Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

Yippeeee!!!!!!!!!!!  Whahooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy dance! Jig! Hurray! and Huzzah!

Aoife’s Kiss, which has both a print publication and an online publication, has accepted one of my poems for publication in its June 2008 issue (don’t worry – I’ll remind you again in a year when it comes up).
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check them out.  They’re a neat magazine and are in their sixth year of publication. I have subscribed to them, but you can also get single issues and they even have some of the stuff online.

Electric Velocipede landed in my mailbox the same day as Flytrap, which is interesting since they have similar formats and are both looking for stories outside speculative fiction box (which is also interesting considering that speculative fiction is, itself, already outside the box – I just find that rather funny). For both of them, their formats make them easy to tuck into a purse, bookbag, backpack, or even to roll up and put in your back pocket. This is excellent for the reader on the run. For the record, while I like pretty books and zines, I highly approve of ones that are more practical in nature since I can be kind of rough on things – spilled lunches and coffee and shoving away cuz the bus is coming and so forth.

Anyway, on with our review.

Electric Velocipede, edited by John Klima, is 8 1/2 x 7 inches (or 8 1/2 x 14 folded over with two staples in the center), black and white. No illustrations other than the clever front cover, by Thom Davidsohn, and advertisements for books The small margins and type assure as much content as possible on the pages. This issue ran 56 pages containing nine fiction pieces, five poetry pieces, and the only non-fiction being Contributor Notes (author bios) and A Rembrance of the Future (what will be in upcoming issues). Something I really appreciated about the author bios (that I also appreciated in Flytrap but forgot to point out) was the flippant and cheeky tone of the bios. These contributors didn’t take themselves seriously at all and I liked that (Note To Self: Quit taking Self so seriously! Seriously!).

I really enjoyed every single one of the poems. Poetry can be sticky, as anyone knows. It’s a highly personal, yet universal, distillation of nuance, mood, meaning, sense and other ingredients into what can be either a fine bourbon or liquor for some or pure rough moonshine for others. However, I did like some more than others.

Bruce Boston contributed two poems, Make Your Books Well and The Money Splicer’s Tale. While The Money Splicer’s Tale was intriguing and creatively pointed to some of the narcissistic tendencies of some types of interests, Make Your Books Well is the type of poem that should be cut out put on your bulletin board, or taped to the side of your computer and put on your webpage or something. In my opinion, it should be a writer’s anthem.

Megan Messinger also contributed two poems, Houseguest and The Deal. Both of these poems were pretty spooky. I read The Deal first and appreciated the slyness of the tone as a young girl (I assume) is seen making a deal with a supposed saint. As brief as it was, it was almost a complete story in itself and kind of reminded me of Poe or the Twilight Zone, not to say that it’s like either of those two types of writing. It just hit the same parts of the brain that those two do. Great sense of humor. HOWEVER, I did like her Houseguest better, I think. As I was reading this poem about someone dealing with a poltergeist, I got so drawn into the poem that I turned the page and exclaimed in alarm when I realized that was the end. Again, it was like a horror story and had it’s own tweaked sense of humor. Because I was so drawn into Houseguest, I have to say I liked it better than The Deal, but it was close.

Finally, there was a tiny little gem of liqueur that was Untitled by Aurelio Rico Lopez III. Three lines, a type of haiku except the middle line has 8 beats instead of 7, but that doesn’t really matter. It’s the picture that matters as it unfolds with each line. I really liked this little bit of poetry.

In this particular issue I don’t think there was one story I didn’t care for. Naturally, there were some tales I preferred over others. Some I went “huh” to but had enjoyed reading anyway, but I have to say I enjoyed all of them.

There were two short shorts – or as he calls them short short shorts – by Bruce Holland Rogers, Omens and Look There He Is. Omens, about a woman who is getting married but questions the omens surrounding her decision, was by its nature more pointed in its little message, and yes, there was a sly little message in there. Made me wonder if the author knew someone in particular who gave him the idea for the tale. Look There He Is is basically told in dialogue only, which I always appreciate. It’s one person trying to tell another person a story and the second person keeps interrupting him. It could easily be a little one-act play, filmed and put up on YouTube. It was very clever and cleverly hid the point of the story behind the nonsense.

