The Red Penny Papers

 The cover to our Winter issue during Vol II was painted, acrylic on canvas, in a style akin to the Timurid-Persian style by Carrie Cuinn. This goes so beautifully with Mari Ness’s cover story, “In the Pits of Isfhan”. The story is a deep one, its significance as multi-layered as its hero and many secondaries.

It’s one of our absolute favorite historical fantasies–Ah, but talking about it can’t really do it justice. An excerpt would make more sense:

The fight seems to last for hours, although we are no judges of time. At last, the griffin frees its beak from the man’s shoulders, gives a final shriek, and soars up in the sky, although it is bleeding from every leg, and we can almost feel the strain upon its shoulders. The man is in no better shape, but as the griffin rises, he manages to swing his sword up and into the griffin’s neck before cutting through to its heart. Their fall is sudden, harsh. The griffin lands upon the man, its glittering feathers spraying everywhere in a dizzying fashion.

The crowd is silent.

This is how it works, in the markets of Isfhan: The purchaser must rise, alone, unassisted. Once this is done, they approach, with chilled rose or lemon water and fruit, and bow. The purchaser drinks, and eats, and then displays money and jewels. We are expensive, their prisoners, most expensive. The price is handed over, with another bow.

You are honored, they tell us, so honored. For what other women would be worth such a battle, such a victory, such a triumph?

I stare at the griffin, at its glittering glorious wings. An honor, an honor.

Volume II, Issue 2 contains stories by R.A. Keenan, T.J. McIntyre, Jan Stinchcomb, Samantha Boyette, and Sylvia Hiven. Sea brides and rebellious shadows, Victorian magicians and goblins–even a nod to an old favorite. Something for every pulp taste, as usual.

 For our first anniversary issue, we were lucky enough to have two returning artists grace our cover: Courtney Bernard, who not only provided the cover for VI #1, but also did our signature portrait of Magdala Twistleton, and William Vitka, who penned the cover story, “Janitors of the Cosmos”.

It may seem like a simple urban fantasy escape, but like everything Vitka pens, “Janitors” is more complicated than it looks on the surface, scraping through such issues as econoslavery, employment, and, well, the family issues represented by Jack and Caleb, our heroes, are many and varied.

And who could resist the little energy-collector “Cthulittle” squids? Like our real cover boy, to whom Caleb has to play second fiddle on Courtney’s cover.

Jack used Ripper bullets almost exclusively on assassination missions. They were self-aware, and they loved their job.

Jack said, “Mark sighted.”

There was a hushed whisper as the Ripper left the barrel of Jack’s gun.

It announced itself and Caleb could hear all of it:

“Hello! I am a bullet! In a moment, part of me will separate into three sections. Each section will be a spinning blade. The other part of me will lodge itself in you and then explode. Isn’t that neat? Jack had the forethought to aim for your brain. You’ll be dead real soon. Hooray!”

The thing posing as a human outside the bar exploded from the neck up. Its tight pants stood for a moment, soaked in blood and matter. The lower half of it tried to walk. Took a step. Then fell.

Screams.

In a flash the soul shitter was gone, and in another, back — loaded with Litostian juice.

“Test run was good?” Jack asked. “The Cthulittle did … whatever?”

Caleb stared, somewhat astounded. “Yeah, good quick job.”

The little squid thing in front of him chirped. An automated containment bin rolled toward it. The creature hiked up its hindquarters and crapped energy into it.

It started to purr, and then burped as Caleb hoisted it in his arms. He tickled what he thought might be its chin. “Did you half digest a soul or what?” Caleb asked as the Cthulittle stretched, exhausted.

So cute, for a little soul-sucker, amiright?

Volume II, Issue 1 contains stories by S.J. Hirons, Ash Krafton, Mark Rossmore, and Sara Kate Ellis on our usual delicious variety of pulpy topics.

The cover for Volume I, Issue 4 of RPP was done by Laura Tolton. It’s just gorgeous enough to be based on Jessica Reisman’s “Flowertongue”, a poetic, weird, and yes, gorgeous tale that revolves around a very particular passion: orchids.  At least, on the surface.

Appropriately enough, it opens with a quote from Charles Darwin, then spins a narrative made up of intimate scenes and correspondence. When I first read it, it dragged me back in time… and then into a decidedly weirder and more wonderful place  inhabited by Gia, a girl with white hair and an orchid-collecting father.

“…The ropes that tie the queen become roots, and the queen herself becomes a flower that lives on rain and air and light, sheltered by the curupay, able to propagate herself by any method she desires.”

“And she desired to propagate through humans, yes,” Quillon’s voice startled Ames, somewhat, “that’s the tale. Remarkable, really. Of course you know it.”

“Yes.” Something in her tone, in the one word, had gone far away from them.

“There was something else about the tale,” Quillon tapped his lips, then his gaze lit on Gia and a blush coloured his already ruddy cheeks.

“The queen was known among her people as The Pearl,” Gia said. “Her hair, though she was not old, was white as pearls, or sea foam, they said.” Then she laughed, gently dispelling Quillon’s embarrassment.

He turned back to his orchids.

“Here we are, now this lepanthis is from Colombia. See where the lip ruffles . . .”

Gia and Ames followed slowly, letting Quillon get some way ahead of them, his running monologue a gentle murmur. Watery light fell on the fantastic, deliriously coloured heads of orchids. Gia’s white dress glowed in the heavy air. Ames heard his heart beating for a moment, felt it in the ache in his thigh. The sweat running down his sides under civilised layers recalled places far from there.

Ah, now that’s pretty.

Volume I, Issue 4 features stories from Jocelyn Adams, Louise Bohmer, John Medaille, C.E. Hyun, and Sarah Hans. All over the pulpy map, as usual.