The Ladies of Horror Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Curiosity Kills by Kim Richards  There were eight of them. Squat orange clay pots with lids and sealed tightly centuries ago. Lihn brought each out of the cavern, cradling  them in her arms. Obviously made of thick clay, the pots were surprisingly light. She laid them out in a line on the ground. What could they contain?

Bellatrix Sakakino has lived many lives. She dampens electricity. She’s radioactive. She longs for a fruit that went extinct before she was born. She’s not above committing a massacre for the sake of a perfect omelet. She crashes through timelines and circumstances, recurring in these flash stories as a tricksterish film director, a pink hedgehog, a simulation of herself, or a child who can only speak in dial-up modem shrieks. Are we the same person we were last year? Or last week? Or last story? Whimsical and dolorous, ironic and absurd, this slippery assortment of stories dances around these questions with ambiguous aplomb. — ACQUIRE THE PAPERBACK — Amazon | Free Flash Fiction — ACQUIRE THE EBOOK — Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books Everand | Odilo | Gardners | Fable Smashwords | Amazon Melancholic Parables is on Goodreads and Storygraph and Indie Story Geek. Rating and reviewing is the way to an author’s heart. If your local library supports the Hoopla streaming service, you can check out Melancholic Parables for free with your library card. That link is here.