EV Shirts

Not sure if you knew this or not (I didn't), but that awesome 'zine Electric Velocipede does more than offer great fiction, it also offers shirts and mugs, which I think is pretty cool. 

Great way to show some support while getting some stuff not everyone on the block has, and, actually, I rather like a couple of those shirts.  Might need to order me one.

Oh, and go read Electric Velocipede.

Electric Velocipede #14

Issue 14 of Electric Velocipede is notable for a couple of cosmetic reasons which have nothing to do with the fiction contained between the covers. While not an official "double issue", John Klima offers the readers an "extra big issue", so this issue is chock full of more stories. Because it is an extra big issue, this is the first issue with a full color cover. Plus, it is a nice perfect bound digest rather than a saddlestitched chapbook looking 'zine. Nothing wrong with chapbook looking 'zines (I like them), but Issue 14 is making a visual statement.

Oh, and Issue 14 can also be referred to as the "All Female" issue of Electric Velocipede. All the stories, poems, and nonfiction content (not counting the preview of forthcoming issues) are written by women.

Cool.

But is it any good?

This issue opens with "Hermit Crabs" from Elissa Malcohn, a strange story that begins and what seems like an ending - a teenaged double suicide attempt, but then backs up into the friendship between Mandy and Noah, and then works its way through to the weird part. "Hermit Crabs" is partly a story of adolescent alienation, but I'm not really sure what Malcohn intended with the story. It isn't the strongest opening story, but the image of the attempted suicide is such a striking one that readers will push through to the end of the story and wonder what else Klima has in store for readers of Electric Velocipede.

The third story, Michelle Scott's "Them" is one of my favorites here. It's a story of lies and rumor and those who plant the lies and rumor which get taken as fact. You know what they say, right? Well, "Them" is a story about who they are. Or, just one of them. "Them" is also a story about what happens if a person, one of them, goes against what they say.

The fat policeman nods. If they say it, it must be true. He, for one, would never argue with them. pg 21

Good stuff. On one hand "Them" works because Michelle Scott plays with the idea of "them" and "they" and the trick is the story, but on the other hand, it's just a good story with a great hook.

The story I perhaps most looked forward to here is Jennifer Pelland's "Shashenka Redux". The stories I've read from Pelland have been consistently excellent. "Shashenka Redux" is no exception.

They all led back to a single point: the original Shashenka Medvedeva, who had died under questioning rather than work to cure the invading aliens she had poisoned. The aliens copied here, body and brain, breathed life into the copies, and set them to work on the cure, promising to free the Shashenka who provided it. And when the copies failed, the aliens made multiple copies of each of them. And then made more when those failed. And more when those failed. pg 42

Pelland's words far better explain what the story is than I could. "Shashenka Redux" loops back on itself and is a quest for a cure. Pelland makes it immediate and makes the stakes of the story important, because no matter that more copies will be made (asuming the reader even wants Shashenka to come up with a cure), Shashenka herself wants to live. And so in turn the reader wants Shashenka to live. Why? Because Jennifer Pelland makes the reader care. Pelland doesn't disappoint.

Leslie Claire Walker's "Your Blood" is two thirds of a really good story, with one third "what the hell is this about?", but unfortunately it is the last third that drops the ball. I've read a couple of Walker's previous stories and I think she's a writer with some potential. "Your Blood" damn near sealed the deal, and maybe for other readers it did, but I just didn't get the last bit of the story.

I liked the selfishness in Leslie What's "#1", though given that a woman wants to keep her own kidney rather than donate it to the daughter of a sister she's never had a relationship with, it is difficult to really call it selfish.

But what I really liked what the visions of a woman's future in "Perfect Tense" by Lisa Mantchev. This is a story where a future version of the narrator steps through a doorway to confront the narrator to change her actions which will then change her future. Kind of convoluted when I write it out, by damn if it doesn't work.

Now, not every story in Electric Velocipede #14 stands out, and some just don't work at all (Melissa Mead's "Stepsister", for one), but on the whole, Electric Velocipede #14 is an excellent issue with more good stories than bad, and enough serious quality here that you've just got to pay attention if you weren't already. So pay attention, huh?

I've previously purchased a couple of issues of Electric Velocipede (#11 and #13), so one can guess that I do like the publication, but even granting that, this extra-big issue is extra-good.

The fact that this issue is the "All Female" issue of Electric Velocipede wouldn't matter if the stories weren't good. They are. So, Issue 14 is actually the "Really Damn Good" issue of Electric Velocipede.

