Greetings, wondercats. How are we all? I am currently in the process of shifting my entire book collection into a cupboard so that we can move our furniture ready for the fitting of new carpets. With the upper body strength of a newborn lamb, this is a trial. It is lovely, however, to comb through them all. I have good taste, if I do say so myself.

Do you know who else has good taste? (Do you see what I did there? Ahem.) That’s right—JW Stebner, the might behind the glory that is Hexagon. Am I biased because JW has chosen my work not once but twice? Potentially. But just look at the contents list of Issue 12. Wonderful. This is such an exciting issue and I am so pleased to be a part of it.

Issue 12 features my eco-horror, “They Come to Return Home”. This story, or rather a selection of images from this story, haunted me for months before any words made it onto the page. I’m giddy that it’s finally out in the wild.

Should you wish to read it—and I really hope you do—you can expect:

🌊Superstition
🌊Storms
🌊Siblings
🌊Sea-dwelling giants (sort of…)

You can read Heaxagon for free here.

The sea turtle squalls in the sand and, when she tries to edge away, it whispers, “They come.”

Marcelline’s head knifes up until her gaze meets the horizon. Dread, like sweat, soaks her collar and balls in her throat. There, in the distance—spreading like ink on wet paper—is a gargantuan figure, hip deep in the ocean. It is joined by another, and another, each one taller than the next. The sea turtle rolls its great head into her lap and looks up at her with a glassy eye. “They come. They come to return home.”

— ELOU CARROLL, “THEY COME TO RETURN HOME”, HEXAGON SPECULATIVE FICTION MAGAZINE, ISSUE 12