Little Things

Yesterday in the mail I received a contributor's copy of Issue #13 of Necrotic Tissue.

I knew it wasn't too far from arriving because on Saturday I received payment for the story via PayPal.

Necrotic Tissue #13 - Art by Nick Rose

Necrotic Tissue #13 includes my short story "Little Things." The magazine (and this one is a bonus-sized issue, "anthology sized" one might say, at 65,000 words), retails for $6.95 US. 

That's much cheaper than the price of a mass market paperback, and includes a mixture of fiction (24 stories and 8 "100 Word Bites" which are micro fiction pieces) and 6 non-fiction articles, mostly geared towards the horror writer.

Necrotic Tissue is "The Horror Writer's Magazine" and I've been reading it since it first debuted as an e-magazine.  They didn't start releasing print issues until Issue #7 (July 2009), which included my story story "Less of a Man."

My story "Little Things" is the story of a man, Daniel Jackson, who begins to see little men, miniature gnome-like creatures in the middle of the night begin to launch a full-scale mining attack on his wife's body.

It's a fun creepy little tale and one I've long been proud of. I'm delighted to see it find a home in Necrotic Tissue.

Here's an excerpt of the story (you know, just to offer a little teaser)

     Daniel smiled as he looked down at the man. It was as ifhe were gazing at a small kitten instead of an impossibly shrunken little naked man who had fallen through the ceiling in the middle of the night.
     The little man smiled back, his eyes shiny little pin points of light set in his face.
     Joy rolled over.
     "Honey, you okay," she asked sleepily.
     "Uh, yes dear." Still stunned, he didn't know what to say to her. Would she be unable to perceive the little man, just like she'd been unable to hear the tapping? "I just went to the bathroom."
     "Mmm. G'night." She rolled back over.
      Daniel started down at the little man who had started when he heard Joy's voice. Now he held the tiny axe high and jumped off Daniel's thigh onto the bed.
     The little figure stumbled over the rippled sheets, made his way over to Joy and swung the tiny pick axe into the flesh at the back of her neck.
     Joy didn't react to the blow even though it made a small pin prick in her skin. The little man pulled the axe out and a tiny bead of blood appeared. The tiny man looked back over his should at Daniel and smiled. Then he leaned forward and put his face up close to the bead of blood. After a moment, he turned back around, his teeth offering a white contrast as he grinned a broad, blood-caked smile.

Hopefully you enjoy that teaser enough to want to read the rest of the story and check out Necrotic Tissue #13.

There, my self-promotional work here is done.