October's ChiZine
I don't know about you, but I'd been awaiting the October - December edition of Chiaroscuro, or maybe I should call it ChiZine, which is like an uninvited familiarity but makes me feel like I'm wearing the blackest of leathers with very shiny, moonstruck buckles. Yeah, I'm cool.

So, why this particular issue? And I admit that many of the stories in ChiZine, winner of a 2000 Bram Stoker Award, capture my attention, if not make me pleased for the reading of them. This issue is the issue that showcases the yearly winners of The Eleventh ChiZine/Leisure Short Story Contest. Two hundred and forty-one entries were submitted for this year's contest. Two hundred and thirty-eight entries had to be eliminated to make up this year's table of fictional content.

The judges were a trio of women and that was a first for ChiZine. The judges, Kelly Link, Elizabeth Bear and Hannah Bowen Wolf, are very talented writers and editors in their own right. They have written stories, and edited stories, that may be considered treatments in light and shade in words, which is exactly the requirement for the stories published in Chizine. (As an additional note upon the judging panel, Joseph Nassise stood available to break any ties upon the submissions. There wasn't, but he stood ready.)

Placing third was a story by Stephen M. Wilson. It's my thought that you shouldn't read this story first even though I'm reviewing the fiction in order of rank. "Dream Caused By the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate" is a story that should be read in a time and place where you won't be interrupted. It consists of a blend of fact and folklore, poetry and story. It consists of segments labeled with nonfictional headers that sometimes repeat themselves while continuing to expand the story's bizarre landscape. It is a story of a bewitched child, blessed, but taken away in her youth. Taken away and taken away again. It is a story about bees and honey, myth and homemade remedies, tigers and castles. It has princes and angels and aliens. It's not a typical narrative and it is not light reading. A surrealistic fairy tale without a happily ever after, unless the happy is for the survival and growth of something we, as humans, are not.

"Grandmother's Road Trip" by Cat Rambo took second place in the ChiZine contest. It is a story of three women, three generations, traveling across country as the grandmother is moved from her home to a nursing home close to her daughter's residence. Told in first person, from the point of view of the granddaughter, this is a story of regret and loss and forgiveness. Once as a child, the granddaughter longed for a toy black cat and the grandmother did not purchase it for her. The grandmother asks if her granddaughter remembers, but she doesn't -- she doesn't remember until the toy begins appearing in various places during the long trip. Beautiful descriptions and lovely character interactions set the tone for this story, and I wasn't disappointed with its conclusion.

S. E. Ward, seward, submitted the first place winning story -- the top of the heap, the shiniest star in the the shadiest night seen on city streets or country hillsides or the middle of an empty. calm-swept ocean. And, it contains one of the most unusual settings I've read, plus an unusual cast of (real and fantastic) characters -- France in the year 1243rd year of the word of Muhammed populated with the French, of course, Muslim ghulin (a zombie and vampire creature), Jewish outcasts, and tiny bits of woodland fae with a taste for human flesh. Okay, so maybe I'm making this all sound like a few of the present day stories that toss a wild combination of bizarre genre elements into the plot and make the reader blink and blink due to the fireworks therefrom. No, this is a gentle, poignant story told from the point of view of an ailing father, a leader of his tribe of people, as he proceeds to deal with, correct and comfort his one living son.

The presentation of characters, setting and plot line is slowly woven into the the fabric of the story giving the reader time to picture this alternative reality. Slowly, I began to identify with the protagonist. Not an easy thing to do for me, especially with an unfamiliar historical setting, especially for me as an American reader in a time of American conflict with certain Muslim religious groups. Unfortunately, a certain amount of my reading time was spent wondering what the author was doing with this characterization and how it reflected upon what was going on in the world today. It's different worlds, that story's world and my present day one, that's all. And, people are different the whole world round and those differences make us richer. This story is richer for its various cultural blends (both fantastical and reality based) and those cultural perspectives make us richer as readers.

But that is on the fringes, what is foremost is the very human and individualistic story of raising sons and daughters who reflect proudly upon their parents, accept their responsibilities, make mistakes and learn from them. The father, in "Sins of the Father," has spoiled his only son with gifts and, perhaps, a lack of a firmer parenting style. The father, rapidly becoming permanently disabled, must suffer the trails of his own mistakes, and that is what this darkish story is really about. A wonderful choice for the first place position.

I wasn't disappointed in my wait for these stories. Well worth the wait, I believe.