Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online October 2017

Well, this wasn’t exactly the issue I was expecting from Flash Fiction Online in October, a month that’s normally reserved for tales of horror. Instead, there are three very nicely paired stories about relationships and the prospect of loss, grief, and despair. Each of the stories follows a narrator that is in danger of losing the person that they love. To illness or a call from beyond, they must navigate how to deal with the weight of that potential parting, needing to decided when it right to go out and pull their partner back into the light or whether it is more powerful, more right, to let them go, and try to find a way forward without them. Obviously there’s not always a choice in these sorts of things, and the stories explore what happens when the unthinkable happens, and what it means for those left behind. To the reviews!

Art by Dario Bijelac

Quick Sips - The Sockdolager #9 - Summer 2017

It’s with sadness that I say that this will be the last time I review The Sockdolager, which ends its publication run with this issue. The good news is that wow are there a lot of stories to look at, eleven original stories that are mostly centered, in my opinion, around the theme of resistance. It makes sense for a publication that strived to push for being original and fun, impacting but enjoyable. It’s a difficult line to walk, and a bit of resistance in itself, trying to carve out a unique place within SFF. The stories move, largely looking at societies struggling with corruption and invasion, and people forced to find a way to move forward, to push toward justice even when it’s difficult, even when what they really want is just to rest. But there is no rest for the willing, and the characters prove themselves to be up to the task of moving forward, of resisting, of pushing for revolution and change. Sometimes it doesn’t work out too well, but often it’s still much better than it would have been. These are some fun stories, and a great final bow for a great SFF publication. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online January 2017

The first issue of Flash Fiction Online's 2017 kicks things off with...well, not a bang exactly. These are not, by and large, stories about action or explosions. These are stories about quiet revolutions. Against reality. Against injustice. Oh, and one of them is by me, so while I encourage anyone to go read it, I won't be looking at "A Lumberjack's Guide to Dryad Spotting." The two other stories, though are both about people getting over death. About either breaking down systems or breaking down themselves. There's the feel of loss and grasping for something to make sense of that loss, though the characters of these stories take very different approaches. It's an interesting issue, though, and I'm all set to review it!

Art by Dario Bijelac