Nonfiction

An Interview with Mike Phillips

“The Planting of the Spectre” and “The Night of the Cloud Spectre” have both appeared in Mirror Dance, and a quick Google search of your name brings up a dozen more Crow Witch stories. Do you have a complete list of them available? Do the Crow Witch stories have a set chronology?

The response to the Crow Witch stories has been great, much better than I ever expected. With the publication of my first novel, it is my hope that I’ll have the opportunity to put all the Crow Witch Stories together into an anthology. Cross your fingers!!!

Until then, my website is mikephillipsfantasy.com, but I must confess that I haven’t gotten it up and running yet. When I do, I think listing out the Crow Witch stories would be a great idea. The only hesitation I have is that, like you say, the stories are scattered all over print publications and the web. Several have yet to be published. I’d hate to tease people with titles they wouldn’t be able to find.

How and why did you begin writing the Crow Witch stories? Do you follow a similar pattern when writing all of them, or does each develop in a different way?

This is going to sound strange but I have no idea where Miss Weigenmeister comes from. She started out as a minor character in a werewolf series I intended to write. She was going to be a sort of Gandalf with wings. Even before the first story was over, she had become the focus. I never wrote the werewolf series, but that character makes occasional appearances in the Crow Witch stories.

With many of the stories, the Crow Witch was not originally the intended protagonist, but somehow made her way in anyway –Maybe she comes to rescue me from bad ideas. While in the writing, if not to suggest a mental instability on my part, it almost seems like she has a say in what happens. Sometimes I catch myself arguing with her in my head. In “Night of the Cloud Spectre,” we are introduced to Jenny Bracco. Jenny becomes an important figure in later stories, being both counterpoint and student to Miss Weigenmeister. Now that I’ve thought about it, perhaps Jenny is my way of putting myself into the story so I can have my say too.

I love your characterization of Mrs. Weigenmeister—her dryly witty dialogue is especially entertaining, and something I look forward to in each Crow Witch story. Do you think Mrs. Weigenmeister’s personality develops and evolves from story to story, or does it remain stable?

Her personality hit home for me right with the first story. From then, though we find out more about her past and her abilities, she is who she is.

Spectres play a large role in both of the Crow Witch stories published in Mirror Dance. What exactly is a sepctre? Do you think the spectres in the stories are symbolic of anything outside of the story?

Honestly, I use the word spectre because it sounds creepy. The spectres in both stories are creatures of unknown origin or nature, a sort of vampire/ghost/ghoul/zombie thing.

In “The Planting of the Spectre,” my use of the spectre began with an image. I saw bony hands with long fingers reaching into the sky, being able to grab hold of the air and take flight. Usually, I don’t have an ending to a story until I write it; but in this one, the pumpkin had it in for him from the beginning.

In “The Night of the Cloud Spectre,” the spectre is an evil creature that has been cursed to travel the world in cloud form during the day. This idea came to me as I was traveling in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It happened to be that I was coming up on the Lake of the Clouds, which is near where Miss Weigenmeister lives and all the Crow Witch stories take place. I saw a dark gray cloud set very low in the sky. The cloud almost seemed to follow the road into the mountains. I could imagine the cloud had purpose and intent, like something inside was watching everything going on around it. In my mind, the creature became predatory in nature. On the west side of the Porcupine Mountains is Lake Superior, so it was only natural and fitting that I dump the monster in the lake before letting him loose on the world at large. It may interest you to know that the park where the Jenny Bracco first encounters the Cloud Spectre is right there at the State Park, but I took the name for the park from Sunset Park in Petoskey, Michigan just because I like the name.

JournalStone recently published your novel, The Reign of the Nightmare Prince. What can readers expect to find between the covers?

Reign of the Nightmare Prince is a story about a young shaman. He is on his Jaribu, a spiritual journey, the last test he must pass before becoming an adult. But as he returns to his homeland, he finds all the villages destroyed, the people vanished. Rushing home, he finds his people in terrible danger and he must unite them against this unknown enemy.

How did you develop the world and cultures in The Reign of the Nightmare Prince?

While browsing a used book sale, I came across an old copy of Roots. I hadn’t read it in years, and thought the buck fifty was certainly worth the chance to read it again. During the first section, the idea of how a tribal culture reacts to a more sophisticated one fixed in my mind. From that starting point, I began to develop the idea of the young shaman, proving himself worthy, finding a terrible enemy stands against him and his return home.

Many African cultures and traditions have colored my writing, even to the extent of using some Swahili words in the text. I find that my writing is strengthened by taking known cultures and myths and working them into my own work. Many writers do the same. I have done some study on how human cultures develop and use that in creating my world of the Nightmare Prince. Please forgive me for sounding so technical, but I am a bit of a book worm. There is a theory that likens human culture and development to ripples in a pond. Throw a stone into a pond and concentric circles form. So too, goes the theory, is human advancement. There is an idea or discovery and that idea is shared in waves from the point of origin. So when Rakam comes home, we start out in the backwoods and work our way into the capital city, going from the primitive to the more advanced. From there it is my great joy to throw a monkey wrench into the plot. Beasts and wicked spirits of all kinds work against Rakam even as he tries to save the world they live in. Just when the reader thinks they have everything figured out, we are introduced to the antagonists, the ones that are causing all the trouble. This ties the story into a great big knot that is only sorted out in the final chapters.

