Zachary Olson Presents SAGAS OF THE SUNLESS REACH

ALT An excerpt from What Washes Up In Arizona. It reads: LORELEI DIDN’T ASK too many questions when I climbed back on the Treasure. She stayed quiet for a while as the sun kept on its climbing. For a minute, I really did forget she was there. Too focused on heading north toward Marble Canyon. Hoped to make it before noon. Otherwise, the shimmer’d get too close to see the shore. Couldn’t sail like that. Around eleven, Lorelei spoke up again. Asked if I’d heard those rumors. That things fell from the sky sometimes, full of toxic chemicals and cosmic radiation. That they leaked where they lay. Made the land around them fallow. I told her sure. I’d even come across a few. Those low-Earthorbit habitats couldn’t fling their runoff into space. Couldn’t slip our gravity. So, they dumped it onto us. She asked me if it bothered me. If I was scared of getting sick. I thought of Matt. Staring out into the haze. Stepping off the bow. I told her we were sick already.

ALT The cover art for THE OFF-SEASON: an anthology of coastal new weird presented by Dark Matter and edited by Marissa Van Uden.

ALT The opening paragraphs of Lair of the Bodega Warlock. It reads: RIVERA’S BODEGA CROUCHED on the corner of Halberd and Squire, moody and bright like a surly macaw—or a poison dart frog. The snow that thickly blanketed the borough stopped short at the sidewalk outside—a paltry charm, the owner would say, to ensure for his customers a positive experience. Crisp bag pennants papered the window, a cellophane mosaic broken by intermittent cigarette ads and a handwritten sign reminding passersby that they could get a free hex with every hundred dollars spent. But nobody passed by Rivera’s that day. Kieran Quick had come to call.

ALT The opening text of The Coaster Queen Rides Again. It reads: People like to think they understand ghosts. They tell their spooky stories, scaring each other with tales of Bloody Mary, of the Vanishing Hitchhiker, of La Llorona and The Lady in Black and the Ghost of Christmas Past. But no one talks about the ghosts of normal people.

ALT The opening excerpt of The Gift Horse's Mouth. It reads: When I finally finished my apprenticeship with Enzo Benedetti, the greatest locksmith I’ve ever known, he sat me down on an old teak chair in his office. He gave me a cigar, a glass of port, and three pieces of advice: 1. Never open a lock shop across from another smith. 2. Always keep a record of every key you cut, every single time. 3. Never, under any circumstances, should you take a house call for a rich man. The third one tripped me up.

ALT The first line of Steady and the Mountain. It reads: "It was the Spring Dominion's final days."