Reduction Descending by Luke Jackson is a story set in the future in a world that is familiar yet very foreign. The West has fallen, technology has arisen, and diseases and other circumstances have set up situations where things are “not what they seem.” It is about a driven man who just wants his son back and is willing to lose everything in his pursuit. Though the tale itself is rather simple, it is the new world that Pradeep inhabits that makes things complicated and moves the story into unexpected areas.

A Miracle in Shreveport by Michael Jasper is about a baseball game that’s taking place in Louisiana in the early 20th century. I don’t like watching baseball, but I was mesmerized as I read the story, pulled in by the tension between the all white team and the team, called All Nations, that had everyone, including a woman, on it. Told from the point of view of a former slave who coaches and manages the team, it tells what happens one afternoon and about the magic that can be found on the baseball diamond. I really enjoyed the voice of the narrator, George. Jasper’s characters are actually from a novel he’s written and I think I might need to check that novel out.

Crater Beach by John Mantooth was another compelling read. Part scifi, part noir mystery about a boy leaping in to rescue a girl that he has ambivalent feelings about, it kept me reading and the introduction of the world – the setting and “scifi” part never made me stop and try to figure it out (and you know how irritated and cranky I get when the scifi “facts” push me out of the story as I try to stop and figure them all out). I had a good time reading it.

Brendan Connell contributed Dr. Black and the Village of Stones, a tale written kind of in the style of Sherlock Holmes mixed with odd James Joyce like stream of consciousness writing. It is a tale about a scientist and his student who go to a small Swiss village to investigate an odd and gruesome phenomenon. I wasn’t sure what to make of the odd departures from regular fiction writing that were sometimes like reading a script and sometimes like reading a play and other times like reading scribbled notes. Mostly, I wanted to skip over those bits and get on with the rest of the story since, despite those bits, I did want to know what happens next. However, I did enjoy reading about the good Herr Doktir and it appears that Connell has written entire books about him.

The Alchemy of War by Paul M. Jessup was sad. Sad, sad, sad. Well done, but sad. I want to say there was a little bit of an Asian feel to this tale. It takes place on another world and is about a city at war and the alchemist and his family who are surviving that war. Of everything, it was one of my least favorite tales, but it was well told. I was never pushed out of the story by the characters or the setting. I was completely drawn in.

The Prisoner in the Forest by Lavie Tidhar was also one of my least favorites because of its sadness. It was depressing, however, it was a compelling read in that the point it makes is a good one. I kept hoping for a different ending than what I thought was coming, and it was a different, yet still pointed to one of our basic human weaknesses.

The Garden by Earthly Delights by Jay Caselberg was fun! I would like to flippantly call it alien erotica, but that’s not it at all. Told from the point of view of an alien visiting earth, it shows someone who thinks it has figured us out. Maybe it has, or at least figured a part of us out. What it doesn’t realize, is that we may have, possibly, figured it out as well. I really enjoyed this one.

On the whole, I truly enjoyed my introduction to Electric Velocipede and look forward to my next issue.

But I’m Confus-ed cuz Jim did two lists. One is eight things other people don’t know about you and the other is the Gang of Four list – four of everything.

So I guess I’ll do both, though the list of eight will be weird because some people who read this blog REALLY know me while others don’t so much. So here goes – a non-writing blog because I have been tagged.

Eight Things You May Not Know About Me

1. I listen to Christmas music year round when I’m depressed.
2. In my perfect world I would have a small house by the ocean, a cabin in the mountains by a lake, and a penthouse in the city.
3. I wanted to be a writer from around eight years old, though I also wanted to be other things.
4. The person who is my best friend? He scared me when I first met him.  He broke rules (he went off campus for lunch).
5. I love perfume and scented oils and incense and pretty smelly things.
6. Every year for my birthday I like to buy myself yellowy-orangey roses and I bake myself a lemon cake and buy some limoncello.
7. I do not like potato chips. I do like tortilla chips.
8. I used to have a Pavoni Espresso machine – small pump chrome.  I really regret throwing it out when it broke down, but I couldn’t find any repair people for it. One day I will have another one. Oh yes. I will.

