Sandcastles, Boiled Shrimp, and Gentle Gulf Breezes
By
Rebecca Anna Coleman

-1-
The Open Highway
Somewhere Between New Orleans, Louisiana and Mobil, Alabama

A few weeks ago my life had flashed before my eyes. I'd been forced to cosplay as a Confederate Rifleman for a dumb Civil War reenactment by my tyrant father. In the course of the reenactment I'd developed a second degree sunburn, was bitten by a venomous snake, became dehydrated, and finally the cherry on the sundae was the fact that I had to spend three weeks in the hospital.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2.1; Home

Time became quieter after that.

Not slower.

Simply less concerned with milestones.

Emily often realized that weeks—and sometimes months—had passed without thinking about transition at all. Life had quietly replaced the language of becoming with the language of living.

There were illustration deadlines.

Long walks through familiar streets.

CHAPTER 9
I could see exactly what she meant, for it had made up so much of her debate with Maria: if things went wrong, each could lose a friend. I had never seen anything really nasty in Maria, apart from a certain blinkered aspect when she saw something she wanted. Like Alwen.

“Got to go, love, for the quiz. Chat after?”

“Please. It’s, well, I know you see things clearly. Might help me do so”

“Later, then. Promise”

Chapter Eleven — The Ledger

Gwen smoothed the front of her own dress in the mirror — deep green, worn exactly once before and never for a reason this good — and caught Sam's eyes finding her in the glass instead of her own reflection.

"You look incredible," Sam said, turning from her own mirror to actually look, unhurried, appreciative, the particular look she'd only started giving Gwen in the last few weeks, like she still couldn't quite believe she was allowed to.

Torn from his own world and stuffed into the body of a villainess, facing the end of a doomed route he himself wrote, "Amelia" must navigate a world she really should know - too bad she was never great at worldbuilding.

Stuck in a world she (maybe) created, Amelia quickly finds that reality has filled in the details she failed to describe. The characters who were so flat when she wrote them now have nuance, and motives. The kingdom she wrote into existence is experiencing internal strife she never even thought about. And let's not even get into the complexities of the magic system, or the demon that forced her into this situation to begin with...

Oh, and then there's the fact that she's about to be arrested and executed... but surely she can come up with a way to write herself out of that, right?

...Right?

Gary had never been hotter in his life.
Hey, that’s Africa for you, he thought to himself. It’s not like anyone ever said it wouldn’t be anything other than sweat-your-fucking-balls-off hot. And boy is it! If anything, they might have been underselling it!

It was a short drive from campus to the bar. As we drove up I saw a sign outside that said happy hour starting at this hour with all mixed drinks for the ladies half off. Seeing that it was open I was keen on going in but asked Sam if he was up to it. Seeing how this excited me he agreed for a short stop and said smiling that since it was ½ price drinks for the ladies it would be a cheap date.

“The doctor says it isn’t really that unusual,” Mom commented

Another Country -20-
by Erin halfelven

Becoming Emily

Chapter One: Borrowed Dresses (Part 1)

At twenty-four, Aaron had long ago accepted that people would occasionally mistake him for a woman from behind.

His chestnut hair reached just past his shoulders, naturally soft despite his half-hearted attempts to make it look untidy. He kept it because he liked it—though he always shrugged off questions about why he never cut it short.

“It suits you,” his younger sister would say.

Torn from his own world and stuffed into the body of a villainess, facing the end of a doomed route he himself wrote, "Amelia" must navigate a world she really should know - too bad she was never great at worldbuilding.

Stuck in a world she (maybe) created, Amelia quickly finds that reality has filled in the details she failed to describe. The characters who were so flat when she wrote them now have nuance, and motives. The kingdom she wrote into existence is experiencing internal strife she never even thought about. And let's not even get into the complexities of the magic system, or the demon that forced her into this situation to begin with...

Oh, and then there's the fact that she's about to be arrested and executed... but surely she can come up with a way to write herself out of that, right?

...Right?