Welcome to Issue 28 of IGMS. No need for blathering from the editor, let's dive right into the stories, shall we?

Our cover story, by Brad Torgersen, is "The Curse of Sally Tincakes," a near-future story about jet-bike racing on the moon and one woman's willingness to take on all challengers to win, including death. Because before she can claim the cup, she's going to have to go through a woman whose curse looms as large as the statue of her that her cheating husband erected overlooking the race track.

"Blank Faces," by M.K. Hutchins, is an alternate history-tale set in a magical gold-rush of the old west, and explores the costs of wealth, both overt and hidden. Some people pay a much higher price than they'll ever realize.

Next in our lineup, "Paper Airplanes Into The Void," by Terra LeMay, is a tale of one young man's journey to the literal end of the Earth in search of his family. He launches letters to his missing parents into the nothingness, but the answers he discovers are grounded much closer to home.

"Master Madrigal's Mechanical Man," by Scott Mikula is the story of a young girl apprenticed to a master robot-builder whose creations fight in the gladiatorial arenas. The problem is, she's more astute than her master, requiring battles to be fought both within the arena and without.

Rahul Kanakia's story, "The Snake King Sells Out," is a fantastical tale that ponders the issues of what it means to be normal, what the cost of normalcy is, and how often the price-sheet gets rewritten. But you can always sell your scales and horns to pick up a quick buck, right?

And last but not least comes our audio feature for this issue, "Calling The Train," by Jeff Stehman, read by Stuart Jaffe. Lying in a swamp, half torn up by an alligator, with a supernatural train coming to pick up its next dying wayfarer: how well could you play a harmonica under those circumstances, if it were your last chance to cheat death?

Edmund R. Schubert
Editor, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show

P.S. As usual, we've collected essays from the authors in this issue and will post them on our blog (www.SideShowFreaks.blogspot.com) Feel free to drop by and catch The Story Behind The Stories, where the authors talk about the creation of their tales.