IN THIS ISSUE:

MAIN PAGE ARTICLES "The Writer's Toolbox:   Give 'Em What They Want -   Why Formatting is Important"       by Danielle Ackley-McPhail FICTION   "Automatic Headspin "       by Tim Lambert   "Terrible Lizard King "       by Nathaniel Lee   "Puppet Princess"        by Laura DeHaan   "Thrice Times Torn"       by Jonathan Fortin   "Babyhead"       by Aliya Whiteley   "Bladder 54"       by Baleigh McWade   "Neeta Lyffe and the Best Career Day       Ever"       by Karin Fabian   "Death and the Blue Blood Blues"       by Katie Herron STAFF SHOWCASE   "Novel Preview: THE UNDERTAKERS"       by Ty Drago   "Novel Preview: FREE DANNER"       by Loretta Giacoletto   "Novel Preview: HUNTING SEASON"       by J.E. Taylor   "Novel Preview: WAGERED KISS"       by Hetty St. James HONORABLE MENTIONS LINKS   Resources for Writers   Associations for Writers   Writers' Sites COVER ART THE WRITINGS OF TY DRAGO NAME IN LIGHTS AWARD

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COVER ART:

This rather remarkable photograph of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is the property of the NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

I selected it for this issue because some scientists believe Titan may have organic materials necessary for life to begin. Of course, the methane lakes might get in the way ... but who knows?

BTW, here's a little contest. There's actually something wrong with this picture. I'd be interested to see who can spot it!

THE WRITINGS OF TY DRAGO:

	"THE UNDERTAKERS: Rise of the Corpses" Jabberwocky, April 2011 Will Ritter become relucantly involved in a war between children and an invasion of animated corpses.
	"THE LITERARY HANDYMAN" by Danielle Ackley-McPhail I was honored to write the introduction to this collection of valuable essays on writing.
	"Yesterday, I Will" Fortress Publishing, 2010 Anthology Grandmaster My story, "Yesterday I Will Remember Tomorrow" tells the tale of a young man who finds himself living his life backwards
;	"The Genesis Torch" Amazon Shorts, 2007 10000 words A tale of action, desperation and hope set on the Mars of "Phobos."
;	"Parole" Amazon Shorts, 2006 7500 words A dark fantasy tale of a bad man in a dark prison who is offered a chance at the light.
	"An Hour on the Marble" Amazon Shorts, 2006 15000 words An SF morality tale about a dead world turned into a memorial, and about the young soldier who goes there and meets "the enemy."
	"PHOBOS" Tor Books, 2003/2004 Novel A critically-acclaimed SF "whodunit" about murder, mayhem, and a mysterious monster on Mars' largest moon.
	"THE FRANKLIN AFFAIR" Regency Press, 2001 Novel An historical mystery centered around Ben Franklin's 1776 visit to Paris - a tale of intrique, betrayal and friendship.

NAME IN LIGHTS:

This issue's Name in Lights goes out to a friend and senior editor at Allegory - one who is leaving us.

Sharon Reamer has been a tremendous asset to this venerable old e-zine for more than five years, lending her considerable talents to editorial writing and sifting through a sizeable percentage of the ever-larger number of submissions that we receive for each issue.

Sharon is off to pursue other opportunities in the publishing world. She will be sorely missed, and it was a pleasure and an honor to have worked with her.

Best of luck out there, my friend! I'm sure you'll make us proud!

Fiction

"Automatic Headspin"
by Tim Lambert

He found himself still gazing at the briefcase. From somewhere at the back of his mind, his old self insisted that he had to have it.

"He's not in. Away on business and whatnot," said a dithering voice behind him. It surprised him, and he spun around to see an old gentleman at the end of the driveway, waving a copy of the Telegraph.

"Thanks!" said Troy, pleased to have been saved from making a rash mistake. He slipped his rucksack off his shoulder and reached inside for some leaflets to post through the letterbox.

The old man wrinkled his already very wrinkly nose and sniffed. "Bloody Yanks."

It was at that moment that Chloe, in her New York lab, threw her technological piece of grit at the universe and turned the world into a mosaic.

"Terrible Lizard King"
by Nataniel Lee

Lysette's mother wasn't happy to see Patrick. She recognized him from the office, although she didn't say so. She told him he could come in and use the bathroom if he had to, but he had to leave right away and go back home.

"Is this the one?" asked Patrick, when he and Lysette were upstairs.

Lysette nodded.

Patrick moved in hesitantly, in case the octopus was already waiting. "I bet it waits for you to be alone, huh?" he said. "That's what the dinosaur does. It mostly comes at night and looks in through the window."

"Puppet Princess "
by Laura DeHaan

Luzminda waited patiently for her father to ride out again on his glass-eyed horse before approaching the strange corner. "Poyavlyat'sya," she said, and crept down the stairs.

There was no light below, only what filtered down from the workshop. Luzminda walked on a floor that squished and sent up clouds of flies with every step. Her toes knocked into something hard, something that made the hollow sound of a secret door. She knelt in the softness and clumsily lifted the irregular object with her stunted arms.
It lolled over her elbows, as though grasping for a hold. She lugged it over to the landing where the light was strong enough to see what she held.

She held herself.

Luzminda let the body slip out of her arms and went back into the darkness.

