Fusion Fragment

Fusion Fragment #27 Table of Contents “A Prescription for Suicide” by Anya Leigh Josephs: controversial pills / ethical debates / at what cost, freedom? “Digital Love Spell – 78% Effective!” by Katharine Tyndall: amoral dating apps / the ends justify the means / be careful what you wish for “Extinction” by Ross Showalter: the last Deaf person on Earth / inventory / the end remains a question “One Last Round in the Arena of Little Gods (Or, Asan and the Lion)” by Ewen Ma: invisible (?) lion cub demons / authoritarianism / escaping the exorcists “Overgrowth” by Cate W. Tam: the plant apocalypse / stagnancy vs. potential / writhing towards the light “The Animal Years” by Jaye Case: language augments / the liquid ones / you are not the center “The Sum of Her Parts” by J.Y. Zhang: migrant workers / abuses of power in the doll factory / therapy

It's official: We got ourselves a release date for FF#27!

Mark those calendars for
March 23rd
and get ready for stories by Anya Leigh Josephs, @katharinetyndall.bsky.social, Ross Showalter, @ewenmaer.bsky.social, @catenotkate.bsky.social, @julialicia.bsky.social, and @jyzh.bsky.social!

The Harrowing of Hell (Third Circle, Sausage Counter, Contracts Office) Senior year, my best friend Tony and I worked the sausage counter in Hell. Third Circle. Yeah, I know, but they pay better than Wendy’s, and once you’re working in fast food, Hell isn&#…

FFer Read of the Day: "The Harrowing of Hell (Third Circle, Sausage Counter, Contracts Office)" by @slharris.bsky.social in @flashfictiononline.bsky.social

www.flashfictiononline.com/article/the-...

"Smile Lines" by Addison Blake Bushnell: neutral expressions only / cracking the smooth marble mask / to be a thing observed

Happy to announce that we've acquired "Smile Lines" by Addison Blake Bushnell for FF#30!

Addison's work has previously appeared in The McNeese Review and The Quarter(ly).

Albums on Repeat at FF HQ: 1. Ghostwoman - Welcome to the Civilized World 2. Saintseneca - Highwalllow & Supermoon Songs 3. Miya Folick - Erotica Veronica 4. Amythyst Kiah - Still + Bright 5. Cloves - One Big Nothing 6. Mini Trees - Always In Motion 7. Westerman - Your Hero Is Not Dead 8. Sonic Jesus - Badway 9. Liza Anne - Two 10. Minuit Machine - Violent Rains

The music's always playing during the many hours FF spends in production, so time to celebrate some great music. I listened to 139 albums in February, and these were the ten that were on repeat most often.

Top spot to a fave band of mine, Ghostwoman ghostwoman.bandcamp.com/album/welcom...

Fellow Canadians: If you've never participated in Aurora voting before, it's super easy! A membership is only $10 and that gets you electronic copies of just about everything that makes the final ballot, which is a heckuva deal!

FF Reading Update: Now that subs are closed, here's where the numbers are at!

18 stories undergoing additional reads (oldest from Jan. 22)
141 unread stories in queue
Oldest unread is from 1:08 PM ET on Feb. 17
273 subs received in the last 30 days

FF#26 cover art by Evelyne Park, featuring a woman surrounded by many eyes, framed in shards of glass and noh masks.

For FF#26, @evelynepark.bsky.social painted this gorgeous cover (her 2nd FF cover), capturing a scene from "Mrs. No Face". I highly recommend watching this mesmerizing video to see all the time, effort, and care that goes into creating a cover like this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX2p...

4/4

FF#25 artwork by Nickolej Villiger, showing scenes from all 9 of the issue's stories.

For FF#25, @almosthomefree.bsky.social (aka Nickolej Villiger), proved himself equal to the huge task of creating artwork that included scenes from all NINE of issue 25's stories.

3/4

FF#24 psychedelic space whale cover, by Abi Stevens.

