The Chiaroscuro:
Volume 47 (April–June, 2011)
Supergod Mega-Issue!
Hello and welcome to the Chiaroscuro Mega-Issue, or as I like to call it, the SuperGod Mega-Issue! We started by just referring to it as The Mega-Issue, but as time went on and the story donations rolled in, it soon became apparent that Mega just didn't cut it anymore. It was Super! It was God-like! It was the SuperGod Mega-Issue! (Cue rolling thunder.)
The number of donated poems and stories we've received for the mega-issue blew all of our wildest expectations. Because of the massive amount of donated pieces we've received, we're going to be doling it all out over the coming weeks. (We want to make sure everyone gets some time in the spotlight.)
This first week, we're featuring fiction from Neil Gaiman, Matthew Sanborn Smith, Sunil Sadanand, Ursula Pflug, Tom Piccirilli, and Patricia Lee Macomber.
We have poetry from Andrea Blythe, Bruce Boston, Rain Graves (with artwork by Daniele Serra), Ed Lynskey, Brian Rosenberger and Marge Simon & Michael Fosburg.
Be sure to read David Niall Wilson's latest column, Compromise and the Lost Art of Artistic Vision, as well as Edward Whitt's interview with Tom Piccirilli, and Chris Hallock's review of the novel, The Crossing.
As the weeks go on, you will see more and more fantastic fiction, poetry, and articles appear on these pages. If you see anything that tickles your fancy (and you will), please consider donating. You'll be entered into a draw for some great prizes, and you'll be helping to fund the great and beautiful experiment in literary chiaroscuro that is Chiaroscuro Magazine.
To all of our generous alumni who have contributed work to this virtually weighty beast, our heartfelt thanks. Your stories, poems & articles will continue to go up each Monday, starting April 11th.
From the Desk of the MFE,
Gord
Welcome!
Welcome, everyone, to the grand relaunch of ChiZine.com!
As you can see, a lot has changed around here (for the better!), and it’s all thanks to the tireless work of our designer, Erik Mohr, and our webmaster, Barry King, who’ve both done an amazing job bringing this relaunch together.
When Brett Savory designed the site back in 1997, he thought he was the master of all HTML and that no one would ever need to improve upon his killer design. Ahem. But technology crept past him and all kinds of weird coding languages cropped up and left him in the dust, so he finally acquiesced and allowed people with magical powers, familiar with these arcane codes and techno-phraseology to dig in and bring the site up to date. He only held on grimly for nearly 14 years, so we’re all very proud of him.
So what’s new in this redesign? Well, the killer graphics, for one thing. Wherever you go on these pages, you’ll feel the inimitable touch of Erik’s design hand. A lot of you know Erik best for producing the gorgeous covers for ChiZine Publications (http://chizinepub.com), so who better to re-envision ChiZine.com? Be sure to check out Erik’s work at his site once you’re done poking around here: http://erikmohr.com. In addition to our new look, we've also moved to our own server. We'd like to thank Chad Savage, a gent and a scholar, for hosting ChiZine.com all these years--we couldn't have done it without you, Chad!
One of the biggest and most helpful changes we’ve made is to introduce the ChiHub (http://chizinehub.com/)—a place where you’ll be directed to all things ChiZine. We’ve put our fingers into so many pies the past few years, we needed a unified spot to bring it all together so people could more easily explore our various doings. ChiHub is that place. From there, you can get to ChiZine Publications (the print arm of our little empire), ChiZine.com (the webzine, featuring fiction, poetry, reviews, and columns), the Chiaroscuro Reading Series (a monthly reading series featuring the best in spec-fic writers the planet over!), Imaginarium (our yearly Canadian spec-fic anthology), Contests (contests we hold), and the CZP/Rannu Fund (which doles out $1,200 to writers every year).
