I checked the astronomical calendar. Several, in fact. I even checked the astrological calendar and a handful of websites listing popular or amazing events in November. Pretty quiet. I have to say, it is fairly packed with great holidays, but isn’t any month anymore?

(I remember reading the book Catherine Called Birdy by Karen Cushman in which the main character keeps a journal, recounting a particular Saint’s holiday every single day of the year. I remember thinking how odd that was, to be expected to celebrate day in and day out. But, honestly, we have National Toilet Day on November 19th. It seems like celebrating The Feast of Saint Bibiana–December 2nd, just in case you feel the need to torture a Christian in her honor–would be a tiny bit more respectable than throwing glitter into the porcelain throne.)

But I digress. This month some string of planets in some other arm of the galaxy has apparently aligned in just such as way as to cause something of a publishing anomaly, at least at Flash Fiction Online. This month we’re running stories from three of our FFO alumni. THREE of them!

That doesn’t often happen around here. In fact, I don’t remember it ever happening. But it has. This issue is as rare as a blue moon.

To make things even more fun, we’re including a link to each author’s previously published story. Be sure to click through to those.

And our three returning authors are:
Samantha Murray, with “Boxes and Lockets and Clocks.”
(Previous story: “Portrait of My Wife as a Boat,” July 2015)
Alexis A. Hunter, with “Perfectly Not Normal.”
(Previous story: “Gold Dress, No Eyes,” February 2015)
Matt Dovey, with “Quartet of the Far Blown Winds.”
(Previous story: “This Is the Sound of the End of the World,” March 2016)

Also, this month, our reprint selection, “Project Earth is Leaving Beta,” by J.W. Alden. This story originally appeared in the May 2016 issue of Nature.

Enjoy!