Where there any similarities between the writing processes for a novel and a series of short stories? What advice do you have for other writers attempting either?

Both the short form and the novel form have their advantages. I must confess that I like to write what excites me. “Strike while the iron is hot,” the saying goes, and I find the same works for writing. The short format allows me to take more chances with my writing. I can try out characters, settings, styles, without a big commitment. The novel gives me a chance to better develop the puzzle of a plot and the characters within. I almost think writing a novel is easier because the characters and setting are already in place. A novel is such a big project, however, that I have to take a break from it every now and then. When I come back, there is always something new to discover.

Publishing is an entirely different matter than writing. About ten years ago, I thought getting published would be pretty neat. So I started sending out stories. Most editors cut me to pieces. Some were encouraging. I started getting published in small journals. Even more importantly, however, I was writing stories I liked. With a finished novel manuscript, I found an agent. As naïve as I was, I thought I was set. But I never did have any luck with agents. Only when I started looking for publishers myself did I finally find Journalstone.

So I guess my advice is, write what tickles you to write. Keep at it. If you are rejected, it’s not a big deal.

Thank you so much for doing this interview! Is there any other news you’d like to share with readers before we go?

Thank you for having me. I hope your readers enjoyed the Crow Witch stories as much as I enjoyed writing them. Take care!

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M. Arkenberg is the editor of Mirror Dance and its sister publication, the historical fiction e-zine Lacuna. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Ideomancer, Fantasy Magazine, Clarkesworld, and dozens of other places.

Reviews

Dancing with the Velvet Lizard by Bruce Golden
Reviewed by Carolyn Crow

Bruce Golden
Dancing with the Velvet Lizard
Zumaya Otherworlds
2011
389 pgs
ISBN 978-1-934841-26-6
$15.99

One thing you can say about Bruce Golden's fiction, is that it always delivers something different. From such diverse novels as Evergreen and Better Than Chocolate to his short stories, you'll likely find something innovative and entertaining. No extended series or sequels, just new characters, new conflicts, and sometimes, new laughs. He's one of the best kept secrets in the world of speculative fiction.

Dancing with the Velvet Lizard, his first-ever collection of short fiction, includes a mind-bending 33 tales, with a fine balance of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and humor--more than one something for everyone. It's certainly the largest collection of such yarns I've ever come across.

There's no single theme to this collection. From the positively terrifying 'The Withering,' to the tongue-radiating-in-cheek 'I Was a Teenage Hideous Sun Demon,' to the chilling apocalyptic tale of 'Holiday,' Golden’s work runs the gamut from dark to laugh-out-loud funny. No two stories are alike, and it's this variety that makes it well worth the reader's time. No one's going like every story in a collection of short fiction (a handful of these tales were just so-so to me), but I challenge you not find enough here to make it worthwhile--no matter what you paid for it.

Along the way, Golden explores the personal consequences of popping pills for better orgasms, and provides a "what if" to what might have really happened to America’s beloved bandleader Glenn Miller during World War II. He visits a Native American shaman who sends the government a bill for making it rain, and a 119-year-man who drives his classic automobile into the middle of an insurrection, chased by flying cars. He asks if Little Red Riding Hood really lived happily ever after, and whether beauty is still in the eye of the beholder when that eye sees through an alien lens.

Dancing with the Velvet Lizard starts with one of the most powerful stories in the book. A tale that looks (not so far) into the future, when we begin to warehouse our elderly, and care for them with machines. This one made me cry.

Forget about steroids, in his story 'One of Nine,' Golden looks into a future where baseball players are grown in tanks, but don't have all the rights of "regular" humans. This tale has the same civil rights overtones as his novel Mortals All.

In the not-too-distant future of 'Profile of a Patriot,' a good American is someone who’s careful about what he says, doesn’t question authority, and is always ready to bear witness against his neighbor. He switches gears again for 'The Apocryphist,' to divulge how the art of story-telling began on one particularly feline alien world.

In his Firebrand Fiction award-winning story 'I Found Love on Channel 3,' Golden delivers a portrait of man who lusts after a sexy cartoon character, who then comes alive and makes his fantasy come true--or does she? Sex is also a dangerous element in another tale, where a young couple's orgasms are wreaking havoc with the fabric of time.

Admittedly, there are few happy endings herein, but if you like stories that make you think, that draw you in so you're rooting for the protagonist, so that you care, you won't be dissatisfied. However, just when you think you'll be enveloped by the darkness, the collection shifts gears, going from heartbreaking to hilarity. Golden revisits Dave and his computer friend Hal, but adds a Cheech & Chong twist; lets a late '50s B-movie monster relate his life story; sends an angelic censor to the game show from Hell; and shows us a seldom seen side of God, when the deity grabs a scribe from his heavenly ranks to write his biography.

Golden's greatest strengths have always been his ability to create vivid characters and craft uncannily true-to-life dialogue. As a result, his narratives are extremely character-driven and fast-moving. If you like to dwell in the land of purple prose and endless descriptive paragraphs, this book isn't for you. Golden doesn't spend much time on that. Instead he drops you into the middle of scene where things are already happening.

