Rock and a Hard Place Issue Fifteen: Fall 2025
Published September 10, 2025
Print ISBN: 979-8-9991000-5-4; EBook ISBN: 979-8-9991000-6-1
Purchase on BOOKSHOP.ORG, BARNES & NOBLE, or AMAZON
When the dog makes the heist.
When life gives you a chance to make a connection after all these years.
One swing of the machete solves all your problems . . . and maybe makes some new ones.
Best eaten cold? Small-town revenge stays hot for years.
All this and more in Issue 15 of Rock and a Hard Place. We’re at it again, with stories that shine the spotlight on the desperate, the down-on-their-luck, and the dangerous and depraved.
The only question is, do you dare?
Rock and a Hard Place is the literary magazine that knows that when your back is against the wall, there are still no guarantees against back-stabbing.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
(In order of appearance of work)
BRANDON BARROWS (IG: @brandon.a.barrows; Bluesky: @brandonbarrows.bsky.social) is the author of a dozen novels, his most recent, Long Before They Die from Full Speed Publishing. He has also published over one hundred short stories for which he is a four-time Mustang Award finalist and a two-time Derringer Award nominee. Find more at http://www.brandonbarrowscomics.com.
COLIN BRIGHTWELL (IG: @cbwizzy; Bluesky: @cbwell.bsky.social) is a Kansas City, MO native. His fiction has appeared in Reckon Review, BULL, Guilty Crime Story Magazine, Starlite Pulp, Dark Yonder, and Rock and a Hard Place. His debut collection, Nothing Good Ever Happens in a Flyover State, is available through Cowboy Jamboree Press. He currently teaches middle school outside of Kansas City.
TIM P. WALKER (Bluesky: @timpwalker.bsky.social) has spent most of his life living within spitting distance of the Chesapeake Bay. In addition to RPH, his stories have appeared in such publications as Out of the Gutter and the late, great Baltimore City Paper. His stories can also be found in many anthologies including RHP's own Under the Thumb and The One Percent, as well as Better Off Dead Vol. 1: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin.
EMILEE PRADO (IG: @_emilee_prado_) is a fiction writer, essayist, and artist who also works in teaching, public service, and nonprofits. Her neo-noir appears in Rock and a Hard Place (issue 9), Dark Yonder, Vautrin, The Razor, and elsewhere. Find out more at emileeprado.net.
GABRIEL HART (IG: @gabrielhart77 or @last.estate) is an author, editor, and journalist from California’s high desert. His punk-noir novel On High at Red was released in 2024 by Pig Roast Publishing. His essay “Live Free, Love Safe, or Kill: On Luigi Mangione and Daniel Victor Jones” is included in the new anthology You May Now Fail to Destroy Me: American Writers On Their Most Dangerous Beliefs, edited by Blake Butler and Ken Bauman. Hart is the editor-in-chief / publisher of Beyond the Last Estate, a print-only magazine featuring creative reporting on contemporary literature.
CHRISTINA BOUFIS (Twitter / X: @cbwrites2) is a San Francisco Bay-Area writer whose short fiction has appeared in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Kings River Life, and the anthology Larceny & Last Chances. She's the author of I Want Him Dead, a domestic thriller (under C.B. Peterson), and a jail mystery series. A former academic with a PhD in Victorian literature, she spent eight years teaching women at the San Francisco County Jail. She’s the co-author, along with Victoria Olsen, of Some Dark Force, the first in a series of Victorian supernatural thrillers.
RICHARD ZARIC (IG: @richardzaric) lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Hiding Scars, his first book, is a historical fiction novel. He is presently pitching a young adult novel called Stealing Amazing Fantasy #15. His short stories have appeared in several anthologies. He likes to experiment with different voices and genres. He is just as likely to read the latest hot literary novel as he is to flip through an old comic book. Learn more at zarko543.wixsite.com/richardzaric.
M.E. PROCTOR (IG / Threads: @proctormartine; Substack: https://meproctor.substack.com) was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. Her Declan Shaw detective mysteries, Love You Till Tuesday and Catch Me on a Blue Day, were published by Shotgun Honey. She’s the author of a short story collection, Family and Other Ailments, and the co-author of a retro-noir novella, Bop City Swing. Her fiction has appeared in Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Reckon Review, and Black Cat Weekly among others. She’s a Shamus and Derringer short story nominee. Learn more at www.shawmystery.com.
JOSHUA MURRAY is a graphic designer from Long Island, NY, where he spends most nights playing video games and watching professional wrestling with his wife and cats. His short fiction has appeared in Rock and a Hard Place, Dark Yonder, Shotgun Honey, Close to the Bone, and The Molotov Cocktail. He is Editor-in-Chief of the newly formed Dog Named Dog Press and will release his debut novel, The Bar Is In Hell, in Fall 2025.
