FicStack Curation #10

Gary Mucklow, Gh'd Company, Qibra, and Tina Crossgrove

Jan 05, 2026

Happy New Year and welcome to FicStack’s first curation post of 2026. As the curators dragged themselves from their brief hibernations, they found some gems for you to enjoy.

Be sure to give the featured authors a read, a like, drop them a comment, and maybe give them a restack.

Yaba Armah, Gh’d Company

Happy New Year!! Getting to the end of 2025 was a knee-deep, mud walk of a struggle. By the time New Year’s Eve showed up, all I wanted to do was forget time, and snuggle under my covers with a great story. And once again, you excellent substack writers came through.

Mississippi Gothic by E.A Noble is a wickedly good time with fifteen published chapters of ghosts, demons, angels, and root magic to get thoroughly lost in. This Southern Gothic horror-in-progress opens at a funeral and is led by Ahunni: a young woman with the ability to see ghosts. However, when a beloved family member asks for a costly favour, Ahunni is forced down a dangerous path of self-discovery. As I drank in chapter after chapter, I found myself more than a little envious of E.A Noble’s skill at capturing the distinct voices of her characters. Ahunni comes from a large, vibrant community. They are as witty as they are heartbreaking and if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself rooting for *almost* everybody. Mississippi Gothic is part of E.A. Noble’s Watch Me Draft a Novel series, meaning if you do decide to give this story a try, feedback is highly welcome. This is an excellent way to start off 2026. Enjoy!

Qibra, Qibra

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, January sits in the heart of winter. A season that invites us to go within, to slow down, and to choose quieter stories. I found two beautifully reflective pieces for you this week that lean into that winter energy in their own way.

“Drift With Me” by CJ Knight, Terrifying Tales. We begin 2026 with this genuinely compelling speculative fiction that explores something real. Our vulnerability during sleep and the way we invite strangers into our most private spaces through technology. In this story, millions of listeners worldwide invite the same voice into their bedrooms each night. A faceless stranger whose guidance promises rest, release and escape. They don’t know his name. They don’t question his intentions. They just press play, close their eyes, and let him in. On New Year’s Eve, he offers a special episode. A chance to let go of what weighs them down. When some listeners wake up the next morning, they have one silent purpose. CJ Knight’s story is a chilling meditation on the intimacy we grant to strangers especially online and what happens when the voice you trust speaks directly to the part of you that can’t say no. A cautionary tale for anyone who’s ever fallen asleep with earbuds in.
“Deconstruction of a Response” by Carla Miles. Have you ever spent hours or days crafting the perfect comeback? I know I have. Let me introduce you to Lily. It takes one chance encounter at the mall, an ex boyfriend, one offhand comment about pajamas and the spiral begins. Lily spends days coming up with the perfect comeback–at 3 AM, in a Word document at work, while cooking dinner. Each version is sharper and more devastating than the last. However, beneath all those clever speeches is a deeper question. Why does she need him to understand that putting on pajamas at 6 PM wasn’t giving up; it was coming home to herself? Carla captures something painfully relatable here. The way a single sentence can colonize your thoughts, how we argue with ghosts who’ve already forgotten us. This isn’t a story about a bad breakup. It’s about two philosophies of living. Constant motion versus knowing when to rest. The ending is so soft, so honest, it stays with you long after you finish. For anyone who’s ever crafted the perfect response three days too late or learned that rest isn’t laziness. This is a story about reclaiming yourself.

Tina Crossgrove, Existential Dread and Other Hobbies

It’s a new year and, with the resetting of the calendar, there comes a sort of optimism… short-lived though it may be. We hope for a new lease on life–a season in which to reset and revive. A better you. A year filled with less stress and turmoil. More manifestation. Maybe I’m old and jaded. Maybe it’s just the fact that the thermometer has been stuck at below 30F (that’s -1C) for over a week now and it hurts to breathe when I walk the dog. Maybe it’s that the calendar changed but the world did not and it’s still mostly (figuratively) a trash fire. I’m running low on optimism, but never sarcasm. As a result of whatever this feeling is, my selections have a little bit of teeth this week.

“Eagle Peak Boulevard” by Camila Hamel, Remote Control. I spend a lot of time thinking about all the people who come to the USA looking for a better life and then get whammied with the reality of living in this country. Don’t get me wrong–I love my country. Mostly. But I also understand that sometimes, gaming the system is the only option. That’s what this story is about and it’s both brutally honest and brutally wry in its depiction of an immigrant doing the necessary.
“The Tomorrow War” by Jason Anderson, A Fool for a Client. This one made me guffaw. It’s acerbic and astute in its critique of a current hot topic. If you follow world news (and have subsequent anxiety as a result) this little satirical story about a father and son reclaiming what is theirs may very well make you guffaw too.

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