Mad Scientist Journal – Winter 2020

Edited by Dawn Vogel and Jeremy Zimmerman

by Han Adcock, C. R. Anderson, E.D.E. Bell, Maureen Bowden, Arnout Brokking, Andy Brown, Amanda Cherry, Sam Crane, James Cummins, Rain E. Day, Megan Dorei, Madison Estes, Judith Field, Lillie E Franks, Sean Frost, Lucinda Gunnin, Joachim Heijndermans, Andrew K. Hoe, Joan Hudak, Blake Jessop, Michael M. Jones, Larry C. Kay, K. Kitts, Genevieve McCluer, Fiona Moore, Nick Morrish, Alexander Nachaj, George Nikolopoulos, Edward Garcia Punales, Mere Rain, Darren Ridgley, dave ring, J. Rohr, Angelica Rosenthal, Holly Saiki, Connor Sassmannshausen, Holly Schofield, Sophie Sparrow, Franko Stephens, Cory Swanson, Johnny Townsend, D. J. Tyrer, Alyssa N. Vaughn, Chris Walker, Cliff Winnig

Disaster photography, mental health assistance from unlikely sources, and talented velociraptors. These are but some of the strange tales to be found in this book.

Mad Scientist Journal: Winter 2020 collects thirteen tales from the fictional worlds of mad science. For the discerning mad scientist reader, there are also pieces of fiction from Maureen Bowden, Amanda Cherry, Sam Crane, Madison Estes, Larry C. Kay, K. Kitts, Fiona Moore, George Nikolopoulos, Mere Rain, Darren Ridgley, dave ring, J. Rohr, Holly Saiki, Connor Sassmannshausen, Alyssa N. Vaughn, Chris Walker, and Cliff Winnig. 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 Joachim Heijndermans, Genevieve McCluer, Nick Morrish, Cory Swanson, Arnout Brokking, Franko Stephens, Megan Dorei, Judith Field, Rain E. Day, Holly Schofield, Blake Jessop, Michael M. Jones, Andrew K. Hoe, Han Adcock, C. R. Anderson, E.D.E. Bell, Andy Brown, James Cummins, Lillie Franks, Joan Hudak, Alexander Nachaj, Edward Punales, Angelica Rosenthal, Sophie Sparrow, Johnny Townsend, DJ Tyrer, Lucinda Gunnin, and Sean Frost. Art provided by Leigh Legler, Luke Spooner, Errow Collins, Scarlett O'Hairdye, America Jones, and Justine McGreevy.

About the Authors

Han Adcock

Han Adcock is a writer of short stories, short long stories and poetry ranging from the humorous to the bizarre. His work has appeared in print, online and in podcasts, e.g., Tales to Terrify, Expanded Horizons, and the Siren's Call ezine. He has a novelette available on Amazon ("Damian's Dream"), is an amateur book reviewer and artist, and is the editor-illustrator of Once Upon A Crocodile ezine. Find him at www.facebook.com/wyrdstories.


C. R. Anderson

C. R. Anderson was born and resides by the lake in the City of Milwaukee. He earned a bachelor’s in Business Management from Western Governors University and works as a Health Unit Coordinator and Telemetry Tech at a metropolitan hospital. In the past, he played the lead role in the opera Amahl and the Night Visitors and performed with a Milwaukee Conservatory Choir. Recently he was published in cement on the city sidewalks, having one of his poems win a local contest for that honor.


E.D.E. Bell

E. D. E. Bell was born in the year of the fire dragon during a Cleveland blizzard. After a youth in the mitten, an MSE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, three wonderful children, and nearly two decades in Northern Virginia and Southwest Ohio developing technical intelligence strategy, she now applies her magic to the creation of genre-bending fantasy fiction in Ferndale, Michigan, where she is proud to be part of the Detroit arts community. A passionate vegan and enthusiastic denier of gender rules, she feels strongly about issues related to human equality and animal compassion. She revels in garlic. She loves cats and trees. You can follow her adventures at edebell.com.