You’ll also notice the neato little donation vial Erik designed. That’s there because Dorchester Publishing (Leisure Books) unexpectedly cut our sponsorship/advertising funding, which they’d been paying the webzine since 2001. Although this was a bit of a setback, we decided that this was our chance to become EVEN MORE AWESOME! So we’ve produced a super-crushingly-amazing MEGA-ISSUE, featuring tons of ChiZine alumni, going back to 1997 when we first started. We sent out an all-call to all the poets, fiction writers, former staff members and even contest judges, who had ever graced our pages, and asked if they’d be willing to donate a piece of writing to help us raise money. The response was overwhelming. So many writers rallied round and sent us wonderful work, which you can read in this special issue. We are beyond grateful!
Our aim is to raise enough money for ChiZine.com to continue publishing at the same great rate of 7 cents per word for fiction and $10 per poem, which we enjoyed paying writers worldwide when we were sponsored. Every Monday, we’ll be updating the site with more fiction and poetry than you can shake an overworked web designer at, so please check back often, spread the word, and if you like what you read, we’d surely appreciate your donations. We want to keep the ’zine going and bring you the same quality writing you’ve been reading since 1997, at the same pro rates. And maybe even pay the editors (our new Managing Fiction Editor, Gord Zajac, made us put that in).
We think we’ve produced a gorgeous new website for you to enjoy, and we hope you continue reading our pages as you’ve been doing for nearly 14 years.
Cheers, and all the best,
Brett Alexander Savory & Sandra Kasturi
Tributes to Late ChiZine Alumni – April 2011
Sadly, we’ve lost some terrific poets who had their work appear in ChiZine. Their words live on, though, and their lights remain undimmed as we remember them. Their fellow writers and friends share their memories of some amazing people who are sorely missed.
Remembering Keith Allen Daniels
Remembering Phyllis Gotlieb
Robyn Herrington: In Your Face
In this Issue:
- FICTION
- All the Pretty Boys by Michael Rowe [expired]
- Anna on the Threshold by K. Z. Perry [expired]
- Bacchus Anesti by Maria Alexander [expired]
- Beer on Sunday by Nick Mamatas [expired]
- Before and After by Sunil Sadanand [expired]
- Bombay and Mercy Chase the Long Hand by Daniel A. Rabuzzi [expired]
- A Bride’s Head, Revisited by Joel Arnold [expired]
- The Burn Victim by Sarah Langan [expired]
- By Appointment by Leslie Claire Walker [expired]
- Champion of Lost Causes by Scott Emerson Bull [expired]
- Chanting the Violet Dog Down: A Tale of Noreela by Tim Lebbon [expired]
- Consent by Nancy Baker [expired]
- The Consumer by Seth Lindberg [expired]
- Conventions of the Genre by Jesse Bullington [expired]
- The Dilkey Never Landed by Paul Tremblay [expired]
- Dirty Money by S. E. Ward [expired]
- Dogs Want to Eat You by Ralph Robert Moore [expired]
- Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate by Stephen M. Wilson [expired]
- Dust Bunnies by Jeremy C. Shipp [expired]
- The Eight of Swords by S. Boyd Taylor [expired]
- Everyone on Earth by Brett Alexander Savory [expired]
- Familiar Eyes by Barry Hollander [expired]
- Final Girl Theory by A. C. Wise [expired]
- Fortune by Shira Lipkin [expired]
- The Girl with the Halo by Matthew Sanborn Smith [expired]
- Grandmother by Samantha Henderson [expired]
