Produktbeschreibung
Fiction
The Darkness Between the Stars by J. Michael Straczynski
Night Eyes by Bruce Boston
Second Sight by William Mitchell
Shadow Chaser by Simon Wood
Please Stand By by Tim Curran
To Bare One's Soul by Ron Shiflet
Squiggle by John Weagly
The Purloined Prose by Patricia Lee Macomber & David Niall Wilson
Also
An interview with Douglas Clegg
Writer at Large, a regular column on writing by Richard A. Lupoff
The Secret History of King Arthur and Robin Hood ,by Philip Gardiner
The Film Vault, a regular column featuring commentaries on unusual, overlooked, or comdemned films
Poetry by John Weagly, Lee Clark Zumpe, Nicholas Jowett, Ilona Hegedus, Kristine Ong Muslim, Darrell Schweitzer, Justin Kloer, and Donna Taylor Burgess
Artwork by Dave Carson, Steven Gilberts, Kathy Ferrell, Cathy Hill, Cathy Buburuz, Simon Boston, Colin Foran, David Conyers, Bryan Reagan, and Chris Hill
Another episode of What Rough Beast Comes by Kurt Belcher and William Jones, fiction and gaming reviews, a puzzle contest with prizes, and more!
The Darkness Between the Stars by J. Michael Straczynski
David Westerling picked his way through the maze of corrugated metal hallways that formed the hub of the Tania Borealis 7 Deep Range Mining Colony. Outside, winds of methane and sulfur battered the plasteel dome like the drum of distant, angry fists determined to repel the invaders who had come to tear dozens of unique chemicals, elements and minerals from the lower strata...
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Night Eyes by Bruce Boston
From my seat at a corner table I watched her laughing and chatting at the bar. Her eyes never met mine though I saw them flash across the room more than once with sparks of light like tiny knives . . . and I wondered at the source of that illumination. For there was no light that sharp for her eyes to reflect...
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Second Sight by William Mitchell
The nature of artistic inspiration is as varied as it is indefinable. To attempt to classify, or even characterize, the method by which the artist develops his ideas, and brings them into being, is I believe a futile undertaking. Lying as it does on that narrow divide between genius and insanity, the process of creation defies all attempts at investigation. That it is often divine, I have never doubted. That it can also be diabolical, I am now convinced. For there are few words to describe the horror and revulsion that I felt, when I first laid eyes on the paintings of Antonio Berzzini...
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Shadow Chaser by Simon Wood
I spotted the ramshackle farmhouse from the dirt road. The directions I’d been given were vague and the farmhouse wasn’t marked, but I knew I had the right place. It was the kind of place I would have chosen.
Turning into the long driveway, I noticed three, tall figures standing shoulder to shoulder on the porch. That, I wasn’t expecting. This was meant to be a one-on-one affair with no spectators. Alarm bells rang in my head, but there was no way I could turn tail for the hills. I had to see things through, no matter how bad they got — especially after the phone call...
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Please Stand By by Tim Curran
When the phone started ringing and ringing, Doug Lark came out of the depths of sleep, pretty sure it was the school bell he was hearing and that he was late for class. Then he opened his eyes, realized he was forty years old and had been dreaming...
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To Bare One's Soul by Ron Shiflet
Neil Paine sat in front of his computer monitor and thought about the first evening he had spent in the company of Loyd Bloom. Neil had been in the lunchroom of Bilardi Marketing and Research when approached by his co-worker. Bloom had suggested they go to a club called “Bazooms,” a bistro noted for its buxom servers. Having no pressing plans, Neal decided to humor the man rather than return to his own drab apartment to struggle over another chapter of the horror novel he was writing. Besides, the release of “Beyond the Threshold,” his story collection from Mortuary Press, had done wonders for his morale, if not for his pocketbook...
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Squiggle by John Weagly
They don’t stop, Alabama Sue thought as she stared out the window at the senseless rail-yard beyond. I never thought about it. Trains pull in and they pull out, but they don’t stay anywhere. They always have a next place to go to, somewhere else to be. There’s always the horizon. Trains never stop...
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The Purloined Prose by Patricia Lee Macomber & David Niall Wilson
The Swan. To most the name conjured images of pristine white feathers, a graceful neck, motion so fluid it mocked the very water in which the bird itself swam. To Edgar, it was an oasis, a hideout, and his temple. He sat at the worn oak and brass altar, folded over a chalice so fogged from age that the light barely penetrated it. His thoughts were turned inward, though his ears were trained on the conversation four stools down. He had no idea he was sitting at the bar with a dead man...
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Writer at Large by Richard A. Lupoff
My noble editor, Mr. William Jones, has given me a free hand as to the contents of this column. We have a tacit agreement that what I mumble about herein should have at least some remote bearing on the subject of writing — how I do it, how I learned to do it, how someone reading my words and interested in doing it him-or-herself might go about doing it....
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The Secret History of King Arthur and Robin Hood by Philip Gardiner
In my book The Serpent Grail, I had initially explored the Arthurian legends to see what light they could shed on the link between the Grail and the serpent, but I decided I should now spare the time to take a brief look at the history of Britain and the period in which King Arthur and then Robin Hood supposedly lived.
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Film Vault
Welcome to the Film Vault. Each issue presents three commentaries on unusual, overlooked, or condemned films. The commentaries are those of the critics, who are not allowed to discuss the film with each other beforehand. The three critics are C.J. Henderson, Darrell Schweitzer, and Associate Editor David Conyers. This issue features commentaries on the film The Devil’s Backbone (Sony Classics, 2001).
C.J. Henderson says:
Most everyone knows Guillermo del Toro for the film version of the comicbook Hellboy. And, well they should, it’s one of the finest comic book movies ever made, outshining even Blade 2, also by del Toro. But, how did this Spanish filmmaker get such high profile Hollywood films in the first place? He earned those big ticket items by making stunningly brilliant films like Chronos, and more importantly, one of the most important supernatural films ever made, The Devil’s Backbone... |