Maureen Bowden

Maureen Bowden is a Liverpudlian living with her musician husband in North Wales. She has had over a hundred stories and poems accepted for publication by paying markets. Silver Pen publishers nominated one of her stories for the 2015 international Pushcart Prize. She also writes song lyrics, mostly comic political satire, set to traditional melodies. Her husband has performed these in Folk clubs throughout England and Wales. She loves her family and friends, Rock 'n' Roll, Shakespeare, and cats.


Arnout Brokking

Arnout Brokking (1983) is a Dutch writer of SF, fantasy and horror fiction. Arnout believes in the power of story to amaze and inspire, to terrify and delight, and to teach and question. Stories shape both our world and ourselves. He lives in the Netherlands together with his beloved Camilla and Olga and their three children. You can check out his work at www.arnoutbrokking.com, or follow him on Twitter: @arnoutbrokking.


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.


Amanda Cherry

Amanda Cherry is a wife and mom, an actor, and an author loving life in the suburbs of Seattle, WA. She’s an alumnus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas whose biggest claim to fame is having once co-starred with a Gecko in an insurance commercial.

As a queer, disabled author of urban & contemporary fantasy, space opera, and role play games, Amanda is drawn to stories that center people whose experiences and points of view are too often erased. She loves magic, mayhem, clever villains, unlikely love stories, and marginalized folx coming into their own power.

Amanda’s debut novel, Rites & Desires was released in 2018. Her short stories have appeared in Cobalt City Christmas: Christmas Harder and several editions of Mad Scientist Journal. She was on the writing team for the tabletop role play game Acute Paranoia and was a finalist in the 2018 NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge. She’s been a story consultant to the SyFy Docu-series Looking for Leia in which she was also an on-camera participant.

Amanda is a giant nerd, and a fixture of sci-fi, fantasy, and comic book conventions across the country. Find her on panels about everything from fashion & fanfiction to impostor syndrome and chronic illness. If you’re looking for someone to talk about Star Wars, Star Trek, gaming, or daring to be hyper-femme in geek spaces, she’s your gal.

Amanda has contributed to geek culture sites Tosche StationEleven-ThirtyEight, and Star Trek.com and has been featured in Journey Planet.

She is a member of SAG-AFTRA, SFWA and Broad Universe.

Amanda is represented by Claire Draper of the Bent Agency.


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.


James Cummins

James Cummins received the 2009 Canadian Authors Association-BookTelevision prize winner for his history of rave music, Ambrosia: About a Culture, one of his nine books. He is also a poet, fashion reporter, and novelist. His upcoming books include Elixir: Our Oldest Bars and Why They Matter, a history of the oldest bars in the world, and Also and as well … What Day is it Again? - Overbooking the Year with a Few Thousand Too Many Days, the story of his celebrating as many unofficial and official holidays as possible over the 365 days of 2018 (about 2,200 in all).


Rain E. Day

Princess Rain E. Day rules a small kingdom in Oaks, Pennsylvania. She is fond of naps, brushing, and chin bumps. She is opposed to the outdoors, her nemesis—black kitty who deigns to set foot in her kingdom—and children. She’s been known to hiss her displeasure at human females who choose to reproduce. Her hobbies include basking in the sun, pouncing her mousey, and guarding the house. This is her first publication.


Megan Dorei

Megan Dorei is a lover of all things horror and strange. She has been published in such works as Sirens Call Publications' Bellows of the Bone Box, Dark Moon Digest #14, Flame Tree Publishing's Gothic Fantasy: Dystopia Utopia, and Transmundane Press' On Fire anthology. She lives in Lawrence, KS, with her fiancée and probably several ghosts.


Madison Estes

Madison Estes has had work featured in Texas Road Kill Vol. 3 (HellBound Books), Transcendent (Transmundane Press), Enter the Aftermath (TANSTAAFL Press) and Mojave Heart Review. Her work is forthcoming in Tales from Gehenna (Gehenna & Hinnom), Strange Girls (Twisted Wing Productions), The Toilet Zone (HellBound Books) and Unexpected Heroines (Grimbold Books). She lives in southeast Texas with her family and three dogs. In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, sculpting, drawing, and reading. Find her on Twitter @madisonestes or Instagram @madisonpaigeestes


Judith Field

Judith Field lives in London, UK. She is the daughter of writers, and learned how to agonise over fiction submissions at her mother's (and father's) knee. She's a pharmacist working in emergency medicine, a medical writer, editor, and indexer. She started writing in 2009. She mainly writes speculative fiction, a welcome antidote from the world she lives in. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications in the USA, UK, and Australia. When she's not working or writing, she studies English, knits, sings, and swims, not always at the same time.


