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vol 1 • no 1 — Fantastical fiction, art, and reviews

(1) FLASH FICTION from The Fabulist Flash:

“My Job Was To Get Fired,” by Jon Longhi
Just as the atomic weight of carbon is a universal standard, Corporate America needed to know the exact amount of pressure it takes to crush a human soul.

“How To Date a Grindylow,” by Shana Ross
“I don’t mind watching the occasional hair work its way down the wall, searching for something it will never find. My last relationship ended over hair in the shower. Human problems.”

“The Visitor,” by Colleen Shoshana McKee
An insomniac dérive through time and space leaves the wanderer clutching at memory, but desperately empty-handed.

“The Eating Doll,” by Nicoletta Giuseffi
In this vivid phantasmagoria, a young woman embarks on a creepy — but strangely gorgeous — journey through the dissolution of the self …

“The Skign,” by Don Mark Baldridge
In an obliquely distant future, a precocious child — impatient and irreverent — dallies, perhaps dangerously …

“Protection Spell,” by Loren Rhoads
This seasonal ghost story’s witchy, romantic turn is a delightful trick and a charming treat. Happy Halloween!

(2) SHORT REVIEWS OF SHORT BOOKS, by Nick Mamatas

“The Long Run: A Creative Inquiry,” by Stacy D’Erasmo
In this book of interviews, a writer plumbs the ultimate question: When failure is a given, why do art?

“Set My Heart on Fire,” by Izumi Suzuki
Best known for her short science fiction, Izumi Suzuki’s posthumous novel is a “unique and thrilling” tale of life and music in Japan’s 1970s demimonde.

(3) VISUAL ART

“The Myths We Live: Artwork by Glenn Buack”
Self-taught artist Glenn Buack grounds his visions of classical mythology in expressively contemporary and coolly erotic human vignettes and tableaux.

“Ghosts in the Gearbox: Sculpture & Art by Jeff Mann”
Using cast-off car parts, and an evolving process of metalwork, painting and mask-making, Jeff Mann conjures a world full of organic, dreamlike presences.