After each tale Golden includes a little epilogue that I found very interesting. He reveals something about the story’s background, what inspired it, how it was written, places it was published (though some of the tales in this collection are being published for the first time). I found these tidbits fascinating because they also reveal a great deal about the author himself--his passions, his politics, his foibles.

If you dare to dance with The Velvet Lizard, you won't be disappointed.

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The Bone Sword by Walter Rhein
Reviewed by M. Arkenberg



I'm ashamed to admit that I approached this novel with some trepidation. My recent experiences with book-length heroic fantasy had led me not to expect much in the way of characterization, plotting, or prose style. But not only did Rhein's novel vastly exceed my expectations, it's one of the very best I've read in the genre.

The Bone Sword opens with Malik, a mysteriously skilled warrior who is soon revealed to be a deserter from the elite Camden Guard, stumbling feverishly into an inn. Here, Malik clashes with the first of the novel's deftly-written, thoroughly despicable villains: Bertrand, a drunken and predatory cousin of the Earl of Miscony. Malik kills Bertrand and finds himself running from the Earl's vicious hounds—straight into the arms of the far more vicious Father Ivory. This chase scenes is hugely enjoyable, both for its intimate look at Malik's thought process---believable, well-reasoned, sometimes dryly witty, sometimes heartbreakingly damaged—and Rhein's excellent action-scene prose. While Rhein's descriptive prose sometimes contains a questionable adjective, his battle scenes are flawlessly written. He expertly manipulates paragraph lengths and repeated sentences to echo the furious pace of the action and draw the reader into the scene.

Meanwhile, a young peasant woman named Jasmine and her twin brother Noah sit at their dying father's bedside. Despite the danger from Father Ivory, the unnerving priest who condemns all magic as evil, Jasmine uses her power of healing to save her father's life. This innocent act has dramatic repercussions; Father Ivory declares that the twins' father has compromised his soul, burns the twins' house with their father inside (!), and arrests Jasmine and Noah for a more formal execution at the Earl of Miscony's palace. There, Noah and Jasmine meet another of the Earl's prisoners—Malik, who leads them through an escape right before the Earl and Father Ivory's eyes.

As their enemies search for them with increasingly horrifying methods, Jasmine's healing powers inspire the people of Miscony. Malik, Jasmine and Noah find themselves at the center of a revolution against the Earl, Father Ivory, and the deadly Nightshade warriors. Rhein does a fantastic job portraying the emotional struggle for Jasmine, the healer forced to inspire killing, and Malik's own struggle with his tortured past among the Camden Guard. Through all the conflict, both physical and emotional, Rhein continually raises the stakes for the heroes, introducing new responsibilities and increasingly dangerous villains—including Malik's old master, the cruel and capable Oberon Keels. I don't want to spoil the ending, so I'll only say that it was suspenseful enough to keep me up reading well into the small hours of the morning!

If you enjoy deftly-written action, creepy villains, and believable and inspiring heroes, I cannot recommend The Bone Sword highly enough. Once you've read it, I'm sure you'll join me in anxiously awaiting whatever Walter Rhein comes out with next!

The Bone Sword may be purchased from Amazon.com, Rhemalda publishing, or a bookstore near you.

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Iara by Caroline Sloan
Reviewed by M. Arkenberg



Caroline Sloan's debut novel gives the impression of having been imagined more carefully than it was written. In Iara, Sloan creates an elaborate mythology that identifies the predator-goddess Iara in numerous and widely-separated cultures: as Sedna among the Inuit, Mishibizhiw among the Algonquin, a queen of the Amazons in Scythia, and Iara herself among the Yanomamo in Brazil. Now this strange goddess has become incarnated as a human, a New Zealand legal executive named Mara, whose only indication that she is anything supernormal is a series of disturbing dreams about predatory animals.

Then something truly bizarre occurs; Mara falls overboard while whale watching and wakes up on the island of Tasmania, hundreds of miles away. To recover from this strange experience, she goes to say with friends in Canada, but changes her plans at the last moment and winds up living near an Algonquin reservation. There, she meets an Algonquin man named Jesse, and falls deeply in love with him—despite the boyfriend, Sebastain, she has left waiting for her in New Zealand. As her love for Jesse deepens, Mara discovers a number of hidden powers, including the ability to transform into a dragon and a mermaid. Jesse and Mara explore these powers alongside an Algonquin boy named Sam, until Sam is brutally murdered, and Mara framed for his death. Jesse and Mara then pursue a violent revenge on Sam's murderers, whose motives for framing Mara remain very murky.

If this plot summary sounds rushed and rather thin, it's because shares the main flaw of the novel; Iara is full of interesting details that don't quite come together to make a well-plotted story. The melodramatic romance ("she felt his lips caress her and she fainted" on page 57), Sam's strange fetishization of Mara's condition ("if only she would bite him—just for the thrill of being bitten" on page115), Mara and Jesse's spectacularly brutal (and afterwards unconsidered) murder of the person responsible for Sam's death, and many, many other incidents throughout the novel make for clearly imagined scenes, but they come off as distorted and unlikely on the page. Sloan clearly spent a good deal of time imagining Iara's incarnation in various cultures, but whatever research she may have done on Algonquin, Yanomamo, or Inuit beliefs never quite makes it onto the page, and the characters from these cultures veer dangerously close to the "Mystical Native Guide" stereotype. The description of the Navajo woman who inexplicably presented Mara with "ghost beads" before the events of the novel is especially egregious in this regard.