Lillie E Franks

Lillie E Franks is a trans author and playwright from Chicago, Illinois. You can follow her on Twitter at @onyxaminedlife. She writes about things that could never happen because she can’t think of anything more honest.


Sean Frost

Sean Frost is a software developer in Michigan, who writes comics and stories while watching horror and science fiction movies. He lives with four demanding cats and a very understanding wife. It is entirely likely that he has a few too many hobbies.


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.


Joachim Heijndermans

Joachim Heijndermans writes, draws, and paints nearly every waking hour. Originally from the Netherlands, he's been all over the world, boring people by spouting random trivia. His work has been featured in a number of publications, such as Metaphorosis, Hinnom Magazine, Every Day Fiction, Asymmetry Fiction, Kraxon Magazine, and Gathering Storm Magazine. He's currently in the midst of completing his first children's book. You can check out his other work at www.joachimheijndermans.com, or follow him on Twitter: @jheijndermans.


Andrew K. Hoe

Andrew K. Hoe is an associate professor of English and speculative fiction author based in Southern California. He is also an assistant editor and narrator for Cast of Wonders. Though he is excited to appear in Mad Scientist Journal, he is actually not a mad scientist—but insists that nobody can be perfect.

Twitter: @andrewk_hoe

Web: andrewkhoe.wordpress.com


Joan Hudak

Joan Hudak has studied geology through the graduate level. Her favorite mineral is kyanite and her favorite Cambrian fauna is Opabinia regalis.


Blake Jessop

Blake Jessop is a Canadian author of science fiction, fantasy and horror stories with a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Adelaide. You can read more of his speculative fiction in DreamForge Magazine or follow him on Twitter @everydayjisei.


Michael M. Jones

Michael M. Jones lives in southwestern Virginia with too many books, just enough cats, and a wife who knows where all the bodies are buried. His stories, many of which take place in this same setting, have appeared in anthologies such as Constellary TalesF is for Fairy, and Fitting In. The characters in "The High Cost of Answers" first appeared in "The Strange Case of Rebecca Rice," available in Like a Mystery Uncovered: Erotic Detective Stories (caution: adult material!).

The characters in "...Octopuses in the Office" first appeared in "Saturday Night Science," available in the first issue of Broadswords & Blasters (April 2017).

For more, visit him at www.michaelmjones.com.


Larry C. Kay

Larry C. Kay fights mosquitoes and evades Florida Man with his mysterious wife, who only uses her sorcery for good, and a daughter who wishes she was a wolf made of stars. Find more of the products of his succulent skull meat at GoodReads, or slide over to Amazon and search for Welcome to San Cicaro, an anthology about a city that is a "mecca for the misbegotten" where "rumors of the bizarre and the miraculous abound, magic baked into the very streets by the scorching sun."


K. Kitts

Dr. K. Kitts is a retired geology professor who lives in the high desert of New Mexico. She served as a science team member on the NASA Genesis Mission and worked with both Apollo lunar samples and meteorites. She has dozens of non-fiction publications, but she no longer wishes to talk about “what is” but rather “what if.” She is currently writing both short and novel-length science fiction.


Genevieve McCluer

Genevieve McCluer was born in California and grew up in numerous cities across the country. She studied criminal justice in college, but after a few years of that, moved her focus to writing. Her whole life, she’s been obsessed with mythology and past cultures, and she bases her stories in those.

She now lives in Arizona with her partner and cats, working away at far too many novels. In her free time, she pesters the cats, plays video games, and attempts to be better at archery.


