Okay, folks! One last piece of good news before we close out 2025 with its ever-increasing bevies of bewilderingly bad news. My author copy of Planted by Ironclad Creative has arrived, featuring my short story, “Cleaning House.” I don’t mean to brag (she says, lying), but mine won first place!
Fair warning: this is most definitely one of mine. Seriously, I sent this off assuming my fairly horrifying story wouldn’t be accepted by the judging panel who set such a wholesome-sounding prompt, but they totally got what I was going for and so will you! Trigger warnings include but are not limited to: references to mass death, references to a pandemic, graphic descriptions of the handling and disposal of corpses. Before I put you off entirely, yes it is on the horrifying side, and it’s bleak, but it’s also strangely heartwarming.
There are of course other stories in this anthology, and they’re brilliant. Some are bleak, some are funny, some are poignant and just about all of them hold a note of positivity… because what is planting a seed if not an act of hope for the future?
Harriet Phoenix 