On "The 37" by Mary Miller (2097 words) *****

"The 37" seems a fitting end to Miller's Always Happy Hour collection. It's about a woman who tries. What I mean is that it's about a woman who, despite her constant anxiety, forces herself to travel, to go to places and to do things that she's uncomfortable with, like riding the bus. And in a sense, that's the most healthy thing a person can do--even if that person's mental state is seemingly unhealthy. Read the story here at Joyland.

On "Algae You In My Dreams" by Rachel Khong (2343 words) ***

In Khong's tale a woman dreams the future. The dreams aren't terribly eccentric; they're actually much like real life, and that's why they can come true. Unfortunately, most of the dreams aren't good ones and few of them give clues with regard to what really matters: whether your marriage will survive, whether your kid will grow out of her disability, and on and on. Read the story here at Joyland.

On "A World of Flirts" by John Brandon (3495 words) ***

Brandon's character Joyce is a little bit kooky, and that is what makes her so interesting. She's a woman with money to waste, and she wants to waste it--I mean, really wants to waste it. Such seems a bit ridiculous, and yet, the deeper one gets into the story the more we see how her reckless behavior is covering up for something called loneliness, something called grief, and that behavior is enough to get her through, to keep her living.

What I really like about this piece is its dialogue. The kookiness helps to make it interesting, and the kookiness is--as the title suggests--a means of flirting with all around her. Now flirting is an interesting sport. It's an entertainment of sorts, and it's something we can use to gather people to us--or to keep them away. And Joyce seems to be of that ilk, a person who simultaneous wants deeper connections and wants to keep connections from getting deeper lest she get hurt. Nevertheless, one ends up liking her, at least in print. Read the story here at Joyland.

On "Emote Control" by Anne Swan (2243 words) ***

Swan's story is a kind of sales pitch. In fact, it seems more like a sales pitch than a story, and yet the story creeps in slowly underneath. It's a piece about control--control of our lives, control of our surroundings. In this world of ever-increasing services, of online spying that allows people to know more about us than we even realize about ourselves, the "Emote Control" device the narrator is offering allows us to be completely pleased at the end of our time on earth. What it doesn't offer is the ability to redeem a past wherein we failed to make a difference to someone close to us that we lost. Technology, Swan hints, is only as good as its user. Read the story here at Joyland.

On "A Craigslist Ad for a Mind-blowing Self-Actualization Party" by Margaret Wappler (467 words) ***

Sometimes I miss California, even in all its wonkiness. Sure, we have a share of that here where I live as well, but somehow it seems different in the desert sun. Wappler's ad (I'm not sure one could call it a story) has all the makings of an event I would never attend. But it's an event I would hear about, from acquaintances, these people I work with, this person I sit next to on the train, this party I drop in on with a friend for five minutes. You can read the ad here at Joyland.