Jeffrey Ricker — BLOG — ANTHONY R. CARDNO

Last week on Sunday Shorts I listed all of the stories I read in January through June of 2025, with links (where possible) to where they could be found. Today I present the list of all the short stories I read in the second half of 2025. As with the first post, I decided to break them up by month and then within each month by where they were published. I am really going to try to do monthly round-ups instead of waiting until the end of the year.

JULY

Lightspeed Magazine #182, edited by John Joseph Adams

“The Lord of Mars” by Meghan McCarron

“How to Win Against the Robots” by Katherine Crighton

“Domestic Disputes” by Naomi Kanakia

“Finding Love in a Time Loop: A How-To Guide” by Leah Cypess

“What Else, What Else, in the Joyous City” by Sadoeuphemist

“A Dish Best Served Cold, or, an Excerpt from the Cookbook of the Gods” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

“Un-Pragmagic: A Tyler Moore Retrospective” by Spencer Nitkey

“You Knit Me Together in My Mother's Womb” by Paul Crenshaw

Nightmare #154 edited by Wendy N. Wagner

“Asking For It” by Kristi DeMeester

“The Hearth” by Benjamin Percy

Clarkesworld #226 edited by Neil Clarke

“Serpent Carriers” by K.A. Teryna

The Dark #122 edited by Sean Wallace

“Skin and Bones” by Gary McMahon

The Shivers (Amazon Originals) (editor unknown)

“The Indigo Room” by Stephen Graham Jones

“Letter Slot” by Owen King

“The Blanks” by Grady Hendrix

“Night and Day in Misery” by Catriona Ward

Kaleidotrope Summer 2024 edited by Fred Coppersmith

“How to Create a God” by Rachel Meresman

AUGUST

Lightspeed Magazine #183, edited by John Joseph Adams

“Five Dispatches From Conflict Zone W-924/B Regarding Post-Battle Deployment of A. Thanatensis” by David Anaxagoras

“Feast of Famine” by Adam-Troy Castro

“The Dream Tourists” by Sarah Langan

“To Access Seven Obelisks, Press Enter” by V.M. Ayala

“It Might Be He Returns” by Fatima Taqvi

“Dad Went Out to Get the Milk” by Osahon Ize-Iyamu

“Savannah and the Apprentice” by Christopher Rowe

“Anti-Capitalism vs. The Man of Flowers” by Naomi Kanakia

Seanan McGuire’s Patreon

“Those Three Girls From Rush's Bend” by Seanan McGuire

Carribean Phantom and Other Stories (single-author collection)

“The Ghost Crutches” by Mary Gann

“The Wanted Bone” by Mary Gann

“Juan” by Mary Gann

“On Board the Argolla” by Mary Gann

“The Winking Eye” by Mary Gann

“There Is A Way” by Mary Gann

“The Governor's Visit” by Mary Gann

SEPTEMBER

Lightspeed Magazine #184, edited by John Joseph Adams

“Last Meal Aboard the Awassa” by Kel Coleman

“The Place I Came To” by Filip Hajdar Drnovsek Zarko

“The Girlfriend Experience” by C.Z. Tacks

“City of One” by Stephen S. Power

“Beginning Before and After The End” by Jake Stein

“Apeiron” by Cadwell Turnbull

“On An Unusual Kind of Spatially Distributed Haunting” by Bogi Takacs

“Human Voices” by Isabel J. Kim

Seanan McGuire’s Patreon

“Married in Gray” by Seanan McGuire

Nightmare #156 edited by Wendy N. Wagner

“Autogas Ferryman” by Champ Wonsatayanont

Carribean Phantom and Other Stories (single-author collection)

“Across the Bluff” by Mary Gann

“The Bungalow of Mystery” by Mary Gann

“Outwitting Justice” by Mary Gann

“What Was It?” by Mary Gann

“What Happened to Jim MacNarth” by Mary Gann

“The Black Bat” by Mary Gann

“Dr. Holm's Unsolved Problem” by Mary Gann

“Xcunya” by Mary Gann

“Orchid Hall” by Mary Gann

“Heirlooms” by Mary Gann

“Admonition” by Mary Gann

“The Tide of Retribution” by Mary Gann

“Port Quin” by Mary Gann

“Little Pitchers” by Mary Gann

“The Little Wood” by Mary Gann

Black Hole Heart and Other Stories (single-author collection)

