teatime

by Zin E. Rocklyn

Fiction, Short Story

In honor of Black Speculative Fiction Month, eight SFF authors share stories that honor forebearers and memories of the past, fight the legacies that underpin the brutalities of the present, and demand a future that’s freer than today.

The stories publish on Tor.com all throughout the morning of October 19.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

5 pages, ebook

First published October 19, 2020

About the author

Zin E. Rocklyn is a contributor to Bram Stoker-nominated and This is Horror Award-winning Nox Pareidolia, Kaiju Rising II: Reign of Monsters, Brigands: A Blackguards Anthology, and Forever Vacancy anthologies and Weird Luck Tales No. 7 zine. Their story "Summer Skin" in the Bram Stoker-nominated anthology Sycorax's Daughters received an honorable mention for Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year, Volume Ten. Zin contributed the nonfiction essay “My Genre Makes a Monster of Me” to Uncanny Magazine’s Hugo Award-winning Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction. Their short story "The Night Sun" and flash fiction "teatime" were published on Tor.com. Flowers for the Sea is their debut novella. Zin is a 2017 VONA and 2018 Viable Paradise graduate as well as a 2022 Clarion West candidate.

Reviews

[Lizabeth Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A woman tells another about the boy that crawled after her, bloody and mute. She allows him into her kitchen, cleans him up and tries to understand him. But her kindness is entangled with cruelty and superiority.

Strange, creepy, and so much packed into such a small story. I felt chills run up and down my spine. I also wanted so much more! Which, I expect, is the best indicator of a great story. 4 out of 5.

[Adria Trees · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m amazed with how much Zin E. Rocklyn did in five pages! In her flash fiction, she set up the characters, atmosphere, suspense, and details so well. I think this flash fiction was so impressionable to me because although it would’ve been great to have a longer story, I think Rocklyn chose to leave it up for our imaginations as she set up the story, scene, and characters enough for us to do so.

You can read this flash fiction on tor.com!

[Marita_z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm too short to be something... But I want to know more!

[Netanella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free flash fiction on Tor.com. Creepy and atmospheric. I'm not quite sure I'd ever want a sandwich cut in eighths again.

Get it here: https://www.tor.com/2020/10/19/teatim...