I’d gone from botanist to alien landscape within a few hours.
16 June 2018
Aliens taking over our bodies is another popular staple of horror, from The Thing to all the versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and two of our stories (one in each of our two anthologies) perfectly illustrate this primal fear.
In Priya Sridhar’s emotional “Tidal Bloom,†a meteorite brings alien algae which takes over a little girl who swallows some by accident, and her cousin must figure out how to save her.
In Betsy Aoki’s “And When We Die They Will Consume Us,†the source of today’s title, astronauts encounter an alien organism which slowly colonizes their bodies. (I have to tell you, when Octavia sent me the manuscript for Sharp & Sugar Tooth, this story, which ends the anthology, really haunted me, to the point that I had nightmares about it! You definitely want to read it.)
Caption: Betsy Aoki’s commentary on her story and Clarion instruction by Stephen Graham Jones
About the Authors
Betsy Aoki is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and this is her first speculative fiction publication. Her poems have been published in such journals as Uncanny, Southern Humanities Review, Hunger Mountain, Phoebe, The Nassau Review, terrain.org, and Calyx among others.
A 2016 MBA graduate and published author, Priya Sridhar has been writing fantasy and science fiction for fifteen years. She believes that every story is a journey, and that a good tale allows the reader to escape to a new world. She also enjoys reading, biking, movie-watching, and classical music. Priya lives in Miami, Florida with her family and blogs at www.priyajsridhar.com.
Also!
Alexa at A Thousand Worlds posted a review of Broad Knowledge, and A.C. Wise posted an interview with me and Octavia Cade about Canadian and Kiwi literature, strange non-writing jobs, and recent favorite reads. Wise’s critique is still up for grabs in our rewards!
Entry filed under: Anthology, Fiction, News. Tags: Betsy Aoki, octavia cade, Priya Sridhar, women up to no good.