‘Ups and Downs’: New Cover Art by M St James

Heart, Break.

Love — laboured and lost — takes stunning form in Ups and Downs by M St James, which graces the cover of Issue 38, Spring 2023.

Here’s what M St James told us about the piece: “[It is] inspired by the idea of a woman experiencing the end of a romantic relationship. The glass floor is sure to break under the weight of her heartbreak. She’s cast the symbol of romantic love, the rose, aside, and discarded the love letters she’d been reading and answering, letting all reminders of her lover blow away with the wind. The raven is advising her ‘Nevermore’, and the upended ink bottle ensures there will be no going back.“

Under the Covers

M St James‘s feathered familiar guides us through Issue 38, starting with ‘The Caged Bird Sings in a Darkness of Its Own Creation’ by feature author Richard Thomas.

Winged creatures fly to the rescue in work by FJ Bergmann, Mike Carson, and Sherilyn Moreton and Anat Rabkin. But human rescues miss the mark in stories by Mitchell J Toews and Sylvia Leong.

The winner and runner-up of the Raven Short Story Contest alight, carrying memories and regrets. And poetry by Susan Alexander shows us a present that fails to live up to the past.

Finally, leave the known world behind and adventure into the unknown with Melanie Martilla, Mel Anastasiou, and JM Landels.

Ups and Downs can be yours! Order your copy of Issue 38, Spring 2023.

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Michelle St James is an author and artist living in the foothills of North Carolina. Originally from New England, she has traced her family’s roots back to 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. After three decades of working in acrylic, oil, and pastel, she has embraced digital art with enthusiasm. Her work has appeared on recent covers of Factor Four Magazine, Spaceports & Spidersilk, and The Vampiricon, among others. Although creating art has always been a part of her life, the pandemic lockdowns allowed her to turn to it, and creative writing, full time. During the first three months she wrote a middle-grade mystery novel, The Mermaid of Agawam Bay. View M St James’s digital art at stjames-art.com, and her works in oil, acrylic, and pastel at earthtonespaintings.webs.com. And read selected stories for free at shellstjames.com.