FicStack Curation #20
March marches on and so have the FicStack curators, who discovered fresh gems for you to enjoy. If something grabs you, show the author some love: a like, a restack, a follow. Good fiction finds its readers one small act at a time. Let's get into it.
Tina Crossgrove, Existential Dread and Other Hobbies
March toys with my emotions–one day it’s the kind of cold that requires two pairs of socks, the next the snowdrops are blooming. It’s a rollercoaster and my selections for this week reflect that up and down. As always, I’m going to suggest a song and a drink to help set the mood!
“Mirebound” by Chloe, Reveries in the Warren. A strange girl roams the decaying marsh, at home among the mud, moss, and the small, unsettling creatures that hide there. While her mother insists the place—and perhaps the girl herself—is unnatural, the bog feels like the only place she truly belongs. When a frightened hunter arrives with orders to kill her, the stillness of the marsh is suddenly broken. Go find Rhiannon Gidden’s version of “O Death” featuring Francesco Turrisi and pour yourself a finger of an Islay scotch, my personal favorite out of all the scotches. I recommend Laphroaig 10 or Ardbeg Uigeadail.
“Bloody Mary Thinks She’s Scary” by Laura Teodorescu. On her first day in the afterlife, Mary is trapped in a grim apartment where death comes with rules. A blood-soaked bride warns her to survive, carve out a “brand,” and maybe become a demon. When a gang of ghostly teens mocks her, Mary takes matters into her own hands—turning chain-mail legends into deadly reality. Bloody Mary isn’t playing around, and anyone who underestimates her is in for a shock. I’m going to lean hard into the theme of this one and recommend sipping on a Bloody Mary paired with Billy Eilish’s “Bury a Friend.”
“Poppy Was Pretty” and “Hush Now, Poppy” by Labyrinthia Mythweaver, Tales from the Labyrinth. Poppy seems quiet and polite, the kind of girl everyone thinks they understand. But inside, she’s full of rage and pain that nobody sees—and she’s not afraid to let it out when the time comes. She hides her demons, waits, and watches, clever and patient. These poems follow her through the things she has to survive, the anger she keeps buried, and the dangerous strength she carries behind her soft smile. Poppy might look harmless, but she’s anything but. Labyrinthia Mythweaver provided her own audio for these two poems and it’s brilliantly unsettling. I recommend pouring yourself the adult version of a childhood favorite that looks sweet and harmless but hides a twist underneath (just like Poppy): the Shirly Temple Black.
As Spring approaches, the season of rebirth and hope, I’d like to share two stories about loss, grief, and the unexpected grace of moving forward. Both explore the question: How do we honor those we’ve lost while still choosing to live? Because sometimes honoring those we’ve lost means finding the courage to keep living…and living well.
“Under the Same Moon” by Muirae D Kenney,Garden of Little Peace-A Serialized Mystery. “You can miss Josh every day and still let someone love you again. It’s not a betrayal.” On Valentine’s Day, a history professor overhears a grandmother sharing a wartime love story with her widowed granddaughter in a coffee shop. What begins as casual listening quickly becomes something he can’t turn away from, and honestly, who could? Gram tells the story of Ellen and Jack and the single night they shared in July 1943. Six weeks later, his bomber explodes over Germany. His final letter arrives after Ellen already knows he is gone. In April 1944, Gram is born. Weeks later, Ellen marries Gordon and builds a happy life that lasts decades. Now Gram sits across from her granddaughter and offers the wisdom that helped her mother survive unimaginable loss. You can carry grief and still choose to love again. The story is exquisitely layered and deeply moving, unfolding through diary entries, newspaper clippings, APO letters, and an eavesdropping structure that pulls you in completely. It is about wartime loss, intergenerational memory, and the quiet courage it takes to live fully after grief. Poignant, hopeful, devastating, and warm all at once. This is a beautiful story to read with your favourite warm beverage as we step into the season of new beginnings.
“(Mis)Fortune” by Emily, Emily Writes. In a world where fortune telling is real (genetic, regulated, legitimate), Chrissy is faking it. Her mother was brilliant, and while Chrissy inherited the gift, she was a terrible student. She didn’t care about the lessons, too focused on boys, parties and friends. Now her mother is gone. Hospital bills have drained everything, and she is left raising her younger brother alone while trying to keep the family business alive with social media research and lucky guesses. The performance works until one client Chrissy told her dog would die returns as a department official. Instead of punishment, she is offered training. Real training to finish what her mother started with one condition. She must leave her mother’s shop and work for the official. Everything Chrissy has been clinging to would disappear, but everything she could become would finally be within reach. Do you accept help when you’ve been drowning alone? Sometimes we need to lose everything we knew to become who we’re meant to be because certain gifts are given to us for a reason. This story is about grief, responsibility, and the courage it takes to let go and move forward.