And Now – The Gang of Four questions

1. Four Jobs I’ve had: Receptionist at a Veterinary Hospital (yes – I even cleaned kennels); Barista for Starbucks (you’ll take it the way I make or be damned); Gardener; and Shelver in the Periodical Department of the Wilson Library at Western Washington University.
2. Four Movies I can see repeatedly (only four?): The Mummy (and The Mummy Returns); LOTR; George of the Jungle; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Moonstruck; and How to Marry a Millionaire (okay that’s six).
3. Four Places I’ve Lived: Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA, Shanghai, China.
4. Four Shows I Love (Two categories – cancelled and still running): Cancelled – Xena, Buffy, Star Trek, Andromeda; Still Running – NCIS, How I Met Your Mother, Law & Order SVU, and CSI (hey- there’s not much on these days – gimme a break).
5. Four Places I’ve Vacationed: Yosemite, Beijing, Cabo San Lucas, Los Angeles.
6. Four Favorite Dishes: Medium Rare Filet Mignon, Seared Ahi Tuna, Hum Bao/Gaozi (pork bun), plain stick white rice with butter and salt.
7. Four Sites I visit daily (besides the people listed to the right?): MySpace.com, Tribe.net, LATimes.com, and The Bacon Show.
8. Four Places I’d Rather Be: Home, the beach, a mountain lake, Jim’s.
9. Four Bloggers I am tagging – I’m not tagging anyone really.  But let me know if you do the lists so I can giggle at yours while you giggle at mine.

Fellow writer friend who is here posted a really cool thing about recharging your creative self that she got from here.

Read and report back, please! 

Actually – just his blog.  I’ve been busy. Thought you might like something entertaining to read and you may find it here.

Locus Magazine has these great sections of nothing but zine reviews, which doesn’t seem like much at first. However, as you go through them, you realize that this is a great resource for finding zines you would not otherwise hear about in the normal manner or see on the newstands that you normally visit near the drugstore or grocery store. Flytrap: A Little Zine With Teeth, is just such a zine. I had read about it only slightly, then heard they were opening for submissions, sent in my submission and got the requisite rejection and subsequently subcribed to it anyway, because it’s good to do these things when you’re a writer, even if said magazine has rejected you (and let’s face it – at this point – for me anyway – they all have). You need to know what other people are writing, what’s out there. So, here is what is out there in regards to Flytrap.

Flytrap is put out by Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw at Tropism Press. It is a simple black and white formatted zine, 8 1/2 x 14 inch folded and stapled twice in the center so it’s about 8 1/2 x 7 when it gets to you. They publish stories, poetry, and have a few non-fiction (or “True(ish)”) pieces as well. This issue had 4 stories, 3 poems, and 5 other articles, which, including the bios, came to about 44 pages of text. There were also some photographs to illustrate the magazine, taken by Heather Shaw and featuring the artwork and sculpture garden of C.R. Schiefer. The photographs and the sculptures were a nice touch in an otherwise sparse little zine.

Now, for the writing. Ray Vukcevich, who made an appearance in the July 2007 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction (which I reviewed here – you can see what I said about him at the very bottom), also made an appearance in Flytrap with a story called “My Shoes,” which seems to be about someone who gets their disguise ripped off by an ex-wife. It was entertaining. I was very amused by the paragraph long sentence near the beginning. That was fun. However, while I don’t think myself an unintelligent person, as funny as the rest of the story was, I got lost at the end. I mean, I think I figured it out, but I can’t tell.

I had the same unresolved feelings with “Frankenfetish” by Leslie What. It started out fairly well. I was kind of getting into it. It had a weird, gross vibe that bordered on the horrific in that kind of sterile way some stories have where you’re pretty sure that the nice little girl in the pink dress is the sociopathic murderer. But I didn’t get the end. It lost me, so I fell flat.

