June 2018: Into the Future

Inside This Edition

What does the future hold? That’s the question our June edition hopes to answer. A bold mix of stories that explore the world of tomorrow, these tales address everything you may wonder about the decades ahead.

Laura Freymiller’s Apricot Preserves is as delicious as its title suggests: sweet and sublime, with rich character work and wonderful writing, it’s laced with poignancy emotion in addition to a fascinating version of what the future may look like. We Still Have Our Guns by Sapphire Huie is a bold, impactful piece with plenty of relevance in the modern-day world; it pulls no punches with its powerful writing, and its harrowing conclusion may leave you with chills.

Corona by Gretchen Hopkins is a dark flash fiction piece of parental devotion, expertly straddling the lines between haunting and tender, startling and devastating. Duke Nothington’s Master and Mates, meanwhile, is a compelling fantasy story populated with intriguing, distinctive characters.

It’s the Water by Greg Roensch is a suspenseful flash fiction piece that pulls off an impressive feat: it carves out a terrifically unsettling, memorably spooky tale in just 708 words—complete with an ending that will stick with you long after you’ve finished reading. Then there’s Where Will I Keep My Socks? by Erin Carini, a short piece that hilariously critiques technology while growing gradually darker as the story continues—a well-executed tonal progression that’ll make you feel a range of emotions.

Carbon-Based Life Forms by Andrew Feldman is a smart and quite funny story that uses its quick wit to examine topics such as human nature, God, and the differences—and similarities—between man and machine. After that, Nicola Hayden’s The Remainders offers a chilling portrait of our near-future, set in a post-apocalyptic world and centered around a devoted older sister trying to do what’s best for the person she loves most.

Our June edition’s penultimate story is the snappy, breezy Log In by Zofia, which whisks readers off to a future world that is dominated by an obscenely popular social media website—a fixation that leads to shocking repercussions. Last but certainly not least, we have the concluding piece of our Into the Future issue: The Universal Winnebago by Sean Sanford, which has a sweet, uplifting love story at its center—but with a futuristic twist that makes it like nothing you’ve read before.

While we don’t have a crystal ball to see the future, we think these stories may be prescient in their predictions. At the very least, we can guarantee they’re entertaining. So, in the short time we have left before the robots take over, we invite you to enjoy this futuristic fiction.