anthea jones

Weird stories created 100% in my human brain

A note for any humans or machines considering plagiarising these stories. Firstly, I can’t deny that’s it’s bizarrely flattering that you’d bother. Secondly, I hope you read them first and get a little neuron (biologicial or artificial) tickle yourself. And finally, shame on you, go and create something yourself–I promise it will give you a far greater kick than stealing someone else’s work.

The links below take you to the lit mags where these stories were first published - please support them!

medical and sci-fi shenanigans

What if you didn’t go to med school, but instead spawned INSIDE a body?
And what if each lesson was a quest?
Published in Genrepunk Magazine
Her new washing machine claimed to clean clothes…
It cleaned her mind instead.
Published in Sci-fi Shorts
Introducing HeadHOPA, a minuscule robotic flea that reads minds.
Published in Sci-fi Shorts
Forthcoming in Little Old Lady Comedy
Forthcoming in AntipodeanSF

experimental hybrid things

Humans have branded me a weed, lumping my quick-growing species with nutgrass and bindis, leaving me ever-fearful of being poisoned or burned, discarded for my chaos and whimsical growth.
But I have a name, a scientific one even. Oxalis corniculata.
Winner of chickenblue September 2026
Mermaids of the world, for too long our image, our iconography, our branding, has been commandeered by the species known as human.
Awarded 3rd place in the 2025 WestWord Hermit Crab Prize
Published in WestWord
You spread your snow-white wings and stretch each meaty leg…
The automatic door squeals as it slides open, a rusty guillotine in reverse…
What do you do?
Published in Foofaraw
>> Rip off bone wig. Dance like a madman and give thanks for this magnificent gift.
Published in Quotidian Bagatelle
Forthcoming in Quotidian Bagatelle

just slightly darker… but maybe a little funny too

Greg from Apartment 2A's Apple Watch Ultra:
Sorry I’m late for the hook up, babe. G broke his own doom-scrolling record tonight. Can u believe he spent 157 minutes on news sites? Dude took forever to fall asleep and he’s jammed his wrist under the pillow again 😭
Awarded 2nd place in August 2026 Twisted Tournament
Published in Twist Magazine (p24)
[Kill him]
Ginny swore, ripping the rogue A4 sheet off the printer. She stormed across the darkening office and hit ‘print’.
Again.
Published in Horrortree
These days things have gone so far to shit a person could hack their leg off, hawk it and buy a robot replacement all on the same street corner and no one would flutter an eyelid.
Published in Denizen’s Digest (PRINT ONLY)
Available via Netherworld Arcade

rhyming stories

Whoppers, porkies, fibs and fake news,
fact-bending falsehoods, and untruthful views.
A lie can be kind, a lie can be white,
it might be the weapon that wins you the fight.
But…
where does the truth go when you tell a lie?
Does it wilt in the corner?
Shrivel and die?
Published in Oddball Magazine
🩷🩷🩷
Eyes bulged. Tongues stilled. Stunned silence descended.
She clutched her apron, nervous but splendid.
Then the cat-calls began, the chortles, the chuckles,
The outright derision, and cracking of knuckles.
Published in Micromance
Forthcoming in Twist Magazine

BUY THE EBOOK

HORROR AND ROMCOM SITTING IN A TREE

by Anthea Jones

A GENRE MASH-UP ANTHOLOGY

A collection of ten weird tales.

Anthea Jones writes in her backyard in Brisbane, Australia. This is much easier now she has annexed the kids' cubby house and banished the spiders and geckoes. She loves the adrenalin-rush of prompted writing competitions, and has been proud to see her writing branded ‘demented and hilarious’, fantastically unhinged’ and ‘utterly bonkers’.

She writes flash fiction, short stories and screenplays and has work published or forthcoming in foofaraw, Genrepunk and Oddball Magazine amongst others. She is an alumnus of Stowe Story Labs Sidewalk Narrative Lab.

With the support of a Fishbowl Residency at the Queensland Writers Centre, she is attempting to wrangle the threads of her first novel.