It's a Jumble

  Due to personal matters, I was not able to get as much short fiction read as usual these past few months.   But here are some short stories I did read and love.   “Haunting Beauty” by T.K. Rex in Uncharted Magazine The American Hotel looks and feels like it was built right after the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco’s worst day ever. The ceiling has one long, thin crack that makes me nervous, and white latex paint over decades of lead smoothing the edges of the carved molding all around the ceiling and the floor. A brass chandelier holds candle-flame-shaped incandescent bulbs, about a third burned out, and the carpets are…carpets.   The American Hotel is in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, and has seen much better days. But a hungry model needs to eat, and so agrees to meet a photographer there for a photoshoot. There, the model (and reader) learn that not all hauntings are terrifying or unwelcome. The American Hotel has secrets to share, but sec...