Fiona Moore

Fiona Moore is a writer and academic whose first novel, Driving Ambition, is published by Bundoran Press in autumn 2018. She has written and cowritten a number of articles and guidebooks on cult television, three stage plays and four audio plays. Her short fiction has appeared in, among others, Interzone, Asimov, On Spec, Unlikely Story, and the award-winning anthology Blood and Water. When not writing, she is a Professor of Business Anthropology at Royal Holloway, University of London. More details, and free content, can be found at www.fiona-moore.com.


Nick Morrish

Nick Morrish is an increasingly mad engineer from Yorkshire, England. During a long and futile career, he has worked for a number of frankly certifiable multinational companies. He clings to the last vestiges of sanity by writing serious and truthful stories about the nature of existence. Since no one else seems to observe truth in quite the same way, his work is often mistaken for satire or fantasy.


Alexander Nachaj

Alexander Nachaj lives in Montreal, Canada. He lectures part-time at Concordia University, where he is in the process of completing his Ph.D. and spends too much time reading and writing. His work has appeared in Grievous Angel, Shotgun Honey, and Right Hand Pointing, among other places. You can keep a tab on him over at his blog: www.anachaj.ca.


George Nikolopoulos

George Nikolopoulos is a speculative fiction writer from Athens, Greece, and a member of Codex Writers' Group. His short stories have been published in over 60 magazines and anthologies including Galaxy's Edge, Nature, Daily Science Fiction, Factor Four, Grievous Angel, Best Vegan SFF, and The Year's Best Military & Adventure SF.


Edward Garcia Punales

Edward Garcia Punales is a writer, poet, filmmaker, and lover of mythology, science fiction, art, and cheeseburgers. He’s self-published three short story collections, written and/or directed a handful of short films, regularly publishes new work on his Medium page, and has spent way too much time on the internet watching old vine compilations.

He used to write under the pen name Edward Lange, but switched to his real name in 2015.

He lives in South Florida, and you can find him online at medium.com/@edwardpgames


Mere Rain

Mere Rain is an international nonentity of mystery whose library resides in California.

Mere likes reading, travel, food, art, and you.

No, really! Feel free to contact Mere at mererainwriting@gmail.com


Darren Ridgley

Darren Ridgley is a journalist and speculative fiction writer residing in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His work has previously appeared in the Fitting In: Historical Accounts of Paranormal Subcultures anthology published by Mad Scientist Journal, as well as magazines including Polar Borealis, Fantasia Divinity, and Empyreome.


dave ring

dave ring is the chair of the OutWrite LGBTQ Book Festival in Washington, DC. He has stories featured or forthcoming in Speculative City, GlitterShip, and A Punk Rock Future. He is the editor of Broken Metropolis: Queer Tales of a City That Never Was from Mason Jar Press. More info at www.dave-ring.com. Follow him on Twitter at @slickhop.


J. Rohr

J. Rohr is a Chicago native with a taste for history and wandering the city at odd hours. In order to deal with the more corrosive aspects of everyday life, he writes the blog www.honestyisnotcontagious.com and makes music in the band Beerfinger. His Twitter babble can be found @JackBlankHSH.


Angelica Rosenthal

Angelica "Angie" Rosenthal is a college student from Northern Michigan. She loves reading graphic novels, laughing too much, and being a film snob. Her dream in life is to write for television; pray for her.

She can be contacted on Instagram @your_favorite_angie and on Twitter @thatoneangie.


Holly Saiki

Holly Saiki is a part-time retail worker living in Kapolei, HI, on the Island of Oahu. Her work has appeared in Café Irreal, The Stray Branch, Ink Stains Anthology, Brilliant Flash Fiction, The Siren's Call, TANSTAAFL Press' Enter the Rebirth and is forthcoming in Black Hare Press' Monsters, Pure Slush's The Shitlist, and Words and Brushes Volume One. She is currently at work on a superhero novel, Serendipity City Adventures: Shotgun Annie and Blood Gun vs. The Mediators.


Connor Sassmannshausen

Connor Sassmannshausen is an Australian based American author and filmmaker. Her works can be found is Daily Science Fiction, Fantasia Divinity, Enchanted Conversation, Servicescape, Challenge Accepted, and Like a Woman. When not writing, she enjoys watching movies, traveling, and cross-stitching. She enjoys writing fantasy and science fiction in this universe or someplace new.