“Apology” by Jan Wildt I just skipped over after the first page. It just was not my cup of tea. It may be someone else’s dose of heroine or LSD or something, but it’s just not for me. I didn’t like it at all. It was poetic in a lot of ways, but for what it was trying to do (show the world from an infant’s point of view), I think it went on WAY too long. It should have been a very short story or flash fiction and not the long ass thing it was. But like I said, it could be someone else’s cup of tea. Obviously, the editors liked it enough to buy it (though I can’t figure out for the life of me why).

My favorite story, the one that made the most sense and I think was the best written (well, Vukcevich’s was close) was “The Gardener of Hell” by Amy Beth Forbes. I liked that story a LOT. A resident of Hell finds a meaning in death and a way to make other people’s deaths more meaningful as well. It was a good read. I hope Forbes is able to sell more of her work. You can apparently see more of it here.

The three poems featured were all by Jay Wentworth. They were called “An Elegy in Five Photos,” “Orange,” and “Home Again.” They were all well written and were basically on his emotions in regards to his mother’s death.”Five Photos” was poignant and familiar for anyone who has done the bedside vigil of a loved one as they slowly (and suddenly) pass away. “Home Again” was fine, but not memorable for me. I think of the three, “Orange” may have been the best. It did what I think poetry does best – create an essence to be enjoyed or meditated upon.

Of the True(ish) bits, the editorial by Tim Pratt was a really fun read. And congratulations to Tim and Heather as they are pregnant and due to have a baby Halloween 2007! The informative article by Erin Kelley, “Wham! Bam! Pow!” was also entertaining to read, briefly educating the reader on new cool things out there in the world of the graphic novel. “Cut Up: Jung vs. Freud” and “Automatic Writing” by Douglas Lain, I didn’t get. I just didn’t get those two little bits at all. They were not accessible to me. However, “Life Among the Obliterati” by Nick Mamatas was my favorite of this entire section. First off, he talks about that one story that every writer has that will never have a home. Of course, none of mine has found a home, so who am I to talk? But what he does, by way of showing an example of such a story, is to include his OWN story, “Solidarity Forever,” that has never found a home. And guess what, I liked it better than most of the stuff in this zine, aside from Forbes’ and Vukcevich’s tales. It has no real plot and the only fantastical stuff that happens is at the end and it’s just plopped in there, but the way it’s written, it’s hilarious in a darkly humorous way. IMHO, it’s the kind of thing that Italo Calvino might have been entertained by. I can see why mainstream zines would have rejected it, but not supposedly cutting edge zines, cuz it was pretty entertaining and nothing was sacred.

Again, however, who am I to talk? I feel like a broken record saying this, but apparently, I have very pedestrian tastes or am not intelligent enough since I just didn’t get most of this stuff, and I really wanted to. I was really excited to get Flytrap. I signed up for a year, so hopefully I’ll have a better time with the other issues. I really enjoyed the writing style of the editors and the artwork. And the pieces I enjoyed, I’m glad I read and I’m glad I was introduced to those writers. I look forward to more by Ray Vukcevich, Amy Beth Forbes, and Nick Mamatas in the future. I would love to have a Guinness with Erin Kelley. The rest, I can pass on.

Crap, it’s long — the short story I just finished.  It came in at a little over 9000 words or so.  Long short stories make me cranky, so I’m not sure why I wrote one, I just know that it seemed like a lot needed to be said.  I took a lot out, really I did.  I think it got up to over 10,000 words before I started editing it down.  Now, finally, it’s out of my brain.  I hope.  I sent it to my Critique friends and we’ll see, if they have the time, what they say.  Even if they don’t say anything, it will be nice to have an excuse to not look at it for a while.

Now I’m going to watch Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon on KDOC whilst doing dishes and feeding my face.

Tomorrow, we’ll see.

