March Stories Update 2

Five stories I read in 2025.

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1. My Ghost by Hugh Behm-Steinberg in Roi Fainéant

At the corner store the ghost wants cigarettes but can’t pay because he only has ghost money. He can’t get Camels as the boarded up gas station that takes ghost money, they only have brands that don’t exist any more.  Eventually the narrator, whose ghost it is, buys them for it, and a bag of chips.

It’s the Day Of The Dead and the ghost has been hinting about it. Though that’s not their thing the narrator goes to his parents’ grave and gives an offering of chips. And to other graves. The ghost offers advice from the parents, unwelcome commentary. But not all goes as expected.

Read This: Having a ghost while alive treated both seriously and farcically in turn
Don’t Read This: Death and life treated very disrespectfully

2. Secrets Of The Goblin Market by Valerie Hunter in Luna Station Quarterly

Min’s a baker. She sells her wares at the goblin market, like her Grandmother and Aunt Luce before her. There are rules for selling at the goblin market, rules that keep her safe. No barter, only accept coins. Don’t speak, don’t follow anyone. The magic creatures could conjure sweets, but have no patience for baking. And others often start journeys from the market, and so want loaves to carry.

Gran had fallen ill and they’d considered trying to get a cure from the goblin market. But she had told them not to and then she died. And one day Aunt Luce had left, gone to be the baker in a far fairy kingdom. So at last it is Min who bakes for the market. Who does not speak, does not stare. Accepts only coins. Follows all the rules.

She gives up speaking, even at home. And not at the market, even though terrible things happen, people traded and worse. Until one day a stranger comes to the stall, who nevertheless knows Min’s name. And her neighbour at the market, the woman who sells luck and amulets has one more story for her.

Read This: For the secrets of the goblin market – and of Min
Don’t Read This: Lot of talk of rules and not actually doing anything

3. Like Mother Like Son by Riel Rosehill in Crow And Cross Keys

The son of a banshee must plug his ears while his mother weeps by the river. His mother speaks with her hands. Banshees prefer daughters, as sons will not last.

She keeps him safe. She keeps him away from people. For what kind of people would produce his father, who was not put of by a woman weeps and wails? Yet he will not be able to keep away for ever.

Read This: New look at old folk lore
Don’t Read This: New look at old folk lore

4. Runaway by K S Shay in Crow And Cross Keys

Mrs Green lives in an old house built on the slope of the valley before the highway was built. It’s steep and there’s a runaway emergency track, of gravel and barrels, and beyond that the house. Every equinox she paints sigils on the barrels, strange signs, she’s insistent on the colour, and that’s how they know she’s a witch. And one day our narrator and her friend Deb are sitting in Deb’s car at the top of the valley and a truck loses control, it goes down the runaway track and the sigils flash and it vanishes.

So she is a witch. And Deb has been looking for a way out of town, a way to leave. And maybe this is a way to leave it all behind and go to where she’s meant to be.

Wherever that is. If she doesn’t flinch.

Read This: A story of mystery and small town choices
Don’t Read This: You’ve seen a truck crash down a runaway track, it’s not pretty

5. Bumblecat by Johanna Ivy Levene in Luna Station Quarterly

Dr Caroline Hoffmann is inspired when her daughter Katie asks if you can cross cats and bumblebees. They are pollinators and rodent hunters, saving crops, and very cute with it. But they don’t thrive away from colonies. It’s corporate now and she suggests ways to keep them under control but they’re too expensive. And when unlicensed version escape and start growing stingers that leads to disaster.

Dr Hoffmann is the one who takes the blame and retires to do research. But even now the lure of research pulls her. And her grandson has ideas…

Read This: Delightful story of hubris and corruption by corporation
Don’t Read This: Scientist fails to consider all the possibilities – again