On "God Meets a Junkie in a Manhattan Holding Cell" by by Evan Retzer (1937 words) ***

Take this for what it is: an insane man claiming to have some kind of infinite connection or an incarnation. In our modern world, I do wonder at times whether an incarnation would even be believed. We tend to have psychological explanations for all these things, and of course, there are plenty of phonies and weirdos out there to make those explanations suitable. Here, "God" gets arrested, is saddened by his "children," and thinks about remaking the world. All in a day's doing. Read the story here at Fawlt.

On "Jukebox Hero" by Erik Wennermark (2959 words) ***

I found the first several paragraphs of this hard to follow, but about page 2 everything kicked in, and like many a story, you can go back to the early paragraphs and understand more--only in this case, not so much. I had to read it again, identify the cultural references, and then I was in--and I could enjoy that first page. But the first page is a setting for what happens in the rest of the story, which is easier to follow. It's a setting insofar as it establishes tone. This is a character who is trying very hard to be a tough guy, very hard to be cool, to be a lady's man, and it's rather fascinating to follow his thoughts. This isn't the kind of guy I'd particularly want to know, but it's the kind of guy I suspect I am--I suspect all of us are at some level, where our thoughts are ours and where no one else has to know them. Sure, everyone's nice when you get to "know" them--and then again maybe not if we really know them. Read the story here at Fawlt.

On "The Movement of Horses" by Adam Cushman (8839 words) ***

This is a sad story made funny, which is what a lot of really good stories are. What makes this story so humorous is the narrator, a troubled teen who hides his insecurities and loneliness behind a facade of bravado--and utter stupidity. The story shines from the moment one starts reading, largely because of that narration, but it really gets going when the narrator and his not-so-legitimate friend Dane steal a car with intentions of fleeing west to start a band (which of course requires a tattoo). These being teenagers--and young ones at that--the scheme goes predictably nowhere, but not before we learn quite a bit about our narrator, enough that he becomes an object of pity rather than just laughs. Read the story here at Fawlt magazine.

On "Lifelines" by B. J. Hollars (1521 words) ****

I love fantastic realism, but so much of the genre that I come across on the Net tries too hard, compromises with the very heart of what fantastic realism does, which is merge the two elements in such a way that the fantastic seems very real. At it's best, though, the genre makes for great reading and interesting commentary on one of humanity's conditions (generally one to two of them at a time--social, ethical, existential, whatever). This story, which appears in Fawlt Magazine--itself an interesting endeavor, themed around various human faults with each issue (and somehow managing still to have enough to select from to be good)--this story is about man who grows up with a broken heart, which somehow requires that he wears mittens full time. I couldn't help but identify with him in his early life, the way everyone wants to protect him, which in turn isolates him, as my rather frail frame as a kid tended to do to me (kids wouldn't let me play football with them, lest I get hurt). I also thought of other cases, a kid I knew who actually had had a heart operation, and who couldn't do any sort of aerobic activity and who was, thus, likely even more isolated than I ever was. Hollars's does such a great job of painting this picture that I was thinking from a point of view I hadn't really considered before, and then the story grows as the character does, leading to its tragic end. Expect to read more about Hollars's stories on this blog; I've been coming across him quite a bit lately and have generally been pleased. Read the story here.