Bards and Sages Quarterly (January 2019)

Book excerpt: For over ten years, The Bards and Sages Quarterly has provided fans of speculative fiction with a unique mix of tales from both new and established authors. With each issue, we strive to introduce readers to exciting and entertaining voices in the horror, science fiction, and fantasy genres. In our January 2019 issue: Laura DeHaan, Patrick Doerksen, Greg Hill, Brian James Lewis, Malcolm Laughton, Michael W. Lucht, Jennifer R. Povey, Barbara Buckley Ristine, R. Rozakis, Nilles Sonnemans, Sophie van Llewyn, and Dorothy A. Winsor.In "Close Calls," a woman contacts her dead mother using new video conferencing technology and discovers that conversations with the dead may not be as ideal as she imagined.In "The Ugly Wee Man o' The Loch," to escape the consequences of a terrible bargain, a man must venture to a distant castle in search of the laughter tree.In "Toxicity," the survivor of a workplace shooting finds herself haunted by her former colleagues.These and other fine tales await our readers.