Kelly Xan, The Author Wars
For this curation post, I was looking for stories that made me feel cosy: the kind of cosy one experiences when they find a great new epic fantasy, or the kind from a good old horror that provides the perfect amount of spook. Cosy doesn’t always come from a snuggly romance, and I was very pleased to find two stories that filled my very specific criteria for this reading period. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
“Click, Clack, Click” by Vanessa Perry, Annotations in Literature with Vanessa Perry. It’s always a lovely surprise when a neighbour brings a housewarming present to the new folks coming into their community. Maybe it’s a freshly baked dessert. Maybe it’s a tool for the garden the prior residents revered with all their might. It’s the thought that counts, right? Not always. Sometimes, you should be wary of your neighbours, especially when they thrust a present upon you when you adamantly try to reject it. Said present may very well come with a curse. Vanessa writes a punchy, clever scary story here that gave me just the right amount of Halloween-esque goosebumps. You’ll take a short, eerie, wobbly stroll with the narrator as they slip out of sanity, an atmospheric walk you’ll want to repeat over and over again. Evidently, not every housewarming gift is what it seems. A short horror that made me gasp, chuckle, and beam while reading. If you are a fan of The Haunting of Hill House, you will be doubly pleased with this read!
“Chapter One” in The Animist by Gracie, The Minstrel. “Maude dismisses a distant plume of smoke as a forest fire—until she discovers she can hear the voices of plants.” What would you do if you were trying to catch some grub with your uncle when, all of a sudden, a massive dark cloud started consuming the stunning two-sunned sky you lived under, and disembodied voices, that only you could hear, started filling your ears with warnings of an impending doom? This is the predicament of poor Maude, a young woman trying to live a simple existence in the Riverlands with her uncle and brother. But Maude isn’t the only person sensing the dangers that her neighbours seem to be blissfully unaware of. Princess Ollie’s mundane world is turned upside down when her home, Goldmoor Castle, is invaded by the Tathian army, but she and her nemesis, the court jester, flee just in time. And Elsi’s world isn’t doing so hot, a woman on a mission to warn her hometown of the inevitable peril. Shape-shifting enemies, magical mayhem, and a mad dash to save the world, all tied beautifully in a story of dynamic characters and superb dialogue. The work Gracie put into building the Kingdoms and Lands of Astaemor is spectacular. Before you read, check out the serial’s index page to learn about the regions, the people, and witness the glorious map (yes, there’s a map)! It is an absolutely incredible fantasy that I am so pleased I ran into!
My momma always used to say not all skinfolk are kinfolk. She would remind me of the wolves at the door while she pressed my hair before church on Sunday mornings. As a young girl I didn’t understand what those warnings spoken out of love meant; it would take time and experience to learn that not everyone who appears to be a friend has my best interest at heart. That is why I always keep the ancestors close: offerings at their table, whispered prayers for protection, and libations poured out for the homies gone too soon. Remembrance. Reverence. This week I wanted to feel that closeness that only comes when someone shares your skin—the comfort and protection that is donned when we close the doors to wolves.
“Every Step You Take: A Poem” by Camille, ComposedByCamille. “Every Step You Take” is a poem about ancestral veneration that called me home. Reading this felt like getting my scalp oiled down with Blue Magic while cartoons blared in the background. There is safety in remembering, in being held by the past. I could feel my mother speaking to me through each line and my grandmother reaching toward me through the stanzas. Camille reminded me that there are 10,000 ancestors at my back, guiding every step I take.
“Parting the Sea: A Sapphic Black Romance” by Chanel Spellmen-Timmons, The Fringe. In “Parting the Sea,” Sahara Bryce is a successful horror author returning to her hometown of East Sea Providence for a bookstore event and writing workshop, only to encounter her former best friend and first love from high school, Koryn. As Sahara prepares for the event, memories resurface of the night years earlier when the two shared a passionate first kiss during a sleepover, only for Sahara, terrified of being discovered, to abruptly reject Koryn and end their relationship. After the book talk, Koryn, who is now a pastor, returns to the bookstore, and the two women connect for the first time in decades. Even though the past remains unresolved, they agree to have dinner together. This opens the door for healing and rekindling old feels. Chanel’s writing is sharp and well paced. I always feel the emotion seeping through her pages with her raw execution and her ability to bite into universal truths. This is an excerpt of a larger piece that confronts what it means to be queer and unsafe in homes that should be containers for who we truly are. Sometimes the wolves at the door are our own fears.
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Thank you so much! 🖤
This was so unexpected!! Thank you so much for including my Mary.