STORIES

“In the Lab of Love”
by Melissa Bobe
available through Prolific Works

Genevieve loves her life as a witch in Dela City, even if the local witch authorities are a bit of a drag (and Genevieve should know, as her big sister is one such authority). But when the city at large catches word of a scientist who has supposedly invented a cure for all things love and romance, Genevieve is intrigued. Is Dr. Alta Anoma for real? Or is she just another witch trying to capitalize off of a basic love potion?

Always a bit too curious for her own good, Genevieve decides to investigate. What she discovers makes her question everything she knows about the politics of magic in her beloved home city. Meanwhile, Dr. Anoma’s work continues to garner attention, and the Dela City witch authorities are not about to take the threat of exposure lying down…

In the Lab of Love is available for free download here.

“Sibyls”
by Melissa Bobe
in Best Indie Speculative Fiction Volume Four

Foreston is the kind of place where no one expects anything out of the ordinary to happen. But when a sudden storm brings twelve days of rain to the town, strange things begin occurring in spades. Household objects vanish without a trace, townsfolk start exhibiting psychic powers, and twenty mysterious strangers show up on the town’s doorstep in the middle of the night. The Foreston sheriff believes he can get to the bottom of all of the weirdness around town, but with the laws of nature bending left and right, the changes in Foreston might be too much for any one person to contend with.

Part fairytale, part slice of life story, Sibyls is a darkly funny debut novella about a town weathering a storm of magic and revenge…

Best Indie Speculative Fiction Volume 4 is available for purchase here.

“Bits”
by Melissa Bobe
in The Needle Drops…Vol. 1

On a cold winter’s night, Charlotte enters the lobby of her apartment building only to find herself trailed by a curious scraping sound. It isn’t very far to her tenth-floor dwelling, but Charlotte realizes more than just a chilly breeze may have followed her in from outside, and reaching her own front door becomes a challenge more harrowing than she ever could have imagined. Bits engages the familiar experience of a woman trying to make her way home unscathed in a world that isn’t content to let her do so.

The Needle Drops…Vol. 1 is available for purchase here.

“Witchfire”
by Melissa Bobe
in Wyldblood Magazine #3

“They burn a witch a year to keep the river at bay, but if the village should flood, they say it is the work of a witch avenging the sacrifice of her kind. The river runs cold, its waters flowing from the mountains north of the village. Nothing survives on its banks; the soil is not muddy and rich but hard, like mountain ice.

I have never seen the river. I have never seen the village. And the village knows nothing of me.”

Wyldblood Magazine is available for purchase here.

“Necromancy”
by Melissa Bobe
in Clockwork, Curses, and Coal
edited by Rhonda Parrish

When Natalie Jameson returns home from the wider world, she brings with her a reckoning that will shake the foundations of her small town and all who live there.

“Necromancy” is part of Clockwork, Curses, and Coal, a collection of steampunk and gaslamp fairy tales edited by Rhonda Parrish and published by World Weaver Press.

Clockwork, Curses, and Coal is available for purchase here.