Puzzle Box

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Puzzle Box has arrived! Open it and discover the delights contained therein: Eleven pieces of short fiction from the best writers you've never heard of, across a dazzling variety of genres. Superheroes, spaceships, monsters, aliens, sailboats, dimension-hopping, demon-punching, time travel, pirates, and coffee shops!

In Rawles Marie Lumumba's "Media Nocte," a young women blessed with super-heroic strength struggles to reconcile the difference between her youthful idolization of a famous hero and the reality of the broken man she comes to know. Also, monsters from another dimension are invading.

Miriam Oudin's "2 + 1 = 2" tells a tale of three friends who share a shitty apartment while enduring the grim conditions of the grinding dystopia in which they live Can a trio be made of duets? And if you had to come back from paradise to hell, over and over, would there be any escaping despair?

In Paul Tuttle Starr's "Captain Fancyknickers and the Murkrat Irregulars," mercenary airship fleets ply a sea of strange, dense gas--and a woman tries to recover from a divorce and restart her career.

In Meg Belviso's "The Chalice of Kel," a young man tells the tale of how he reunited with his handsome, charismatic upperclassman, and their subsequent search for a mystical artifact--a search that certainly did not grow more sinister with time, I'm sure I have no idea what you're suggesting.

In Whitney Bishop's "Ahmednagar," the motley, bickering crew of a tramp space freighter manages to find time for small acts of kindness in between the verbal sniping and the plying of the void between worlds.

In Ashley Lierman's "The Hand and the Eye," a professor of the occult and his immigrant-descended protege fight bigotry and demons in 19th Century London. Frankly the demons were the easier opponent.

In Whitney Reynolds's "Drinker Tailor Doctor Spy," a corporate doctor working in a future New York City finds himself fascinated with a charismatic alien tailor. Turns out it's remarkably hard to find porn of some species.

In Alison Wilgus's "Moxie," a wealthy young man sets out to live up to the sailing legacy of his late father---but he can't do it alone, and his crew-mate brings unexpected complications to the voyage.

In Laura Blackwell's "Moon and Memory," the sorcerous traditions of the world—each linked to a planet in the solar system—are being retroactively erased from history. Who is doing this? And why? And what does it have to do with the Mary Celeste?

In Jenifer K. Leigh's "Start All Over Again," there's a mystery to be solved—a mystery that has surely plagued humans since the dawn of time: Are they a thing? Can I ask her out? Will I look stupid if I do? Is that barista flirting with me, or is the coffee here just that good?

In E. Steen Comer's "The Angels of Lost Days," twelve days were lost in the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian. This represents a debt that must be repaid.