Barbara A. Barnett is a Philadelphia-area writer, musician, Odyssey Writing Workshop graduate, occasional orchestra librarian, coffee addict, and all-around geek. Her short stories have appeared in publications such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Cast of Wonders, Weird Horror Magazine, and GigaNotoSaurus. You can find her online at babarnett.com.

I’m a musician, so not too surprisingly, a lot of my characters are too. More specifically, I write a lot of musicians who, like Clara in this story and like me in real life, wrestle with our perfectionist side getting in the way of our feeling side when performing.

I can't remember where the idea of a forest made of pitch pipes came from. Whatever the inspiration, I wasn't quite sure what to do with the idea at first, so I brainstormed it with some fellow Odyssey graduates at a summer workshop. They helped me come up with lots of fantastic possibilities to explore, like how such a forest might affect birdsong and the idea of including a deaf character who would experience the forest differently than my protagonist with perfect pitch. Having a house that backs up to a woodsy area full of critters, including some pesky beavers, didn't hurt either when it came to looking for inspiration.

Priya Chand currently resides in the vicinity of Chicago, a setting that inspired this story, along with her pandemic-acquired hobby of birding. She has also been published in venues including Clarkesworld and Daily Science Fiction, edited nonfiction for Reckoning 7, and can be found online at priyachandwrites.wordpress.com.

This one's very much reflective of my own journey from seeing nature purely as backdrop - or, as a biology major, study material - to enjoying it in its own right.

Mandy and Jonathan love building new worlds together that inspire positivity. Their collaborative ventures stem from their shared love of Star Trek and Dr. Who. (Jonathan even proposed using a TARDIS ring box! The future was on the inside, hehe…) They both have a background in themed entertainment and are both honored recipients of THEA awards for various world-building projects at Disney and other theme park companies. They love spending their time going to immersive theater and time-traveling with their thoughts and imagination.

Choose to follow them at chewsjoy.com

We came across an interesting thought experiment that said, “Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired.” That got us thinking about what if, in the far future, society had access to this and even used emotions as the new currency. What would humans pursue, get obsessed with, and possibly lose in the process? It was fun to explore this story through the eyes of a young Desire Broker amidst a society evolving to appreciate the vastness of the human experience. 

Marion Koob is originally from France, but she has been living in England for over fifteen years: in London, Cambridge, Liverpool and now rural Wiltshire. She works as a freelance copywriter. Her short fiction has also appeared in Old Moon Quarterly. When she's not reading or writing, she loves hiking in forests, or by the sea.

It's almost become a cliché now: we've never been more connected, and we've perhaps never felt more alone. In this story I wanted to explore the idea of communication-without-contact in a cosy fantasy setting. How would a society in which people never speak face-to-face work? And how would they react to encountering something different? I also love reading ethnographies and immersion journalism, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring this into a story.