As 2022 bids us goodbye I had a new story come out in The Deadlands, issue #20!

Harvest of Bones is a story set in a was-ravaged country, in a small village run mostly by women since men have either died of sickness or joined the army and never came back. This is the last night before the enemy arrives at the village, the night the women must decide what to do. How will these bones they unearthed help them? 

The story draws heavily from the Greek history of various wars throughout the years, without focusing on any particular one. I had the image of bones floating in alcohol, ready for consumption stuck in my head and this was the result of that weird idea. I am a person who can’t hide her love of cannibal grannies (also known as grannibals) so of course the first character would have to be an old woman with an even older knowledge. 

This story is an older one of mine. It was written a long time ago inspired by a prompt. It had many near misses in the submission process and I am very happy it has finally found its home. It is dear to my heart because of the weird premise. It also features a made-up song I wrote in a later version, which I did once before in “The Giants of the Violet Sea”. Every time I do a thing like that I am surprised because I am don’t consider myself a poet but I am slowly starting to reconsider. 

“This is not a cemetery, it’s a bone garden,” Nana said. “Don’t let the stones fool you. These were added later by priests and nuns who didn’t know any better.” She spat on the hard ground as if the stone were an affront to her and grabbed her pickax. “The dead don’t rest here. They are only waiting.”

I hope you enjoy reading this one and travel with these women to your personal battlefields and back victorious. Happy holidays!