The rest of my time—that is, the hours in which I was not dedicated to spying—seemed unimportant to me. My own life was comparable to the television commercials that interrupt a gripping movie. There was nothing I could do about…
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Your nemesis is not your enemy. Your enemy is a brutalizing force, a bulldozer that flattens you before you have enough time even to think about what is happening. Your enemy is indiscriminate, it cares nothing for you, only what…
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A bonus Henry James cover short story, in the style of our Henry James Tribute Album, by Drew Johnson. Once I went up to school, I never again came down—but only that first summer, when I did haunt the streets, yards,…
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On her desk sit the letters. There are two now, from the same person; the penpal, as Maeve has begun to think of whoever it is. They are written in a scrawled hand that looks like a child’s, a mix…
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Now, a word from our Jessa: The last time we had an open call for submission to Spolia, we received work only from men. Don’t get us wrong—we love men. I know we publish disproportionately, more women than men, so…
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If we start with? Certainly, I was born. Place grew up? Shorn and torn! The were your parents? School I went. Student? Yes. And after? Settles to her usual telling tale. Stuff done. Laughter. Gallivanted ways. Disowning a self ‘all…
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Isabel, I will build you a castle with a moat and fill it with dragons. I will teach you to see with clearer eyes, offer you an enchanted world with only libraries and birdsong.

The next time Howie saw Deaton at the bar inside the Starlight Café, the older man was subdued and almost sullen as he slowly paged through the latest issue of North Florida Weekly. Howie had just sold a fluff piece…
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“That’s all well and good,” Mannheim said. “What can you deal?” Chan rattled off a list of pit games: Blackjack, Pai Gow, Caribbean Stud, Two and Three Card Poker, and the many variants thereof. “The only games I cannot deal,”…
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