by Carol Hone
tied 2nd place
The screen door was being stubborn and sticking open, again. I turned in the entrance and jabbed it with the toe of my shoe, unwilling to put down the bags of groceries to free my hands. When the tremor struck, I was balancing on one foot and swearing. The floor shook, the door-frame swayed. A juddering rumbling engulfed me. Outside, the trees and the two-storey brick-and-timber house across the way shimmered as if turning into one of those desert mirages.
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by SA Partridge
3rd place
The world outside the window was expectant. A black cat streaked across the gutter onto the roof, stopping only for the tiniest second to shine its yellow eyes into the room before darting away. Rain was threatening. The greens were brighter, the rough red bricks of the neighbouring apartment block more stark. In the distance, Table Mountain loomed. A neat row of ants marched through a crack in the wall, seeking shelter. The whole world seemed to be in on a secret. Anton was good at keeping secrets.
He watched, noticed things. How someone would turn around and look behind them as they walked. The child that took something that didn’t belong to them when they thought no one else was looking. From his window on the fourth floor, he saw everything. When the rain began to spit against the glass, he sighed and turned away. His vigil was over. The rain sounded like hundreds of fingertips tapping at his window and drowned out the sound of mice devouring the floorboards. Read more »
by Chris Miller
4th place
Missy slipped out from under the covers and eased open the bedroom door. It creaked and she looked back at Simon, but he remained undisturbed on their California Queen. There was a time when the earth could rend and swallow them whole and she wouldn’t know it; but over the past year her sleep had grown restive.
Missy paused at the threshold, taking care to step over the squeaky section of floor board. Simon was a light sleeper. As she crept toward the bathroom she heard the erratic patter of light rain on the roof. Outside storm clouds hung heavy, eager; inside, humidity clung to her skin and grappled with her nightgown.
The latch on the bathroom door sounded like the click of the alarm clock, the one that preceded the actual alarm by a half-second. She imagined it waking Simon now and felt her heart go from thump-thump to flitter-flitter. Read more »
Escape Pod posted this interview our editor did with Lauren on the eve of her winning the Arthur C Clarke Award for best science fiction novel of the year.
Posted in Interviews, News | 
Tags: Arthur C Clarke Award, Interview, Lauren Beukes | 
Comments Closed
Well as promised see below for the first batch of Kindle screensavers.
Just right-click the images and “save link as…” to download the pics.
For more info on how to install your own screensavers on your Kindle check out this link:
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Screen_Saver_Hack_for_all_2.x_and_3.x_Kindles
NB! We offer no guarantees that this will work in any way and we take no responsibility for damage caused to your device. Having said that, it works great on mine.
Well, here we are, a little later than I had hoped, but back on track for the new year.
I’m really excited to launch the all-new, digital-only, monthly Something Wicked.
New look, new schedule.
To celebrate our digital relaunch, we’re re-publishing Issue 10, two stories per week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, starting May 31st 2011.
But for those of you who can’t wait that long we’re selling a “Pay-What’s-Fair” Kindle, ePub and MOBI version of SW10.
You can head on over to our eBook store and download your copy now.
And for those of you who love paper above all else, well we still have print back-issues available of most of our mags, you can get them from our back-issue store.
Meanwhile we’ll be publishing the 2010 Winners of the Bloody Parchment every Tuesday and Friday through the month of May. Get your first fix with Chris Miller’s 1301 – available now.
As for Something Wicked Issue 11, the first story will be posted online on the 5th of July. Thereafter we will publish a story a week. The eBook versions will be available to buy from the 1st of the month.
Remember if you still have a subscription to Something Wicked then our eBooks will be sent directly to your email inbox on the first of every month until your subscription runs out.
So keep your browser glued to this page cos there’s tons of freebies and launch specials coming your way over the next 6 weeks until we re-open submissions on the 1st of July 2011.
Onward Ho!
Joe Vaz
Editor
The Resident Member – A Radio Play
Written by Paul Marlowe
Adapted for Radio and Directed by Digby Young
On any given day, the intrepid members of the Etheric Explorers Club can be found frustrating prophesies, wrestling with ancient evils, and generally striding boldly down the dark alleys of life, in order to fill in those portions of man’s map of reality that are, perhaps, better left blank. As with any club, though, there are always members who stay behind so as not to miss a second helping of pudding. This is their story.
Starring Gideon Emery, Joe Vaz, Digby Young, Damon Berry and Christa Schamberger Young.
What The Book Lounge Doesn’t Tell You
Read live by Lauren Beukes at The Lounge of Horror. Recorded at The Book Lounge in Cape Town on the 23rd of October 2009. In Association with HorrorFest V ((http://www.HorrorFest.info) and Something Wicked SF and Horror Magazine (http://www.SomethingWicked.co.za)
Mechanical Rights 2009 by Something Wicked and Inkless Media
Till death Do Us Part
A love poem for a zombie
Read live by Sarah Lotz at The Lounge of Horror.
Recorded at The Book Lounge in Cape Town on the 23rd of October 2009.
In Association with HorrorFest V ((http://www.HorrorFest.info) and
Something Wicked SF and Horror Magazine (http://www.SomethingWicked.co.za)
Mechanical Rights 2009 by Something Wicked and Inkless Media
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Night Time is a-Coming.. and the creatures are coming out to play.
Read live by Werner Pretorius at The Lounge of Horror.
Recorded at The Book Lounge in Cape Town on the 23rd of October 2009.
In Association with HorrorFest V ((http://www.HorrorFest.info) and
Something Wicked SF and Horror Magazine (http://www.SomethingWicked.co.za)
Mechanical Rights 2009 by Something Wicked and Inkless Media
Read more »