Mad Scientist Journal – Spring 2019

Edited by Dawn Vogel and Jeremy Zimmerman

by Andy Brown, Curtis C. Chen, Ashlyn Churchill, Sam Crane, Paul Crenshaw, Willow Croft, Robert Dawson, Sabrina Eads, Jonathan Ficke, Kiyomi Appleton Gaines, Boris Glikman, Lucinda Gunnin, Soramimi Hanarejima, Liz Hufford, River Knight, Hamilton Kohl, Anna Kriegel, John A. McColley, Alex Pickens, Torrey Podmajersky, Tais Teng, Steve Toase

Inexplicable archaeological discoveries, fascinating scientific logs of experiments gone awry, and alternative solutions to a variety of problems. These are but some of the strange tales to be found in this book.

Mad Scientist Journal: Spring 2019 collects thirteen tales from the fictional worlds of mad science. For the discerning mad scientist reader, there are also pieces of fiction from Jameson Currier, Soramimi Hanarejima, and River Knight. Readers will also find other resources for the budding mad scientist, including an advice column, gossip column, and other brief messages from mad scientists.

Authors featured in this volume also include John A. McColley, Hamilton Kohl, Steve Toase, Willow Croft, Robert Dawson, Liz Hufford, Ashlyn Churchill, Tais Teng, Sam Crane, Jonathan Ficke, Boris Glikman, Curtis C. Chen, Paul Crenshaw, Kiyomi Appleton Gaines, Anna Kriegel, Sabrina Eads, Andy Brown, Alex Pickens, Lucinda Gunnin, and Torrey Podmajersky. Art provided by Justine McGreevy, America Jones, Leigh Legler, Scarlett O'Hairdye, Luke Spooner, and Errow Collins.

About the Authors

Andy Brown

Andy Brown is a musician and entertainer living near Edinburgh in Scotland. (He doesn't currently own a kilt but does play bagpipes a little.) He is a pleasant enough fellow with a healthy interest in many things and an obsessive interest in many others. (Music, computers, astronomy, reading, writing…) He plays a wide variety of instruments to a wide variety of standards. His greatest happiness is his family and the fact that he wakes every morning still breathing. His greatest sadness is that he might die before warp travel, teleportation, and Klingons are discovered.


Curtis C. Chen

Once a Silicon Valley software engineer, CURTIS C. CHEN (陳致宇) now writes speculative fiction and runs puzzle games near Portland, Oregon. His debut novel WAYPOINT KANGAROO (a 2017 Locus Awards Finalist) is a science fiction spy thriller about a superpowered secret agent facing his toughest mission yet: vacation.

Curtis’ short stories have appeared in Playboy Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, and OREGON READS ALOUD. He is a graduate of the Clarion West and Viable Paradise writers’ workshops.

You can find Curtis at Puzzled Pint Portland on the second Tuesday of most every month.

Visit him online: https://curtiscchen.com


Ashlyn Churchill

Ashlyn Churchill is a literary studies student and the proud mom of a rabbit named Molly who doesn’t enjoy watching The Twilight Zone reruns as much as mom would hope. Ashlyn is an avid Dostoyevsky fan and spent too many of her teenage years reading H. G. Wells, but she would give absolutely anything for a conversation over cucumber sandwiches with Oscar Wilde.


Sam Crane

Sam Crane enjoys writing science fiction and dark fantasy stories. A History major and an IT professional, she draws considerable influence from both history and technology, as well as from New England, where she lives with two very mischievous black cats. You can find her online at sam-crane-writes.blogspot.com.


Paul Crenshaw

Paul Crenshaw’s essay collection This One Will Hurt You is forthcoming from The Ohio State University Press. Other work has appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Pushcart Prize, anthologies by W.W. Norton and Houghton Mifflin, Interzone, Oxford American, Glimmer Train, North American Review, and Brevity, among others.


Willow Croft

Willow Croft is a writer and poet currently living in high desert, though she has dreams of moving to green Scotland. She has a BA in writing and literature and a MA in history. She recently published a book of poetry, Quantum Singularity: A Poetic Voyage through Time and Space, and is editing a mystery manuscript for publication.


Robert Dawson

Robert Dawson has a Ph.D., teaches mathematics at a Nova Scotian University, and writes science fiction.


Sabrina Eads

Sabrina Eads works and lives in Houston, Texas. A fellow writer categorized her writing as “whimsical and creepy.” Her work has been published in Houston Writers’ House’s Tales of Texas anthology and Story Seed Vault, among others. Contact her on Twitter @sabbysteg, on Goodreads, or on the web at sabrinaeads.com.


Jonathan Ficke

Jonathan Ficke lives outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his beautiful wife. He graduated from Marquette University with a degree in public relations, which (in a manner of speaking) is another form of speculative storytelling, His work appears in Mad Scientist Journal Spring 2018, Writers of the Future: Vol. 34, and Tales of Ruma. He muses online at jonficke.com and on twitter @jonficke.


