Thrilled to be able to announce that I have sold Little Loves, my space wasps, to Dark Matter Magazine for publication in 2021!
It’s a little piece of flash fiction that explores my healthy fear and respect of nature. Little Loves stems piece of research I read about predatory wasps suggested their brain chemistry is manipulated by the egg-laying sting of the wasp, and this then forces the poor creature that plays host to do what is best for the wasp larvae.
It also draws on a particularly gross hoax from my uni days about breast cancer and creepy crawlies that started to circulate, documented by Snopes here. Content warning, it’s a gross image and possibly NSFW. If you are grossed out, you might be a trypophobic like me – meaning fear or disgust of closely-packed or irregular holes. (Do yourselves a favour and don’t go looking at mango worm infestations). The idea of something implanted beneath your skin has been a gross-out for me since the era of the original Goosebumps.
These come together into a little body horror that you will be able to read next year over at Dark Matter Magazine. Their first issue is publishing one of my faves, OJ Cade and a host of other wonderful authors. Fresh off their Kickstarter, the team have discounts coming for early subscribers and it would be great to have another mag in genre.
Head on over to https://darkmattermagazine.com/ to check them out and I will let you know when my piece is available for purchase, if any of the above is of interest to you.