THE SIPPY AWARDS 2019! The "Time to Run Some Red Lights" Sippy for Excellent Action!!! in SFF

If you were around for the first Fast and the Furious movie, you might remember the news articles about how people coming out of the movie were more likely to make risky driving decisions. Not that they were just copying what they saw in the movie, but that it left them amped! Well, rounding out my categories that are primarily about an emotional response (horror=pain, ugly-cry=pain), this category is all about EXCITEMENT! FUCK YEAH!!!! So hold onto your butts and get ready for the...

“Time to Run Some Red Lights” Sippy Awards 

for Excellent Action! in Short SFF

As I said yesterday, I'm a bit of an emotive reader. Which means when a story hurts, it hurts. And when a story scares, it scares. But it also means when a story pumps it up, it makes me want to punch the sun in a mech suit the size of a planet! You know, like a normal person. Heh. But I love stories that really make me want to stand up, to run, to arrive somewhere breathless, alive. And these stories do just that, featuring characters fighting with all they have against what seems like an overwhelming situation. A threat to destroy their city, their world; a tournament where dreams are made or broken; an attempt by the actual devil to take the one person in the world you kinda tolerate--these are stories with some high stakes and some intense action.

As for where they came from...kinda all over. From the sadly-on-hiatus Apex Magazine, and from the always defiant Fireside Magazine. From Fiyah, from Tor, from GigaNotoSaurus (which came back from a bit of a hiatus this year). These are often sources for stories that get the blood pumping, the mind racing, the muscles twitchy and electric. So let's get to the awards already!!!

Quick Sips - GigaNotoSaurus December 2019

Don’t let the fact that it’s December trick you into thinking all the best fiction of the year has already come out. Because people, the new short story from GigaNotoSaurus is probably going to end up on a number of my lists. It’s bold and kind and completely out of fucks and I love it so much. But then, a story about a punk rock band and the end of the world via alien invasion is probably going to be hard for me to dislike. And this story has an amazing cast, a sort of gallows humor that is charming and poignant all at once, and you should just read it already. For me, it’s time I got to the review!

Quick Sips - Shimmer #46 [part 1/2]

Art by Sandro Castelli

Weep, friends, for the final issue of Shimmer Magazine has landed. But also rejoice, because it’s full of awesome. And I should say that online releases for the publication will continue through April 2019! But that in the interest of reading the stories in the year they are technically coming out in, I’m going to cover the issue spread over just November and December. Which means that I’m looking at six stories today, many of which look at family, consent, and magic. These are pieces that look at darkness and follow characters coming up against the pains and injustices of the world. The things that you don’t get to control. Aging. Family. History. But just because you don’t get to choose these things doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about them. And the stories follow characters pushing against the gravity of their own erasure and pain. Reaching for a place where they can be free and empowered. So let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - GigaNotoSaurus March 2017

March is here and for GigaNotoSaurus that means another excellent piece of SFF that ranges a bit on the long side. It’s a novelette this month, long enough to sink your teeth into but not so long that it drags. No, this story is a dense story that takes place in the American Southwest and tastes like country music, sugar, and rot. It’s a piece that explores a relationship in all its complexity and messiness. That looks at bargains and death and recrimination. And it’s just another fine example of what makes GigaNotoSaurus worth returning to, month after month—a SFF tale of magic, tenderness, and most of all, humanity. So yeah, to the review!