APPLES OF THE GODS, by Jane Dougherty I walk through the orchard, taking the path between the plum trees and the blueberry bushes, touching the cloudberries and the bright clusters of hazel nuts. I let my wanderings take me to the pear trees, and then the apple trees, the most precious of all. In the […]

  OWAIN THE RED AT CASTELL DOLBADARN, by Nicole Rain Sellers, audio by Karen Bovenmyer, art by Simon Walpole North Wales, 1275 AD The infant moon swells full again, relentless, lonely wheel. Clouds asphyxiate this house swaddled in royal fields. Spent heather bleeds out honey and flocks surrender wool, betrayed as I, as powerless in […]

While we at HFQ enjoy the cooler months, the 2019-2020 winter has been long and dark and cold, and we are glad that spring has finally sprung.  Not only were the elements harsh, but we, along with just about everyone else, have been self-isolated.  Trapped at home!  We’ve had to sit on this great issue […]

HEART OF VENGEANCE, A Tale of Azatlán, by Gregory D. Mele, artwork by Justin Pfeil, audio by Karen Bovenmyer Jaakhár was in flames, the ancient palace-complex engulfed in a red, vengeful glow that gleamed evilly in the blackness of night. Helomon Twelve-Vulture, now Lord of the Red Flower Clan, reined in his foaming, winded horse, […]

THE WHISPERING HEALER, by Larisa Walk “What you want at this hour?” Anisia squinted at the man on her doorstep. He held a small bundle in his arms. The light from her oil lamp trembled in yellow blotches on his fish belly-white, too-smooth face. Newborn babes didn’t have skin that unmarred. Yet his eyes seemed […]