year that happened with the quarterly publication schedule.

To close, I want to thank those of you who’ve enjoyed what I’ve done with MYTHIC over the years. Until next time, gang!

INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING YOUR STORIES TO MYTHIC?

MYTHIC is looking for diverse science fiction and fantasy stories.

You can send your submissions to me at [e-mail] or [e-mail]. Visit www.mythicmag.com for more information on our current guidelines and instructions on how to format your submissions.

If you have any questions, you can use the contact form on the website.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

MYTHIC welcomes letters to the editor from our readers. We appreciate your comments on the contents this issue. We prefer throughful and consise letters of 500 or words or less. However, this is not a hard limit. We look forward to hearing from you.

You can email letters to the editor at [e-mail].

Please include your full name, city, and state (or country).

Our Patrons

Here’s where I take the opporunity to share a list of our current Patrons on Patreon:

Aaron Emmel, Brett Carlson, John Conner, Aaron Van Zile, Chris Jarvie, Ethan Guthrie Herrell, Heather Barden, Franklin L Kuzenski, Mary Jo Rabe, Andrew Kozma, Joanna Hoyt, Dina Leacock, Donna J. W. Munro, Buddy Hernandez, Kim Guymon, Alicia Caples, Antonis Triantafyllakis, Fábián Tamás, Ashton Moreland, Tom Jolly, Ian Chung, James Rumpel, Jonathan D Eaton, Randell Pinegar, Matt McNeill, Jonathan Hodge, Isabel Kunkle, David England, and Matt Hopper.

Consider joining these fine folks:

Become A Patron Today!

If you haven’t yet, please consider subscribing by becoming a Patron through MYTHIC’s Patreon Page. You can find it at www.patreon.com/mythicmag. There are multiple ways to get monthly subscriptions. Help me keep MYTHIC going strong and growing into a top short fiction market.

Reading the Leaves

Nina Shepardson

THE FIRST TIME I drank it, I was on my first date with a woman who would not become the love of my life.

At the time, I thought we were destined to be together. We would get married in a church with a soaring steeple, she in a flowing white gown and I in a stylish tuxedo. We would live in an apartment for a few years, then buy a house with a white picket fence and window-boxes full of pansies. We’d have three children, two of whom would be twins (there had been one set of twins in each generation of my family since the Civil War). We would have a husky like the one that saved my best friend in elementary school when his house burned down. All of this played out like a corny chick-flick in my mind’s eye while we sat across the table from each other.

Being twenty years old may have had something to do with this.

Eager to seem sophisticated, I’d offered to take her to a new sushi place near campus. It wasn’t until after we’d ordered our meals that I realized it’s a lot easier to look sophisticated eating sushi if you actually know how to use chopsticks.

Carrie was practiced and graceful, whereas I fumbled with the slender wooden implements like a little kid trying to use big-people utensils for the first time. The thought flashed across my mind that maybe she’d reach across the table and move my fingers into the correct position, and as her hands rested over my own, her toes would brush my leg under the table...

Any such thoughts were quickly put to rest as Carrie narrowed her eyes at me. Clearly, she thought I was faking in order to entice her to touch me. Desperate to salvage my reputation as a suave, not-creepy guy, I lunged for the tea menu. (The fact that the restaurant possessed a separate menu just for tea had been a large factor in my selecting it for our date. This was a classy establishment, and I would be seen as a paragon of good taste for bringing her here.)

A waiter sidled up to our table, and I jabbed my finger at the listing at the bottom of the menu. Sure, it was thirty dollars for a pot of tea, but that would show how cultured—not to mention generous—I was, right? Unwilling to stumble over the foreign syllables, I just said, I’ll have this one, please. Uh, two cups. Please.

Carrie huffed and slumped in her chair. Apparently, instead of cultured and generous, I was coming off as an idiot who would pay lots of money for a bunch of dried leaves with a fancy name. Crap.

The tea arrived in an earthenware pot with willows painted on it. Two tiny matching cups were set down in front of us, and the waiter