A misapplied attention to detail also manifests in Sloan's unusual reliance on brand names for descriptions. Mara never takes something out of her purse, she opens her "Jimmy Choo handbag." During an intimate scene with Jesse, she strips down to her "expensive Rigby and Peller bra."

Where Sloan does demonstrate skill as a plotter and a prose-stylist is in Mara's mysterious dreams of jaguars, polar bears, dragons and cougars, which are interspersed throughout the first half of the novel. These intriguing scenes help stretch a string of tension between the opening, when Mara has her unusual experience after whale-watching, and the middle, when Mara's relationship with Jesse deepens. These scenes also contain some of the loveliest prose in the novel, though even they are not exempt from some tension-disrupting details: a man standing in awe of a dragon's wings notes that they are exactly "350 metres" long (page 21).

Finally, the reasons behind Iara's incarnation as a young New Zealander remain unaddressed, unconsidered and unexplained.

If you enjoy a somewhat idealized romance, a powerful (rather than deftly-characterized) female character, and a wide-reaching (rather than deep) reimagining of mythology and folklore, there are worse guilty pleasures than Iara. As for me, I applaud the attempt and the thought that clearly went into it, but I believe this novel could have benefited from another draft and a generous application of editorial red ink.

Iara may be purchased from Amazon.com, Troubador publishing, or a bookstore near you.

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Carolyn Crow works as an editor for Damnation Books/Eternal Press and writes book reviews. Her recent editing projects include Ultimate Duty, An Ocean Apart, Intricate Entanglement, and Elysium.

M. Arkenberg is the editor of Mirror Dance and its sister publication, the historical fiction e-zine Lacuna. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Strange Horizons, Ideomancer, Fantasy Magazine, Clarkesworld, and dozens of other places.

A Review of Promises to Keep

Promises to Keep by Heather Kuehl
reviewed by M. Arkenberg



Starlette DeFore as spent the last decade trying to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance. In the opening chapter of Promises to Keep, she gets the break she’s waiting for when one of the faeries she has been hunting spills a name—Sivad Night, of Randa, South Carolina. Starlette, the mysterious Sivad, and a witch named T.D. journey to Verella, the land of faeries and other fantasy creatures, and are greeted with a surprise attack by servants of the sorceress Dreashae. From there, things only become more exciting. Starlette and Sivad encounter centaurs and a Pegasus, come between warring dragons, and finally wager with an evil power even greater than Dreashae.

Starlette makes a witty and likeable narrator, and her very human reactions to the fantastic occurrences in Verella keep the story fresh. I enjoyed the subtle twists on standard fantasy creatures: dragons who terrorize each other instead of hapless human villagers, for example.

My one criticism is that this book is too short—only 91 pages. A number of background events, such as the circumstances surrounding Ronan DeFore’s disappearance, could have benefited from a more in-depth treatment, and some incidents in Verella—such as the Pegasus who is owned by a centaur, though a centaur clearly can’t ride horseback—raised questions that remained unanswered. This threw me in earlier chapters, where I kept expecting the explanations to be expanded on in more detail. However, by the end of the story I was caught up in Starlette’s adventure and appreciated the quick pace.

This is the perfect book for the fantasy fan who wants to kick back with an adventure but doesn’t want to dedicate weeks to a 500-page doorstopper. Its small size and strong focus on plot make it a good read for a commute or a day in the park. As a bonus, the gorgeous cover art makes a great conversation starter when strangers want to know what you’re reading!

I you enjoy Promises to Keep, you might enjoy Heather Kuehl’s story “Struck by Beauty,” which appeared in the Autumn 2009 issue of Mirror Dance.

Promises to Keep can be purchased through Eternal Press and Amazon.com.

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Megan Arkenberg is the editor of Mirror Dance and its sister publication Lacuna. Her own work has appeared in interesting places like Clarkesworld and Ideomancer. Find her bibliography at http://meganarkenberg.webs.com.

Reviews

Sex Dungeon for Sale! by Patrick Wensink
reviewed by M. Arkenberg

Patrick Wensink’s first short story collection will go down in history as the book that made me love Bizarro.

These stories are page-turners; short, witty, unapologetically entertaining. But don’t mistake them for light reading. Wensink uses bizarre, often ridiculous situations to make us step back, look at our world and see the things we have allowed to become bizarre and ridiculous.

Take one of the first stories in this collection, the one that told me in no uncertain terms: You, madam, are going to love this book.. “My Son Thinks He’s French” follows the unfortunate father of a six-year-old Francophile. This little boy wears a beret, eats Nutella, and quotes extensive passages of Jean-Paul Sartre. But the larger issue, it soon becomes apparent, is the narrator’s distance from his family.

But the more I think about it, who is the boy I’ve always loved? What did he look like as an infant? I don’t remember him toddling around, learning to walk. No idea what his first words in English were. Couldn’t even tell you if he prefers hotdogs of hamburgers, though I suspect frog legs edge out both.

The ending is the funniest punch in the gut you’ll ever receive.

