Well it's been an other week in my quest to find the best short fiction on the web, and this is what I've come up with. Mostly these stories deal with death, disappearances, ghouls, or robots. Must be Halloween season. Enjoy!
Stories (flash)
Disappearing Act on Word Riot, by Katie Cortese - The heartbreak of a high school dance: humiliation, alienation, and its obvious conclusion. What's the worst that can happen? Yup, that.
Death of St. Florian, on Vestal Review
Flash fiction is often cute, often surreal, often befuddling. This is all three: A saint, having a little chat with what killed him. I especially like the sort-of casual tone the Saint takes with his millstone.
Story (Longer but still short)
If Isaac Asimov collaborated with a much younger Woody Allen, I think this is what they'd come up with. I'm not sure if Upgrades of the Heart counts as robot porn, but it brought a chuckle to my throat. From Bartleby Snopes.
Story (Long)
Over at Long Story, Short, Karl Shaddox presents Drayman. Set in the Philippines, in the early 1940's, it's the story of a peasant stonemason and his brother, who hauls the stone to its destination. They're hoping for a big commission when the Japanese invade; things don't go well from there. Also, congrats to Long Story, Short, for supporting longer fiction on the web - many sites stick to flash, stuff that can be read in a minute and forgotten in an hour. But by expanding the page count, you get a much deeper story. Thanks to all.
Video of the week:
It's Halloween, and Mickey Mouse is back! Apparently Disney has been busy, contracting with various cartoonists to create throwback Mickey Mouse cartoons, and the result is actual quality entertainment. Here, Mickey gets into the spirit of pumpkin pie spice season, and is chased through a macabre landscape by a zombified Goofy. Retro-vintage mayhem ensues. Is it the cartoon we've all been waiting for? Maybe not, but it's still pretty good.
Apparently this is not available outside the United States. So, even when they're doing something cool, Disney sucks. Which should surprise no one. If it doesn't work for you, try it at dubbed-scene.com:
Friday, October 25, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Mermaids and other monsters: October week three round-up
Story:
The Belle Isle Mermaid and the Rumrunner - At Passages North, Mary Alice Rapas takes us on a trip through Belle Isle's rumrunner days, when a sad mermaid passes her time in a grungy tank, and the rumrunner who falls for her. An enchanting tale, bizarre yet believable, romantic but not maudlin. Good work all!
Fairy Tales:
I've been reading Turkish fairy tales. Some are eerily similar to European tales, but they all have their own logic. The Rose-Beauty, for instance, starts with a simple premise: The youngest daughter wants to marry. From there it goes through a woodcutter, a prince, tears of pearls, death, switched brides, proxy childbirth, resurrection, and a happy ending.
Culture:
Over at Hobart Pulp, Matt Sailor contiunes his excellet series of great moments in cinematic drinking. This time, he examines world-weary drunk Morris Buttermaker in the classic kid-sport movie The Bad News Bears, which is anything but a kid's movie.
Schlock Movie trailer of the week:
I, Frankenstein looks like someone tossed the goth public domain library and every action-horror cliche into a Yahtzee cup and threw what came out - Frankenstein, Gargoyles, a centuries old supernatual feud, some hot babe - into a screen-writing guide, then threw money at a CGI sweatshop to do the heavy lifting. In other words, a perfect Hollywood movie.
This actually looks like a pretty good airplane movie, actually. Something to watch while dozing off.
The Belle Isle Mermaid and the Rumrunner - At Passages North, Mary Alice Rapas takes us on a trip through Belle Isle's rumrunner days, when a sad mermaid passes her time in a grungy tank, and the rumrunner who falls for her. An enchanting tale, bizarre yet believable, romantic but not maudlin. Good work all!
Fairy Tales:
I've been reading Turkish fairy tales. Some are eerily similar to European tales, but they all have their own logic. The Rose-Beauty, for instance, starts with a simple premise: The youngest daughter wants to marry. From there it goes through a woodcutter, a prince, tears of pearls, death, switched brides, proxy childbirth, resurrection, and a happy ending.
Culture:
Over at Hobart Pulp, Matt Sailor contiunes his excellet series of great moments in cinematic drinking. This time, he examines world-weary drunk Morris Buttermaker in the classic kid-sport movie The Bad News Bears, which is anything but a kid's movie.
