Issue 41

NewMyths.com

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

Issue 41, December 2017

Dear Readers,

We at New Myths receive many more wonderful submissions than we’re able to include in a given issue. Sometimes the selections are influenced by how they complement other submissions sent to us in the same window. That’s true of this issue, which among its poems, science fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction has formed patterns beyond any individual piece. Some cluster around memory, forgiveness and solace; infant abandonment and abduction; war; and both miscommunication and connection across vast divides. We hope readers will discern many others.

-Marta Tanrikulu, issue editor December 2017

Table of Contents

Fiction

The Music of a Soldier's Soul by Barbara A. Barnett

When the first shells hit, Patrick's gun slipped from his grasp. He scrambled for the weapon only to drop it again, victim to a conspiracy of trembling hands and sweaty palms.

Star-Crossed Memory by Ellen Denham

A note on the counter in red Magic Marker reminded [Maia] to "turn off the stove." She put her hand on the dial, but it was already off. She got out two slices of bread--wait there was already bread in the toaster. The sky outside was pitch‑black.

A Canvas Dark and Deep by Robert Mitchell Evans

In this absurdly impossible planetary system, while the rest of the exploratory expedition investigated doppelgangers of Mars, Venus, and Earth, Commodore Holt stuck me with its Kuiper Belt...and I did nothing but busy work.

Henki by Ronald Ferguson

Amid twilight shadows spreading from the nearby pine forest, the baby coalesces on the lowest step leading into the house of Tieto...

Penance by Ed Ahern

Walter Mueller waved a thick arm toward the stained‑glass windows [of the church]. "We're not going to knock those out, Imre, even with what the heat loss will cost me. We're going to back‑light and strobe them so they'll pop out at our drinkers."

Flash Fiction

The Red Shoes by Sarah Beaudette

He was coming. She had to finish the lullaby before he left for Hell again.

Minerva by William Delman

I see what you're doing. Sitting on the couch, half‑watching the show I found for you, a show you'd love, by the way, if you were paying any attention. But you're not, because you're on your tablet, looking at HER instead.

Alienation by Kurt Pankau

I meet Roger, Subject 2349‑XY, at the Rue de Cafe on 9th Street within sight of the overpass... I attempt a salutation by extending my appendage...

Nonfiction

The Vietnam War in Military Science Fiction by Patrick S. Baker

From the early 1960s to the 1990s, the Vietnam War dominated American military and political thought. The conflict also came to dominate military science fiction.

Diamond in the Sky by Peter Jekel

Look up into the clear night sky. How far into our Solar System do you think you can see unaided by a telescope? If you said Saturn, you would be wrong. In fact, it is the planet Uranus...

Poetry

Vanished by Lisa M. Bradley

Reflections in Space by Monica Louzon

One Man's Trash by Lisa Timpf

The Forest of Discarded Baby Girls by Christina Sng