- Growing Out of It by Mehitobel Wilson [expired]
- Hey, Sarge and Regis Toomey by Mort Castle [expired]
- Holy Mackerels by Ursula Pflug [expired]
- Hotline by David Sakmyster [expired]
- I, Cthulhu by Neil Gaiman [expired]
- The Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe by Elizabeth Bear [expired]
- The Informers by Gerard Houarner [expired]
- The Insides by Richard Larson [expired]
- Just Like the Ones He Used to Know by Robert J. Wiersema [expired]
- Lament by Tom Piccirilli [expired]
- Last of His Kind by Sandra McDonald [expired]
- Late Night Pick-Up by Peter Crowther [expired]
- A Little Glimpse by Steve Eller [expired]
- Lizards by Brent Hayward [expired]
- Machina by An Owomoyela [expired]
- Marion’s Knot by Lee Thomas [expired]
- Military Secrets of the Zionist Enemy by Lavie Tidhar [expired]
- Mindfuck by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt [expired]
- Motive, Means, Eventuality by Gordon Grice [expired]
- Mrs. Kong by Sandra Kasturi [expired]
- Night is a Clear Green Gem by Darren Speegle [expired]
- Noogle Knock by Robert Swartwood [expired]
- Not That Kind Of Town by Daniel Kaysen [expired]
- Patterns in White Static by David Niall Wilson [expired]
- Payback by P. D. Cacek [expired]
- The Performer by Philip Nutman [expired]
- The Pillow Book of Liisa Härkönen by Joe L. Murr [expired]
- Pisspot Bay by Elizabeth Massie [expired]
- Pound Rots in Fragrant Harbour by Lisa Morton [expired]
- Protection by Stewart O'Nan [expired]
- Radio Nowhere by Douglas Smith [expired]
- Reflections on the Critical Process by Mike Carey [expired]
- Requiem by Brian Hodge [expired]
- Salvation on the Tongues of Djinn by A. M. Muffaz [expired]
- Scenes from the Skoobie Revolution by Claude Lalumière [expired]
- Signal to Noise by Gemma Files [expired]
- Sour Metal by Amber Van Dyk [expired]
- The Spider House Rules by Rain Graves [expired]
- Suckling by Patricia Russo [expired]
- Summer of Love by Livia Llewellyn [expired]
- Supernatural by Nadia Bulkin [expired]
- The Swordsman by Michael R. Colangelo [expired]
- The Tale of the Princess and Her Hero by Robert Boyczuk [expired]
- Ten Steps by Richard Thomas [expired]
- Things I No Longer Like about God by Tarl Roger Kudrick [expired]
- The Third Bride by David de Beer [expired]
- Three Legged Bird by Vylar Kaftan [expired]
- Tiny Drops by L. L. Hannett [expired]
- Unchambered Heart by Jay Lake [expired]
- A Viper Among Us by N. R. Brown [expired]
- Voodoo Child by Jon Skovron [expired]
- W.W.P.D by Patricia Lee Macomber [expired]
- Wax and Wane by Grant Palmquist [expired]
- A Whispered Apocalypse by Simon Logan [expired]
- The Word of God by Nir Yaniv [expired]
- Writing Hell by Matt Duvall [expired]
- You Must Remember This by Gary A. Braunbeck [expired]
- Your Essential Unsung Hero by Nancy Kilpatrick [expired]
- POETRY
- 14:46 by A. M. Muffaz [expired]
- After Pompeii by Jennifer Jerome [expired]
- Beachhead by Marge Simon & Michael Fosburg [expired]
- Beneath the Stars, in the Earth by Nancy O. Greene [expired]
- Beware of Attics by Andrea Blythe [expired]
- Big G & Little J by Tom Piccirilli [expired]
- Bluebeard by Joanne Merriam [expired]
- Changeling by Myna Wallin [expired]
- Children’s Crusade by Donna Farley [expired]
- Comet Flyby by John Park [expired]
- Darkside by Colleen Anderson [expired]
- The Dead Gather at Your Feet by Kiel Stuart [expired]
- Eidolons of the Moon by J. E. Stanley [expired]
- Evil Soap Opera by Mark McLaughlin [expired]
- Experts on Mortality by R. G. Evans [expired]
