Letter from the Editors
Dear Reader,
Our preconceptions guide us through life. Most of the time, they actually serve us pretty well--but sometimes, our belief about what something seems to be blinds us to the reality of what it actually is.
The stories in this issue all touch upon this theme of perception vs. reality. Our authors have created unique and insightful tales about this dynamic: whether it's the struggle for a father and daughter to understand each other, the haughty indifference of a knight toward a peasant, government-issued propaganda in the face of a bizarre crisis, a time-traveling anthropologist whose presumptions about the past are about to be overturned, or one man's peculiar certainty that he's not as alive as he appears.
All is not as it seems in these five gripping tales:
- "I, Cro-Mag" by Mike Clark--One time-traveler discovers something truly unexpected on a trip to the dawn of humanity.
- "Labyrinths for Wayward Teens" by LM Zaerr--Heroes for hire take tourists on sanitized adventures... but the peril turns real when a young woman is lost in a labyrinth.
- "The Dragon Shepherd" by George Walker--Dragonslayers know better than to underestimate dragons but aren't always so careful with the wyrm's prey.
- "Zombie Processes" by Richard S. Crawford--If you're dead and still moving, that makes you a zombie, right? One lonely man seeks his own answers.
- "There Are No Clowns" by Graham Robert Scott--Surely you can trust the Commission when they say the uncanny reports of clown-related chaos are nothing but a hoax.
In our Editor's Corner, we have "Hallway" by our own Candi Cooper-Towler: a glimpse into horror through the form of haibun, which combines prose and haiku.
Finally, we're very happy to introduce artist Ellie Dunn, who created our cover image, "Protective Cloak."
One of the great services that speculative fiction provides is an opportunity to defy our preconceptions and present a familiar situation in a fresh, unexpected way. We hope that the stories in this issue broaden your perspective and open the doors of your mind to extraordinary new possibilities.
Thanks for reading,
Lesley, Grayson, Candi, and the Electric Spec Team
