Strange, Weird, & Wonderful Magazine

I finally finished reading the Spring 2011 issue of Strange, Weird, & Wonderful Magazine (in which my story “Sons of God, Daughters of Men” appears).  Of course, now the summer issue is out.*  Oh well.  What with getting laid off from my job and concentrating on writing-related pursuits full-time, I should be able to keep up better with all the fiction I want to read, in a more timely fashion.  (Donald says that there’s no way I’ll find time to do all the things I have planned for after I get laid off.)

My favorite story in the issue was Tom Greene’s “Turnover”.  Vivica has just started a new job as assistant to Mr. Perkins, an eccentric man who controls the office supply inventory at his workplace.  The story really shines in its characterization of Vivica, a woman for whom the ideal job is “entering inventories and distributions of supplies into long columns on preprinted forms, putting forms into color-coded envelopes that the boy from the mail room picked up, reconciling records of supplies in different departments.”  Also in its portrayal of the sinister Mr. Perkins, who hates to see any employee request anything more valuable than a stick of staples.  And what exactly does Mr. Perkins keep in the locked supply closet that Vivica has been forbidden to open?  Of course, it’s no surprise that Vivica does find an urgent reason to look in the mysterious supply closet, and that there’s more to Mr. Perkins than she originally thought; but the story adds enough interesting twists to this familiar trope that I found it a very compelling read.

* Even though the summer issue is out now, the spring issue is still available at the link above.

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