The pauses.
The in-betweens.
The space between words. I am preoccupied with them. The pauses. The in-betweens. They’re where the action happens. The intake of breath. The sudden gasp. The scream or the complete silence. The gunshot. The bang. These are the parts of the story that stay with us. The moments we keep replaying. The woman walking down the stairs in a horror movie as we scream at each footstep, willing her to stop, turn around and run. We know we can’t change anything. The moment has already happened. Those lights and shadows have been burned onto film and played back to us. The pixels have been assembled and smoothed out. It’s happening, and all we can do is watch.
Cover Photo by Sonali Roy
Cover Design – A Coup of Owls
Max Turner – Publisher
Rhiannon Wood – Editor in Chief
Sarah Boyd – Editor
Leonie Natascha – Publishing Assistant
A Coup of Owls: Summer 2025 (issue 18)
Published by A Coup of Owls Press
June 2025
This issue is available to read or as a download at the bottom of this page.
Contents
A Story About
by Jake Stein
A woman endeavours to build a chair out of nothing while her son rides a dragon and learns to play the moon like an instrument….
A Collector of Lives
by Nico Martinez Nocito
A phoenix seeks to collect additional lives to avoid reincarnation.
The Owl-wife
by T.R. Steele
A leveret reflects on his recent marriage to his owl-wife.
The Flea Trackers
by B.L. Jasper
A gunslinger pursues justice, and struggles with the repercussions of her actions.
How the Story Ends
by G. C. Taylor
A tale of revenge and love between old friends and recent enemies.
Ghosted
by JA Logwood
Hoping to move on, Miri returns to the house Del disappeared from to ready it for sale, only to discover the morbid truth.
NKONDI
by Dee Allen
Ku Klux Klan members get their come-uppance after destroying a Congolese statuette.
A Coup of Owls Press 
Leave a comment