Steve Berman's Lair

~2013~

• "Three on a Match" (Strange Horizons, October)

He started rolling another cigarette. "The more smoke, the better my trick. Sometimes I just buy packs 'cause it's easier, faster. Has to be Lucky Strikes though. No other brand works. But I can leave them burning in an ashtray and . . . well, you'll see."

• "The Letter that Doomed Nosferatu" (Suffered from the Night: Queering Bram Stoker's Dracula, Lethe Press)

• "Poetaster" (Where Thy Dark Eye Glances: Queering Edgar Allan Poe, Lethe Press)

Neither midnight nor dreary but late on a cold October evening, Atherton James sat before a fire reading a book on legumes. He could not sleep and was relying on both the glass of port and the propensity of Latin within the names and mottoes to lull him. The chair was old, comfortable, cracked leather and would be preferable to tumbled, cold sheets



~2001~

• "The Anthvoke" (Strange Horizons, July)

The two had spent the past few hours on the streets of the Fallen Area. Along the way their hands often met, not just to help each other along but for that reassuring interweaving of fingers. Overhead, clouds streaked across an angry red sky. Marie, winded from their fast pace, looked up at Jess for strength. Her lover's dark curls had become matted with sweat, but those almost-black eyes shimmered with expectation.