Blank Sexzra is a superhero with a cape no one can see.  He works under a secret identity at a bank in Manhattan.  He uses a pseudonym by day and at night he finds patterns.  Patterns are in traffic lights, doorbells, coin rolls, and the bag of Scrabble tiles he sorts through every night.  He plays a game of Scrabble alone in his kitchen, sorting through letters, finding words in jumbles.  On a good night he scores 600 against the opponent who isn’t there.… MORE »

1. The bones are broken. The skeleton rests in a gap between rocks, below a red cliff. The sand has blown away from the bones, and the sun has bleached them white. Vultures have eaten the flesh. Some of the bones are buried; these remain yellowed. The skull is exposed and white. The skeleton is human, with a wide pelvis. On the spine rests a tiny skeleton. A young rattlesnake slithers through the pelvis and curls up to sleep in the hollow skull.… MORE »

The girl leaned against the door each morning, in the single room that had become her new home—her prison. She repeated to herself, in case she forgot: My name is Amanda Barnes. I’m twenty-six years old. I was born in 1980. I don’t belong here.
—in Clarkesworld (2006)

Where is justice? Where is justice in nine thousand four hundred ninety-four days?
—in Abyss & Apex (2006)

The gingerbread people constructed more elaborate homes, each fancier than the last, with peppermint wheels and lemon drop decor.
—in Raven Electrick (2006)