Uncanny Magazine Issue 27, page 14
faded blue and worn scarlet
an amber sun with geometric rays
hangs radiation-tattered
from this pole’s end
along with two swinging buckets
dripping precious sticky solvent—
syrup that evaporates almost as soon as it falls
he roves towards faint radio static
with hints of kundiman detected by his keen antenna
through the red regolith
the stunning sopranos of sylvia la torre
three minutes of pure joy
in every forsaken hour of airtime
he flexes metal-cast lips into an awkward shape
and makes a vibration
he thinks it humming (though it’s more of an electric buzz)
and calls out again
tahoooooooooo
to the nothing that surrounds him
there is still at least one martian-day’s trek
before civilization
he pauses and adjusts his solar-panel cap
letting the rays hit the sweet spot
an exchange of mobility for sparse photons
from beneath the pole on his shoulders
in titanium alloy buckets
the silken tofu begins to slosh
stopped sudden in its tracks
and guided by inertia
the only fluid mesophase
touch of liquid
for miles
aromas of caramel arnibal mingle with
the tangy bite of auburn dust
plump sago pearls bob in bucket #2
the only lively dance in a day’s radius
so sweet and so moist
against arid rock
tahoooooooooo
he shouts again
as dawn approaches this vacant expanse
a treacherously saccharine dessert
to feed this deserted landscape
© 2019 D.A. Xiaolin Spires
D.A. Xiaolin Spires steps into portals and reappears in sites such as Hawai’i, NY, various parts of Asia, and elsewhere, with her keyboard appendage attached. Besides Uncanny Magazine, her work appears or is forthcoming in publications such as Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Analog, Nature, Terraform, Galaxy’s Edge, Fireside, Andromeda Spaceways (Year’s Best), LONTAR, Argot, Star*Line, and anthologies of the strange and beautiful: Deep Signal, Ride the Star Wind, Sharp and Sugar Tooth, Broad Knowledge, Future Visions, and Battling in All Her Finery. Select stories can soon be read in German, Vietnamese, Spanish, or Estonian translation. She can be found on Twitter: @spireswriter and on her website: daxiaolinspires.wordpress.com.
things you don’t say to city witches
by Cassandra Khaw
I hope I haven’t ruined this city for you,
As if you could,
As if you were bigger than these tenements, balconied
and blessed with history, and you had walls dressed
to the nines to fives with graffiti,
and sidewalks hallowed, haunted by a few sad stories,
a few fierce glories,
As if you could be brighter than these lights,
bolder than this body of migrants, and you were all that is to see
of a city whose heartbeat I’m learning to carry
in a pocket left of a sound like the word home.
(Editors’ Note: “things you don’t say to city witches” is read by Stephanie Malia Morris on the Uncanny Magazine Podcast, Episode 27B.)
© 2019 Cassandra Khaw
Cassandra Khaw writes many things. Mostly these days, she writes horror and video games and occasional flirtations with chick-lit. Her work can be found in venues Clarkesworld, Fireside Fiction, Uncanny, Lightspeed, Nightmare, and more. A Song for Quiet is her latest novella from Tor, a piece of Lovecraftian Southern Gothic that she worries will confuse those who purchased Bearly a Lady, her frothy paranormal romantic comedy.
Wendy, Waiting
by Sandi Leibowitz
Not easy, spending my life
in this one house,
my nights at this window.
Not easy, those first ten years
saying no,
turning down dances,
husbands,
till eventually I said yes
to avoid the innuendos,
and take up what might be termed
my life.
It’s not Peter I pine for,
though he’s why I wait,
constant as a captain’s wife
always turning to the sea.
No, Peter, not you per se.
Eternal youth?
Who’d go back to pimples
and adolescent rage,
longings you can’t quite name?
Peter, you once boasted you were
betwixt and between,
suggesting you evaded
the traps of mortaldom,
as if you were as fleet
as your flighty shadow.
But you’re just stuck.
Maybe that’s why
you always garbed yourself in death—
cobwebs and skeletal leaves
the autumn trees discarded
instead of fresh green vines.
Meanwhile I rushed forward,
girl, belle, betrothed, bride,
wife, mother, grandmama.
I rush still.
So many beings I became,
none of them enough.
Why, then?
It’s that this world corsets me,
freights me with gravity,
a law no rebel can circumvent.
Widowed and gray but with a soul
light as starshine and fairy dust,
I wait at this window,
fearing you’ll never bring me back,
that all I’ll ever know is
Never.
© 2019 Sandi Leibowitz
Sandi Leibowitz, author of The Bone-Joiner and Eurydice Sings, writes speculative poetry and fiction that may be found in Devilfish Review, Metaphorosis, Liminality, Mythic Delirium, Polu Texni, Silver Blade, and other magazines and anthologies. Her poems have won second- and third-place Dwarf Stars, and been nominated for the Rhysling, Pushcart Prize, and Best of the Net awards. She recently created Sycorax Press, a micropress devoted to mythic poetry, and the related online magazine, Sycorax Journal. An elementary-school librarian, she also sings classical and early music. She lives in a raven’s wood next door to bogles in New York City. She invites you to visit her online at sandileibowitz.com.
