Issue 43

NewMyths.com

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

Issue 43, June 2018

Dear Reader,

The cover art this issue is in tribute to a story as beautiful as it is. The artwork entitled “Japanese Cranes with Chinese Pine” is by Thanapoom Boonipat; the story is “The Unfolding of Wings” by Gunnar De Winter. The description, the mythology, the story itself conveys the serenity and magic of a suibokuga painting. De Winter's story is only one of the many stories and poems in this issue that I hope you find as compelling and unique as I did reading them. Five of them, including “The Unfolding of Wings,” along with three from our spring issue, have been nominated for two of our readers' choice awards ($100 and $50 respectfully), and all 8 will be featured in our first best of NewMyths anthology: PASSAGES, coming out this fall. Read and enjoy these “coming of every age” stories, then vote for your two favorites before July 1st.(see below)

Also in this issue are stories and poems just as wonderful and compelling, some of whose themes better match future anthologies we're hoping to publish in the next few years. From an Iraqui war survivor's dreams that share with us the raw horror and devastating numbness experienced by all war survivors, real or fictional, from any era or planet, to the tragedy and triumph of an android discovering he has a soul, this issue has indeed been special to me. I hope you find it so too.

-Susan Shell Winston, Editor.

Table of Contents

Fiction

The Unfolding of Wings by Gunnar De Winter

Her eyes are closed. Yet she sees the ghostly flickers of the koi... Shinizi slowly opens her eyes.

The moonlight shines through the canopy and paints the world in a suibokuga of black and white.

Touched, Part One by Tom Jolly

We were racing down a steep slope covered with fine, dry snow, broad sprays of ice fanning out behind us. It would have been exhilarating were it not for the million tons of snow chasing close behind.

The Tideline by Andy Oldfield

It was 15 years since I’d said goodbye to my father and eaten salmon sandwiches at his funeral...

Even so, the reunion was as unexpected as his departure had been. Which is to say not totally. He’d been 75 then, but so full of life that immortality didn’t seem out of the question.

Between The Zeroes and Ones by Bob Sojka

We responded to the alarm in under four minutes. Our fire brigade was small but experienced...

As we readied our rig, the GPS display jolted me. It was Jacob's school, St. Anne's.

Healer by Aaron Zimmerman

Tayo held very still. A bead of sweat glinted down his dark skin from a mass of unkempt hair. His lips formed meaningless syllables in concentration. A speck of color below the water inched closer, bobbing side to side.

Flash Fiction

Refuse to See by Michelle Kaseler

Jada was elbow-deep in garbage.

The Bot-of-the-Month Club by Jason Thomas

My first month in the Bot-of-the-Month Club consisted of a large tin can following me around for four weeks asking endless questions.

NonFiction

Geomythogenesis by S. P. Hofrichter

Mythogenesis is the study of how myths are created. Geomythology is the theory... that many myths begin as misunderstood or misattributed geological events that grew to become widespread, well-known myths... The story of ragnarǫk, with its chronology of events, specific and recurring themes, and unusual characteristics of the narrative, correlates to possible geological events.

Devourer of Children by Peter Jekel

Saturn has probably inspired more people to pursue a career or hobby of investigating those tiny points of light in the sky. When you point your telescope toward Saturn, you see something that you will never see anywhere else, a planet encircled by a series of rings...

Poetry

Gnomes by Bruce Boston

My Dangerous Memory by Faleeha Hassan

Eden's Cur by Steven L. Peck

Fidelis Reinvented by Lisa Timpf

The Next Big Thing by Gene Twaronite