Wednesday, November 11, 2020

New story - Ghosts in the Psycho-Surgical Transmutation Machine at Bourbon Penn

 It's always a good day when there's more Bourbon Penn in the world! Issue 22 of this great magazine is out now, including my dark-comic-SF story 'Ghosts in the Psycho-Surgical Transmutation Machine'

It was nearly eleven by the time I managed to get myself going that morning, so I thought about the pub — but the state of my finances was even worse than my hangover, so I gave it a swerve and headed for the drop-in centre next to the library instead. It was a pretty good place to blag a free cup of coffee without having to suffer too much preaching and do-gooding in return, which suited me fine. I’d had just about all the do-gooding I could stomach for a while. 

It was practically empty when I got there; just Flea, sitting on the ratty little sofa with her head down, intent on rolling a joint. 

‘Greetings,’ she said, without looking up. ‘Enter and be welcome, fellow traveller on the hard road of life.’ ‘Whatever, Flea.’ 

The coffee pot was down to half an inch of burnt sludge. I eyed it with trepidation, then took a mostly clean mug off the side and poured it out anyway. Beggars, choosers.

Read the full story in Issue 22 of Bourbon Penn