Kristin Janz

Category: Short fiction

  • The Empty Family, by Colm Toibin

    I just finished reading The Empty Family, the new short story collection by Irish literary author Colm Toibin (apologies for the lack of accents; I’m not a sophisticated enough blogger to know if WordPress has a way of including accents in foreign words).  I try to not read just high fantasy, even though that’s what I like best, because I think that reading more broadly makes me a better writer (at least, I hope that it will).  Of course, this means that I don’t actually get around to reading most of the big high fantasy titles that come out each year.  But I think the trade-off is worth it.  I think when I just read the same sorts of stories all the time, I develop a terribly narrow view of what constitutes good fiction, and I like trying to learn what appeals to other readers in a book that I might not be quite as excited about as, say, the latest installment in A Song of Ice and Fire.

    What I found most compelling about the stories in Toibin’s collection was his wonderful skill of characterization.  The individuals who populate these stories are all complex and vividly portrayed, sometimes less aware than the reader of what’s going on around them, sometimes self-deceptive, but always fascinating.  My favorite story was “The New Spain”, about a young woman returning home a few years after Franco’s death, after living in London for several years.  The family summer home on Menorca has changed in the years she’s been away, leading to conflicts with her parents and sister; but perhaps she also bears some of the blame for the changes that she loathes.  It’s a beautiful, slow-moving examination of coming home after enough years have passed to change both the traveler and the homeland.

    I also really liked “The Colour of Shadows”, about a man caring for the dying aunt who raised him after he was abandoned by his mother, and “The Street”, about two Pakistani immigrant men in Barcelona and the relationship that develops between them.  I have a sense that the stories I liked best were the ones that, to me, seemed to have the most momentum, or plot, where I was intrigued because it felt that things were happening and I wanted to know what would happen next.  I think this is a genre reader/writer thing, and it seems to me that in literary fiction, it’s perfectly acceptable to write a story that is a close examination of a key moment in a character’s life, but in which (to a prejudiced genre reader) not a lot seems to happen.

    It’s good to see what authors will do when they’re not working under the constraints that I’m used to.  I found the characterizations in Toibin’s collection much deeper and richer and also more subtle than I usually find in fantasy or science fiction short stories.  But I still liked best the stories where he brought this skill of characterization to a situation with more obvious conflict and momentum.

  • Mystic Signals Magazine

    Continuing in the vein of finally getting around to reading magazines that have my stories in them, I recently finished Issue 10 of Mystic Signals.  At least I finished this one before the new issue was out!  Mystic Signals is a print compilation of all the stories that have appeared in the two most recent issues of online magazines Sorcerous Signals and The Lorelei Signal.  It’s available from Amazon, but you can also read it for free at the link above.

    Each issue of Mystic Signals, a quarterly publication, features two “print-exclusive” stories in addition to the online content of the parent magazines, and my story “The Shoemaker’s Daughter” was one of these.  My favorite story in the issue I read was the other print-only story:  “The Exchange Box”, by Terry W. Ervin.  Sallie is a single mother on welfare who’s offered a chance at some quick, legal money.  All she has to do is place her hand into a mysterious box.  But each encounter with the box comes at a cost, and it’s not clear to Sallie whether the force connected to the box is generous or malevolent.  I liked how the box’s true nature remained ambiguous until the very end of the story; I didn’t know which way it was going to turn out.  And I also liked the compassionate but also realistic portrayal of how difficult it is even for intelligent, well-intentioned people to pull themselves out of poverty, even with a stroke of unnaturally good fortune.

    I also liked Lauren LeBano’s “The Strawberry Banshee”, about an unpopular teenage girl and the dangerous creature she harbors; and “On the Reproductive Habits of Elves”, by Edward W. Robertson, an entertaining examination of why long-lived elves seem to have so few children, and whether everything about elven culture is all that it appears to be.

    Issue 10 of Mystic Signals is still available, if you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet!

  • 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.

  • Prairie Fire review

    My story “Woman Moving to the Country” was published in Prairie Fire magazine at the beginning of this year, and I promised in my blog post announcing the publication that I would write about the other stories in the issue once I received my contributor’s copy. Well, um, they weren’t that slow in sending it. I just haven’t been able to make time before now. The first few months of this year were rather busy, for some reason.

    Prairie Fire is a quarterly Canadian print literary magazine, publishing both short fiction and poetry (the issue I was in featured 6 stories, an essay, and 21 poems). I feel I should offer the disclaimer that I tend to write and read mostly genre, not literary, fiction; which means that I might be looking for different things in a story than the typical target reader of a literary journal such as Prairie Fire. So don’t assume I know what I’m talking about here!

    For me, the most memorable stories were Colin Snowsell’s “The Driver” and Kirsten Madsen’s “The Cold Snap”. Snowsell’s story makes effective use of an unreliable narrator, and a twist ending that the reader sees coming soon enough to appreciate the poignancy of the situation, but not so soon that the twist feels too obvious. “The Cold Snap” is primarily about the narrator’s affair with an older married man (37 years old! Ancient!), but also about her relationships with the other people in her life. I appreciated how we see her assessment of other people change and deepen as she comes to know them better, particularly her younger coworker at the coffee shop, and her lover’s wife. I wasn’t convinced that the titular cold snap was an essential aspect of the story, though. Madsen’s descriptions of the frigid northern Canadian winter were richly descriptive, but I ended up feeling that the same story could just as well have been set in any small, remote town.