Schlock Movie trailer of the week:
I, Frankenstein looks like someone tossed the goth public domain library and every action-horror cliche into a Yahtzee cup and threw what came out - Frankenstein, Gargoyles, a centuries old supernatual feud, some hot babe - into a screen-writing guide, then threw money at a CGI sweatshop to do the heavy lifting. In other words, a perfect Hollywood movie.
This actually looks like a pretty good airplane movie, actually. Something to watch while dozing off.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Weekly Round-up
I'm trying a new feature here to get myself re-interested in this blog. It's a weekly roundup of things I find interesting on the web. I'll try to keep it focused on books, stories, and publishing, though I may throw in the occasional movie trailer or cat video, just to drive my links up. Enjoy!
Stories:
Nobody's Stranger
Maud Newton has a story in two parts on medium.com. It's described as 'Miami noir love story.' It starts out like the kind of story that would be dismissed critically as a male fantasy of easy sex with a gorgeous woman if a man had written it. And parts seemed designed to act as a discussion starter of inverted gender roles in po-mo fiction rather than as an actual story. But some part of me really liked this story, and it stuck with me, so I'm going to say you should read it as well.
The Impossible Man
On another end of the gender spectrum, in the Paris Review, J Robert Lennon writes about a guy's guy, in trouble with his girlfriend, who takes a walk and loses his memory. When it comes back, he forgets all the parts of himself that weren't very nice. Things go downhill from there.
You Invent this Incredible Invention
From Pank magazine, an incredible story with a great voice that illustrates an amazing worldview. You could call it the tale of a geek and the woman who loves him, but it's more than that. Molly O'Brien, stand up and take a bow!
Books:
It's compilation season for the year's best short stories. The Best American Short Stories 2013 is out. After a brief glance, it looks like once again The New Yorker, Tin House, and Granta are still in charge of American short fiction. The O Henry Prize Stories collection is also out, and they do a slightly better job of looking beyond the big names but not much. For more obscure stories by lesser known but no less talented authors, The Pushcart Prize is your best bet.
Dumb movie trailer of the week:
The Desolation of Smaug: The Hobbit Part II (or, The Lord of the Rings -2)
This movie has it all. Dragons! Giant Dwarf-knuckle walkways! Suspenseful droning music! Hot he-dwarves. Hot she-elves! Untippable barrel racing with whitewater ninja-fights! Eyebrows of all shapes and sizes! Gold-pile luge racing! Me wants it, precious!
No, but seriously, I need to see the physics behind those barrels. And the eyebrows.
Cats!
Stories:
Nobody's Stranger
Maud Newton has a story in two parts on medium.com. It's described as 'Miami noir love story.' It starts out like the kind of story that would be dismissed critically as a male fantasy of easy sex with a gorgeous woman if a man had written it. And parts seemed designed to act as a discussion starter of inverted gender roles in po-mo fiction rather than as an actual story. But some part of me really liked this story, and it stuck with me, so I'm going to say you should read it as well.
The Impossible Man
On another end of the gender spectrum, in the Paris Review, J Robert Lennon writes about a guy's guy, in trouble with his girlfriend, who takes a walk and loses his memory. When it comes back, he forgets all the parts of himself that weren't very nice. Things go downhill from there.
You Invent this Incredible Invention
From Pank magazine, an incredible story with a great voice that illustrates an amazing worldview. You could call it the tale of a geek and the woman who loves him, but it's more than that. Molly O'Brien, stand up and take a bow!
Books:
It's compilation season for the year's best short stories. The Best American Short Stories 2013 is out. After a brief glance, it looks like once again The New Yorker, Tin House, and Granta are still in charge of American short fiction. The O Henry Prize Stories collection is also out, and they do a slightly better job of looking beyond the big names but not much. For more obscure stories by lesser known but no less talented authors, The Pushcart Prize is your best bet.
Dumb movie trailer of the week:
The Desolation of Smaug: The Hobbit Part II (or, The Lord of the Rings -2)
This movie has it all. Dragons! Giant Dwarf-knuckle walkways! Suspenseful droning music! Hot he-dwarves. Hot she-elves! Untippable barrel racing with whitewater ninja-fights! Eyebrows of all shapes and sizes! Gold-pile luge racing! Me wants it, precious!
No, but seriously, I need to see the physics behind those barrels. And the eyebrows.
Cats!
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