“Alice” by Gary Gautier
Excerpted from the opening of Alice, a post-apocalyptic adult hippie fairy tale by two-time Faulkner-Wisdom Prize finalist, Gary Gautier.
https://www.amazon.com/Alice-GARY-GAUTIER/dp/B0B45LGKQV
Alice sat by the pond cupping her hand in the water, as if searching for an undersea plant or animal. The sun was going down. She stripped off her gown and dove in to do something, but she could not remember what. When she came up, something was in her hand, and the stars were above. They were the same stars as ever, but the constellations were different. Virgo and Scorpio and all the others were gone, and some new arrangement had begun. Something moved in the woods beside the pond. Not really in the woods. In a juniper bush. It was too big to be a fairy. Alice did not know what had moved in the juniper bush.
As Alice approached the shack, she could hear, in the dark, the forest whispering. She saw the lovely silhouette of Evelyn through the window, sleeping in bed. She entered, and Evelyn opened her eyes.
“I was at the pond,” Alice said.
“Was the rain king there?” asked Evelyn.
“No. Not today. But something happened. I dove in, and the cosmos changed. The stars are still there, but all the old constellations are gone. Virgo and Scorpio are gone now.”
She sat on the bed. Evelyn leaned toward her and kissed her twice. Once on her favorite birthmark in the whole world, the pink crescent moon on Alice’s neck just above the collarbone. And once on the lips.
The next day, John Wilson came over to the shack. No one ever called him “John.” They always said, “John Wilson.”
“Something happened with the fairies last night,” said John Wilson.
“I knew it,” said Alice.
The fairies kept the whole of New Arcadia going. They were rarely visible but often audible, a humming that recalled the humming of bees restless to massacre the males and slaughter the other princesses to please their sister, the newly chosen queen. The fairies did not work in the fields or in the factory. They did not cook or clean. But it was they who wove a sense of destiny into New Arcadia. Without a sense of destiny, there would be no going on, for there would be nowhere to go.
The fairies had no enemies – for how could destiny have an enemy? – save one. Ladybugs. The ladybugs made no humming noise. No hint of massacres for the newly crowned queen. They just flittered in quiet beauty, careful to disturb no one. Thus, no one, not Alice or Evelyn, not the kleptomaniac, not the mapmaker, not the white witch, not the rain king, not John Wilson, not even the sweeper as far as anyone could tell, could divine their purpose or what it was about them that touched the spleen of the fairies.
Copyright © 2026 Gary Gautier
All Rights Reserved
Award-winning writer Gary Gautier has taught university-level writing and literature and has given numerous radio interviews. His previous poetry book, Schematics and Assemblies of the Cosmic Heart, was shortlisted for the Faulkner-Wisdom Poetry Prize, and his novels have earned a #1 Amazon bestseller rank in two categories. His latest novel, Alice, was selected for the Innovative Fiction Book Club, and a screenplay adaptation of his novel, Mr. Robert’s Bones, made the second round at the Austin Film Festival. Gary has hitchhiked through 19 countries and 35 US states, and currently lives in the pueblos mágicos of Mexico.
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I've decided to make one of my short story collections completely free to read via Ko-Fi and Patreon as a taster for the rest of my work.
What's the deal with the Fomorians of west Connacht? They're bandits. Raiders. Mutants.
Except maybe they're more than that.
https://ko-fi.com/s/39807765f0
https://www.patreon.com/posts/160318274
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Escape the horrors by diving into a cozy mystery! There's something in this group for everyone.
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https://books.bookfunnel.com/cozymysterysales2026/83scb93qvx
Featuring “River of Stars” Alex S. Johnson and Ma Yongbo
Cover design by Adrian BaldwinRIVER OF STARS
This new poetry collection by Alex S. Johnson and Ma Yongbo is available in paperback from amazon.com.
A NOCTURNICORN BOOKS release
Two oceans meet in this landmark collaboration between Alex S. Johnson—author of The Doom Hippies and Doctor Flesh, hailed by John Shirley as “the Baudelaire of our time”—and Ma Yongbo, one of China’s most influential avant-garde poets, founder of polyphonic writing and objectified poetics, and a major translator of Anglo-American literature.
Helen Pletts writes that Ma’s imagery is “so beautiful that it stays with you long after reading, until the phrases seem to have an elevated existence of their own.”
Ma Yongbo adds: “Our poems are like two states of the ocean—Alex surging and passionate, my own hiding turbulent undercurrents beneath a calm surface. Together, these forms create a new expression that transcends language and national boundaries.”
RIVER OF STARS is where those currents converge—East and West, storm and stillness, two visionary voices shaping a shared sky.
Now from A COLLECTIVE PAW.
Sample Poems
Whitman's Sleeveshttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2LMJH6C/ref=
About the Authors
Alex S. Johnson is a disability rights advocate, author, journalist, songwriter, poet, editor, artist and publisher with Nocturnicorn Books. His numerous publications include Metal Hammer, Metal Maniacs, Bloodsongs, Bizarro Central, 13 Mynah Birds, Cease, Cows, and Horror Sleaze Trash. John Shirley, co-creator of Cyberpunk with William Gibson and co-author of the screenplay to The Crow (1994), dubbed him “the Baudelaire of our time, the poet of the underground.” He is best known as the author of the cult novel Jason X: Death Moon, an official New Line Cinema spinoff of the Friday the 13th franchise, which incorporates Burroughsian cut-up techniques. His upcoming books include The Junk Merchants 2: A Literary Tribute to William S. Burroughs, with an introduction by Poppy Z. Brite and featuring contributions from Poppy Z. Brite, Caitlin R. Kiernan, John Palisano, and David J. Haskins, a founding member of the iconic post-punk/Goth rock bands Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. Johnson resides in Sacramento, California, with his family.
Ma Yongbo 马永波 (b. 1964), https://mayongbopoetry.wordpress.com/, has 7 published poetry collections. Ma Yongbo 马永波 is listed among the 100 famous contemporary Chinese poets since the 1920s. He is the leading poet-translator of Western postmodern poetry on the mainland, including works by Dickinson, Whitman, Stevens, Pound, Williams, and Ashbery. His translation of Moby Dick has sold over half a million copies. He teaches at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. Collected Poems of Ma Yongbo (four volumes, Eastern Publishing Centre, 2024), comprising 1600 poems, celebrates 40 years of writing poetry.
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Everyone knows that "Fomorians" first started appearing in Ireland in the 1840s. But nobody knows how. Or why.
Until a corrupt dwarven scientist decides to experiment on a pair of kids to find out.
Sound intriguing? Fomoritis Uncovered is only €2 on most ebook stores until the 2nd of June, so grab it quick!
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Bank Holiday Sale! Remittance Witch and Fomoritis Uncovered are 50% off until Monday the 2nd of June.
Remittance Witch is a #steampunk novella set in Skyrim-as-a-Western, following a young witch learning how to cast magic safely.
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Fomoritis Uncovered is a #dieselpunk novella set in pre-WW1 Ireland, where a dwarven megacorporation's illegal experiment blows up in their faces.
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