    Interestingly, all the stories in the issue were written in first person. I don’t know if this is more typical of literary fiction, or just coincidence; in the fantasy and science fiction world, we certainly don’t avoid first person, but I’d say the majority of stories are told in third person, and in fact, some prominent f/sf editors actively dislike first person. Maybe the intimate nature of first person works better for the more internal sorts of stories that literary fiction tends to feature? (Or maybe I should read a few more literary magazines before venturing such a judgment.)

    It’s even harder for me to judge poetry than literary fiction, since I read even less of it. And since I tend to be more interested in plot and character development than in imagery or beautiful language, I’m really out of my depth with poetry. Having said this, among the poems in the issue I particularly liked “Harry Mayzell’s Suit” by Harold Rhenisch (because it tells a story), Ellen Shearer’s “Hydrangea (after Plath)” (I found the imagery striking, and I liked the bitter edge), and R. Johnson’s “cat walk” (possibly because of its scorn for those who don’t love cats, and because it’s also the story of a relationship, in all its brevity).

    Anne Simpson was the featured writer for this issue, with 4 poems and an essay. I loved the gorgeous use of nature imagery in her poems, and found her essay on “Poetry and Community” challenging and thought-provoking in its exploration (among other things) of how writers, whose work is so often inward-focused, also need to look outside themselves into the lives and experiences of others.

    The next issue of Prairie Fire is out now, featuring, among others, poet Neile Graham, whom I know from the Clarion West Workshop. It would have been lovely to have been in the same issue as Neile, but alas, it was not to be! If you didn’t have a chance to read the issue with my story, and would still like to, back issues are orderable here. The one you’re looking for is Volume 31, Issue 4, featuring Anne Simpson.

  • New story available in Mystic Signals

    My story “The Shoemaker’s Daughter” is now out in Mystic Signals. You can download a PDF version for free right here.

    If you like paper, a hard copy of the magazine is also available for $12. Once you get to the link, scroll down a little, and you’ll see it on the lower right.

    “The Shoemaker’s Daughter” is another traditional fantasy, set in the world in which I’m writing that long fantasy series I’ve been working on forever. The story contains a brief shout-out to elves (so to speak), but no actual elves appear onstage.

    The genesis of the story is perhaps a little odd, in that it was inspired by an NPR interview with a well-known former child celebrity whose career had been closely managed by his overbearing father. For some reason that stuck with me, and as it was tossing around in my head, I also started thinking about the part in Les Miserables where Jean Valjean rescues Cossette from the Thenardier family, who are supposed to be looking after her, but instead are working her to death as a servant. In that case, it turns out to be a good thing for Cossette that the mysterious stranger takes her away; but the Thenardiers don’t have any way of knowing that. What if the stranger’s motives were (possibly) less benevolent?

    Enjoy!

  • New story out in Prairie Fire

    My story “Woman Moving to the Country” is in the current issue of Prairie Fire, a Canadian literary magazine. Although I do write mostly fantasy and science fiction, I decided to venture into the mysterious realm of literary fiction for this one. Which I forgot to warn my mom about when she read an early draft: “I liked it, but I kept expecting something strange to happen.”

    Those of you who live in Canada will have the easiest time finding this magazine. A friend of mine mentioned that she’s seen it at Chapters in Toronto. Libraries (especially university libraries) may also be good bets. It’s published in Winnipeg, so that’s probably the best city in which to find copies. (What? Not planning a trip to Winnipeg in February? For shame!)

    It’s also possible to subscribe to Prairie Fire, saving 50% off the newstand price, and helping them to support more authors in the future.

    Unfortunately I cannot yet comment on the other stories and poems in the issue, as I’m still waiting for my contributor’s copy (thank you, Canada Post and United States Postal System!). But I look forward to reading the work of all the other authors.

    “Woman Moving to the Country” was originally written at Clarion West in 2008, and my workshop classmates had a lot of great suggestions for improving the story, as did that week’s instructor, Chuck Palahniuk. So, thanks! Also to my local writers group, BRAWL, who all insisted with one voice that I really needed to fix the ending. (I fixed it.)

    Okay, this is starting to sound like a really dull Academy Awards acceptance speech. Enough of that!

    I won’t say too much about the actual story, except that it has some funny bits, and a lot of avocados. And that there’s a sequel, of sorts, coming out in Aoife’s Kiss in December. (I’m back to fantasy with the sequel; that literary fiction stuff is just too weird!)

  • Daily Science Fiction (great new online magazine!)

    If you haven’t seen Daily Science Fiction yet, they’re publishing some great stories. You can read them at their website; or, if you want the stories when they first come out, subscribe to their mailing list, and they’ll e-mail you a new story every day (they publish both science fiction and fantasy).