Kiyomi Appleton Gaines

Kiyomi Appleton Gaines is a writer of fairy tales and other fantastical things. She lives in New Orleans with her husband, a one-eyed cat, and a snake. Her writing can be found at workofheartkag.wordpress.com.


Boris Glikman

Boris Glikman is a writer, poet, and philosopher from Melbourne, Australia. The biggest influences on his writing are dreams, Kafka, and Borges. His stories, poems, and non-fiction articles have been published in various online and print publications, as well as being featured on national radio and other radio programs.


Lucinda Gunnin

Lucinda Gunnin is a short story author and commercial property manager in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She writes a gossip column for Mad Scientist Journal and has a published collection of short horror Seasons of Horror available at Amazon.com. When not writing, she’s a gluten-free gamer girl, sushi lover, and cat-spoiling pet parent. Find her on Twitter @LucindaGunnin.


Soramimi Hanarejima

Soramimi Hanarejima is a writer of innovative fiction and the author of Visits to the Confabulatorium, a fanciful story collection that Jack Cheng said “captures moonlight in Ziploc bags.” Soramimi’s recent work has appeared in various literary magazines, including Panoply, Pulp Literature, and The Absurdist.


Liz Hufford

Liz Hufford is a lapsed people-pleaser and a competitive reader. She has on occasion doodled Yoda and created otherworldly ceramics. In 2017, she finalled in the Roswell Award for Short Science Fiction. Some previously published stories were reprinted in best-of-the-year anthologies. Her sundry work history includes (but is not limited to) stints as an editorial cartoonist, an oral historian, and a professor. Her sometime passions include tennis, miniatures, and travel. Her favorite new word and practice is fika.


River Knight

River Knight was raised by a family of nerds, and grew up as a child of Pern, Middle Earth, Hogwarts, and a galaxy far far away. A lover of all things Disney, River enjoys showtunes and snuggling every cat humanly possible. Like all writers, River’s love language is good, strong coffee.


Hamilton Kohl

Hamilton Kohl discovered his love of the mad (or alternate) sciences at an early age, when he was introduced to the Hilarious House of Frankenstein. He now spends his days writing while chained to his office cubicle. At night, and most weekends, he enjoys a slight reprieve from the insanity of corporate mad scientists to spend time with his wife and children where they live just outside of Toronto, Canada. You can find him on twitter @Hamilton_Kohl.


Anna Kriegel

Anna Kriegel is a 25-year-old writer, who feels at home in airports and train stations, and has a head full of witty crocodiles and compassionate octopuses. Born in Paris of a Central European Jew and a Catholic Mexican mom, she has started her exploration of the world by living in New York, Buenos Aires, and Los Angeles. Find out more about her screenplays, novels, and short stories, on her website www.annakriegel.com.


John A. McColley

John A. McColley claims to be a recent father of three, living at the edge of a three-hundred-acre wood. Evidence mounts that he, too, has lost touch with reality after months of sleep deprivation, spinning tales of mechanical men and magic. He reports waking many times a night to the screaming of very cute, but very angry, tiny, twin demons who demand milk and diaper changes.


Alex Pickens

Alex Pickens grew up in Appalachia, where he spent his time hiking, reading the Classics, and fingerpicking the blues. His work has recently been accepted by The Inkwell Journal, Maudlin House, Silver Blade Poetry, Mad Scientist Journal, Gone Lawn, Pretty Owl Poetry, Eastern Iowa Review, Jersey Devil Press, Crack the Spine, and Moonpark Review, while his flash fiction has been nominated for a Best Microfiction, 2018 anthology.


Torrey Podmajersky

Delivered by time travelers to a newly-cooled Earth, Torrey Podmajersky spent her formative years in de facto world domination. Since her peaceful abdication, she and her knifemaking husband embroider the outskirts of imaginalia with monsters, tools, and words.


Tais Teng

Tais Teng is a Dutch writer, illustrator, and sculptor. In his own language, he has written everything from radio-plays to hefty fantasy trilogies. He just finished his first English science fiction novel Phaedera: Alastor 824, set in the universe of Jack Vance, which will be published by Spatterlight Press. His greatest wish is a Star Wars laser cannon to carve mountains or the lesser Jupiter moons. He owns no cats or even a pet boa constrictor, but has to do with a wife and three kids. For his writing go to http://taisteng.atspace.com/, for his art to https://taisteng.deviantart.com/


Steve Toase

Archaeologist and writer Steve Toase lives in North Yorkshire, England, and Munich, Germany.

His work has appeared in Scheherezade's Bequest, Not One Of Us, and Cafe Irreal, amongst others. In 2014, "Call Out" (first published in Innsmouth Magazine) was reprinted in The Best Horror Of The Year. He is also a regular Fortean Times reviewer.

Recently, Steve worked with Becky Cherriman and Imove on Haunt, about Harrogate's haunting presence in the lives of people experiencing homelessness in the town.

stevetoase.wordpress.com