Miscellaneous updates
I'm pretty sure several things I was going to post about have since fallen out of my head, but I thought I'd grab a couple of these because they are cool.
As you may have seen if you were watching time_shark's journal during April, the 10th anniversary issue of Mythic Delirium is out, with a quite wonderful poem by Neil Gaiman as well as terrific work from people like sovay, tithenai+mer_moon, dkolodji, ericmarin, and others (sorry if I missed others with LJ accounts!). And "Beauty Sleep", probably the darkest thing I've written. It's quite a terrific issue, and if you enjoy speculative things or poetry or (gasp) both, take a look.
There have also been several reviews. charlesatan reviews the whole issue here, saying "While there's a certain similarity to each of the poems (i.e. the aforementioned inclusion of an easily-identifiable narrative), they're diverse enough that they elicit a different form of satisfaction depending on the poet and the piece. 'Beauty Sleep' by Erin Hoffman for example tangentially refers to a popular fairy tale and subverting its common interpretation, combining bluntness with beautiful images.". erzebet in the recently redesigned Cabinet des Fees reviews the full issue also, with the kind (I think :) ) "Erin Hoffman works a fairy tale into a brutal collection of stanzas", saying as well for the entire issue "Issue 20 is, without a doubt, Mike’s mythic masterwork.". hooks_and_books devotes a full paragraph to each poem over in his review, separated by parts:
I like the twist of the tale that Hoffman presents, combining aspects of the princess and the evil fairy into one deep persona. The voice in this piece is deservedly bitter, but works will carrying that bitterness or anger all the way through. Also, Hoffman takes the tale back to it's Italian origins, which is nice to see. Some of the line breaks seem off to me--"A king, it happens; and when I" or "his queen is cold and empty as"--which creates a choppy rhythm to the piece for me. There is still a lot that is working in this piece, certainly enough to make it successful.
The sheer volume of reviews focused on poetry is unusual for the space, and likely largely thanks to one Mr. Gaiman, but it's neat to see nonetheless.
In the short story world, Lois Tilton does not eviscerate me for "Stormchaser, Stormshaper":
There is a lot of fresh and original stuff here, the gryphons and the sea magic, and the descriptions are well-crafted. At the heart of the story is Ruby's inner conflict between piracy-making her mother proud-and her inner magic, which involves a strong empathy for her victims. The author loads the moral balance by justifying the pirates' activities as self-defense, about which I have my doubts. Making your mother proud is not a good reason for murder.
The catching up continues...
As you may have seen if you were watching time_shark's journal during April, the 10th anniversary issue of Mythic Delirium is out, with a quite wonderful poem by Neil Gaiman as well as terrific work from people like sovay, tithenai+mer_moon, dkolodji, ericmarin, and others (sorry if I missed others with LJ accounts!). And "Beauty Sleep", probably the darkest thing I've written. It's quite a terrific issue, and if you enjoy speculative things or poetry or (gasp) both, take a look.
There have also been several reviews. charlesatan reviews the whole issue here, saying "While there's a certain similarity to each of the poems (i.e. the aforementioned inclusion of an easily-identifiable narrative), they're diverse enough that they elicit a different form of satisfaction depending on the poet and the piece. 'Beauty Sleep' by Erin Hoffman for example tangentially refers to a popular fairy tale and subverting its common interpretation, combining bluntness with beautiful images.". erzebet in the recently redesigned Cabinet des Fees reviews the full issue also, with the kind (I think :) ) "Erin Hoffman works a fairy tale into a brutal collection of stanzas", saying as well for the entire issue "Issue 20 is, without a doubt, Mike’s mythic masterwork.". hooks_and_books devotes a full paragraph to each poem over in his review, separated by parts:
I like the twist of the tale that Hoffman presents, combining aspects of the princess and the evil fairy into one deep persona. The voice in this piece is deservedly bitter, but works will carrying that bitterness or anger all the way through. Also, Hoffman takes the tale back to it's Italian origins, which is nice to see. Some of the line breaks seem off to me--"A king, it happens; and when I" or "his queen is cold and empty as"--which creates a choppy rhythm to the piece for me. There is still a lot that is working in this piece, certainly enough to make it successful.
The sheer volume of reviews focused on poetry is unusual for the space, and likely largely thanks to one Mr. Gaiman, but it's neat to see nonetheless.
In the short story world, Lois Tilton does not eviscerate me for "Stormchaser, Stormshaper":
There is a lot of fresh and original stuff here, the gryphons and the sea magic, and the descriptions are well-crafted. At the heart of the story is Ruby's inner conflict between piracy-making her mother proud-and her inner magic, which involves a strong empathy for her victims. The author loads the moral balance by justifying the pirates' activities as self-defense, about which I have my doubts. Making your mother proud is not a good reason for murder.
The catching up continues...