“Iridescent,” she said without looking. “Aren’t they?”

Henry Deaton shook his head, exasperated that his wife still couldn’t remember the colour of his eyes.

“Never mind,” he replied.

He raced up on deck and peered through the reinforced bubble covering the ship as it sailed the methane seas of the oil-rich planet that had made his fortune. As long as Lydia had her silks and jewels she was happy; she had no time for Henry’s eyes.

“Captain!” came a shout, and Henry turned to watch, longing for excitement.

...

continue reading at 365 Tomorrows

Softly fluid the mist wolves ran, coalescing out of the night fog along the embankment, loping towards the inhabited streets above. The boy watched with shock and fear as their elongated snouts formed from the pearly drops of mist along the river, sniffing for prey. Prey like him.

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continue reading in Issue 5 of Silver Blade

In the legend, Psyche was the breathtaking wife of the god of love. Psyche Sinclair, however, was an Edinburgh teenager with mildly eccentric parents, and hair the colour of drying blood. She didn’t have a boyfriend, but that didn’t bother her; she knew her namesake was too beautiful for mortal men, and she’d heard that names were reflections of the soul. Psyche most certainly believed in souls.

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continue reading at Everyday Weirdness

Ben followed Fiona into another physics lab and stood, clipboard poised, while she explained the lab's functions using terms she was familiar with as departmental administrator but didn't fully understand. A couple of researchers lounged with mugs of tea in a small room off to one side, watching Ben as he noted down heating, cooling and ventilation systems.

"And in here it's just a sort of preparation and write-up room," said Fiona, gesturing to the doorway.

Ben marked another red cross on his floorplan; he periodically checked each department to make sure their rooms still matched the University's central records. Apart from the annexing of empty rooms by growing research groups, and the sneaky acquisition of power-hungry machinery, it wasn't unknown for partition walls to spring up or be knocked down between visits.

...

continue reading in the Oct 2010 Bards and Sages Quarterly