Is it August already? It’s hard to imagine that February was only ten years ago. We here at the Lounge hope you and your traveling companions are staying as safe as you can for the duration of this pandemic. Whether you’re stuck indoors for the foreseeable future, or whether you’re searching for something to take your mind off the state of the world for a while, we have a little something that will pique your interest.

We have another fourteen stories for you, and there’s not a pandemic among them (promise!). This issue’s stories have professional chefs seeking magic and professional demons seeking jobs; an alien hoping to leave on a rocket and a lover choosing not to; a loyal friend braving time dilation and a loyal robot traveling wormholes. Our stories explore the limits of technology on both translating languages and digitizing haunted videotape; the assorted benefits and drawbacks of acquiring both a planet and a swarm of gnats; a war waged by poets and one waged by cats. We give you devouring cursewinds and hungry hearts.

So take a seat at one of our appropriately spaced tables. Loosen your mask. Our robotic waitstaff has been freshly sanitized and is happy to take your order.

Table of
Earth, by Steven Berger
Quicker to Love a Goat than a Boy, by James Mimmack
Blue, by Kathleen Brigid
The Swarm of Giant Gnats I Sent After Kent, My Assistant Manager, by Marissa Lingen
More than Trinkets, by Ramez Yoakeim
5:37, by A.P. Howell
Seven Parts Full, by Anya Ow
The Cat Lady and the Petitioner, by Jennifer Hudak
Hatchi, by Andrew K. Hoe
A Most Professional Demon, by R.J. Howell
Rockets Launch from Florida, by E.M. Craven
Weaving in the Bamboo, by Eliza Chan
Beloved and Deserted, by Nicole Tan
Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart, by Louis Evans