Volume 1: Fear
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About this ebook
The first volume of Inaccurate Realities - a new Young Adult speculative fiction magazine.
The stuff of nightmares. Those things that go bump in the night. We want you to confront your fears. What scares you the most? What keeps you up at night?
Inaccurate Realities
Inaccurate Realities is a literary magazine for young adults and the young at heart. There is no denying that people of all ages are now reading YA, but when we looked around we noticed a significant lack of publications focusing on YA short fiction – especially genre fiction. Our emphasis here at Inaccurate Realities is on speculative fiction, in all its forms. Science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, horror, dystopian, steampunk, cyberpunk, alternate history and everything in between.
Read more from Inaccurate Realities
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Volume 1 - Inaccurate Realities
Inaccurate Realities
A Young Adult Speculative Fiction Magazine
Volume 1
Fear
Inaccurate Realities: A Young Adult Speculative Fiction Magazine
www.inaccuraterealities.com
Volume One
Editor: Christa Seeley
Assistant Editors: Andrea Modolo, Sara Eagleson
Proofreader: Danielle Webster
Cover Art: Sara Eagleson
Image Credits: From CanStockPhoto.com. Image IDs: csp7493534 and
csp11191977.
Copyright © 2013 Inaccurate Realities
ISSN: 2292-0056 (Print)
ISSN: 2292-0064 (Online)
ISBN: 9781492915454 (Print)
ISBN: 9781301896103 (Ebook)
Published by Inaccurate Realities at Smashwords
Inaccurate Realities is a quarterly magazine. Published out of Toronto, Ontario.
Contributor guidelines for writers and artists are available on our website or can be requested through:
submission.inaccuraterealities@gmail.com
Table of Contents
Letter From the Editor
Model Citizen by Marilyn Anne Campbell
Dead Man’s Pond by Rie Sheridan Rose
And I Thought They Smelled Bad on the Outside by Mackenzi Lee
The Usual by S. H. Aeschliman
For Halloween by J. W. Zulauf
Interview with Gretchen McNeil
Interview with Kendare Blake
Interview with Katie Alender
Book Reviews
Looking for more fear?
Contributors
Acknowledgements
Submission Information
Upcoming Issues
Letter From the Editor
In 2004 a movie was released called Chasing Liberty. It starred Mandy Moore, and Mark Harmon played the president. I do not remember a single thing about the plot of this movie. I don’t even remember watching it. But I must have at some point, because there’s this one quote I remember vividly: The things you’re scared of are usually the most worthwhile.
That quote has stuck with me ever since, and it’s remained true for almost ten years now. I said it to myself before getting on a roller coaster for the first time, before going to university and before I started any new job.
Fear.
We all have it and I’ve been giving it a lot of thought these last five months. Not just because it’s the theme of our first issue and not just because Halloween is right around the corner. I’ve been thinking a lot about fear because starting a magazine is a terrifying business.
When I initially had the idea my first fear was that I would have to do it all by myself. But when I started sharing my idea for an all young-adult speculative fiction magazine I found out I wasn’t the only one who had noticed a gap in the market. And next thing I knew it I had a fabulous team ready and willing to help out.
Team assembled, my next fear was that no one would submit. But not only did the submissions start coming in, but we received some fantastic stories as well. The five that we have chosen for our début issue all deal with fear in their own unique ways. From the fear of undead dogs, alien mannequins, and housing committee Vice Presidents to the general terror of never seeing your family again or not fitting in with the rest of society. From the ‘out there’ to the everyday I think we’ve compiled an excellent array of the things that scare us the most.
Now as we’re sending out this first issue, my fear is that of the unknown. I have no idea how it will be received. A lot of sweat, tears and late nights have been poured into this issue. There were more than a few moments where I questioned the sanity of such a project. But it belongs to its readers now and that was also the goal all along - to put great stories in the hands of readers. So if you’re reading this then the experience has been worth it; the saying still holds true—The things you’re scared of are often the most worthwhile.
I hope you like Inaccurate Realities as much as we do,
Christa Seeley
Editor
Inaccurate Realities
Model Citizen
Marilyn Anne Campbell
The Invasion changed many things: the way people thought about themselves and each other, the landscape of the Earth, the very dynamics of the universe. But there were some things it did not change—things like the upper level food court of the Maddison Bay Mall.
There, on the three-month anniversary of Humanity’s Great Victory, an escalator shuddered rhythmically under a journalist’s feet, carrying her up to the most important interview of her life. Up to where, layered in with the aromas of cinnamon buns and ketchup and frying chicken, she could smell the promise of answers.
As the food court slid into view, the journalist was surprised by the number of people already settled there only fifteen minutes after the mall had opened. A few young employees loitered about in their store colours, trying to avoid the inevitable. Two mall management-types wearing gold-plated name tags on black polo shirts sat in the corner going over paperwork. The rest were seniors who came equipped with a coffee, muffin, and newspaper if they were alone, or just the coffee if they had a companion.
Still fifteen minutes early for her meeting, the journalist headed for the nearest counter to order a coffee of her own. But while she waited behind five grey-haired men in baseball caps, she became aware of a slight pressure on the back of her head. Most people know the sensation of being watched, but most people who visit malls haven’t experienced that sensation in a place where their lives were in danger. Long before the Invaders came, the journalist had spent time in many places where the phantom feeling of eyes could be tied directly to a sniper rifle. Reminding herself where she was, the journalist fought the instinct to throw herself to the ground, and instead turned casually to look behind her.
There. Sitting at a table on the far side of the food court with his back against a planter full of real soil and fake ferns. She hadn’t noticed him when she came in, but it was obvious he had seen her. He had chosen the most defensible position in the space, the one with a clear view of all the entrances and exits, and the fewest blind spots. She knew immediately that this must be her subject, the former leader of the now disbanded International Resistance. He had the weary-yet-intense look of a warrior that she had seen so many times.
Also, he was the only seventeen-year-old in the food court who wasn’t wearing a retail uniform.
~~
So, uh, tell me, Scott,
said the manager of the thirteenth clothing store Scotty had applied to that day. How are you at math?
Scotty shrugged. He knew this was the most important interview of his life—so far, it was the only interview of his life—but the manager of Harness could have asked him about any school subject and gotten the same answer from Scotty’s skinny shoulders. He was shrug at English and shrug at Biology and shrug at Marketing and Media Studies and Phys. Ed. Scotty did well enough to pass, and couldn’t think of any other description of his abilities that mattered.
What’s seven times six?
the manager asked, signalling the numbers with her fingers as she spoke.
Forty-nine?
asked Scotty, who hadn’t thought to bring a calculator on his job hunt.
If you were adding a tax of fifteen percent, how much extra would you charge on a bill of one hundred and fifty dollars?
asked the manager. She quickly added, Take your time.
Scotty stalled by glancing around the stock room where he’d been taken for his on-the-spot interview. Boxes cluttered up the floor and the rows of shelves were jammed with hastily-folded clothes. Yet in