There’s this stuff I want to blog about but Pye, my cat, is being particularly needy, looking beseechingly at me – “Not at the computer again! You said you’d PLAY with me. I want a SNACK. CLEAN MY LITTER BOX!” All sorts of things are pouring from him in that vein – though basically it boils down to him thwapping me with his tail, and trying to nibble and nip at my toes to get me away from this box with a window.

And to be fair, my apartment is in quite a bit of disarray and it needs at least some mild amount of attention before I continue sitting at the computer researching and writing and perusing (but I know I’m in good company here as I remember Marion Zimmer Bradley writing somewhere that she only shoveled out her place occasionally – just enough to keep the health department from showing up).

And I need some mild form of attention – coffee, vitamins, breakfast, a shower.

But I’ve got this news see and it all points to the Luck and Fickleness and INEFFABILITY of everything (thank you Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett for introducing me to that word many, many years ago) and it’s all seemingly unrelated but it is related and it’s swirling around in brain and I’m not sure how it’s going to land on this cybernetic page, but here goes.

Last night was going to be a Friday night like any other. Going to go home, put something interesting on the TV to keep me occupied while doing the dishes (I hate them, I need distractions while doing them – either someone to talk to or the TV). Well, a friend twisted my rubber arm into showing up at her house for Tacky Taco night with another friend so we could have a girls’ night and watch the first five episodes of Tsubasa (Clamp manga made into anime). The one having a Tacky Taco night was in need of some fun.

All three of us are writers (Chandra, Christina, and I) and we can get a bit discouraged about life, the universe and everything when the writing doesn’t come or no one seems to like our writing, or life just Gets In The Way. And, as Chandra pointed out here, we have to remember why we do this writing gig to begin with. It is a form of expression and we enjoy expressing ourselves.

Well, in the middle of Chandra trying to work and organize the girls’ night, she got the mail. And she didn’t get just any mail, she got THIS mail accepting a short story she had written for publication in ON SPEC. Yeah, Life is Fickle that way.

Suddenly this was a celebratory dinner! So, we broke out the alcohol, but being lightweights and tired from work, it only took one small, weak drink each to make us giggly. And that’s the best way to watch anime. (I know people who use other substances to watch anime as well, but really, when you think about it, you don’t need anything to watch anime – it puts you in an alternate frame of mind by just trying to keep up with the jumps in the storyline.)

So, in the middle of the giggle-fest, Chandra’s uncles (my friends) come home from their evening out. And it was ALSO a very celebratory time, though in a slightly different way. And you can learn all about that here.

And now, after all that, it’s time to go back to my regularly scheduled Saturday of washing dishes, doing laundry, picking up after myself, taking care of myself and my cat and researching, writing, and perusing on this box with a window.

I just got four (4) “No Thank Yous” (email program must have sent double messages) for two (2) short stories that I had withdrawn from submission 6 months ago. And they all included the same exact wording. I’ve copied and pasted the message below for your entertainment taking out any identifiers:

While it is kindly worded, I think it’s the “alas” that made me giggle. (Maybe if I had used that type of working in my stories she would have accepted them? “Oh, alas! Alack a day, Sir Rodney! I cannot love you and I will never commit to a marriage of convenience!” “Oh, Lady Margaret! I cannot leave you! Alas, I have succumbed to your charms. Your beauty dims the very stars!”)

She (or her assistant) probably just sent BCC copies to everyone on her list of rejectees. And like I said, what’s really funny is I contacted her six months ago and said I wanted to withdraw my submissions. And she said okay and thank you for submitting! I had sent these stories to her like 2 years ago and still hadn’t heard and decided I wanted to rework them and send them other places.

Phew! LOL! It’s a good thing she didn’t accept them! They are completely different now than when I had first sent them to her.

Ah, this was a good chortle to wake up to!

So, I was reading July’s F&SF when I realized that I have never reviewed this zine. In the past I’ve reviewed zines that were either new or new to me. I don’t know if reviewing them did them any favors or did me any favors, or if anyone ever really reads my reviews, but I just did it, just cuz. One of the cool things about calling yourself a writer is that reading and watching movies and tv can be considered required homework. So, I guess writing reviews is part of that homework.

