Right dab in the middle of August's The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a most stunning science fiction novella. "Arkfall," by Carolyn Ives Gillman, (who is my new sf writing hero, interview found here) is a story with a young,female protagonist facing personal challenges that reflect social difficulties within a brave new world. There's depth to this story and science and characters you wouldn't expect, but it is all made of shiny and deserves a Nebula recommendation. Or ten of them. Someone do that for me, would you?

My head is full of apprehension.

I've been reading the stories I hadn't read in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007, which consists of most of the horror fiction. Story after story of scenarios of the unknown, the strange, the wrong.

I don't believe in spooks. I don't believe in spooks. I don't believe in spooks.

I'm reading Samuel R. Delany's On Writing. Oh, let's get this right, I'm reading it ten minutes at a time, and I'm not reading it from beginning to end. I'm reading some here and some over there. And, as I'm reading, I'm going "Oh!" and, "Oh!" No wonder the week this man taught at Clarion the neowriter felt as lowly as Lowly Worm, if even that, because maybe they didn't even have a fancy green hat with a feather on it.

Sure, I've been reading. The ones I loved:

From Saffron and Brimstone Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand, The Lost Domain: Four Stories "Kronia," "Calypso in Berlin," "Echo," and "The Saffron Gatherers."

From Asimov's Science Fiction July 2007: "Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress, "Bullet Dance" by John Schoffstall and "Roxie" by Robert Reed.

From Asimov's Science Fiction August 2007: "The Bridge" by Kathleen Anne Goonan (reprint), "Dead House Point" by Daryl Gregory.

From Asimov's Science Fiction: "My Heart As Dry As Dust" by Kim Zimring, "How Music Begins" by James Van Pelt, "What Wolves Know" by Kit Reed. (Note: I haven't finished reading the R. Garcia Y Robertson novelette.)

From The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction: May 2007, "The Master Miller's Tale" by Ian R. MacLeod and "The Tamarisk Hunter" by Paolo Bacigalupi.

From The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 2007: "The Tomb Wife" by Gwyneth Jones.

From Electric Velocipede Issue No. 12, "Reduction Descending" by Luke Jackson, "A Miracle in Shreveport" by Michael Jasper, "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Jay Caselberg and "Dr. Black and the Village of Stones" by Brendan Connell.

From Lady Churchill's Robot Wristlet Issue No. 20: "The Third Kind of Darkness" by M. Brock Moorer, "Workshop" by Laura Evans, "I'll Give In" by Meghan McCarron, "In the Lobby of the Mission Palms" by Jon Hanson, "The Last Worders" by Karen Joy Fowler, "Prolegomenon to the Adventures of Chílde Phoenix" by Marly Youmans.

From Reflection's Edge, "Dead Lovers" by A. M. Muffaz.

From Realms of Fantasy, August 2007: "Little Miss Apocalypse" by Christopher Barzak, "Metaphysics" by Elizabeth Glover and "A Trade in Serpents" by Alan Smale.

From Interzone Issue 210: "Toke" by Tim Akers.

From Weird Tales, April-May 2007: "The Man Who Carved Skulls" by Richard Parks, "Six Scents" by Lisa Mantchev and "Spider Comes Home" by Gerald Houarner.

From Strange Horizons (remember their fund drive, please), "29 Union Leaders Can't Be Wrong" by Genevieve Valentine.

From Chizine, "The Vine That Ate the South" by Bill Kte'pi.

Poll #1021367 Consumerism
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I'm looking for a new collection of short fiction to read; help me out?

I've been trying to catch up with the reading of short fiction, not that I haven't been reading it, just the reading has gotten behind. And, I haven't pointed anyone to the good stuff lately.

"The Sledge-Marker's Daughter" by Alastair Reynolds in Interzone April 2007.

"The Good Detective" by M. John Harrison in Interzone April 2007.

"Wizard's Six" by Alex Irvine in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction June 2007.

"Lazaro y Antonio" by Marta Randall in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction June 2007.

"Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction July 2007.

"Bluecoat Jack" by Sarah Totton in Text:Ur The New Book of Masks edited by Forrest Aguirre.

"The Histories of Now" by Jonathan Wood in Behind the Wainscot edited by Paul Jessup May 2007.

"The Utter Proximity of God" by Michael J. DeLucca in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

"Rats" by Veronica Schanoes in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

"Climbing Redemption Mountain" by Mikal Trimm in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

"Hunger" by Vandana Singh in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

"When It Rains, You'd Better Get Out of Ulga" by Adrian Ferrero in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

"A Dirge for Prestor John" by Catherynne M. Valente in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

In case, you think I have not been reading, o 'lo, I have, just not as much, and less small fictions. The last magazine I finished was Interzone, the Anniversary Issue in which I was mightily impressed. Yes, I liked it. I liked it better than the 30th Anniversary Issue of Asimov's which had more stories and big name authors and everything, well, everything except the ability to please me greatly.

