Issue 30

NewMyths.com

A quarterly ezine by a community of writers, poets and artists.

Issue 30, March, 2015

Dear Readers,

For this our 30th issue I have enlisted itinerant writer--adventurer Paul Schilling as editor. Paul has selected stories as diverse as the places he’s gone, to cop a line from Dr. Seuss. Take it away, Paul.

Enjoy,

Scott T. Barnes, Editor

This was a fun issue to read and an easy one to edit, since the writers offered us such ready-to-go manuscripts. Mathew Garcia probes the mind of a dark arts wizard while Kristin Janz studies the cycle of violence in the most effective second person narration I’ve read in a very long time. “I Am Falling” takes note of a disadvantage of neural implants and “Imagining Happy” examines the fuzzy line between imagination and mental illness.

Deborah Guzzi and Elizabeth McClellan both wrote poems in the Romantic tradition, even if the former wrote about ecology and the latter about chemistry. “Walking Pantoum” is a chilling poem about nightmares that don’t want to let go.

Ian Rose took a children’s poem and turned it into the story of a mother’s desperate efforts to protect her son, and Donald Uitylugt’s story of war and revenge has a tight prose style that matches the focus of the character’s mind. People who say there is no good fiction out there just aren’t taking the time to look.

-Paul Schilling, Editor

Table of Contents

Fiction

Imagining Happy by J.C. Davis

One week until my appointment with Dr. Shaw and I keep seeing glimpses of blue, the sort of blue that sits at the heart of a fire, so hot and bright it hurts to look at.

Hiding on the Dark Side by Ellen Denton

When I was very young, I learned the value of secrets. Not children-type secrets, grownup ones.

Twenty-Seven Images of Retribution by Kristin Janz

You don't recognize your father in the broken body hanging on the city wall.

There Once was a Lady by Ian Rose

There once was a lady who swallowed a fly. The tricky part is, it swallowed her first, so all in all, that may be a better place to start.

From Hell's Heart by Donald Uitvalgt

Sensors send signals announcing their discovery. Adrenaline pumps into Mansour ibn-Tarik, pilot of the Sword of Faith. He awakes from his drug-induced sleep

Flash Fiction

I Am Falling by Dean Fazzino

I am falling. From what I don’t know, nor do I know where I am falling to, but I know that I am falling.

The Seer of the Black Thorn by Mathew Allan Garcia

The hooded man was dressed in black robes, watching the sky as it turned from a blood red to a dull gray, the tip of Black Thorn probing the sky like an accusatory finger.

NonFiction

The Jetson’s Refugee Camp by Joyce Frohn

Marie Johnson groaned as she woke, the sun pushing on her eyelids. She was careful not to sit up. The metal wing over her head was low.

Women in Science Fiction by Paul Schilling

Women in science fiction have had a roller coaster ride. The first woman starship captain wasn’t on Star Trek, she was in “Starship Troopers,” a novel of a previous generation’s sci-fi first published in book form in 1959.

Poetry

Walking Pantoum by Zella Christiensen

A Dryad’s Mourning by Deborah Guzzi

The Subtle Arts of Chemistry by Elizabeth McClellen