“Black Hole Heart” by K.A. Teryna (Translator: Alex Shvartsman)

“Songs of the Snow Whale” by K.A. Teryna (Translator: Alex Shvartsman)

“The Errata” by K.A. Teryna (Translator: Alex Shvartsman)

“Untitled” by K.A. Teryna (Translator: Alex Shvartsman)

“Morpheus” by K.A. Teryna (Translator: Alex Shvartsman)

“Copy Cat” by K.A. Teryna and Alex Shvartsman

“The Chartreuse Sky” by K.A. Teryna and Alexander Bachilo

“The Jellyfish” by K.A. Teryna (Translator: Alex Shvartsman)

“No One Ever Leaves Port Henri” by K.A. Teryna (Translator: Alex Shvartsman)

“Madame Felides Elopes” by K.A. Teryna (Translator: Anatoly Belilovsky)

“The Tin Pilot” by K.A. Teryna (Translator: Alex Shvartsman)

“Lajos and His Bees” by K.A. Teryna (Translator: Alex Shvartsman)

“The Farctory” by K.A. Teryna (Translator: Alex Shvartsman)

OCTOBER

Lightspeed Magazine #185, edited by John Joseph Adams

“O Mechfighter, O Starfighter” by Osahon Ize-Iyamu

“The Porniest Porn in Porntown” by Stephen Graham Jones

“Everyone Hates the Auditor” by Megan Chee

“Thaw” by An Owomoyela

“At the Bottom of the Bonfire” by Martin Cahill

“Dirge and Gleam” by Micah Dean Hicks

“Dating Fortune” by Sean McMullen

“Drosera regina” by A.L. Goldfuss

Asimov's Science Fiction #596/597 edited by Sheila Williams

“Frankenstein's Book Launch” by Karen Heuler

Seanan McGuire’s Patreon

“Seek Sweet Safety” by Seanan McGuire

Nightmare #157 edited by Wendy N. Wagner

“Courtney Lovecraft's Book of the Dead” by Sam J. Miller

“The Version of Yourself That You're Better Off Without” by Aimee Ogden

Silver and Lead (October Daye Novel)

“Seas and Shores” by Seanan McGuire

Complete Tales and Poems (single-author collection)

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe

NOVEMBER

Lightspeed Magazine #186, edited by John Joseph Adams

“How to Set Up Your Mourning Robot” by Angela Liu

“Elegy For Zephyr One” by Gene Doucette

“Visible Damage” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

“Operation: Grapevine” by Joel W.D. Buxton

“In the Zone” by Lisa M. Bradley

“Beneath the Umdlebe Tree; or, A Vegetable Love Story” by Modupeoluwa Shelle

“How to Build a Homecoming Queen: A Guide by a Bad Asian Girl” by Tina S. Zhu

“The Cold Burning Light of Her” by Sam W. Pisciotta

Seanan McGuire’s Patreon

“What We Forget, What We Forgive” by Seanan McGuire

Delphi Anthology One (single-author collection)

“Kade & Karger: Big Trouble for Lil' Easy” by Randy Duncan

“The Four Aces: Zombies of Howling Cave” by Randy Duncan

“Conrad's Crew: The Crimson Triangle” by Randy Duncan

DECEMBER

Lightspeed Magazine #187, edited by John Joseph Adams

Reality Check by Nancy Kress

Us, In Another Universe by A.C. Wise

The Hub Living Among the Stars by Oyadotun Damilola Muess

The Space Between Us by P.A. Cornell

You Always Told Her You'd Give Her the World by Aimee Ogden

Cricket in the Lost Light by Jonathan Olfert

HagioClass by Jose Pablo Iriarte

Memories of the MindMine by David Marino

Seanan McGuire’s Patreon

Infringement by Seanan McGuire

Lies I Tell Myself: Stories (single-author collection)