    I have to admit that I don’t read every story that shows up in my Inbox. Maybe if I had more time. So far I’ve especially liked Therese Arkenberg’s “The Fosterling” and the current featured story, Matthew Johnson’s “Long Pig” (for anyone who’s an afficionado of fine dining).

  • Great Canadian science fiction

    I just finished reading the latest issue of On Spec magazine (I often have a magazine going at the same time as whatever book I’m reading.). On Spec is probably Canada’s best-known speculative fiction magazine (edit: Actually, Chizine might be better known, being a SFWA-qualifying publication and all; unfortunately I tend to forget about Chizine because I’m not sure I’ll ever write a horror story under 4000 words – they also publish good stories, though!). It’s mostly a print magazine, but you can also buy a slightly cheaper electronic subscription, or single issue. The website is here. If you live in Canada, I think they have some newstand distribution; if you live in the US, you might be able to find copies at a convention.

    I guess I should tell you why you’d want to buy copies or even a subscription to On Spec before telling you how! I’m always impressed by the quality and diversity of the stories they publish, and the Summer 2010 issue is no exception. (Did I say the same thing about Sybil’s Garage? Well, it’s true about On Spec, too. Just because I repeat myself doesn’t mean I’m not sincere.)

    My favorite story was Greg Wilson’s “Still”. It wouldn’t do the story justice to say simply that it’s about a young wooden puppet who runs away from home after being molested by her music teacher. It is about that, yes, but it doesn’t try so hard to be an allegory of real abused children that it loses sight of the puppets whose story its telling; nor does it trivialize the suffering of real children. And it manages to find a happy ending, albeit a bittersweet one.

    I also really liked Rob Engen’s “Thanks for the Game,” about interstellar aliens who land in Manitoba and learn to play hockey. It’s a much more interesting story than you might think, based on that one-sentence description, even if you’re not a Canadian or a hockey fan!

    And, being a chemist, I couldn’t help but love Susan Forest’s “The Right Chemistry”, about the stormy relationship of the two bonded atoms in a molecule of oxygen. It’s full of chemistry puns that are so bad they’re good.

    One thing I noticed, looking at the cover: some magazines put the names of the best-known authors appearing in that issue in big print, whereas lesser-known writers might not have their names appear on the cover at all. Not so with On Spec! Everyone’s name is the same size, and all the authors are listed in strict alphabetical order. I like that.

    My own story, “The Observation Deck” (a flash fiction space opera–or, as someone from my writers group put it, a space aria) should be coming out in On Spec sometime next year. I’m looking forward to it; I’m sure I’ll be published alongside some really great authors.

    American and international authors will be pleased to hear that, although the three authors I’ve mentioned are all either Canadian or live in Canada (as far as I can tell from their bios), and On Spec does make a point of publishing at least 80% Canadian content, there were some Americans in this issue, as well. And they just started accepting online submissions, so you no longer have to try to find IRCs, or have your friends in Canada mail you Canadian postage.

    Get published in Canada, eh?

  • Sybil’s Garage no. 7

    I just finished reading the latest issue of the magazine Sybil’s Garage. I can’t claim to be unbiased in my recommendation, since the editor, Matt Kressel, is a friend of mine. But I’ve been reading Sybil’s Garage almost from the beginning (I think I did miss #1), and I’ve always found great stories there. I think #7 is the best issue yet.

    I particularly liked Amy Sisson’s “Suicide Club” and Tom Crosshill’s “Thinking Woman’s Crop of Fools”, two short and somewhat chilling glimpses of the future; among the poetry, I was struck by Jaqueline West’s “One October Night in Baltimore.” One thing that I’m really impressed by, looking at the whole issue, is the diversity of content: stories and poems; flash fiction and longer short stories (though they don’t really publish anything over 5000 words); traditional narratives and more experimental approaches to storytelling; science fiction and fantasy; settings past, present and future; North American and international. I like not knowing what to expect next when I turn the page.

    I don’t know what to expect from Sybil’s Garage no. 8, but I’m sure it will be worth waiting for!

  • Great story from Realms of Fantasy

    I’ve been reading the August issue of Realms of Fantasy, and I really liked Sara Genge’s story, “Seagull Girl’s Butterfly Tongue.” It’s a zombie story with an unusual take on zombies (they’re a little like a fantastical version of the Borg).

    I might be reading too much into it, but I thought the story also hinted at a parallel with the way western culture often attempts to experience other cultures, stealing bits of the other cultures and incorporating them into their own in a misguided attempt to understand them, perhaps ruining or at least diminishing the original culture as part of the process. “… that was the zombie way. Forever to yearn for new things. Forever to absorb them and turn them into the same old McHuman.”

    Of course, this tendency is hardly unique to American, Canadian and modern European culture. I think of the ancient Romans borrowing from Greek culture. Or the Mughal conquerers of northern India (especially Akbar) borrowing from Hindu culture. And I’d also question whether it’s entirely bad.

    But I liked the thought-provoking way in which Genge’s story raised some of these questions. Also, the zombies were really creepy.