Dearest Readers,
So it’s come to this: a Deep Overstock clip show. But this issue is more than just a rerun of all seventeen of our past themes. Contributors have not just resubmitted, but reinvented and reimagined these themes in new ways. This issue really is a collection of new favorites on old themes, but that doesn’t really work as a title/theme.
We received over 260 pieces during our open submissions period and we wish we could have accepted more for this issue, but you might not have been able to pick it up! We even considered splitting the journal in two in order to to make it more accessible, but instead opted for this novel-length journal instead. (At this point, this seems more like an anthology than a “journal.”)
A big thank you to all of our contributors for this issue. If we didn’t accept your piece it was more likely an issue of space than of quality. We count ourselves lucky to have so many pieces to pick from.
And thank you, dear reader, for pulling us off the shelf and choosing to support Deep Overstock. We will continue to publish work that we don’t see represented on the shelves in our next issue: Hacking. Give us ones and zeroes, axes, and writers who just can’t cut it, or whatever else that “hacking” inspires in you.
We may not be the oldest journal out there, but hopefully we can be one of your favorites.

Until we’re old and gray,
Deep Overstock Editors

Cover art: Icons from IconScout
Listen to the pieces: On the Deep Overstock Fiction Podcast.

SPACE EXPLORATION

Carolyn Adams – Rocket
Anna Laura Falvey – Future Astrophysicists of America, or, Children Staring Into a Void
Amalia E. Gnanadesikan – On Mining Station Gamma Twelve
BEE LB – on an otherwise unremarkable night
Daniel J. Nickolas – The First Astronauts

FAIRY TALES, FABLES & FOLKTALES

Audra Burwell – Firebird
Anna Laura Falvey – Trust
Kate Falvey – Lowenna’s Piskie
Clarissa Grunwald – Survival Guide for Mortals Trapped in 2022
Riley Huff – Spirulina
Ryan Shane Lopez – One Noble Neighbor
Caroline Reddy – The Lost Tribe

PARANORMAL ROMANCE

Carella Keil – Queen of Diamonds
Karla Linn Merrifield – How to Make Love to a Female Human (Homo sapiens sapiens)
Ben Nardolilli – Confessions at the Pantheon Bar
Vernon Tremor – What They Say about Big Feet

NAUTICAL LORE

Kate Falvey – Cora Visits the Seaweed Kingdom
Herma S.Y. Li – My Daughter Clare
Justin Ratcliff – Sea Goddess
Alex Richardson – Bearings
Fin Ryals – El Segundo, California
Nicholas Yandell – A Seaworthy Soul

DREAMS

Carolyn Adams – Big Fish, Little Fish ; Into which what follows
A.R. Bender – The Train
Audra Burwell – Town of Dust
Cecily Cecil – I Know That If I Shrunk Down To Three Inches Tall My Cat
Marie Dolores – A Candle in the Window
Joan Mazza – What do your dreams tell you?
Lars Straehler-Pohl – Cum mortuis in lingua viva – A handover in letters

WESTERNS

Audra Burwell – Equus
BEE LB – I Will Never Be a Cowboy

HORROR

Audra Burwell – Tenuous Threads
Roger Camp – Skull, Curiousity Shop window, Paris
Deborah Coy – Postcard From the Crypt
Ivan de Monbrison – The Color of Light (Цвет света)
Heather Hambley – XOXO, Candyman 2

STRUCTURES

Carolyn Adams – Cliff Dwellers ; Storms Over Red Wing
Christine Kwon – Book Sale
Mark Parsons – The Capitol Dome
Justin Ratcliff – Oubliette

NEW ARRIVALS

Alan Brickman – In the Attic
Maumil Mehraj – The Identity Card

ORIGIN OF LIFE

John Delaney – Cremation
Kate Falvey – Sand Mandala With Ancestral Names
Clarissa Grunwald – born
BEE LB – origin story
Daniel J. Nickolas – Conversations in a Graveyard
Olive Wexler – The Eves

ANIMALS

Carolyn Adams – Guest
AJD – Part of Darkness
Roger Camp – Chef , taxidermy shop
Cecily Cecil – Self-Portrait as Angler Fish
Kate Falvey – Traces
Eric Thralby – The Ape ; The Return of the Ape

MYSTERIES

BEE LB – This Screaming Mad//man
Elizabeth Templeman – The Loaf

FUTURE

Carella Keil – I Left Your Keys on the Kitchen Table
Mark DeCarteret – my robot

MAGIC

Alan Brickman – Ricky’s Magic Powers
Herma S.Y. Li – Igniting Moons, for You
Caroline Reddy – The Lion’s Gate

SHAKESPEARE

Lynette G. Esposito – My Cousin Shakespeare Said ; Shakespeare in Winter

SUPERHEROES

Timothy Arliss OBrien – There’s No Place Like Homophobia
Z.B. Wagman – Mama’s Little Angel

BEEKEEPING

Desiree Ducharme – BB Keeping

Editors-In-Chief: Mickey Collins & Robert Eversmann
Managing Editors: Michael Santiago & Z.B. Wagman
Poetry: Jihye Shin, Timothy Arliss OBrien, Nicholas Yandell
Prose: Michael Santiago & Z.B. Wagman