My favorite story in this collection, however, has to be “Jesus Toast.” As the title suggests, this story centers on pareidolia; the main character has the ability to see everything from Italy in clouds to the Shroud of Turin in a coffee stain, and her boyfriend Claude is able to turn her visions into cash. But ever since her sister’s wedding, her visions have been less of religious figures and more of ex-boyfriends.

Claude said he’s not the jealous type, but I don’t buy it. My man stopped holding the door open for me, rubbing my feet and spilling red wine all over perfectly good couch cushions after we inspected the Immaculate Rust Stain. He wanted the Virgin Mary…not “Marty: The Guy Who Took My Virginity” (1983).

Like all the stories in this collection, “Jesus Toast” combines strong characterization, biting wit and a real mystery. It manages to be surreal without being so strange that it fails to resonate.

Also, it’s really really really hilarious.

For more about Patrick Wensink, see his website. Sex Dungeon for Sale! may be purchased at Amazon.com.

Update: A fantastic video has been made of the title story, "Sex Dungeon for Sale." Check it out here.



Private Worlds: A Revised Atlas by Scott E. Green
reviewed by M. Arkenberg

At their best, authors, artists, and filmmakers in speculative fiction create rich and textured worlds that lend their names a magic of their own. The word Lovecraft conjures images of icy mountains or drowned cities and their pulpy, tentacled denizens; Machen brings shadowy hills and deep green forests. Green’s ambitious poetry collection describes ninety-nine of these “private worlds” in short poems and haiku.

I think this is a wonderfully unique idea for a poetry collection. Though I wasn’t familiar with all of the creators, the poems for the ones I did recognize seemed very accurate.

Haggard’s World:

The heart of Africa
Is the heart of the world
The womb where heroes
Recreate themselves

Machen’s World:

Ancient hills
Hard as flint
And so are the fey folk
Who live there
Hidden from time
Hidden from the eyes of others

For readers with a good knowledge of speculative fiction’s past masters, this collection will be a thoroughly enjoyable read, and may serve as a recommended reading/viewing list for the rest of us!

Private Worlds may be purchased from Abbott ePublishing
.

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Megan Arkenberg is the editor of Mirror Dance and its sister publication Lacuna. She dreams of one day reading a poem called “Arkenberg’s World.” Until then, she is learning to stop worrying and love Bizarro.

Nonfiction

An Interview with D. Harlan Wilson
conducted by M. Arkenberg

Of your three recent/upcoming books—Blankety Blank: A Memoir of Vulgaria; Technologized Desire: Selfhood & the Body in Postcapitalist Science Fiction; and Peckinpah: An Ultraviolent Romance—which has been the most enjoyable to write? The hardest?

Peckinpah and Blankety Blank were equally fun to write. Both are set in places where I’ve lived—Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Celina, Ohio—although I changed Celina to Dreamfield, Indiana. Sounds better. And it’s more suggestive. Anyway, I was able to explore my experiences, for better and for worse, in those places, and I had a good time satirizing the people that lived there. Both novels involved large measures of research, but nowhere near as much as Technologized Desire, a book of cultural and literary theory, which was definitely the hardest to write. It’s a culmination of about twelve years of research, drafting and revision. In it, I study and analyze postmodern science fiction films and novels in an attempt to develop a “postcapitalist” theory of selfhood, technology, subjectivity and the body. My primary texts include Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky, William S. Burroughs’ cut-up trilogy, Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness, Max Barry’s Jennifer Government, and the Wachowski Bros.’ Matrix trilogy. I read these texts by way of a wide variety of philosophies and theories on electronic media, image-culture, postmodernism, etc. It was a big undertaking. Part of me can’t believe I ever finished.

Technologized Desire is a work of criticism. Is this a new genre for you? Why did you decide to write it?

I’ve been writing criticism for awhile now. Technologized Desire is a revision of my Ph.D. dissertation, and I’m a college professor, so criticism comes with the territory. I’ve published several essays, mainly on films, and I write lots of book reviews for academic journals. In the wake of Technologized Desire, I’ve been contracted to write a book on John Carpenter’s They Live for UK publisher Wallflower Press’s cultographies series. I’ve always liked the interplay between writing fiction and nonfiction; they feed off of and sharpen one another.

What first attracted you to Bizarro fiction? What is the writing process like for this kind of story?

The term “Bizarro fiction” is actually something that emerged around my writing and the writing of a few other authors. I didn’t find Bizarro, in other words. You could say it found me.

Different people are attracted to Bizarro for different reasons. Some people just like weird, funny stuff, and to varying degrees of success and technical application, Bizarro is almost invariably weird and funny. Good Bizarro, however, is not simply that way for the sake of it. Personally, with my Bizarro texts, I try to test the limits of narrative, create and entertain irreal characters and worlds, represent the absurdity of mediatized society and culture, explore the vicissitudes of unconsciousness and desire, and critique the nature of technocapitalist (pseudo)reality. Above all, though, I want to entertain readers, and I want them to laugh, or at least smile. If they don’t, I’ve failed.