With FF#24, @abistevensart.bsky.social was back to do her 3rd FF cover. In addition to her work for us, she also contributed artwork in 2025 to @havenspec.bsky.social (March cover), @smallwondersmag.com (June cover), and @reckoningmag.bsky.social (Issue #9 interior art)

2/4

From left to right: Abi Stevens's FF#24 cover (a psychedelic and colourful space whale dwarfing an observatory, amidst planets and a rocketship), Nickolej Villiger's FF#25 cover (featuring comic-book style art of 9 different scenes from the issue's stories), and Evelyne Park's FF#26 cover (a painting of a woman's face surrounded by shards of glass and fragments of a noh mask, all containing different eyes).

For awards season, I'd like to take a moment to hype FF's 2025 cover artists. FF's cover art is commissioned, based on stories from each issue, and @abistevensart.bsky.social @almosthomefree.bsky.social and @evelynepark.bsky.social did an incredible job of bringing these stories to life!

1/4

Miles To Go Before I Sleep - PSYCHOPOMP.COM The third time Zoey meets Death, she is unarmed except for a bag of twenty-seven kazoos.

FFer Read of the Day: "Miles To Go Before I Sleep" by @bethgoder.bsky.social in @thedeadlands.com

psychopomp.com/deadlands/is...

Issue #35: BLACK ISEKAI Visit the post for more.

FFer Read of the Day: "The Cut" by @sjp-ow.bsky.social in @fiyahlitmag.bsky.social

Check out a preview here, and the full issue is only $3.99!

fiyahlitmag.com/issues/issue...

FFer Read of the Day: "Beyond Those Shadowed Hills" by @shedric.bsky.social in @chmmagazine.bsky.social

cosmichorrormonthly.com/fiction/beyo...

"Sleeper Hit" by KJ Kabza: dreaming in a world of non-sleepers / being beaten down by the grind / indie video game design

Happy to announce our first acquisition for 2027: the novelette "Sleeper Hit" by @kjkabza.bsky.social!

KJ's work has previously appeared in Reactor, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, F&SF, and many others.

Between this one and "Winter's Song" in FF#5, if @spencerwriting.bsky.social writes a story with song somewhere in the title, I think I'm legally required to buy it.

Restaurant Space for Lease, Haven Spec Magazine "Restaurant Space for Lease" by Vivian Chou

FFer Read of the Day: "Restaurant Space for Lease" by @vivianhchou.bsky.social in @havenspec.bsky.social

havenspec.com/fiction/rest...

Closing to subs February 28th Now that our 2026 issues are filled (and our Feb 2027 issue is mostly stocked as well) we’re going to close the submission gates at end of day on February 28th. We’ll be aiming to get responses out to everyone who submits in February (or who already has a story in the queue) by the end of March at the latest. Submissions will re-open on July 1st!

📣📣📣
We've gotten so many great stories that we're now scheduling pieces for our Feb '27 issue (and probably our June '27 issue for at least a couple stories in queue!) so we're going close the submission gates for a few months.

Keep sending us stuff till end of Feb, and we'll see you again in July!

Mother Sun So you want my story. Or you think you do.

FFer Read of the Day: "Mother Sun" by @amynagopaleen.bsky.social in @apexmag.bsky.social (and originally published in FF#19!)

www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...

🖤🖤🖤

thanks again. also good reminder for me to shout out original publisher in 2020, @fusionfragment.bsky.social, issue #3. them taking this piece might've set me on the weird horror path 🫡🙏

www.fusionfragment.com/issue-3/

and @tuesdaywrites.bsky.social, Sarah M. Saif, @rossshowalter.com, @estrubbe.bsky.social, @catenotkate.bsky.social, @katharinetyndall.bsky.social, Francis Van Ganson, @awritingwall.bsky.social, @breewernicke.bsky.social, @jyzh.bsky.social, and @audreyzhou.bsky.social!

