A SLICE OF THE DARK

?If you got a mysterious box that said, Do Not Open, would you open it? If your fingers revolted and wanted a different job, would you agree? If you came from a race of giants, or thought about becoming Death's lover, or couldn't get rid of a lover no matter how hard you tried, what would you do?

These stories contain unusual problems, like finding your world growing dark after eating a piece of cake-and maybe wanting more cake. It's not hard to find yourself one step outside the normal, as these characters do. The trick is to make it work.

Karen Heuler's stories have appeared in over 100 literary and speculative magazines and anthologies, from Conjunctions to Tin House to Weird Tales, as well as a number of Best Of anthologies. She has received an O. Henry award, been a finalist for the Iowa short fiction award, the Bellwether award, the Shirley Jackson award for short fiction, and others. She has published four novels and a novella, and her fourth story collection, The Clockworm and Other Strange Stories, was published by Tartarus Press in 2018. She also teaches fiction writing at NYU's School of Professional Studies.