The writing process for Bizarro is the same as any other type of writing, for me anyway. No matter what sort of narrative I’m composing, I write best in the morning with coffee. I don’t write for long periods of time, but I try to write every day. With novels, I construct fairly detailed notes and outlines that I usually diverge from, but they make for good scaffolding and security. I don’t consciously try to think up strange or wacky things. I just write what I like. In fact, a lot of the writing I do is for my own entertainment. Most stories and books bore me. I’m aware of my shortcomings and inadequacies as an author, but if nothing else, I do think my writing is unique.

What can Bizarro fiction do that other genres can’t? Do you see any advantages in other genres over Bizarro fiction?

The best thing about Bizarro is deigetic, thematic and stylistic freedom. There are boundaries, primarily in terms of editorial preferences and tastes, but Bizarro is not bound by the formulaic manacles of much genre literature, and it often combines elements from multiple genres. A narrative doesn’t have to be Bizarro to be multigeneric, though. Bizarro has been equated with darkly humorous cult films. I think this is true, although, as with many cult films, some Bizarro narratives are just gratuitously sloppy, juvenile, violent, sexual, misogynist, etc.—and not in a so-bad-it’s-good way. I prefer highly stylized and thoughtful narratives that are as humorous as they are compelling in terms of characterization, setting, dialogue and theme, if only retroactively. Like the Tarantino/Rodriguez Grindhouse films, I guess. But that’s personal preference, and by no means do my tastes account for all Bizarro.

Is there any specific action you’ve found helpful for generating ideas? How do you prevent or overcome writer’s block?

I don’t really get writer’s block. Honestly I don’t believe in it. Writers will write no matter what. And there are ideas everywhere. Look out the window. Or open a book. Or turn on the TV. Writing is tweaking, extrapolating, expanding and developing. I find a lot of my material watching CNN and FOX News. And I always carry around a small mohair-bound journal to record ideas, observations, etc.

Where can readers find your work?

My official website is probably the best place. There are links to places where my books can be bought online (e.g. Amazon, B&N, etc.) There are also links to select stories and interviews that have been published in online venues as well as reviews of my books, news updates, a complete bibliography of my work, and some other stuff.




Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse, edited by Edward F. McKeown
reviewed by M. Arkenberg

“Even in a field that prides itself upon being unique, Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse, is a most unusual book,” Mike Resnick says in the introduction to this outstanding book, and that is undoubtedly true. Part anthology, part round-robin novel (Remember long road trips with your siblings, where one of you began a story and the rest kept adding onto it until it was an unmanageable Behemoth? This is a version of that with self-control, and all the Behemoths are intentional), part apocalyptic fiction, part Lovecraftian cosmic horror, this is easily the most unique thing I’ve read all year, and I recommend it highly.

Every 10,000 years, the veil is lifted between our world and a world of demonic horrors; this time is known as the Sha’Daa. The idea is Michael H. Hanson’s, and Hanson created the outline for this anthology/novel, as well as writing the Prologue, Epilogue, and (what may be my favorite part of this book) the many and wonderfully creepy Interludes between chapters. However, while this book can be read all the way through as a post-apocalyptic novel, I find that for rereading, the individual authors’ chapters make fine stand-alone short stories.

My personal favorite is D. R. MacMaster’s “The Dixie Chrononauts,” the story of a group of Civil War re-enactors who are transported to the approximate time of the battle of Gettysburg. A mysterious character named Wraith makes the journey with them—and conjures gigantic monsters to hold back our heroes while he opens the portal of the Sha’Daa! This story was a lot of fun, with some highly memorable images. It will certainly make me look askance at the Confederate re-enactors at the local living museum next time I go!

Another highly recommended story is “Tunguska Outpact” by Deborah Koren. As if boyfriend troubles weren’t enough for Kate, her “broken” Rolex is counting down to the beginning of the Sha’Daa, and she must help a mysterious shaman hold back the demons that threaten to enter our world. The emotion in this piece is strong and well-rendered, particularly in the flashback scenes.

Finally, I must close with a few lines about The Salesman, a character who recurs in almost every story. It feels wrong to slap the adjective “quirky” onto an immortal, inter-dimensional being, I’ll simply mention that in Deborah Koren's “Tunguska Outpact,” he trades a Rolex that counts down to the beginning of the Sha’Daa for a teddy bear.

If that doesn’t make you want to read this book, what will?

Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse may be purchased from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Cyberwizard Productions.

For more information, see Michael H. Hanson’s Sha’Daa site.

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Megan Arkenberg is the editor of Mirror Dance and its sister publication, the historical fiction e-zine Lacuna. She is also the proud owner of a Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse autographed poster.

Blankety Blank: A Memoir of Vulgaria

“Blankety Blank: A Memoir of Vulgaria” by D. Harlan Wilson
reviewed by Megan Arkenberg

Mr. Van Trout is an average man. He lives in a McMansion in Quiggle Estates—the epitome of American Vulgaria, if one ignores the crazed serial killer Mr. Blankety Blank—with his wife, his wife’s haunted skeleton, his werewolf son, his nymphomaniac daughter and his silo. When you cut him, he bleeds—or goes into a 250 word tirade of questions, culminating with the hypothesis that he is in fact experiencing stigmata.

And if you gave him a copy of Blankety Blank: A Memoir of Vulgaria by Harlan D. Wilson, he probably wouldn’t understand it, either.

