The Cozy Cosmic

Some argue existence is an exercise in futility. They claim there are no winners in life. Ultimately, we are insignificant in the face of vast cosmic intelligences that were old when the Universe began.

The best minds gibber at the incomprehensibility of it all. Other minds lose themselves in strange geometries because they can’t comprehend any alternative.

Whatever. The rest of us have to get up in the morning, feed the cat, and go to work.

The Cozy Cosmic contains 33 stories of the horrors hidden within the micro-aggressions, the horrors trapped beneath the floorboards, and the horrors waiting patiently on the windowsill. This is the horror that forgets to turn off the light at night. This is the horror of waiting for the tea to boil, knowing full well who you just buried—for the second time—in the yard less than a hour ago. This is the horror of knowing where the dark wool comes from, but you wear the sweater anyway because it was a gift—an expression of love—and, well, fuck being alone because that's worse than the horror of the unknowable, isn't it?

The full table of contents for The Cozy Cosmic is as follows:

• John Shirley ~ "Death, in Two"
• Tais Teng ~ "On Hearing the First Shoggoth in Spring"
• Tyler Battaglia ~ "What the Sea Provides"
• Ellis Bray ~ "My Grandmother’s Sacristy"
• E. E. Marshall ~ "Right and Bright"
• Devan Barlow ~ "Dinner, Overlooking the Sea"
• Scotty Milder ~ "A Little God in Their Hands"
• Maxwell I. Gold ~ "Great Cosmic Itch"
• Remy Nakamura ~ "Wet Dreams in R’lyeh"
• Andrew S. Fuller ~ "A Perfectly Fine Hobby"
• Kiera Lesley ~ "Obsolescent"
• Kurt Newton ~ "A Mournful Melancholia of Things Forever Lost"
• J. B. Kish ~ "Lo-Fi Chocolate Cake"
• Rajiv Moté ~ "Carrisa and Kevin Gaze into the Abyss"
• Daniel David Froid ~ "In Another Distant Land, in a Luminescent Land"
• Kate Ristau ~ "Shine"
• Erik Grove ~ "Fuzzy Fuzzy Kitty Kitties"
• William J. Connell ~ "Poe’s Guys Respond to Their Significant Others"
• Paul Jessup ~ "The Museum of Endless Summer"
• Ngô Bình Anh Khoa ~ "Through Life and Death, Forevermore"
• Jonathan Wood ~ "Javapocalypse"
• L. E. Daniels ~ "Final Cycle"
• Ken Hueler ~ "The Unknowable Ones"
• Tania Chen ~ "A Study of Metamorphosis Calamity"
• Eric Shanower ~ "The Purple Emperor"
• Kevin Wetmore ~ "A Child’s Christmas in Innsmouth"
• Megan Lee Beals ~ "Splinterbone"
• Corinne Hughes ~ "The Sheep Rancher’s Husband"
• Shanna Germain ~ "A Napkin Upon Your Glass"
• Simone Cooper ~ "Gnocchi"
• Jessie Kwak ~ "Blood and Glitter"
• Cody T Luff ~ "Den Mother"
• R. Ostermeier ~ "The Dark Young"

Edited by Mark Teppo & Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito