Scratch

After an aimless life, Martin Blaskett is ready to settle down, unaware of the tension rising in his new town from unknowable forces. When he draws the attention of a shape-shifter from local legend, his world is shaken, and he is led across the hazy border of the feral wilderness with a tempestuous history.

Steve Himmer is author of the novels The Bee-Loud Glade and Fram. His stories have appeared in Hobart, Hawk & Handsaw, the Collagist, the Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere. He edits the web journal Necessary Fiction and teaches at Emerson College in Boston.