War Beetles

by J.M. McDermott

The war beetles, as big as cities, tore across the plains. Two survivors walk together towards survival. Meridian Smith discovered Desdemona on the plains, a confused girl in a pink dress that seems to have no place at all.

This story first appeared in the Journal of Unlikely Entomology.

17 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 29, 2013

About the author

His first novel was plucked from a slush pile and went on to be #6 on Amazon.com's Year's Best SF/F of 2008, shortlisted for a Crawford Prize, and on Locus Magazine's Recommended Reading List for Debuts. His short fiction has appeared in Weird Tales Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, Apex Magazine, and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, among other places. He has a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and an MFA in Popular Fiction from the Stonecoast program of the University of Southern Maine.

By night, he wanders a maze of bookshelves and empty coffee cups, and by day he wanders the streets of San Antonio, where he lives and works.

He tries to write in between.