For most of its length the Altoona is a small, shallow river, littered with rocks you can step across without getting your feet wet. It rushes down Blackbird Mountain, white [...]
Issue: July 2006
Pervertable
This isn’t where I expected you to take me when you asked if I wanted to go shopping. I was thinking about the other side of town. About the kind [...]
Writing Visual Dialect in Fiction
Standardized spelling is the magic trick that lets readers and authors know they share a vocabulary. But let’s face it – different people pronounce words differently, and a fieldworker from Cornwall is unlikely to use American collegiate English. What can authors do to make words on the page sound the way they do in the air, without alienating readers? Tony Burton, author of “Bluetick,” opens up his writer’s toolbox.
The Dragon’s Breath Seed
In the province of Henan in China, a long time ago, there lived a kindhearted baker named Shen. From baskets full of golden eggs, dusty bags of flour, and glittering [...]
Envy of the Gods: If the Reward Were Right, by Andrea Savitch
A wish-fulfillment fantasy novel by Andrea Savitch.
Thong Nation, by Henry Sutton
Following one long summer with a less-than-traditional family, Thong Nation delves into the less charming side of British sexual mores—and sexuality in general.
Judy and Norman
On the way to the cemetery, Judy found a badly dead frog in a rain puddle. His brittle, dry leaf skin hung over his bleached skeleton like a loin cloth [...]