COLIN ADAMS-TOOMEY (Bluesky: @colinadamstoomey.bsky.social) is a writer, filmmaker and teacher. He's had short stories published in Yabblins, in Fraidy Cat Quarterly, in Hellbound Books' anthology Suburban Nightmares as well as their anthology Campfire Tales, in the anthology Inanimate Things, in Trash Tales, and in Stygian Lepus. His film Lost Creek is available on most VOD platforms, distributed by Gravitas Ventures. Colin lives with his beloved wife Hilary and cat Connal, and has always been fascinated by ghost stories and liminal spaces like highway rest stops. That's where this story comes from.
SALLY MILLIKEN (IG: @sallyhistorymystery) writes contemporary and historical mysteries and crime fiction. She is the proud mother of four children and tries not to meddle (too much) in their lives. She would never do what the mother does in this story. Besides finding creative ways to plan and solve crimes, she enjoys bending clay to her will on the pottery wheel and shooting pucks on net with her ice hockey team. Her stories have been published in various anthologies and online, including Stone’s Throw and Punk Noir. She is working on her first novel, a historical mystery set in 1882 Massachusetts. Sally is a member of Sisters in Crime, Sisters in Crime NE, SinC Guppy Chapter, MWA/NE, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Learn more about Sally and her work at sallymillikenauthor.com.
ZACK BUDRYK (IG: @zackinalex; Bluesky: @GoneBabyGone.bsky.social) is a journalist and union organizer in the Washington, DC area who covers international trade. His nonfiction work has appeared in The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, The Hill, The Nation and CrimeReads.
KIRSTYN PETRAS (IG: @kpetrasauthor; Bluesky: @kirstynpetras.bsky.social) is a Brooklyn-based fiction writer but primarily identifies as caffeine in a human suit held together by hair spray and sheer force of will. Her short stories have been published in Metastellar, Punk Noir, Hoosier Noir, and A Thin Slice of Anxiety. Her debut novel, The Next Witness, was released in 2022 by Cinnabar Moth Publishing and was the winner of the 2023 NYC Big Book Award for Political Thriller. She is the co-host of Dark Waters, a literary podcast exploring all that is dark, dreary, and wonderfully twisted, with the show's first and second anthologies of dark fiction released in December 2023 and 2024, respectively.
TRAVIS WADE BEATY (Bluesky: @traviswbeaty.bsky.social) is a former teacher and actor turned stay-at-home dad who can’t play enough board games. His stories have appeared in Dark Recesses Magazine, Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, Zombies Need Brain's NOIR anthology, and elsewhere. His short story “A Bad-Hearted Man” was listed as a distinguished story in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021. Raised in Indiana, he now resides in Washington, DC. You can find him online at traviswadebeaty.wordpress.com.
PHILIP KIMBROUGH (IG: @philipkwrites; Bluesky: @philipkwrites.bsky.social) is a writer based in central North Carolina where he lives with his wife, two sons and Goldendoodle, Lucy, who is an adorably fluffy freeloader. In addition to Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, his short fiction has appeared in Bristol Noir, Thriller Magazine and in the Dark Yonder anthology from Joyride Press in 2019. He spends his days working in tech and working on his first novel. You can find him on his website www.philipkimbrough.com.
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
(In order of appearance of work)
ANverena (Phi Phi AN) is a Vietnamese independent interdisciplinary artist, director, producer, curator, researcher and activist. Her long-running work paths with multi-layered sacrifices and dedication were taking root for/in scenes, having crossed many [self-vanishing] AN-layered names and roles over decades. Since 2011, she has multifaceted herself with echoes-chambers, deep understanding, building, development, reformation through experiences in operational and leadership roles within the creative and cultural sectors; founding and orchestrating impactful foundations, programs, independent arts & cultural initiatives, radical models, other civil society projects, to improve access and inclusion for unheard voices and those on the sidelines; across disciplines, stages, scenes, spaces; nationally and internationally. Her personal works endeavor to embody diversity within the spheres of photography, cinema, philosophy, text, installation art, conceptual art, critique, and far beyond. A thoughtful way to resurface after a lengthy hiatus has passed through fires.
SUSAN B. NOLEN (Bluesky: @sbnolen.bsky.social; Substack: https://sunolen.substack.com/) is a writer and photographer living in a multigenerational, multispecies household on the beautiful Kitsap Peninsula. After years of studying and writing about identity and motivation in social context, she now writes stories of women making space for themselves in the world. It’s way more fun. Her work has appeared in Circle of Seasons and Stone’s Throw.
Raised in New Orleans and Portland (the one in Oregon), AUTUMN HARRISON (IG: @autumnharrisonwrites) is a writer currently living on the edge of Washington, DC with her two darling daughters, and her boyfriend, the race car driver. A former baker, bartender, and band booker she is a fan of crispy cookies, perfect Manhattans, and live music. She longs for the next stage of her life when she can fill her days with motorcycling, knitting, and writing about imperfect people living imperfect lives.
A freelance journalist and photographer, SONALI ROY wears several other hats including a traveler, painter, 3-D art designer, music composer, and singer. While not working, Sonali enjoys listening to music and watching & feeding birds. Devoted to lacto-vegan diet, Sonali regularly practices yoga and meditation.