However, because I’ve been subscribing to a few zines off and on for a few years, I guess I never considered putting them up for review. They’re already part of the landscape. And let’s face it, they’re the big zines who could care less what I say about them anyway, so why bother. But that’s not really fair, either, so this time I AM going to review one of the heavy hitters: Fantasy & Science Fiction.

But first a Sidebar on Short Stories —

I can’t find the quote and I left the information at work, but in Edgar Allen Poe’s opinion, the short story and/or poem was better than the novel because it was written so the story and concept could be read and digested in one sitting. I believe the words were a perusal of half-hour to an hour or two. Faulkner had his definition, as did Hawthorne. There are probably as many definitions as there are writers. It all boils down to a complete arc to be enjoyed and mulled over by the reader in one sitting.

In any case, I never got into short stories as a kid. I wanted books. But back then I didn’t have a job or responsibilities. I could sit in a corner and read for hours. I can’t do that anymore. These days, most of my reading occurs in 20 minute increments (or so). I may be able to string 2 or 3 increments together (if I’m lucky and all three buses are not crowded so I get a seat where I can read quietly), but I mostly can only count on 20-30 minutes of reading time in one sitting. This makes sense for most people since most adults are gainfully employed and can only read during lunch breaks or a little bit after dinner and before bed or on the public transit. So, you have magazines all over the place that can accommodate your current need for short-span reading material. These magazines range from literary to romance to sci/fi fantasy to horror to murder mystery to a mix of everything. Lifestyle magazines even carry short stories for reading. I started reading anthologies once I had a job where the only reading I could do was during the 10 minute break and 30 minute lunch break. The CatFantastic series by Andre Norton and the Sword and Sorceress series by Marion Zimmer Bradley were my meat and potatoes back then. Sadly, both writers have passed on and while there are people who have decided to pick up and carry the S&S torch, no one has yet to continue Norton’s anthologies on the fantastical lives of cats. But, when I had read those and needed more, I turned to magazines. And while zines such as The New Yorker have interesting articles and stories, they can be a bit looooooong. (When you’re used to action and adventure, the slice of life type stories can be a bit dreary. But when they’re well written, they are really well written.) And that’s when I discovered F&SF, Azimov’s, Analog, and Realms of Fantasy.

I’ve been picking them up and reading them for so long now that I rarely pay attention to them. Oh, I read them and I note specific authors or articles, but mostly I just eat them up – read them like candy. Until I actually started thinking about submitting stories to them, I didn’t note how they were put together or the feel of their stories or layouts. So, it’s interesting to think of reviewing something that’s just become part of the background.

Back to our regularly scheduled Review…

F&SF is in a digest format and measures about 5 x 7. It has a cardstock colored cover, the front being artwork and back usually being an advertisement for a new book or series. The inner papers are on newsprint quality paper with a standard Times New Roman font and and 8 or a 10 size font – half inch margins. The art on the inside is usually limited to advertising and the occasional funny or wry comic. There are five departments that are basically 5 separate review departments. Regular reviewers include Charles DeLint and Elizabeth Hand. This issue also has reviews by Lucius Shephard and Graham Andrews, though I can’t remember if they’re in other issues as well. Lately I’ve noticed that F&SF has one novella, two novelets, and two short stories. Usually no poetry, though I’ve seen them break that rule before.

Now, IN THE PAST – I remember there being MORE ARTWORK. I think they decided to change that a few years back. ALSO, I remember there being more short stories. The last few issues have pissed me off cuz I don’t want to read long ass drawn out stories that last forever when I’m trying to read and watch for my bus stop at the same time. But I know the last few issues, at least, have had at least one novella and one or two novelets and then just a couple or so short stories. It used to be all short stories and every once in a while a long one would get snuck in. That was better. Back then I felt like I was getting my money’s worth. Okay, I’ll quite haranguing on that and get back to the review – but really – these novella issues are all beginning to piss me off.