How to Make A Souffle in 38 Easy Steps by Jeffrey Ricker

Looking for Bigfoot by Jeffrey Ricker

Peripheral by Jeffrey Ricker

Shepherd by Jeffrey Ricker

Multiverse by Jeffrey Ricker

Nightmare #159 edited by Wendy N. Wagner

The Short History of a Long-Forgotten, Ill-Fated Telenovela by Dante Luiz

Review: When the Baby Sleeps by Lyndsie Manusos

Shahmeran by Leyla Hamedi

The Dark #127 edited by Sean Wallace

Most Likely To ... (Class of 1997) by A.C. Wise

Lustre Mining by Eliza Chan

Uncanny #67 edited by Lynne Thomas and Michael Damien Thomas

The Millay Illusion by Sarah Pinsker

Who Are You Wearing? by Russell Nichols

To Speak in Silence by Mary Robinette Kowal

Plott Hound #3 edited by Allison Thai

The Cemetary Cat by Renee Carter Hall

A Mountain Retirement by Jeanne Kramer-Smyth

Clarkesworld #229 edited by Neil Clarke

The Job Interview by Carrie Vaughn

In Luck's Panoply Clad, I Stand by Phoebe Barton

Beneath Ceaseless Skies #447 edited by Scott H. Andrews

A Good Brother by Anne Wilkins

Vanya and the Dog Witch by Walter J. Wiese

Upon The Midnight Queer (single-author collection)

Dolph by 'Nathan Burgoine

Frost by 'Nathan Burgoine

Reflection by 'Nathan Burgoine

The Five Crowns and Colonel's Sabre by 'Nathan Burgoine

Five Shillings and Sixpence by 'Nathan Burgoine

The Doors of Penlyon by 'Nathan Burgoine

A Day (Or Two) Ago by 'Nathan Burgoine

The Future in Flame by 'Nathan Burgoine

Not The Marrying Kind by 'Nathan Burgoine

All of '81 by 'Nathan Burgoine

Folly by 'Nathan Burgoine

‘Nathan Burgoine’s Website

Wonder by 'Nathan Burgoine

A Winter's Hourglass by 'Nathan Burgoine

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction #773 edited by Sheree Renee Thomas

Soul Rebel by Maurice Broaddus

Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days (single-author collection)

Spirit of Christmas by Jeanette Winterson

The SnowMama by Jeanette Winterson

Dark Christmas by Jeanette Winterson

Christmas in New York by Jeanette Winterson

The Mistletoe Bride by Jeanette Winterson

O'Brien's First Christmas by Jeanette Winterson

The Second-Best Bed by Jeanette Winterson

Christmas Cracker by Jeanette Winterson

Ghost Story by Jeanette Winterson

The Silver Frog by Jeanette Winterson

The Lion, The Unicorn and Me by Jeanette Winterson

The Glow-Heart by Jeanette Winterson

Strange Horizons November 2025 ed. by Joyce Chng, Dante Luiz, Hebe Stanton, Kathryn Weaver and Aigner Loren Wilson

Palimpset by Melissa A Watkins

If Dragon's Mass Eve Be Cold and Clear (single-author collection)

If Dragon's Mass Eve Be Cold and Clear by Ken Scholes

The Doom of Love in Small Spaces by Ken Scholes

Golden Age Christmas Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler

Mystery For Christmas by Anthony Boucher

Christmas and Other Horrors edited by Ellen Datlow

The Importance of a Tidy Home by Christopher Golden

The Ones He Takes by Benjamin Percy

His Castle by Alma Katsu

The Mawkin Field by Terry Dowling

The Blessing of the Waters by Nick Mamatas

Dry and Ready by Glen Hirschberg

Last Drinks at Bondi Beach by Garth Nix

Return to Bear Creek Lodge by Tananarive Due

The Ghost of Christmases Past by Richard Kadrey

Our Recent Unpleasantness by Stephen Graham Jones

All The Pretty People by Nadia Bulkin

Loyla Sow-na by Josh Malerman

Cold by Cassandra Khaw

Gravé of Small Birds by Kaaron Warren

The Visitation by Jeffrey Ford

The Lord of Misrule by M. Rickert

No Light, No Light by Gemma Files

After Words by John Langan

Mysterious Bookshop Chapbook, edited by Otto Penzler

A Christmas Delivery by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Jericho Hill Books Chapbook, editor unknown

A Night in the Lonesome by Richard Chizmar and W.H. Chizmar

A Good Night For Bad Dreams by W.H. Chizmar

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, editor unknown

A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventure of the Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle

A Case of Identity by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Bascombe Valley Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Only Way Out Is Through The Window (single-author collection)

