On Fire and Under Water with Ippolito, McKenna, Guha & Brash

On Fire and Under Water is a new crime fiction anthology from Rock and a Hard Place Press. The anthology explores the intersection of climate change and crime through the lens of 15 short stories from some of today’s best crime fiction writers.

Edited by Anthony Award-winning author Curtis Ippolito and the editorial team at RHP Press, the stories peel back the curtain on the ways in which climate change impacts real people in their most desperate hour.

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“The Devil Doesn’t Live Hand to Mouth” is a short story in the anthology by Puja Guha. Mozambique has been hit hard by Cyclone Jasper. Antonio’s Bahia Mar Sanctuary, a boutique resort/coastal B&B, has been destroyed. But he has another option. A Chinese spy, Ernest Mao, has asked Antonio to place a few bugs in the home of the uber-wealthy Fred and Gina.

His dream is dead. His resort is gone. He drives a 10-year-old Toyota Corolla. Everything about Fred and Gina is a reminder of what he will never have. Antonio grapples with his decision – what should he do?

“Long Night of the Polar Bear” by C.E. McKenna takes place in Longyearbyen, a small coal-mining town on Spitsbergen Island, in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. Svalbard is between Norway and the North Pole. Atle Solas has been banished by his boss, Vlad, to Svalbard for accidentally killing an old woman during a job. He has a plan for escape: before heading to Svalbard, he had copied the contents of his boss’ daughter’s laptop onto a thumb drive. He has stored the thumb drive in a small cavern carved into the back of the leg of a dancing polar bear in the bar. His plan is to collect €2 million for the contents and retire in Thailand.

“No one is allowed to be born on Svalbard and the dead are shipped immediately to be buried off-island. This place is a land of living, but not life, of dying, but not death.”

C.E. McKenna is a writer and historian from Colorado. She has history theses in the libraries of Reed College and Oklahoma State, and her short stories have found awards and publication with Writing by Writers, Desperate Literature, Cagibi, Lumina, Quarterly West, Northwest Review, and Shift. In 2022, she completed AWP’s 17th Writer to Writer Mentorship Program, and in 2024 was invited to the Chateau d’Orquevaux for a 4-week writing residency. She is currently an MFA student at Emerson College with an expected graduation of 2026.

Most of C.E. McKenna’s work focuses on the untold stories of the American West. Her short fiction and research often deals with the dangers of western environments—particularly wildland fire. Her long-form work combines deft historical research with speculative fiction, resulting in vivid, thrilling pageturners. Her debut novel, The Primary Source, is about the murderous origins of Stanford University.

C.E. McKenna lives in Boulder, Colorado, where she works as a software developer and spends her free time traipsing local hiking trails, attempting to avoid moose.

Tea, Tonic & Toxin interviews Raymond J. Brash, who discusses his short story “Ban Yuh Belly,” published in On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology. He’s joined by authors Curtis Ipppolito, Puja Guha, and C.E. McKenna.

He’s is a Trinidadian-American writer residing in Colorado with his wife and rescue pittie, Bessie.

He enjoys reading and writing speculative fiction, noir, and anything that crushes multiple genres into a pulpy, edible mash.

Raymond has stories published or forthcoming in The Lines We Cross: Bouchercon 2026 Anthology, On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology, Shotgun Honey, Rock and a Hard Place Press, and others, and has been nominated for a Best of the Net Award. Follow him on Instagram @raymond.j.brash, Bluesky @rjbrash.bsky.social, or visit his website raymondjbrash.work

“Ban Yuh Belly” is a short story by Raymond J. Brash published in the anthology. “Ban yuh belly” is Caribbean patios meaning “brace yourself and prepare for hard times. The story is set in Trinidad and Tobago. “Rainy season getting worse and worse by the year,” Jeffrey Perrera says. “And they say God is a Trini.”

Jeffrey finds bodies washed up on the shore and takes their money. When we first meet him, he has also taken a watch. Jeffrey tells us, “I don’t read names on cards or stare at pictures too much. It’s easier that way.” Jeffrey is trying to do right by his sister, Denise, and her daughter, Hazel. Denise’s sound and look remind him of Mumzie, their mother.

Curtis Ippolito is an Anthony Award-and Derringer Award-winning writer. He is the author of Burying the Newspaper Man and the newly published Waves of Burden.

His short stories have appeared in many prominent publications and have been featured in several anthologies. He lives in San Diego and is a member of Mystery Writers of America and serves as vice-president of the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime.