"Eros, Philia, Agape"

Jonathan Strahan's Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Vol. 4 Available for pre-order, $13.50 on Amazon. Rich Horton's Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2010 Available for pre-order, $13.50 on Amazon. "Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky The objects belonged to them both, but Adriana waved her hand bitterly when Lucian began packing. "Take whatever you want," she said, snapping her book shut. She waited by the door, watching Lucian with sad and angry eyes. Their daughter, Rose, followed Lucian around the house. "Are you going to take that, Daddy? Do you want that?" Wordlessly, Lucian held her hand. He guided her up the stairs and across the uneven floorboards where she sometimes tripped... I love you, he would have whispered, but he'd surrendered the ability to speak. Originally appeared in Tor.com.

"Heat Engine"

Last Drink Bird Head: A Flash Fiction Anthology for Charity $35 through Amazon. All proceeds go to ProLiteracy.org. "Heat Engine" by Rachel Swirsky Dad bought the first drinking bird on the day his mother had her stroke. It was red as polished apples. He brushed away papers to set it on the table. "Do you know how it works?"

"The Adventures of Captain Blackheart Wentworth"

Fast Ships, Black Sails, an anthology of pirate stories. $10.00 from Amazon. "The Adventures of Captain Blackheart Wentworth" by Rachel Swirsky With a splash, the body of Cracked Mack the Lack went overboard. Captain Black Heart Wentworth, Rat Pirate of the Gully by the Oak, stared after Mack into the turgid brown waters. Wentworth's first mate, Whiskers Sullivan of the beady eyes and greedy paws, slunk deckside, muttering madly about the pitter patter of fleas rushing along his spine so loud he couldn't sleep or shit or make water -- and when a rat can't shit or make water, tis a dark day indeed.

"Marrying the Sun"

Jonathan Strahan's The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Vol. 3 $13.50 from Amazon. "Marrying the Sun" by Rachel Swirsky The wedding went well until the bride caught fire. Bridget's pretty white dress went up in a whoosh, from train-length veil to taffeta skirt to rose-embroidered bodice and Juliet cap with ferronière of pearls. Originally appeared in Fantasy Magazine.

"How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth"

Originally appeared in Electric Velocipede #13 $5 from Spilt Milk Press Reprinted in Jeff and Ann VanderMeer's Best American Fantasy 2 $15 from Amazon "How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth" by Rachel Swirsky Humans laid the foundation for the sixth apocalypse in much the same way they’d triggered the previous ones. Having recovered their ambition after the Apocalypse of Serotonin and rebuilt their populations after the Apocalypse of Grease, they once again embarked on their species’ long term goal to wreak as much havoc as possible on the environment through carelessness and boredom. This time, the trees protested. They devoured buildings, whipped wind into hurricanes between their branches, tangled men into their roots and devoured them as mulch. In retaliation, men chopped down trees, fire-bombed jungles, and released genetically engineered insects to devour tender shoots.

"Monstrous Embrace"

Originally appeared in Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy $50 through Amazon Reprinted in Triangulation: Dark Glass $12 from Amazon "Monstrous Embrace" by Rachel Swirsky I am ugliness in body and bone, breath and heartbeat. I am muddy rocks and jagged scars snaking across salt-sown fields. I am insect larvae wriggling inside the great dead beasts into which they were born. Too, I am the hanks of dead flesh rotting. I am the ungrateful child's sneer, the plague sore bursting, the swing of shadow beneath the gallows rope. Ugliness is my hands, my feet, my fingernails. Ugliness is my gaze, boring into you like a worm into rotting fruit. Listen to me, my prince. Tomorrow, when dawn breaks and you stand in the chapel accepting your late father's crown, your fate will be set. Do nothing and you will be dead by sundown. Your kingdom will be laid waste, its remnants preserved only in the bellies of carrion birds. There is another option. Marry me.

"Heartstrung"

Reprinted in Rich Horton's Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2008 $12 from Amazon "Heartstrung" by Rachel Swirsky The seamstress bends forward as she presses her needle into her daughter's heart for another stitch, squinting to make sure she sews tight and even. As she pulls the thread taut, she realizes this stitch marks the midpoint -- she's now halfway finished sewing Pamela's heart onto her sleeve. Originally appeared in Interzone.

"Into the Air"

Triangulation: Taking Flight $12 from Amazon "Into the Air" by Rachel Swirsky If you wish to fly, the way is easy: Seize a crow's feather in one hand and a cardinal's feather in the other. Crows are large and dark and intelligent, cardinals small and bright and twittering. Between them is the kind of bird you will be: mid-sized with plumage bright enough to attract a mate but too subtle for keen-eyed predators, neither particularly smart nor particularly pompous, an average you-bird.

"No Longer You" with Katherine Sparrow

Interzone #224 TTA press shop currently unavailable "No Longer You" by Rachel Swirsky and Katherine Sparrow "It's the human condition to fight mortality," Aviva told me, before I knew how true that was, before I even knew I was part of the fight.

"Detours on the Way to Nothing"

Weird Tales #349 $7 through Wild Side Press "Detours on the Way to Nothing" by Rachel Swirsky It's midnight when you and your girlfriend, Elka, have your first fight since you moved in together. Words wound, tears flow, doors slam. You storm out of the apartment, not caring where you go as long as it's far away from her. When you step off the front stoop onto the sidewalk, that's the moment when the newest version of me is born.

"The Amazing Story of Dominic Lazar"

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #36 $9 for print, $5 for PDF "The Amazing Story of Dominic Lazar" by Rachel Swirsky Three hundred years after the famous explorer Thrushbeard the Vallant of Viking 9 piloted the galactic empire's fleetest cruiser to the edge of the universe, discovered space/time was in fact curved, and flew home again in a circle, scientists determined there was nothing to write science fiction about anymore.

"The Art of Biting"

Kaleidotrope #6 $5 from Kaleidotrope "The Art of Biting" by Rachel Swirsky Welcome to my shop. You can find photographs of my work in the glossy books by the door. Bring me Spot's furry, decaying little corpse and I can pose him to look like he's about to jump up and lick his testicles.

"The Debt of the Innocent"

Glorifying Terrorism £5 for PDF from Rackstraw Press "The Debt of the Innocent" by Rachel Swirsky On October 11, 2035, Jamie Wrede, R.N., was the sole employee staffing the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Temperance United in Martinsville's Pine Ridge district. In the course of her career, she'd been asked to kill nine newborns. That morning, she planned to kill four more.

"Scene from a Dystopia"

Subterranean Magazine #4 $9 from Subterranean Press, $80 for signed hardcover "Scene from a Dystopia" by Rachel Swirsky You've read this book before. It's one of the classics from the Cold War era, always worth rereading when you've got a little time on your hands.

Header illustrations by Sam Weber (left and right) and Fantasio (center).