Below are the featured alternative stories for Spring 2007. A short teaser follows each title. Click on the title to read the whole story. Click on the author's name to read the biography.

The Blackthorn Mirror by G.C. Dillon

Amanda Jasmine Ashbourne entered the dark confines of the Juno & the Paycock after work.

The Juno & the Paycock was a pub both suitably literary and suitably Irish for her taste. Jasmine took a seat at the bar. Her image came back to her from a large mirror. It was trimmed with an ornate frame carved with varied curlicue decorations. She was dressed in a sienna suit dress with a Texas string tie around her neck. Her work shoes - matching sienna pumps -- were already in the knapsack at her sneakered feet. She'd gotten the knapsack at a conference in Washington. It had the name of a financial software vendor displayed conspicuously upon it. She could almost count her years at the bank by the number of tee shirts and promotional knickknacks she has gotten. She was now a Cashier Team Leader, a fancy name to give you the work of a low-level manager, but not the pay of one.

It wasn't getting older Jasmine minded; it was getting settled.

Train in Vain by Jenny Boyd

I'd never really liked Abby. Not since she started seeing John. I mean, I had know him for years and it felt like she stole him from me. Not that I'd ever actually told him how I felt, but it was always there. I mean, I had been there for him before he got his first gig, before he managed to cobble his high school buddies together into a band, through it all.

John met Abby at a show, one of his early ones, back when the band was playing tiny, smoky venues whose patrons largely ignore the acts and where you stuck to the floor in the bathroom, if you were brave enough to venture in. She was his first big fan. Well, after me, but his first big fan who hadn't known him before.

I had originally pegged her as the usual groupie-slut, but that's unfair. For one, the band wasn't big enough to justify groupie-sluts, certainly not ones as attractive as she was, and she did seem to actually want to spend time with John in general, not just at shows.

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