Build My Body Around My Bones by Christine Vartoughian

All The Falling Stars of Rome by Christine Vartoughian

As Far As My Body Can Take Me by Christine Vartoughian

The Only Way Out Is Through The Window by Christine Vartoughian

The Color of Forgotten Dreams by Christine Vartoughian

Small Creatures Vanishing by Christine Vartoughian

The Benefits of Being Misunderstood by Christine Vartoughian

Animals of A Vicious Kind by Christine Vartoughian

No One Dies Here by Christine Vartoughian

The Last Encore by Christine Vartoughian

Today’s Pride Month Interview is with author Jeffrey Ricker:

Hi, Jeff! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during current events. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?

Thanks, Anthony. I hope you're staying safe as well. I’m privileged in that my day job is such that I’ve been able to work from home, and I can afford to have things like groceries delivered. As a result, I’ve stayed home for about 99% of the past… how many months has it been, three? Four?

Creative motivation is another thing, though. I have not had as much luck in that department during this plague year. I try to cut myself some slack—there’s the day job, and up until the middle of May I was also teaching a class, so time has been short for a while. Besides, discipline and focus are a challenge for me at the best of times, anyway.

So I’ve focused on trying to finish things I’ve already started: short stories, a novel revision, that sort of thing. I’ve also been taking part as often as I can in a monthly flash fiction challenge that writer Cait Gordon organizes. She posts a prompt on the first Monday of the month based on some random playing card draws—one card for genre, one for setting, and one for an object to be included in the story. You’ve got a week to write a thousand words inspired by those elements and post it somewhere online. It’s been good fun, and I’m a big fan of prompts as a way to get the creative wheels turning. I use them a lot when I teach.

Recently, I think the dam may have broken when it comes to creating new work. I started developing characters for what will hopefully be my next book. It’s not the one I thought I’d work on next (I’ve had a few ideas floating around for a while), but sometimes the project chooses you rather than the other way around.

Since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: how has being queer influenced or informed your writing?

Honestly, I don’t think anything about the way I look at the world (i.e., highly suspicious and slightly terrified) would be the same if I wasn’t queer. I’d be hard pressed to pinpoint a part of my life that being queer hasn’t influenced. It’s kind of like the water a fish swims in—the fish takes it for granted.

I don’t think I should make too big a deal about feeling like queerness has given me an outsider’s perspective, because other than that, my identity (white cis male) is pretty much packed with privilege. Still, I feel like it made me an observer—partly as a survival instinct, I guess. But being observant also comes in handy as a writer.

Suffice it to say I have a hard time writing anything that doesn’t have queer characters in it—and besides, there’s more than enough non-queer books being written as it is, I think.

Whenever I interview someone for the first time, I always have to ask: what does your creative process look like?

I’m totally a process nerd, too. Right now, my own is a bit of a mess. I used to be a “go-upstairs-and-write-until-midnight” person, but the older I get, the more the midnight oil burns out around nine-thirty. I became a “get-up-early-and-write” person, but that was before my most recent day job (so, four years ago). Now, I get to write for maybe a half hour before work and an hour in the evening, if I’m lucky. I try to cram in as much as possible on the weekends. Since my social life is nil at the moment (it wasn’t all that before quarantine, either), that’s a bit easier to do.

What are you working on now and what do you have coming out soon?

In addition to the novel revision, the new novel, and the short stories I’m trying to finish up, I’m going through edits for a science fiction novella, The Final Decree, that I’m going to put out myself. The guy who’s doing the cover design, Matthew Bright, pretty much works magic. I can’t wait to show it off.

Other than that, I’m really perfecting my skills as a sourdough bread baker.

And finally, where can people find you and your work online?

The best place is probably jeffrey-ricker.com, where you can find out more about my books and how to read excerpts from them (try before you buy!), and there are also links to a lot of my stories, including many that can be read online.

Jeffrey Ricker is the author of Detours (2011) and the YA fantasy The Unwanted (2014). His stories and essays have appeared in Foglifter, Phoebe, Little Fiction, The Citron Review, The Saturday Evening Post, and others. A 2014 Lambda Literary Fellow and recipient of a 2015 Vermont Studio Center residency, he has an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and teaches creative writing at Webster University.