Author Archives: Gerry Huntman
Edition 12: Book Review: Under The Empyrean Sky by Chuck Wendig
Reviewed by Damien Smith
Those who are familiar with Chuck Wendig’s blog will know he likes to set some bizarre writing challenges from time to time. A little while back, the challenge was set to come up with a thoroughly bizarre something-punk genre, on the premise that the ‘something’ is what essentially runs that world. For example steampunk and dieselpunk worlds essentially run on steam and diesel respectively.
Edition 12: Over The Bridge by Lisamarie Lamb
The allure of the unknown is both a positive effect and a dangerous preoccupation. The author treats this beautifully in her dark childlike fantasy. SY
One day, Iris thought, she might cross the bridge. She might find out what was on the other side. But she had a fear of the trolls that her parents told her lived beneath it, and a fear of the devils that they said lived across it, and so she stayed where she was. Safe on her side of the bridge.
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t curious about the world across the river. There was something there, there had to be, or the bridge would have no use. It must have been built for a reason.
Iris would spend hours simply sitting, staring at the narrow strip of moss covered wood that separated her from the other side with all of its seductive secrets. The greenery that grew up through the wooden planks was lush and plush and showed her that no one had crossed that bridge in a very, very long time.
Edition 12: Inside Ferndale by Lee Murray
Lee Murray was the winner of the 2013 Story Quest competition. Judges were impressed with her story of young women shunted into the system, and how reform fails the best of them. While not supernatural, she invokes true horror in the girls’ plight. SY
Ferndale Hostelry for Girls: a pretty name for a juvie detention centre, and a place I’d never heard of until I came up on the last charge. It was my third offence, this time for assault on a teacher, but the snotty cow deserved it, and everyone knows the law has no teeth when it comes to teens. So I was sitting in the courtroom not worrying, picking at the frayed knees of my jeans, waiting for my parents to arrive at the hearing. Only they never did. And when Judge Eastergard realized they weren’t going to show, he sent me to Ferndale. He said, if my parents weren’t willing to take on the job of straightening me out, the state would have to do it for them.
Eastergard may as well have sent me to prison. Hell, it was a prison. One for kids. There were no cigarettes. No alcohol. No TV after ten. At Ferndale, they told me when to wake up. When to eat. When to pee. And the good-cop bad-cop thing? They had it mastered. One minute, pursed-lipped guards were checking under the mattresses and rifling through drawers, and the next, sweet-voiced counselors offered milky smiles and stupid suggestions: “Come on, Storm, we’re here to help: a problem shared is a problem halved, after all.” Silly do-gooders. They didn’t know anything.
Edition 12: Notes From the Editor
Happy New Year and welcome to our first edition for 2014!
As we leave the past year for the adventures of the new, reflecting back brings us here at the mag so much joy. Our first special edition, Women in Writing, allowed us to show you all some thrilling writers that you might not have known about. We thought it was fantastic and you responded enthusiastically to what was our proudest achievement to date. It was such a pleasure and privilege to be able to discuss writing triumphs and tribulations with those wonderful writers.
Edition 13: Book Review: Unidentified Funny Objects 2 edited by Alex Schvartsman
Reviewed by Damien Smith
For anyone carefully reading the heading up there it will come as no surprise that this is the second in a series of planned annual humorous speculative fiction anthologies. I would not normally review a subsequent anthology in a series; however, there is such a dearth of similar offerings around that I had to put it through its paces.
Edition 13: Cultural Review: EMP (Spec Fic) Museum
Reviewed by Sophie Yorkston
The EMP museum, Seattle
The EMP Museum’s strange architecture, located in the Seattle Centre parkland
When you walk around the huge chromatic and irregular surfaces of the EMP museum, you could be forgiven for thinking it some sort of blob of abstract sculpture to decorate the Seattle Centre parkland, in the centre of downtown Seattle. Designed by Frank Gehry, it has had its share of detractors and admirers, seeing in it the reflection of smashed guitars. Me, I just saw the shiny reflections and was excited by the prospect of the treasure trove inside.
Edition 13: Book Review: The Hazards of the Old Ones by Ren Garcia
Reviewed by Mysti Parker
When I began reading the second book of my friend Ren Garcia’s Elder League series, I expected a good story with all the sci-fi/steampunk fun of the first one, but I didn’t expect the depth of feeling this book contained. If I hadn’t already been hooked by the first book, I would definitely have been hooked with this one.
Edition 12: Serial Fiction: Clutter Coach (Part 1 of 2) by Tom Barlow
Part 1 sees us meeting Kathy, clutter coach, who helps clean up other people’s lives but can’t control her own dysfunction. Giving into her own secret collection compulsions, Kathy comes upon a silver samovar. She may not have bargained on what the samovar brings to her life however. SY
Illustration by Gerry Huntman
Kathy struggled all through dinner with the thought of the treasures sitting curbside for any passerby to grab. Perhaps if her husband Stuart had stayed home to watch “American Idol” with her that evening, she could have put it out of her mind. But he bowled on Wednesday nights.
Edition 13: Serial Fiction: Clutter Coach (Part 2 of 2) by Tom Barlow
Part 2 and the extent of Kathy’s hoarding finally comes to Stuart’s attention. Feeling cornered, Kathy starts to push back against her husband’s controlling nature and act in a disturbing way. What spell is the samovar weaving upon her? SY
Illustration by Gerry Huntman
Stuart caught her staring at her eBay sales when he arrived home early. Before she could shut down the window, he saw the sale notification on the art deco pin she had put up for sale.
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