December was a busy month for me: lots of feasting, lots of traveling, lots of reading, too. Here are nine stories that are for keeps.

Wooden Boxes Lined with the Tongues of Doves (when I write this, it’s not yet live online, but I will update! OR! subscribe so you can get it NOW! 💗), by Claire Humphrey in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Quite simply one of the best short stories I read in 2016. Magic, love, war, and secrets kept for nefarious purposes… It’s the kind of story that made my heart skip as a reader, and as a writer, I feel like reading it a million times just to appreciate the amazing craftsmanship and luminous talent of how Humphrey creates a world, a mood, and spins it all into such gorgeous dark magic.

Where She Went, by Linden A. Lewis in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.