Read 2020 - 63 - Interzone #278

Interzone #278, Nov-Dec 2018

Bit behind with this issue - she understates.

There's an excellent editorial by Tim Lees about how we need true voices in fiction. The first story in the issue, Soldier's Things is also by Tim Lees. The landmarks were familiar, but I'd no sense of geography, how one place fitted with another. A soldier returned from a war that he may or may not have experienced, returned to a world that isn't quite what he remembers. A clever look at how we cannot always trust our own memories.

Xenophobia is the undercurrent in Doomed Youth by Fiona Moore, in a story about a giant ant invasion. "Oh her again. ANT-THEM! for Doomed Youth). As it turns out, the ants aren't really the threat here.

A car's memory is transplanted into a human body in Eliza Ruslander's decidedly weird Heart of an Awl.

Now I need to check on the gammon, which is slowly boiling on the stove and is probably the size of a pea by now.

Read 2020 - 17 - Interzone #274

Another weekend and another Interzone. Dom is obsessed with this magazine. I'm beginning to despair that he'll ever pick a Black Static for me to read. I read issue 274 curled up in my chair by the window and accompanied by several stole cans of Pepsi Max (they're the Bestwick's). I love a lazy Sunday. I should have been hanging pictures in our newly-decorated bedroom and attaching the new headboard, but they'll wait for a not-so-lazy weekend.

My favourite story this issue was Michael Reid's Never the Twain. A beautiful sad, sad story about living two lives, and about dying in one of them. My glasses got a little bit misty. I lie there, listening to the sobbing, feeling like a monster because I can't stop dying.

Read 2020 - 14 - Interzone #276

Another issue of Interzone - at this rate I'll be done with my back supply in no time. Although, I will have to insist that Dom picks a back issue of Black Static soon. As this issue dates from July 2018, it's obvious how long it has sat collecting dust. In fact, there was enough to create a dust bunny (no photos as it ran away with dust carrot).

This issue starts with an excellent editorial from Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, who also has a story in the magazine. My favourites this issue were:

Superbright by Ryan Row
...the pale desert of her chest dotted with moles like negative stars.
There are so many quotable lines in this story of superheroes, villains and a mother and son relationship. Excellent, inventive and a little bit beautiful.

PQ by James Warner
This intriguing story of an ant collective (colony) could easily sit in the pages of Black Static. A researcher discovers a new species of ant who make art from certain found items.

So Easy by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
I counted the constellations of misshapen black moles across his body.
I appear to be drawn to the darker stories in this issue. This is an apocalyptic coming-of-age story.

Eyes by Paul Crenshaw
A beautiful story about seeing the world through other people's eyes.

I read this issue while decorating our bedroom. It proved good, relaxing company - well, maybe not so relaxed with the ants or the apocalypse, little things like that.

Read 2020 - 11 - Interzone #279

It seems that Dom, my number generator, is keen on my reading TTA titles. This is the second Interzone he's chosen this year (along with a Crimewave).

Favourite stories in this issue were: The Backstitched Heart of Katharine Wright by Alison Wilgus, a time-twisty tale of family love, sacrifice, the Wright brothers and their sister. The Buddhafield is not your Buddafield by William Squirrell, another tale of sacrifice, this time set in the farthest reaches of space. Terminalia by Sean McMullen has a nod to the Wright brothers in this story that offers shades of next-generation Flatliners.

*

Not eating Quavers (see previous post) (actually don't bother).

Read 2020 - Interzone #277

This is how far behind I (we) have gotten with our reading. Thanks to number generator, I finally got to read issue 277 of Interzone, which was published at the end of 2018. To my shame, there are even older copies on my to-read-shelf. Forgive me, Andy.

My favourite reads this issue were:

Territory: Blank by Aliya Whiteley (a burgeoning superstar). Territory: Blank is told in a series of fragmented diary entries in a future world where there are hungry things.  "I press through it, wait for the mouths to come for me too."

Singles' Day by Samantha Murray. This is the story of four girls in different parts of an overcrowded Earth, who are offered a chance to go to a new world, but will have to leave much behind. The horror part of my brain kept expecting something awful to happen. "We take our stories with us. We take all of our past."

The Travelling Theatrical Tour: That November Spell

Day five of the blog tour finds us at Ray Cluley's blog, Probably Monsters with a post titled 'The Travelling Theatrical Tour: That November Spell' in which I talk about the genesis of my book, Theatre of Curious Acts. I hope you'll check it out.

Ray is a fantastic and fantastical writer whose stories regularly grace the pages of Interzone and Black Static. His story Fata Morgana (bloody awesome title) is in the current issue. The first story of Ray's that I read was Beachcoming (Black Static 19), a gorgeous tale of loss in which a boy feels other people's emotions through the things they leave behind at the beach.

He has also stories forthcoming in Darker Minds and Shadows & Tall Trees. And I suspect in many more issues of Black Static and Interzone. Definitely someone to watch.



Other stops on the tour:
Interview by Simon Kewin
Twitter Rules at Bloody Bookish
Freedom at TTA Press
Inspiration at Deborah Walker's blog

I want. I want. I want

So there's somewhere that I would absolutely kill to submit to and I'm not going to say where because that would tempt the fairies and all that. All I will say is I need a project about 40,000 words long. It can be less words, but I'd prefer 40,000. I am in total awe of this market. Total. Awe. Anyhow, I'd not bothered to check their submission guidelines until yesterday (why, I've no idea) and then when I did I began bemoaning, I have to sub something there. I have to. I have to. Of course, I had nothing. Nothing at all. Well not until my mind started wandering and then I couldn't sleep last night and kept Walter up rambling ideas to him.

It's very bizarre and it makes me happy. Sometimes you have to embrace the weird. Guess I'm going to have to keep this insane daily word count up after I've finished the first draft of my NaNoWriMo book. Guess I shan't sleep until the end of January.

Today's word count: 2400 + 341 (other projects)
Total word count: 44,001 + 5104 (other projects)

Plus, check out my review of Interzone #230 over at Skull Salad. My review skills suck so bad, I felt compelled to suck a lollypop while writing the review.