Over on her website, Caroline M. Yoachim talks about her newest story in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

I have a new story out in issue #225 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies (May, 2017). “Carnival Nine” is a story that I am particularly proud of, and I’m so happy it found a good home. A short excerpt:

One night, when I was winding down to sleep, I asked Papa, “How come I don’t get the same number of turns every day?”

“Sometimes the maker turns your key more, and sometimes less, but you can never have more than your mainspring will hold. You’re lucky, Zee, you have a good mainspring.” He sounded a little wistful when he said it. He never got as many turns as I did, and he used most of them to do boring grown-up things.

Rocket Stack Rank gives the story four out of five stars… read their (spoilery) review here.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents for issue 225.

“Carnival Nine” by Caroline M. Yoachim

The train took us to the maker’s bench, and we laid out our son’s body, chest open. Tonight the maker would give him a mainspring and wind him for the very first time. “Should we name him now, or after we’ve gotten to know him?” My parents had waited to name me until my second day, because they wanted to be sure the name would fit.

“A Place to Grow” by A.T. Greenblatt

There was a small, insistent part of her that wouldn’t let her give up so easily. The tiny part of her that had put down roots outside of her uncles’ laboratories and workshops. She’d poured hours into learning how to make things grow, how to keep them alive, and she had succeeded. She could spend an entire day in her garden with Marci and Gil, weeding, watering, laughing and it never felt like wasted time.

Audio Fiction Podcast: Carnival Nine by Caroline M. Yoachim

From the Archives: “A Spoonful of Salt” by Nicole M. Taylor (from BCS 79).

He tasted of salt. Naomi half-expected to see him melting in the places where her mouth had been.

Read issue 225 online completely free here.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies is edited by Scott H. Andrews and published twice a month by Firkin Press. Issues are available completely free online; you can also get a free e-mail or RSS subscription.

Firkin Press also sells a Kindle/e-Reader subscription, which includes automatic delivery to your Kindle or other device. A 12-month subscription comes with 26 issues and costs only $15.99. Single issues are available on Kindle and at Weightless Books for 99 cents. Subscribe here.

The magazine supports itself though subscriptions, and also by selling anthologies, including The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Year Seven and occasional themed books such as the steampunk anthology Ceaseless West. The anthologies each contain 15-18 stories and cost only $2.99-$3.99.

This month’s cover, “Land of Giants,” is by Ashley Dotson. We last covered Beneath Ceaseless Skies with issue #219.

See our May Fantasy Magazine Rack here, and all of our recent Magazine coverage here.