Tatiana crept out through the night with a green pack on her back and a gun in her hand. The gun felt heavy and rigid. Her fingers streamed with sweat despite the cold air whipping at her long blond hair.… Continue Reading
When the Great War began in 1914, it sounded temporary, almost manageable. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, alliances snapped into place, and Europe lurched toward catastrophe. For three years, America watched from across the Atlantic, selling supplies and convincing itself… Continue Reading
To war! To war! These were the words that made him. Grizhnakh was torn from the muck, blade thrust into hand, and armor slapped upon him, just another scarlet body in ranks tense for battle. To war! To war! For… Continue Reading
The wounded Lanc labours along the breathless sky, flames raging on the portside wing. Captain David Robertson, face flame orange, tugs on the control column to hold her steady; his crew evacuates over enemy territory. His flight engineer, the last… Continue Reading
“My Lady,” said the Duke of Baria, his silver fork speared with venison poised in the air before his mouth, “I am informed that you attended the Aldermen’s Ball last week without me.” The Duchess did not look up from… Continue Reading
The sand felt warm, the way it usually was on Saturday afternoons in Seaside Heights; face down on the beach under a hot July sun that burned my back and shoulders while Jenny was getting cheese fries and Cokes from… Continue Reading
When Prince Mynes of Lyrnessus came seeking Briseis’s hand, he brought many gifts for her father: jars of oil and sweet perfumes that burned Briseis’s nose and made her sneeze; swaths of shining cloth, and, of course, caskets of jewels… Continue Reading
He filled his seat at the table as though poured into it. Sprawled out in front of him was a book of crosswords. At 8:45 every morning he sat at his place and pondered over a crossword while the coffee… Continue Reading
“The helplessness I felt when the bombs exploded, and mustard gas crept like ground fog into our trenches is hard to describe,” my Great-Uncle Leo said as we painted his barn red. After I dropped out of college, I became… Continue Reading
Every household has at least one bag of bones they try to hide under a pile of winter clothes. On the other hand, my family is so pleased with our fleshless corpse that we proudly display the skull, femur, and… Continue Reading