Get read for work by Natasha Ali, @sophiecasarico.bsky.social, @julialicia.bsky.social, @pintsncupcakes.bsky.social, @coreyfarrenkopf.bsky.social, @elliottgish.bsky.social, @louisinglishall.bsky.social, @clairejiawen.bsky.social, Anya Leigh Josephs, @ewenmaer.bsky.social, Escher McDonell-Maulsby,

2026 Fusion Fragment Lineup Natasha Ali: “Parthenogenesis” in FF#29 Sophie Casarico: “Diet Tips for the Apocalpyse” in FF#28 Jaye Case: “The Animal Years” in FF#27 Chloe N. Clark: “The Rocket Equation” in FF#29 Corey Farrenkopf: “Grave Bells” in FF#28 Elliott Gish: “The Stone Garden” in FF#29 Louis Inglis Hall: “The Children of Cadmus” in FF#29 Claire Jia-Wen: “In the Wake of Whales” in FF#28 Anya Leigh Josephs: “A Prescription for Suicide” in FF#27 Ewen Ma: “One Last Round in the Arena of Little Gods” in FF#27 Escher McDonnell-Maulsby: “Giant” in FF#29 Tuesday Pil: “u last saw hana in the mageverse” in FF#28 Sarah M. Saif: “Graftage” in FF#29 Ross Showalter: “Extinction” in FF#27 Erin Strubbe: “Birdguts” in FF#28 Cate W. Tam: “Overgrowth” in FF#27 Katharine Tyndall: “Digital Love Spell - 78% Effective!” in FF#27 Francis Van Ganson: “Iso E Super” in FF#28 Allison Wall: “Chutes, Slides, and Ladders” in FF#28 Bree Wernicke: “May It Please the Profit” in FF#29 J.Y. Zhang: “The Sum of Her Parts” in FF#27 Audrey Zhou: “(Non)Deterministic Finite Automata” in FF#28

The full FF 2026 lineup is officially set and I can't tell you how excited I am for what we've got in store for you!

We've got:
-writers making their second appearances in FF!
-writers you'll likely recognize from their work in other mags!
-writers making their debuts in SFFH short fiction land!

"The Stone Garden" by Elliott Gish: degenerative conditions / caretakers / petrification This text is overlaid on an image of a stone statue of a woman amidst trees.

Excited to announce that we've acquired "The Stone Garden" by @elliottgish.bsky.social for FF#29!

Elliott's short fiction has previously appeared in Vastarien, PseudoPod, and Metaphorosis, among many others, and her novel Grey Dog is available from ECW Press.

Some great 2026 short fiction reads for you, including recent work by FFer @thelialao.bsky.social!

Five Different Realities to Explore, and One to Avoid — Orion's Belt There’s a reality where I save you, at the start.

FFer Read of the Day: "Five Different Realities to Explore, and One to Avoid" by @breewernicke.bsky.social in @orionsbeltmagazine.bsky.social

www.orions-belt.net/archives/fiv...

Blessed Soil | Tractor Beam Is there discovery without humanity?

FFer Read of the Day: "Blessed Soil" by Russell Nichols in @tractorbeamearth.bsky.social

www.tractorbeam.earth/story/blesse...

Contributors Albert, Nkereuwem. Issue #26. A Treatise of Significance to Uyo Above. the city above and the city below / spirit bots / revolution Amro, Yasmeen. Issue #21. Footprints Like Craters. mecha pilots /…

One of my favourite things is updating the FF contributor page. Look at all those great stories over the years!

www.fusionfragment.com/contributors/

as a new zealander, i’m also eligible for the sir julius vogel awards! 🥝🥹

anyone can nominate, so i’d be honoured if you’d consider “looking glass” (pubbed in saros sf #1 by
@fusionfragment.bsky.social and edited by @meganjkerr.bsky.social)

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

sarossf.com/issue-1/

The Walled Garden by Fiona Moore Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast.

FFer Read of the Day: "The Walled Garden" by @drfionamoore.bsky.social in @clarkesworldmagazine.com

clarkesworldmagazine.com/moore_07_25/