This Halloween season, we have two eerie new stories and a Classic Flash.

“All Mimsy” is the first work of fiction published by Kelly Wright. I read it four times the first time I sat down to it, because everything is a-kilter: The narration is odd, the personalities are odd, the world we’re taken to is odd. It’s a vignette (with a teeny, tiny plot of its own) that seems to be part of something much bigger. What I like most of it is the way Mimsy’s personality comes shining (literally) through.

“In An Old Man’s Lap” is a piece of mainstream fiction by frequent contributor Dave Hoing. It’s set back just over fifty years ago, and the horror is what might be lurking, still among us, impotent and feeble but no less horrifying for it.

Bruce Holland Rogers is on a hiatus this issue.

Finally, I know that this is the first issue we have published for a few months. We will be taking a further break through the beginning of January, possibly with a story published for Christmas. I’ll provide more details in the near-term. The last year hasn’t been good for FFO from an administrative, technical, or procedural perspective, and since we finally appear to be out of the hole we were in, we may be able to begin again more effectively next year.

If you’re an author waiting for a response on a story you’ve submitted, please consider those stories released back to you. I’m not waiting for any author to whom I’ve offered an acceptance, and I’ve made it through everything that was sent to me. When we do re-open for submissions, I’ll no longer have a requirement against simultaneous submissions, and this won’t happen again.