STORY SHOWCASE #29

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AMPERSAND

by S. T. Talbot

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A little taster…

Maggie’s squirming increased with each sentence Dirk spelled out. When Dirk first began experimenting with the technique, he had a list of ten tried-and-true sentences he would use. Once he got more familiar with the technique (and female anatomy) he would challenge himself by thinking of the sentences on the spot. Counting sentences was soothing to Dirk, and soon he evolved it into a strategy to last longer in bed. If he edged toward his orgasm too quickly, he’d go through conversations he had earlier in the day and go sentence by sentence, determining which were even. This tactic became an all-purpose grounding technique, and Dirk counted sentences to help with anything from anxiety when standing in line at the bank to frustration when dealing with a dimwitted coworker. Before long, he could hear a sentence and determine if it had an even or odd number of letters in a second or two.

His Uncle Derek was a no-good, lying, stealing, Brillo pad of a man, but he had stumbled onto something with the ampersand. Dirk had practiced enough over the years to get a general understanding of what did and didn’t work. He learned in college if you use colons instead of ampersands, you could edge your partner longer; semicolons and percent symbols tickled to the point of being a turn off; dollar signs and pound signs made women gassy – he avoided those at all costs.

About the author

S. T. Talbot has been writing since he was a boy, but took up writing fiction to process living in an unfamiliar environment following his move from his hometown in the San Bernardino mountains to Florida. If he’s not at work staring blankly at clipboards or in his office conjuring up ghost stories, he’s most likely listening to spine-chilling old-time radio shows or gorging on cheap, foggy horror films with his cat, Casper. You can find him on Instagram @s.talbot.writes

We asked S. T. Talbot …

K&R: What was the spark or idea that led you to write this story?

STT: The spark that led to Ampersand was a What If? question. What if a man, during sex, accidentally performed some sort of sex magic and opened a portal to somewhere unexpected? Once that was pinballing around in my head, the rest ironed itself out. Counting letters in sentences is something I do in my daily life, so that worked its way into the story, and when tasked with figuring out where a portal might suddenly open as a man went down on a woman… Well, the answer was right in front of my face!  

K&R: Do you have any other work do you have out there, for folks to dig into?

STT: One Last Time – Exquisite Death (ezine) 

The Curse of Rathotem – Post Mortems

Lover’s Spat – Flittermouse’s winter anthology.  

Blizzard – Occupying Bodies

The Warbling – Cemetery Songs

Trick or Treat and Other Rituals – ELA Magazine Issue #3

Connor the Canary – Whisper House Press

Lowest Dark in Fun in the Dark #2: Open Water

K&R: What’s next for you as a writer?

STT: I always wanted to be a writer. That dream went out the window at a young age when I realized there was work involved, so I did what comes naturally to freshly graduated 17-year-olds: I took a Greyhound bus to Minnesota to pursue a rap career. lol. A decade later, I finally took a stab at writing fiction during Covid. I’d just moved across the country for work, was in a strange environment, hadn’t written a song in a couple years, and didn’t really have much else going on. I figured I might as well try it, and I could at the very least say I attempted to follow my childhood dream.  It stuck, and every year since, I’ve had a goal: this year I’ll submit something; this year I’ll get a personal rejection; this year I’ll write an actually scary ghost story. I went into 2025 thinking of it as the year I get published. I got my first acceptance in February, for a little anthology called Trash Tales, and have had moderate success finding homes for my stories since. Going into 2026, I am working on editing my first novel alongside submitting short stories — some new, some dusty ones from my chest of oddities. My big goal for 2026 is to sell a story for professional rates, and besides that, just go with the flow and rack up a few more publications under my belt.

K&R: What does “trashy fiction” mean to you, and what do you love about it?

STT: Trashy fiction is actually something I just recently discovered a love for, which is odd, as I am a huge champion for trashy movies. I pay for multiple streaming services but find myself suiting up to dredge the bottom of the Tubi barrel whenever I’m in the mood to watch a movie. It’s been a fun ride exploring trashy fiction this year, and I probably wouldn’t have explored as much if not for Trash Tales. I had written off my story “Ampersand” as a bit too weird to submit to a lot of places. Too horny for cosmic horror mags, too cosmic for horny mags. When I saw the open call for Trash Tales, I took a chance and submitted it. That being my first accepted story was huge for me. Seeing that there is such a loving, rabid community for trashy fiction made me want to be a part of it and has encouraged me to embrace and submit some of my more trashy pieces that have been collecting dust.

K&R: Hit us with your own favourite “trashy” fiction recommendations!

STT: Trashy fiction is like horror — if I squint hard enough, I can classify anything as fitting into either box. So forgive me if the following recommendations are not as trashy as one might expect; I’m still learning.

Rant by Chuck Palahniuk

Cosmic Banditos by A. C. Weisbecker

EC Comics Archives by Dark Horse

And if you are like me and are feeling kinda daunted by trashy fiction and where to start, you can never go wrong with Paperbacks From Hell by Grady Hendrix. 

K&R: If you’ve read the rest of the stories in Trash Tales, what’s your favourite, and why?

STT: The fact that it’s so hard to pick favorites really shows the quality and range of the stories, but if I had to pick, my favorites would be: The Covenant of the Furnace Keepers and Lickety’s Got the Touch. 

Furnace Keepers just had me locked in from the first page—the exact type of story I go into anthologies looking for. Felt familiar and all its own, both in the best ways. 

Lickety’s Got the Touch was just bonkers through and through. I love how bonkers inspires bonkers, and this story had my imagination churning out some bonkersness for a few days after reading it. 

If someone was confused about the theme of the anthology, and what Trash Tales means, I would recommend they read those two stories and see how they feel. I think most people would know by the time they finished both whether trashy fiction was up their alley, or if it’s something they can safely steer clear from because it’s not their flavor.

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