CHROMOPHOBIA’s TOC Sneak Peek Continues!

Today is Tuesday, March 1st, and this is our second sneak preview of the CHROMOPHOBIA table of contents. You can see the first one HERE. Hardcover pre-order link is at the bottom of the article!

Today’s showcase:

“Stygian Blue”

by Jo Kaplan

An excerpt:

First, Mr. Mapleton discovered one cow upside-down.

Not lying on its back, but occupying the same patch of space it would had it been standing up—floating with its hooves in the air and its ears nearly grazing the grass. Mr. Mapleton said he found it on the far end of the pasture, and it reversed direction after only a second or two, so that it once again stood upright.

How do we know that’s what he really saw? It’s possible his eyes were only playing tricks on him. He’d been drinking heavily of late and had just recently turned to hair of the dog to ease his hangovers. His drinking was starting to spill over from one day to the next, poisoning his wife and daughter by proxy.

But it wasn’t just the upside-down cow. The Mapletons claimed they found another cow split in half down the middle, its two parts separated by no fewer than fifteen feet. They saw cows presenting impossible abilities.

Cows that disappeared and reappeared. Cows that seemed to move backwards. Cows that briefly doubled before snapping together again.

They tried to convince their neighbors, but it was a hard sell.

Who would believe in interdimensional cows?

At least that was the theory Mrs. Mapleton favored. She trusted her intuition. On the other hand, Mr. Mapleton thought they’d been cursed or were being somehow haunted. Which is why Mrs. Mapleton grew fascinated by the cows while Mr. Mapleton grew ever more irate the more she talked about them. She didn’t care that no one believed them. She only wanted to be with the cows, examine them, understand them.

He only wanted to escape.

A kind of falling away is what happened. Not an argument. Mr. and Mrs. Mapleton simply turned away from each other.

None of them really knew what was happening.

Not until Anya went for a swim.

This story is a class act. The weird events grab you early on and the story never really lets up. Who could look away from impossible cows? We sure couldn’t.

Jo Kaplan’s talents really shine in “Stygian Blue” and you can check out more of her work at her personal site, HERE.

Like what we’ve shown you? You can pre-order the special hardcover edition of CHROMOPHOBIA from Rooster Republic HERE. A trade paperback edition will be made available in time for Halloween 2022.

As always, thanks for reading and thank you so much for the support.

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