Reading copy provided courtesy of John Klima.

(I also reviewed the Wexler chapbook and was less enamored of it. For what it's worth)

William Shunn's Nebula Story: Not of this Fold

John Klima, editor / publisher of Electric Velocipede and of William Shunn’s chapbook has posted the Nebula nominated story “Not of this Fold”. (Note - PDF, *grumble*)

Again, may I state my appreciation for publishers who allow stories nominated for major awards to be freely available? I can’t think of better publicity for the magazines / zines / authors than getting the chance to read the major award nominated stories.

This also reminds me that I want to place an order for this chapbook in the near future.

This Just In: Weird Tales #346 and Electric Velocipede #13

My magazine reading stack just got this much bigger: Weird Tales #346 and Electric Velocipede #13

Electric Velocipede: Issue 11

Issue 11 of Electric Velocipede was simply packed with short stories. 13 Stories + Poetry. It's a decent mix of authors I've read, heard of, and have no clue about. What I like best is that there are very few disappointments with a handful of stories which stand out. Buckell's "The Duel", a story putting the Alexander Hamilton / Aaron Burr duel in a historical and science fiction context was perhaps my favorite of the set. "Last Bus" was a sad, but sweet story of a lost soul waiting for the last bus to somewhere even though the buses don't run anymore. I also liked "Nine Billion and Counting", a story which initially has no hint of genre weirdness but is about a wife who thinks she has a perfect husband until she learns that he never stops counting to one hundred. The changing robotic nature of "Moon Does Run" was also a pleasant surprise.

I suspect that "A Punctuated Romance" is a story which will be hit or miss depending on the reader. It's a word play game about punctuation put into story form about a romance. The story felt a bit too precious for its own good and did not work for me, but I believe others will be delighted by Mary Turzillo's story.

There were a handful of stories which were simply not memorable and I had to go back and check to see what they were about because I could not remember.

"Quitting Dreams" is a blend of literary fantasy and is pretty much what you would expect from Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Cheney. A decent story, but lacking that something extra that can make a Jeffrey Ford story stand out for me. But, with that said, Jeffrey Ford"s most celebrated work is often the stories which fail to capture me ("Botch Town" being a recent example).

When I placed the order for this issue of Electric Velocipede I had just been disappointed by the debut issue of Steampunk Magazine and while I admired some of the authors collected by EV, I had no idea what EV might be all about. Issue 11 was everything I hoped it would be and is enough to sell me on future issues of Electric Velocipede. This is what I want a fiction magazine to be: packed with good stories that make me feel like my money was well spent. In that, EV has met and exceeded my expectations.


Fiction Contents:
* Tiger, Tiger by Liz Williams
* Milk and Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
* Moon Does Run by Edd Vick
* The Duel by Tobias Buckell
* How to Get Rid of Your Monster: A Series of Usenet Postings by Scott William Carter
* Quitting Dreams by Matthew Cheney & Jeffrey Ford
* A Punctuated Romance by Mary Turzillo
* Last Bus by Jennifer Pelland
* Sometimes I Get Lost by Steve Rasnic Tem
* Nine Billion and Counting by John B. Rosenman
* Bar Golem by Sonya Taaffe
* The Geode by Marly Youmans
* Sweetness and Light by Nicole Kimberling

New Sources of Short Fiction

In the coming weeks and months I will be trying out some additional sources of short fiction. The two which I am going to start with are Apex Online and Abyss & Apex. Might as well start near the beginning of the alphabet.

And then whatever else catches my whimsy or my eye. I may even order an issue of the Apex Digest (the print zine) which features a whole assortment of stories not found online and with some bigger names (Cherie Priest is featured in the current issue). When I have a spare $6, that is. So, make that February.


In other news I am midway through Issue #11 of Electric Velocipede and I love it! I am definitely ordering some more of EV. John Klima's done a hell of a job with this zine and he gets some name authors to show up and play.

The Way He Does It

John Klima over at Electric Velocipede has posted the complete text of Jeffrey Ford's World Fantasy Award nominated story "The Way He Does It". Check it out!

It’s a very good story, very curious. "The Way He Does It" is a fairly short story and the entire time I wondered what "It" was as Ford builds and builds until I'm about ready to scream "What the hell is it already?!!" We beg Ford for release, for the answer to what "It" is...and before the end of the story I realize that it doesn't matter what "It" is. Whatever "it" is will never match our imagination, whether we think it is an act of perversion or something else all together, it doesn't matter what "It" is. What matters is the way he tells it.

Sublime.