I have gone on YA novel reading trips:

Ysabeau S. Wilce's Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishpas of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms and a Red Dog, which was all adventurous although it made me puzzled, the punish-the-heroine-for-her-faults aspect of the novel and the knowledge that those faults are the faults of most teenage girls, but bravo for the journey.

Martine Leavitt's Keturah and Lord Death which read like I was in an orchard, beneath the ancient apple trees, and the breeze in the evening caused a cascade of blossoms to fall upon my upturned face. Yes, that gentle.

Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life As We Knew It which I paused during the reading of, for I wondered why I was reading something so dismal when all about me was dismal, and decided the narrator's voice was so captivating that I would journey with her to the end, whatever the end might be, and was therefore glad that I did.

M. T. Anderson's The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1. I'd read a number of good things about this novel and I was all set to be wowed, but it wasn't a wow book for me. I'm very sorry that I wasn't wowed, even if I'm not sorry I read it. Because, well, if books had a flavor this book would be anise, and I like to taste anise every once in a while, because, you never know, some day I may discover it has become what I never thought it would be, a new source of delight.

Currently, I am reading Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box aloud to Dale. Dale stopped reading novels about the time of his first heart surgery and with the extra time we share in the evenings, and his past enjoyment of horror stories, I thought reading aloud would be enjoyable for both of us. It is. I rather hate the stopping of the read at the end of our visit, because, you know I devour things I enjoy.

And, then, there is Text: UR edited by Forrest Aguire, which is a challenge to read. Because some stories are written to challenge their readers and sometimes, this reader has a love of fiction that keeps me working at its comprehension. The effort sometimes proves to be rewarding. And that is what I'm finding in these stories.

Lastly, I have Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing, edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss. Which I paid for. But which I may review anyway. Besides I got a postcard in the mail about its release. Postcards about books make me happy.

The April, the Anniversary, issue of Interzone is in my hands. If you know me at all, maybe if you know just a little bit, you know what author's story I've already read.

Electric Velocipede Fall 2006. Not my first issue of EV, and that should tell you something right there. Mmm hmm. I did find this issue surprising, surprising in a good way. Thirteen tales of fiction (seven of those tales by women) and four poems (two each from Christina Sng and Catherynne M. Valente). Genre. I suppose that should go without saying.

EV is a good zine and this issue is an good issue. I'm hard put upon which stories to discuss and at what length. Especially with my time restraints. So, I am going to be much too brief and skip around, or skip entirely, some pieces that deserve mention.

First, I have a love (that is small and bright like a spark, but, at a moment's notice can flame suddenly like a solar flare) for stylistic, fancy prose. Such is the stories by Catherynne M. Valente and Sonya Taaffe. Ms Valente's "Milk and Apples" is an examination of the wicked step mother in Snow White, but it isn't the mother's fault, especially when the mother is a child turned into a crone but conditions of which she has no control. A sad tale. Ms Taaffe's tale is a very short piece examining the "Bar Golem." It is a love story of sorts.

Marly Youmans. Her name should be becoming popular right now. I know I enjoy her work. In this issue of EV, her story, "The Geode" adds a piece of the magical in a realistic story told from the mother's point of view. Poignant. Beautiful.

"Quitting Dreams" by Matthew Cheney and Jeffrey Ford is a tale of a futuristic disaster, with individual salvation, although that salvation is also a type of curse.

And, Tobias Buckell has a very strong story where American history and a futuristic society blend. "The Duel" is one of the strongest stories I've seen from Tobias. Recommended.

I'd like to add, almost as an afterthought, but not really. I loved the poetry in this issue. I usually have little to say about poetry selections, but these works are very noteworthy.

Shimmer, Summer 2006. This was my first reading of Shimmer, a small zine of beauty. Shiny front and back cover with beautiful, and I want to say photoworkshopped, art. So beautiful that I felt badly toting it around and about and marring it a bit from my crude habits and behavior. Nine pieces of fictions, very short pieces, smaller than flash in a couple of instances. Speculative or fantastical, of course. I'm thinking the publication tends a bit more towards literal writing than most zines, although there is a garden gnome story (not what you'd think) and an alien story (not what you'd think, but, yes, an Earth with aliens and local politics.) I should also note that there is an interview within the issue: Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta.

Among my favorite pieces, there is a very short poetic flash piece by Beverly Jackson called "A Fish Tale" where the narrator's morning walk with her dog leds to a lifetime of love and a moment of heartache. A small sample from it:

A pony-sized Airedale pup galumphs across the shoreline stones to greet my mutt. A sturdy man with curly hair and teeth like dice unfurls his line and waves. I lift my hand and marry him.

Tom Pendergrass' "Urban Renewal" is a tale told in memorandums about the woman who lives in a shoe with many children, thirteen to be exact.

And, and, and it is extremely difficult to present a new story based upon an older one that has been written upon any number time before, in this case, the story of Bluebeard. Angela Slater's "Bluebeard" presents a new and fresh approach. Written from the perspective of a smart, young girl who accompanies her mother to Bluebeard's home, it becomes a story of not only of family, but the strengthen and weaknesses in the family structure.

I liked this issue, and I look forward to reading the new one.