Holly Schofield

Holly Schofield travels through time at the rate of one second per second, oscillating between the alternate realities of city and country life. Her short stories have appeared in Analog, Lightspeed, Escape Pod, and many other publications throughout the world. She hopes to save the world through science fiction and homegrown heritage tomatoes. Find her at hollyschofield.wordpress.com.


Sophie Sparrow

Sophie Sparrow has published short fiction in a variety of venues, including here at Mad Scientist Journal. She lives and works in Birmingham, England, with her partner and not enough cats. Visit her online at www.writersophiesparrow.com or on Twitter @_sophiesparrow.


Franko Stephens

Franko Stephens lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and children. In addition to the multitude of stories told to his kids just before bedtime, he has a novel, The Crooner, currently on Amazon Kindle. His short story, "The Werner and Chalsky Event," was published by Mad Scientist Journal in 2016. He hopes to one day find a home for his new novel, That’s My Little Death God.


Cory Swanson

Cory Swanson lives in Northern Colorado with his wife, two daughters, and an old blind dog named Kirby. When he’s not working himself to the bone teaching tweens how to play band and orchestra instruments, he can be seen camping with his family in his tiny trailer or traveling to strange worlds in his head in order to write about them.
If you would like to witness a nearly middle aged man attempt to navigate the perils of social media, you can find Cory on Facebook under the handle @speculativemeculative, on Instagram @coryswansonauthor, or at his website, coryswansonauthor.wordpress.com


Johnny Townsend

Johnny Townsend has published stories and essays in Newsday, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Humanist, The Progressive, in the anthologies The Kindness of Strangers, Queer Fish, and Latter-Gay Saints, and in many other publications. His books include Mormon Underwear, Zombies for Jesus, Gayrabian Nights, and Human Compassion for Beginners. He was also an associate producer for the documentary Upstairs Inferno. His books have been named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. His latest collection of essays on climate change, Dead Mankind Walking, was published in March 2019.


D. J. Tyrer

D. J. Tyrer is the person behind Atlantean Publishing and has been widely published in anthologies and magazines in the UK, USA, online and elsewhere, most recently in Steampunk Cthulhu (Chaosium), Tales of the Dark Arts (Hazardous Press), Cosmic Horror (Dark Hall Press), and Serial Killers Quattuor (JWK Fiction), as well as Tigershark ezine. In addition, The Yellow House (Dynatox Ministries) is available in paperback and on the Kindle from Amazon.

D. J. Tyrer's website is at http://djtyrer.blogspot.co.uk/

The Atlantean Publishing website is at http://atlanteanpublishing.blogspot.co.uk/


Alyssa N. Vaughn

Alyssa N. Vaughn lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband, son, and two dogs. She is a former software developer, a current high school teacher, a part-time writer and a full-time geek. When she's not reviewing comics for NerdSpan.com or video games for ThatVideoGameBlog, she's working on her own science fiction projects. More accurately, she's procrastinating working on them and tweeting about her baby's farts and the weird things her mom says when they watch the Food network. You can read these tweets @msalyssaenvy or see pictures of her kid on Instagram @alyssaenvy.


Chris Walker

Chris works in spacecraft mission operations and is a sometime astrodynamicist and bytewrangler. He enjoys writing stories of other worlds and days that might be. His short stories have appeared in Mad Scientist Journal, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Electric Spec, and Aurealis.

Chris lives in the UK and loves the liquid phase of what you humans call coffee.


Cliff Winnig

Cliff Winnig writes science fiction, fantasy, horror, Weird Western, and related genres. His short fiction has appeared on the Escape Pod podcast and in several anthologies, including That Ain’t Right: Historical Accounts of the Miskatonic Valley, Footprints, and Straight Outta Deadwood.

When not writing, Cliff plays sitar, studies aikido and tai chi, sings in two different choirs, and does social dance, including ballroom, swing, and Argentine tango. He lives with his family in Silicon Valley, which constantly inspires him to think about the future. He can be found online at http://cliffwinnig.com.