Solstice Ritual by cover artist Herman Lau challenges us in a winter landscape where myth and folklore lurk. Adopt a revolutionary spirit with feature author George McWhirter 's 'Grillo, the Story of a Cricket', and defy the oligarchs in 'Baba Yaga and the Bear' by Gregg Chamberlain . Poet Dan MacIsaac takes us back to ancient Crete with 'Pholoe', while DA Cooper brings blessed sleep to Valhalla in 'Ragnabeðtími'. In 'Their Grandfather's Chair' by JM Landels , Allaigna's sisters are forced out of their comfort zone and onto separate paths, while returning to childhood memories is prickly and uncomfortable in 'The Past as Foundation for the Family Home' by Shelley Lavigne and 'Say Cheese, Jesus, Please' by Rina Piccolo. The writing muse strikes at inopportune times in 'How to Write a Novel in Ten Days During the Zombie Apocalypse' by Jakob Drud and 'Take My Hand: Enter Night' by Mel Anastasiou. And flash fiction from Hummingbird Prize winners Cheryl Skory Suma , Adam Fout , and Soramimi Hanarejima offers a look at difficult relationships in their many incarnations.