"Thrice Times Torn"
by Jonathan Fortin

She is eighteen years old, and she is to be torn for the first time. Her teary-eyed parents take her to the incubatory. They have convinced themselves that they should encourage her, to make it easier on her, because apparently pride is healthier than fear, but she sees in their eyes how terrified they are, how terrified she should be. Through the black-phlegm hallways she walks, a custodian at each side of her, only inches away from clutching her arms as if they know she wants to run. They have both been processed, and she sees the foreign black tentacles ripping out where their mouths should be, the robotic irises, the oily veins, the too-long, too-strong, boneless tendril-thumbs, which still have nails at the end. Joy’s cold fear-sweat palpitates, like the walls around her. The metal floor clanks, clanks, clanks beneath her feet.

At the end of the hall, the door opens like a mouth, and they wait a moment for the saliva to stop dripping, and it’s only then that Joy realizes this entire building is alive, a single living organism, designed and crafted for the purpose of creating and raising the horrible infants, and she’ll soon be breeding more organisms to help buildings like it function, and she cannot fight because its immune system is too strong, and even if she escapes its antibodies can get her outside. She is the most vulnerable and most desired bacteria in the world.

"Babyhead"
by Aliya Whiteley

At least the baby had stopped crying.

Not a baby, she reminded herself, as Mikey took his fingers slowly away from the cabbage. ‘Jesus,’ he said. He turned his head to one side and spat, a fat white glob that landed in the soil. She fought down the urge to be sick.

‘It’s not… alive, is it?’ she said.

‘It’s moving its mouth.’

‘It was crying, earlier.’

He patted the earth around the base of the cabbage, just as she had done, pressing his hands into the soil. ‘It’s not been touched.’

"Bladder 54 "
by Baleigh McWade

If planets were streets, this one was a back alley. Not a particularly sinister one, more like the kind you get behind a mall's Chinese restaurant on a Saturday afternoon – bleak, litter filled, and smelling vaguely of stale prawn noodles. It was just a place where people passed the time between birth and death, and if Captain Bloggart didn't get his can, that time would be a lot shorter for some people.

The planet wasn't an unfamiliar port. Since trade had been established between the more populous planets everyone found they needed something. If it was cheap and unglamorous, Bladder 54 delivered it.

"Neeta Lyffe and the Best Career Day Ever"
by Karina Fabian

Neeta smiled. A personal invitation? Maybe they weren't so blacklisted after all. "Absolutely! We signed up."

Now the pinch became a grimace. "That's just it. You see, our mission here at Happy Smiles Academy is to foster an environment that protects the innocence of our children against a world that has lost its own."

"Which is one of the reasons we chose Happy Smiles."

"And because you can drink out of the trash cans." Ted added.

"He means they're that clean!" Neeta hastened to explain as Mrs. Peabody's expression twisted from pinched to horrified. "As exterminators, we appreciate a sanitary environment." Off camera, Neeta reached down with her fist and thumped Ted on his leg.

"Death and the Blue Blood Blues"
by Katie Herron

“You know why I’m here, then.” His voice had lost all intonation. He laced his hands together on the table, waiting for confirmation.

I nodded, and spoke through my exhaled smoke. I returned his emotionless volley. “Easy. You want someone dead, but you don’t have the nerve to do it yourself. Or maybe you do have the nerve, but don’t care to get your hands dirty. So you came to me, because I’m the best.” I shrugged, flashed a hint of a smile, and waited. “Which is it? Are you gutless or just too good to get a little blood on your hands?”

And with that he stared at me for the longest minute, blank faced and stoic. I returned the stare. He caved under the mounting tension, and the corners of his mouth twisted into a small grin. The grin became a boisterous, even joyful, laugh. “Well, you certainly are impolitic, Miss Daniels. I like it. Not often that people speak to me like that.”

Honorable Mentions

Allegory deals with submissions in the way that, as far as I know, remains fairly unique in the publishing world. Each story is individually reviewed and, if considered publishable, is placed in our "Maybe" pile. At the end of each submission period, these "Maybes" are reviewed, and the best eight chosen to appear in the next issue. This final cut is made on the basis of issue balance, and does NOT reflect the overall quality of these stories.

That said, here - in no particular order - are the "Maybes" who just missed publication in Allegory. Each one is a fine tale that we would have been proud to publish. Remember these names, friends and fellows. You'll be hearing from them in the future. I guarantee it!

Carry Jimmy by G.J. Wise
The Life and Death of Chrissie Chrysops by Bill Vossler
Eat to Live by Mark Ward
A Question of Taste by John Tremblay
Slide to Black by Ronald M. Wade
What Really Happened to Gopher by Bryan Hudson
Fiddlers' Rhapsody by Amy Treadwell
Cirque de Terra Firma by Kellee Kranendonk
Through the Woods by Lynn Rushlau
To Escape by Max Keanu
Through Rose-Colored Glasses by John Capraro
Back to the River by Diana A. Green
Walking by Anthony Blel
The Ideal You by John Albers
Fix the Transmitter by Amanda E. Forrest
Cat's Revenge by Wanda A. Wallace
Alecsander's Empire by Brenda Kezar
Dog Day by Edoardo Albert
Tip of the Iceberg by Carrie Vaccaro Nelkin
Fiddlebacks by Jeremy Billingsley
Riding the Tiger by Thomas Canfield
The Nature of the Beast by Joe Mynhardt
Angel Wings by Carol S. Fowler
Gethsemane Cemetary by Dave Froom
Closer to the Edge by Janelle Emory
DIY by Andre Farant
The Negotiation by Kelly Reed
New Frontiers by Chris Galford
At the End of the Tunnel by Joel Shulkin
Blue by Janet Wright
The God's Son by Jennifer R. Povey