…and
we’re off to a rollicking
start to 2022. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year celebration. This
is issue #98 from Black Petals and if you’ve looked over the selection of great
stuff, you’ve probably noticed we have a lot of poetry this time around. That’s
okay though, we managed to find some that will give that chill we know you’re
looking for.
As for stories,
there are some newcomers and some writers who are part of the family. Richard
Brown brings us Bells in the Woods, a tale that starts out weirdly with
a bathtub out in the forest and just gets weirder as it goes along.
Stealthy insects are
the problem in David Starobin’s Bug, and if doesn’t creep you out at
least a little, then you really are strange.
Then there’s On
the Corner of 15th and Jackson, by Kat Vatne, where there’s this
house, and everyone says it’s haunted. What’s really in there? Well, I’ll let
you read it. No spoilers here.
Prisoners finally get free in
Paul Lee’s tale of human-rat hybrids and hi jinks ensue…or maybe they just
crave normalcy.
And in M. T. Johnson’s
Reality Engine, Carl drags home yet another strange toy, but he will pay
for this one more than once.
Great stuff in this
issue and great illustrations, too. Our usual gang of artists are here to add
their own take on our stories and you should please welcome our newest art
contributor, Bernice Holtzman, who is a friend of Cindy Rosmus, the editor at
Yellow Mama, our sister magazine and the BP art director. Glad to have you
aboard, Bernice!
Anyway, I’ll shut
up
and leave you to it, Constant Readers and as always, if you need to send us a
story or poem, or just want to comment, we are at blkptls@cox.net,
so drop us a line if
you like. Thanks for reading!