Published last month by Raw Dog Screaming Press, Blankety Blank falls somewhere between a portrait by Salvador Dali and a road map by M. C. Escher on the scale of clarity and understandability. From the “Egg Man” lyrics in the opening pages to Short Histories of the Silo, Werewolf, and Grand Rapids, the pages of plot are drastically outnumbered by pages of bizarrely hilarious tangents.

Which is great news if you enjoy bizarre tangents. Even I, while massively preferring a tight plot structure and such trifles as, say, character motivation, found some sections laugh-out-loud funny. Take this example from the first chapter:

Gongs rang in Mr. Van Trout’s ears. “The silo looks good!” he screamed.
“You’re screaming,” the foreman told him.
“I wonder why!”
“You did it again.”
“Did what!”
“Screamed.”
“Screamed!”
“You did it again.”
“Did what!”
“Screamed.”
“Screamed!”
“You did it again.”
Mr. Van Trout tightened his lips. He cleared his throat a few times. He waited…“The silo looks good,” he said in a normal voice.

What Blankety Blank comes down to—for this reviewer, at least—is not experimental literary technique as much as a 185 page joke. An amusing joke, alternately clever, ironic, satirical, surreal and uncanny—but a joke nevertheless.

The question is, are you willing to pay $24.95 for a joke?

For more on the book, see the Blankety Blank page on D. Harlan Wilson’s website.

Purchase Blankety Blank from Raw Dog Screaming Press or Amazom.com.

* * *

Megan Arkenberg is a writer and poet from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her work has recently appeared in The Willows, Mindflights, The Fifth Di…, Scifaikuest and numerous haiku and tanka publications. When not writing, she divides her time between music, painting and editing Mirror Dance.

What do you think attracts people to the fantasy genre?

I think writers and artists are attracted to the idea that nothing is out of bounds; no setting is too strange, no character too eccentric. We thrive off problem-solving as we find new ways for our characters to interact with their world and with each other.

Readers are attracted by humanity; they want to see interactions between real, human (in a broad sense) characters. Fantasy isn’t about escapism. It’s about discovering the fundamental pieces that make us human across all possible cultures and all possible worlds.

"A Time To...Volume 2: The Best of the Lorelei Signal 2007"

“A Time To… Volume 2: The Best of the Lorelei Signal 2007,” edited by Carol Hightshoe
Reviewed by M. Arkenberg

Now in its second year, The Lorelei Signal is a quarterly webzine dedicated to featuring strong female characters in works of Fantasy. Editor Carol Hightshoe, whose 2006 anthology A Time To…Volume 1has been named as a finalist for the 2008 EPPIE award for fantasy and nominated for the celebrated Tiptree award, now brings together the best short stories and poems of The Lorelei Signal’s 2007 edition in A Time To…Volume 2.

Opening the anthology is Samantha Henderson’s “Cinderella’s Funeral,” an elegantly executed poem with a surprise ending. After the early death of her Prince, Cinderella goes from a fur-slippered princess to a warrior queen. Henderson presents potent imagery and wastes no words in doing so; this poem makes a powerful statement with its unique take on the fairy tale and is the perfect opening for a strong and varied collection.

Next from the January issue is “Ellette’s New World,” a coming-of-age story by Gene Stewart. After her mistress is killed in battle, Ellette must find her own way in a world that seems determined to hold her back. Dedicated to the memory of Marion Zimmer Bradley, this story would not feel out of place in one of MZB’s popular Sword and Sorceress collections. Ellette is beautifully characterized, an intelligent, resourceful woman the reader can sympathize with. If this story has any fault, it is in the occasional awkwardness of the prose—“a small nod bobbed her head once”—but overall, Stewart’s work is original and attention-grabbing.

Justin Staunchfield gives us “Portrait of the Artist in Manganese and Copper Oxide,” a wonderful combination of what-if’s and observations. On an expedition to Terran Analog 17, Teri Rozan has an encounter that will change her views on art and life forever. Though more science fiction than fantasy, this story is well-written with engaging characters and many surprises. With his excellent dialog and realistic details, Staunchfield brings Teri’s world—and her journey of personal discovery—to life. This story is truly magnificent, and one I will enjoy rereading.

The best of the January issue closes with “The Witch’s Revenge,” by Barbara Davies. This story provides a superbly witty and readable sequel to Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Tinder Box,” following the unfortunate witch Trudel (who lost her head in Andersen’s original tale) as she goes on a journey to reclaim her grandmother’s tinder box. Trudel is an original character readers will enjoy getting to know, and Davies provides her with an ending that I will only say is far more satisfactory than the original.

“Harleys in Driftwood,” by C.A. Casey, opens the best of the April issue. When the quiet artist Tara decides to display her unique driftwood sculptures to the public, her work has a startling affect on its viewers. Though not as strongly speculative as the other works in the anthology, Casey’s story is original and entertaining. The artist Tara will remind readers of many an eccentric friend, and I can guarantee you will never look at driftwood the same way again.

Next is the beautiful “Her Sheltering Wings,” by Elizabeth Barrette, a common name on the Lorelei Signal’s table of contents. Barrette’s work balances powerful imagery with a poignant exchange between lovers; it is at once inspirational and heartbreaking, and one of my personal favorites from the anthology.