Other Forms of Conjuring the Moon
by Chloe N. Clark
I never liked the trick
with the girl and the swords.
The magician would lead her
to the box;
she’d peek inside, as if
expecting it to lead somewhere
unusual, a book-filled desert or
an ice cream shop only serving root beer
floats, right before entering.
The door would shut
and I’d always think she was going to knock;
a reverse invitation of
come in.
Then the magician would use
a blade, always one that shone under
stage lights and stabbed through so
so quickly like hot water warmed spoons
into sherbet. How many times
does it take hearing the blade
and then the silence
before you stop holding your breath?
© 2019 Chloe N. Clark
Chloe N. Clark’s work appears in Apex, Flash Fiction Online, Gamut, Hobart, and more. She writes for nerds of a feather and Ploughshares, teaches multimodal composition and creative writing, and can be found online tweeting about cakes, monsters, and basketball @PintsNCupcakes.
Interview: Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
by Caroline M. Yoachim
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam’s stories and poems have appeared in over 60 magazines and anthologies such as Fantasy & Science Fiction, Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, and Lightspeed, as well as in six languages and on the podcast LeVar Burton Reads. She has been a finalist for the Nebula Award and placed for Selected Shorts’ Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize. She curates the annual Art & Words Show in Fort Worth and lives in DFW with her three literarily-named cats: Gimli, Gamora, and Don Quixote. You can visit her on Twitter @BonnieJoStuffle or through her website: bonniejostufflebeam.com . “Every Song Must End” is Stufflebeam’s first appearance in Uncanny.
Uncanny Magazine: “Every Song Must End” features two polyamorous couples navigating how to make their lives fit together under a variety of circumstances. It is a story about loss and comfort, about new love and old love, about balancing relationships with dreams of going to Mars. Did you find it difficult to make all these pieces come together, or did it happen organically? What did you find challenging about writing this story?
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam: Most of it happened organically. The stormy elements were more difficult to feed into the narrative and took tinkering to make them more organic and less a feature I was forcing into the story. I wrote this story over a long period of time, during the buildup and dissolution of a relationship of my own, so it was overall a challenge to write, as it felt very personal. There were times I didn’t want to work on it, and other times when I felt like working on it was the only thing I wanted to do.
Uncanny Magazine: Each section of this story features a song. Why did you decide to structure the story this way? How did you choose the songs?
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam: I’ve always connected deeply to music, and while writing this story, I was getting to know a new friend who shared both my love of music and my taste in music. I wanted to write a story with an added element for people who feel a similar fondness for music, and it became a fun challenge to theme each section based on the song I chose for it.
I chose the tracks from songs I was sharing with my friend at the time, songs that were part of a playlist that I was listening to obsessively. As a result, these songs are ones that make me feel both broken and alive. I hope the readers who choose to listen to them find them moving too. I’m excited to share them with people who may not have heard them before.
Uncanny Magazine: I love all the references to gardening and the way the state of the yard mirrors the state of the protagonist: moldy and neglected, or full of nourishing vegetables, or ravaged by the storm to become a blank slate… ready to start anew. What drew you to this extended metaphor—are you an avid gardener?
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam: I used to be an avid gardener! Gardening in north Texas is difficult, especially as the weather becomes more unpredictable. I grew up in my father’s vegetable gardening eating raw onions and fresh tomatoes hot from the hundred-degree heat, and I’ve made sure to always rent houses over apartments so that I could keep a garden. Lately I’ve been sticking to a bare minimum: a few flowers, peas, asparagus, and some kale seem to be all that I can keep alive. I keep trying to grow tomatoes again. They don’t like me much these last few years.
Uncanny Magazine: You are a prolific author of both poetry and fiction—do you find there are certain themes or ideas that you return to repeatedly? Is there a theme or idea that you would like to write about, but haven’t yet?
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam: I write a lot about family and what it means to confront legacy, the various qualities—good and bad—that are passed down. In that same vein, I write a lot about mental illness and the often harmful myth of full recovery. I like stories that offer hope without perpetuating the idea that people with mental illness should search for a cure over strengthening their coping mechanisms. I write a lot about sexuality. I imagine I’ll continue to explore those themes. I’m currently writing a lot of stories like “Every Song Must End” that explore nontraditional relationship structures, and I’d like to get deeper into those ideas. I also aim to play more with classic horror tropes, as I’ve recently developed a love of horror movies.
Uncanny Magazine: If given the opportunity, would you want to go to Mars?
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam: I don’t think I would. If I could visit and come back, I would consider it. I’m a fan of trying new things. But living there? I like this planet—and the people on it—too much.
Uncanny Magazine: What are you working on next?