I was a little bit mollified LAST time because the novella was by Gene Wolfe. And it was a Gene Wolfe issue. This time I was mollified because Lucius Shepherd wrote the novella, Stars Seen Through Stone, and while I wasn’t sure about the story at first, I did like the title and I did agree with his review of Pan’s Labyrinth, so I decided to keep reading. And I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t long and dreary. It kept me reading and it wasn’t full of action, though it had good tension. And it wasn’t one of those stories where the writer thinks they have to start in the middle of the action – he meandered into the story and I like that, too. It had lots of good description and yes, dammit, the characters did sit down to have a cup of coffee! People keep telling me these types of things aren’t supposed to be done in a well told story. Well, that’s because they aren’t “in style” anymore. But I really enjoy reading that particular style and that’s what I end up writing. Good GOD doesn’t anyone read Poe or Dickens or any other lush writers anymore? What about the Russians? Tolstoy who spent a good 10 pages describing the room and what people wore?
Anyway, what really won me over was this remark by the main character: “Whatever his story, I think he has found his true medium and is becoming a minor obscenity slithering among the large obscenities that serve a different kind of star, anonymous beneath the black flood of the Hollywood sewer” (Shepherd, Stars Seen Through Stone in Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 2007, p. 107).

If you have ever lived here, you’d get it. Obviously, Lucius Shepherd gets it.
I know, that was long winded for a review of a short story, but it was a novella, gimme a break!

Daughters of Prime, one of the novelets, by Lawrence Connolly, after I got into it (three pages in – which is pretty long considering it’s a short story), kept me reading. I really wanted to make sure it would turn out okay. But I almost quit reading it because it starts kind of in the middle of things and the reader is forced to muddle about figuring things out. Yes, I know, the reader of speculative fiction usually has more patience for this sort of thing. I think I used to have more patience for this kind of thing, but not anymore. I think because it smacks of being a gimmick. Starting in the middle of the action and making the reader figure things out used to be new and it was exciting to get caught up in the action. These days it’s done so often (ie ALL THE TIME BECAUSE THAT’S ALL EDITORS WANT), unless it’s done really well, it just feels like a gimmick to pull the reader in quick. And it bothers me. Fortunately, with The Daughters of Prime, by the time I got pulled in, I did care about the characters and the story so I stayed hooked and enjoyed the interesting aspects of the story.

The second novelet, Car 17, by P.E. Cunningham, also started in the middle of the action – or at least in the middle of something, but I was hooked from the second paragraph. The first paragraph I was still adjusting, but this story pulled me right in. Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for car stories. This one had elements of the 1970s movie, The Car. Though, I supposed you could also say it had elements of The Love Bug and Stephen King’s Christine. (Notice I said elements of, I didn’t say that they were similar stories.) The narrator has a folksy voice that was easy for me to follow (not always the case) and it kept pulling me through the story. I didn’t notice that this was a novelet while reading it, only after I looked back at the Table of Contents.

I wasn’t sure about PowerSuit(tm) by M.K. Hobson at first. That was one of the short stories. At first, it just seemed too predictable. I could see where it was going and I felt myself getting annoyed with it because of that and because I hate the business world and this story reminded me of all the reasons I hate the business world. However, she was able to pull away from the predictable and present a story with a pretty good ending. There were some fun and funny parts to it that made me chuckle so by the end I was glad I’d read it after all.

Cold Comfort by Ray Vukcevich made me chortle, out loud, at the bus stop with strangers looking on. It was clever, brief, original and I really enjoyed it.

So, despite my annoyance that this zine is doing this whole format of more longer stories and fewer shorter stories, I did enjoy this issue.

Now, Pye is thwapping me with his tail (means it’s time to go) I am still trying to get the hang of that going to bed on time thing. My landlord has decided to paint the outside of the building in the middle of summer. His painters have decided our window screens are in the way and have taken them down, so I have a choice between cooling off the apartment with bugs or a hot closed apartment without bugs. Since they took the screens out while I was at work, that let in a bunch of bugs and I need to go chase them out now before I sleep.

*sigh*