Linda Epstein’s “Kaserie’s Choice” begins with the age-old formula of a female dressing as a male to escape confinement (in this case, slavery), but by the end of the story, no one would mistake it for a conventional fantasy. Epstein’s careful world-building comes through in a multitude of details, and Kaserie’s moral dilemma at the end is finely presented. The story might benefit from a few paragraphs being cut from the beginning, but from the moment the Seeker is introduced, the revelations and surprises are perfectly paced. I hope to see more of Kaserie and her world in future issues of the Lorelei Signal.

“Retirement” from Lindsey Duncan takes a unique approach to fantasy warriors in the form of Taris, a sixty-two year old knight looking to spend her retirement raising horses in her childhood village. But will she spend it alone? Duncan’s smooth, original descriptions give this flash fiction a strong sense of place, and the unexpected ending is well presented.

Closing off the April issue is B. A. Barnet’s chilling “Second Moon.” Governor Falev has murdered his brother and taken his beautiful wife, Aritei, for his own; but the spell that keeps Aritei’s will subdued has also affected her mind. This story combines human, believable characters with strong pacing and powerful irony. Aritei’s character is the perfect blend of beauty, innocence and mystery, and readers will cheer her triumph with the intoxicating feeling that justice has been served.

Marva Dasef opens the best of the July issue with “A Visit to Potter’s Field,” the humorous story of Griselda, a not-so-recently deceased gypsy doomed to answer a question for whoever digs her out of her grave. Dasef’s wit and Griselda’s long-suffering tone provide a sense of light-heartedness between two of the darker pieces in the anthology; this is a story you can’t help but want to share with a friend.

Megan Arkenberg’s “Leanansidhe” (pronounced “lan-awn-shee”) poses the question, how far would you go for inspiration? This lengthy, tightly structured poem follows the speaker on a quest for Leanansidhe, the fairy muse of the Isle of Man, who demands a high price for her service. Arkenberg provides an interesting and original approach to the myth, though the poem’s 126 lines may be daunting to some readers.

Next comes “Mentor for Hire” from Gloria Oliver. When the alchemist Rees puts out an advertisement for her mentoring services, a babysitting job for the hyperactive Justinian Alfredo Sebastian Rockspear IV is not at all what she had in mind. Oliver combines strong characterization and witty description in a story that is both funny and heartwarming.

Elizabeth Barrette returns to close off the June issue with “Ngati and the Listeners,” the story of Ngati, Goddess of Little Voices, and the mischief she spreads among mortals. Whimsical and entertaining, this story encourages rereading, as well as a new excuse to add to the book; “Ngati made me do it!”

“Broken Vows” by J.C. Lee tells the story of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, and the choices she must make between her promises to her husband, Theseus, and her kingdom, Lemnos. While drawing many of her characters and settings from Greek mythology, Lee provides them with personalities and motivations that modern readers will recognize from personal experiences. Hippolyta’s dilemma is well-present, and the story kept me guessing until the very end.

J. J. Fellows’s “Tempting the Fates” goes where few fantasy stories have gone before; into the weaving room of the Fates themselves, with Lilith and a bottle of wine. While the battle over the “traditional” role of women is frequently waged, the results in this tale were a very pleasant surprise. Fellows moves smoothly between the philosophical musings and Lilith’s ironic solution.

Next, Marva Dasef brings us “The Delegate,” a thought-provoking tale of a different kind of prejudice. While serving as a delegate at the World Congress, Nioba Kune encounters an android who will change her views on his kind and his world. While the terminology makes this story occasionally hard to follow, the wonderful conclusion is well worth the effort.

The final short story in the collection comes from Kapri Sanders. “The Unholy” follows a fast-paced debate between Olin and Endellion, a literary pair the reader is sure to quickly recognize. Sanders’s approach is both witty and original; the author made a wise choice in keeping the story brief and to-the-point.

The anthology closes with Jessica Wick’s lyric “Virgin and the Unicorn,” a new approach to the timeless myth. Wick’s imagery and powerful use of repetition make this a poem well worth rereading.

Overall, I was most impressed by the variety and consistent quality of the works in this anthology. A Time To…Volume 2 is scheduled for release on March 15 and will be available to purchase through WolfSinger Publications at lulu.com. The Editor’s other e-zine, Sorcerous Signals, will be releasing a “best of” anthology called Arcane Whispers in May.

For more amazing stories and poems, see
The Lorelei Signal’s current issue.



Megan Arkenberg is a writer and poet from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her work has appeared in many webzines and anthologies, including The Lorelei Signal, Rose & Thorn, A Fly in Amber, and numerous haiku and tanka publications. Her story “Panthanatos” was included in Hadley Rille Books’ Ruins Metropolis anthology earlier this year. When not writing, she divides her time between music, painting and editing Mirror Dance.

What do you think attracts people to the fantasy genre?

I think writers and artists are attracted to the idea that nothing is out of bounds; no setting is too strange, no character too eccentric. We thrive off problem-solving as we find new ways for our characters to interact with their world and with each other.

Readers are attracted by humanity; they want to see interactions between real, human (in a broad sense) characters. Fantasy isn’t about escapism. It’s about discovering the fundamental pieces that make us human across all possible cultures and all possible worlds.