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam: I’m working on a ghost story with a science fictional twist as well as edits to an older novel about a cursed ballerina in imperial Russia. I’m always working on a variety of writing-adjacent projects: arranging my Art & Words Show, teaching local classes, and traveling/exploring with an eye toward inspiration.
© 2019 Uncanny Magazine
Caroline M. Yoachim is the author of the 2017 Hugo and Nebula finalist short story “Carnival Nine.” Her fiction has appeared in Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Uncanny, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and Asimov’s, among other places. Her debut short story collection, Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World & Other Stories, came out with Fairwood Press in 2016. For more about Caroline, check out her website at carolineyoachim.com
Interview: A. T. Greenblatt
by Caroline M. Yoachim
A. T. Greenblatt is a mechanical engineer by day and a writer by night. She lives in Philadelphia and is known to frequently subject her friends to various cooking and home brewing experiments. She is a graduate of Viable Paradise XVI and Clarion West 2017. Her work is forthcoming or has appeared in Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clarkesworld, and Fireside, as well as other fine places. Her story “And Yet” is nominated for the 2018 Nebula Award and was originally published in Uncanny Magazine exactly one year ago. You can find her online at atgreenblatt.com and on Twitter at @AtGreenblatt . Her moving tale about a new relationship in a post-apocalyptic world—“Before the World Crumbles Away”—is Greenblatt’s third story to appear in Uncanny.
Uncanny Magazine: One focal point of “Before the World Crumbles Away” is the evolving relationship between Elodie and Marina. I loved their contrasting perspectives and the way their dynamic changes as the story progresses. Was their relationship a starting point for the story?
A. T. Greenblatt: Yes! This was one of the stories I wrote during Clarion West. Each week during the workshop, I gave myself the challenge of writing something that was outside of my comfort zone. My goal for this particular story was to write an emotional relationship between two characters and to use alternating points of view to tell it. I wasn’t sure if I could successfully write a romantic relationship, having never written one before, and the story was learning experience for me. It took a bunch of revisions to get right.
Uncanny Magazine: “Before the World Crumbles Away” features technology (Marina’s eyes and Elodie’s android) that has drawbacks and limitations. Does your engineering background influence how you portray technology in your fiction?
A. T. Greenblatt: Engineering definitely influences my writing. For a long time I had difficulty writing science fiction because I had trouble building worlds where the tech worked plausibly. From my years in design work, I’ve come to realize two things. First, no piece of technology will be a perfect solution, no matter how well it’s designed. Second, the end users will always end up using the technology in ways that the designers never imagined. And that’s where the good stories are.
In this story, I really wanted to show technology advances, especially Marina’s eyes, that are a workable solution, but not a perfect one. I don’t believe in “magic bullet” fixes, especially when it comes to aiding the human body, only varying degrees of success.
Uncanny Magazine: As the world is falling apart, some people turned to games—Elodie is programming her android to play board games, and her roommate escapes into video games. How did you choose which games to include? And are you a gamer?
A. T. Greenblatt: All the board games I included in this story are ones I used to play with my younger sisters. I loved checkers and they insisted on playing Candy Land because they had a good shot at winning.
I am a gamer and have gotten lost in Final Fantasy games before (X, XII, XII, and XV). Video games are sometimes my burnout recovery method. These days I’m playing Horizon Zero Dawn on the PS4 and usually have to set a timer so I don’t play for hours. Also, a bunch of my coworkers and friends are board game nerds and have introduced me to tons of new and more complicated board games. My current favorite is Dice Forge.
Uncanny Magazine: If you were a painter in this story, would you paint the cracks?
A. T. Greenblatt: That’s a really interesting question! I think it would depend on my audience, or rather what I’m trying to convey to them. As a general rule, I don’t think we should cover up what’s wrong in the world. But I also think it’s the job of an artist to show a truth, sometimes an upsetting truth, with beautiful lies.
Uncanny Magazine: Something I admire across all your stories is your ability to write realistic sympathetic characters. What is your process for coming up with them? Do they ever do anything unexpected, or only what you tell them to?
A. T. Greenblatt: I love writing stories focused on one or two characters trying to accomplish or create something in the (sometimes strange) universe they live in. I’m always putting my characters in terrible situations, but I always want them to succeed. So they all begin to grow from that seed of hope. For me, if the characters and I are going to be making this journey together, I really need to empathize with them or I’ll end up abandoning the story halfway through.
My characters definitely have minds of their own. One of the most common critiques I get on my first drafts is “I’m not sure why character X did this.” To which I reply, “Neither do I.” My revisions are usually where I learn why my characters do the things they do. It’s sort of like the process of an acquaintance becoming a friend.
Uncanny Magazine: What are you working on next?
A. T. Greenblatt: I just finished revising a bunch of stories, so my project list is weirdly short right now. Currently, I’m working on a novelette and writing flash for Codex’s Weekend Warrior contest.