- Fingernails by P. S. Cottier [expired]
- Freeloader by Mildred Tremblay [expired]
- Glass, Redux by Robyn Herrington [expired]
- He Says "Please" so Nicely by Annie Boyle [expired]
- How our heroine was made of porcelain by Jana Phipps [expired]
- I Live in a Land of Milk and Honey by Wanda Waterman [expired]
- If Only People Weren’t Made Out of Meat by James S. Dorr [expired]
- In Reluctance I Go Wandering by Kurt Newton [expired]
- Irish Witches by Clara Blackwood [expired]
- Jared Sumac poisons the whole damn lot of ’em by Samuel Minier [expired]
- Judas Noose Tavern by Charles Clifford Brooks III [expired]
- Lake Ontario Looked at During the August New Moon by Peter Bloch-Hansen [expired]
- Looking Glass by Alec B Kowalczyk [expired]
- Louis in the Morning by Phoebe Wray [expired]
- Lucan in Averno by Sonya Taaffe [expired]
- The Memory of Burning Bones by Steve Vernon [expired]
- Midnight Grocery Shopping in the Icelandic Sagas by Hugh Thomas [expired]
- midnight is a time for listening by Lon Prater [expired]
- Mississippi Twilight by Chad Hensley [expired]
- Mist and Shadows by Helen Marshall [expired]
- Moon Ship Sailing by Robin Mayhall [expired]
- Mr. Poe’s Last Express by Ed Lynskey [expired]
- ms & mr frankenstein by Phyllis Gottlieb [expired]
- The Mummy by Francine Lewis [expired]
- The Murdermobile by Mark McLaughlin [expired]
- My Friend Ernie, Trying to Light a Match by Tom Piccirilli [expired]
- My Mother Married Bigfoot by Steve Vernon [expired]
- My Skull, the Garage by Bethany Powell [expired]
- Neo by Scott E. Green [expired]
- Nightfall by Susan A. Manchester [expired]
- Nothing but sky overhead by David Clink [expired]
- Ode to the Mongolian Death Worm by Sandra Kasturi [expired]
- One Quarter Gorgon by Helen Marshall [expired]
- The only human things by Peter Bloch-Hansen [expired]
- a promise fulfilled by Brian Rosenberger [expired]
- Queen Choufa Protects the Drones from the Wrath of Arash-keen by Elizabeth Barrette [expired]
- Red Riding Hood Runs from the Wolf by Sèphera Girón [expired]
- A Siamese Twin Falls in Love by Halli Villegas [expired]
- The Soft Key by Sandra Kasturi [expired]
- Some Secret Symphony by Donna Burgess [expired]
- Sundance by Colleen Anderson [expired]
- The Surrender by Rain Graves w/Artwork by Daniele Serra [expired]
- Tantalus, Reaching Upwards by Gemma Files [expired]
- Tea Party Vamp by Marge Simon [expired]
- The Temptation of Little Red Riding Hood by Amal El-Mohtar [expired]
- Their Shades Are Legend by Bruce Boston [expired]
- Visitation by Kim Goldberg [expired]
- Witch Sticks by Mary E. Choo [expired]
- Young Miss Frankenstein Regrets by Camille Alexa [expired]
- Zombie Bees of Winnipeg by Carolyn Clink [expired]
- FILM REVIEWS
- Mike’s and Lisa’s Throw-Down Review: Hobo with a Shotgun by Michael Marano and Lisa Morton
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Bigfoot War by Eric S. Brown by Ray Wallace
- The Crossing by B. Michael Radburn by Chris Hallock
- Dark Animus 10/11 by by Stephen Studach
- Engines of Desire by Livia Llewellyn by Stephen Studach
- It Came From Del Rio by Stephen Graham Jones by Chris Hallock
- Knuckle Supper by Drew Stepek by Ray Wallace
- Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry by William D. Gagliani
- COLUMNS
- Column: Compromise and the Lost Art of Artistic Vision by David Niall Wilson
- INTERVIEWS
- Tom Piccirilli: Deep Cuts by Edward Whitt
- A Devil’s Dozen: Livia Llewellyn by Stephen Studach

