/ˈdärk ˈˌhrs/noun1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds."a dark-horse candidate"Join us for a monthly tour of writers who give as good as they get. From hard science-fiction to stark, melancholic apocalypses; from Lovecraftian horror to zombies and horror comedy; from whimsical interludes to tales of unlikely compassion--whatever it is, if it's weird, it's here. So grab a seat before the starting...

"You talk to yourself a lot, don't you?" said Luna. Williams looked at her and finally smiled in spite of himself. "Or it just may be that he's really talking to me, and you just can't hear it." He tweaked her nose. "Yet. Either way, you need to eat something and get some sleep. We all do. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow.""Why a big day?""Ank, camping gear," he said, and the dinosaur folded his front legs with a groan. "Because we're going...

"You know me to be a ferryman," I said, pushing the circlet up and over my forehead. "How?" "Why, by taking one look at you, that's how! You've no mask, that much is true, nor have you a scythe, as I've said … you've the cloak, all right, but that can be purchased at even the lowliest of costume shops; I've one just like it in my wagon here, in fact. No, this is something in the face itself. It's an aura." He paused, appraising me coldly. "You've...

Scenes & Interludes ... From an Improbable End A New Series in the Flashback Universe ... "I'm not a killer, if that's what you mean," he retorted, then turned away and watched the fire, hands on his hips. "Nor will I let any of us be. I mean, if I've said it once I'll say it again: this isn't about bloodshed. It's not even about rebellion. It's more about …" He paused-as though saying anything else could only lead to regret."I thought it was about...

A tale of otherworldly terror and haunted wind turbines from Wayne Kyle Spitzer, author of Flashback and The Witch Doctor..... What on earth did you plan to do? Dunn: Well, the only thing we could do, which was to right the boat and continue on-while doing our best to bail, of course. And that's when I first noticed it: way up there beyond the ridge; something moving, swinging, like the tip of a giant sword-only black against the sun-something which,...

First came the time-storm, which erased half the population. Then came the Dinosaur Apocalypse … How did it all begin? Well, that depends on where you were and who you ask. In some places it started with the weather-which quickly became unstable and began behaving in impossible ways. In still others it started with the lights in the sky, which shifted and pulsed and could not be explained. Elsewhere it started with the disappearances: one here,...

"Well, now we are getting somewhere," says Sula, glancing him up and down, appearing victorious. "But she was not a witch like me, else she would not have done what she did. For that is exactly what happened, isn't it? Jadis became infected by M24 and slew her own son, and your son too. And then you spent the next year and a half wandering a world you no longer recognized, a world where the dead were stacked on every street corner and the bonfires...

The final Flashback begins ... It's all led to this. All the characters and situations of the Flashback/Dinosaur Apocalypse come together in a final trilogy of tales that will close out and define the saga. Join Ank and Williams, the crew of Gargantua, the kids from Thunder Road, and so many others as they heed the call to adventure one last time and face the very architects of the Flashback! From The War-torn Hills of Earth: The gold fog rolled...

Corbin snatched the rifle off his shoulder in a flash and everyone ducked-but he was pointing it at the ceiling, not the Chairman. "Shhh," he said, and cocked his head. "Just listen." Charlotte did so, her ears still ringing. Slowly it became manifest: the sound of cavern raptors barking amidst the catacombs, barking and seeming to answer themselves, and something else, which answered them all. The Cat. The smilodon. The saber-toothed tiger which...

Handlebar stared at his own boots, which were soaked in blood. He seemed to be having some sort of internal crisis. He reached up with a trembling hand and twisted his mustache repeatedly. He came out of it suddenly and looked at Lonny. "Hey. Kid. Listen." He walked toward him, changing clips. "You're taking all this too seriously. It's toying with us, that's all." He held out his shotgun to him. "Here. The goo-Chin-he's right. It's still beneath...