Michael Picco, Author

My contributor copies for  Stranded: Lone Survivor Deserted Island Horror Stories   arrived in the mail yesterday!  This anthology from Dark Regions Press, contains my flash fiction short story, "Isle for One?" — which took Fourth Place in their writing contest this last summer!  Considering that there were "over 1,000 entries" in the contest, I consider this a pretty big deal (like in the 99.5 percentile!)!  It's great to be a part of this anthology — especially from such a well-respected publisher. 

{Author's note: although this story won't find its way into Corpse Honey (I simply do not have the room for it), I was happy with how it turned out, that I just had to share it. I think my regular readers will find it delightfully twisted and macabre. My thanks to Rob Mosher for inspiration and collaboration on the piece. } The ones who screamed the longest were the first ones to die.  Cimarron, the stone mason’s daughter, had been the first to go. Her desperate pleas had changed to cries as the wheel turned. Those cries steadily dissolved into ragged screams as she was lowered down, into the trough. Sebastian could still hear her even after she was plunged under the murky black waters. Even now, days later, he could still hear her gurgling screams as she had thrashed and strained against her lashings. He’d watched her go under that first time. Watched as she had closed her eyes, her tears running down, over her forehead, falling down into the basin. Sebastian remembere...