AFTER THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER
from Transmundane Press
The happily ever after is never the end. The curtain doesn\’t fall once love is recognized or evil is vanquished. Credits don\’t roll once the giant is slain or the big bad wolf is boiled alive. Wicked stepsisters, malevolent rulers, and hideous creatures still have lives after their sinister roles play out; heroes, lovers, and dreamers often find their victories lead to more troubles.
Within these pages are more than seventy continuations, retellings, and eldritch stories that explore the dark forests, magical castles, and hideous creatures After the Happily Ever After.
EXCERPT: from “Beanstalk” by Edward Cooke
After breakfast, his mother made him sit down and browse through an entire brochure of woodcuts depicting modish kitchens.
“Do you think our oven is big enough for a small child to hide in? Because I don\’t.”
Jack agreed that they ought to get a new oven as a matter of urgency. He would have agreed to anything, just to get himself out of the house and on the way to market.
He hoped against hope that he might meet a stranger on the way, but the only person he encountered was Ermintrude, coming out of Gretchen\’s house. She offered to go with him to market. She wanted to pay a visit to the haberdasher and get some new buttons for her blouse, all the old ones having fallen off during the night. But Jack insisted on going well in front of her, in case the sight of Ermintrude holding her blouse half-shut frightened off the sort of stranger who purveyed magical beans.
He reached the market and hesitated, depressed that all you could do with money was buy either consumables or trinkets. When Ermintrude arrived, he bought her some new buttons, a diamond necklace, and a couple of cows she liked the look of. Minutes later she was bored with all her new purchases. A pumpkin-shaped carriage caught her eye, but Jack was out of cash—he had spent all the gold pieces his mother had made the previous day. He hadn’t even enough left to pay Old Ned for that evening\’s session at the Nag.
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ABOUT THE EDITORS
Alisha Costanzo is from a Syracuse suburb. She earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she currently teaches English. She’s the author of BLOOD PHOENIX: REBIRTH, BLOOD PHOENIX: CLAIMED, and LOVING RED, and is co-editor of DISTORTED and UNDERWATER. IMPRINTED, her new novel, is undergoing serious edits for its 2017 release. In the meantime, she will continue to corrupt young minds, rant about the government, and daydream about her all around nasty creatures.
Having relocated from Northwest Florida’s lonesome roads and haunted swamps, Anthony S. Buoni now prowls the gas lamp lit streets of New Orleans, playing moonlight hide and seek in the Crescent City’s above ground cemeteries. Anthony is the author of Conversation Party, Bad Apple Bolero, as well as the editor to the Between There anthologies. His stories and articles have been featured in North Florida Noir and Waterfront Living. When not prowling, Anthony keeps it scary, writing dark fiction, editing, and watching horror movies. In his spare time, he DJs, plays music, and conjures other worldly creatures with tarot cards and dreams.
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