[personal] July 3rd at the beach [03 Jul 2008|10:06pm] jaylake Worked the Day Jobbe, spent a bunch of time in the small room, went out for a Mexican lunch, wrote almost 1,000 words on “The Forests of the Night”, hit the beach twice, once for sunshine and once for fireworks. A good enough day. I shan’t need to send it to the Returns Desk after all. The inevitable photo: ( Read the rest of this entry » ) Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there. post comment

Hoodoo Sky [04 Jul 2008|04:49am] apod http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080703.html The strange-looking rock formations in the foreground of this skyscape 1 comment|post comment

Wrist-Top Racer Switches From Trainer to Watch With Ease [04 Jul 2008|04:00am] wired_news http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/326345481/garmin_forerunner_405 http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/garmin_forerunner_405 The Forerunner 405 is a data-driven action hero that tracks speed, distance and heart rate with GPS-enabled accuracy and lab-worthy cardio analysis. post comment

Transformer: Kayak Adjusts Its Shape to Go With Your Flow [04 Jul 2008|04:00am] wired_news http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/326345482/trak_t1600 http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/trak_t1600 You can prep this flexible kayak for almost any weather or sea condition with hydraulic jacks that stretch and adjust the skin with ease. It's pricey, but wow -- it's like several kayaks in one. post comment

Titanium Frame Handles Any Cycling Terrain [04 Jul 2008|04:00am] wired_news http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/326345483/moots_psychlox http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/moots_psychlox The lightweight Psychlo-X is a road racer and mountain bike in one. Our riders take this and three more cyclo-cross bikes through a gauntlet of pavement, dirt and grass. post comment

Sex Drive: How to Keep the Fireworks Going From Afar [04 Jul 2008|04:00am] wired_news http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/326345484/sexdrive_0704 http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/sexdrive/2008/07/sexdrive_0704 Many long-distance lovers have become experts in how tech can augment sexuality. No commuter couple should go without Skype, Twitter and mobile phones, while sex toys can take the repetitive stress injury out of a long-distance affair. But it's not much of a stretch to think that there's a bigger need (read: market) for "tele-amore" devices than there ever will be for teledildonics (online sex toys controlled by a lover from anywhere in the world). And yet we don't have a lot of options when we're looking for devices designed to arouse our emotions. Not everyone is comfortable enough with both sex and computers to get internet-enabled vibrators working, but we all want to interact with our partners in special ways. Despite the frenzy around social media applications, we still don't have sensual devices that extend that functionality beyond virtual space. All it would take is something like the Ambient Orb hooked up to a desktop dot to get my heart racing. Joseph Kaye, a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University studying human-computer interaction, developed the Virtual Intimate Object, or VIO, to study the effect of low-bandwidth applications on long-distance intimacy. The VIO is a dot that sits in your system tray (Windows) or desktop (Mac) and monitors an identical dot on your partner's computer. When your partner clicks his or her dot, yours fills with color; as time goes by without a click, the color slowly fades until the circle is just an outline. In Kaye's 2004 study (.pdf), five long-distance couples kept journals of how often they clicked the VIO and how using it made them feel. He notes that while he originally thought of the VIO as the source of intimacy, he realized that the journals quickly became an integral part of the experience for the couples. Just as dancing leads to necking which leads to spanking and then to the oral sex, what was enough on day one was merely adequate by day five of the study. By week's end, participants had several suggestions for additional functionality: a choice of colors, the option to play a sound, and the ability to replace the circle with their own set of graphics. They had become emotionally engaged not just with their partners, but with the application. If you can get all that from a 2-D dot, think what you could do with an object you can touch. Unfortunately, the closest thing I can find to that type of technology for consumers is the Nabaztag rabbit, a wireless device that connects with other Nabaztag rabbits over the internet. From a strictly romantic standpoint, they one-up the Chumby and the Tux Droid in that the rabbits can "marry" each other, so that when one partner moves their rabbit's ears, the paired rabbit's ears move the same way. Chat acronyms, make way for the semaphore signs of love. The Nabaztags are excruciatingly cute. I've wanted a set for years, but they weren't specifically designed for suitors. (Nor are they the seamless technical experience they claim to be, apparently: The Nabaztalk user forums provide a sobering counterpoint to the Nabaztags' slick product marketing.) The human-computer interaction folks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology seem to understand the connection between technology and emotion, but their clever projects -- like the Lover's Cups that light up when a far-away partner takes a sip or the Mutsugoto interactive art bed -- have yet to break free of academia and museums. Gadgets like teledildonics and sex machines that stimulate the body but shouldn't be used at work or in public only go so far. Sex tech doesn't have to be explicit to be effective: If you and your distant partner have been together long enough, you realize that tech that fosters intimacy, playfulness and common experiences has a much greater impact on the quality of your union than just having orgasms now and then. I want to glance at the shelf and see an object glowing warmly because someone special sent me a message. I want to let someone know I'm thinking about him, simply by stroking my fingers over a smooth surface. I know I'm not the only one who wants to interact through something sensual and swoopy and erotic that has no connection to business, chores or taxes. I want my ambient intimacy object. Are you listening, developers? There's a mountain of money to be made keeping long-distance lovers connected in our increasingly complicated world. See you in a fortnight, Regina Lynn - - - Regina Lynn is the author of Sexier Sex: Lessons From the Brave New Sexual Frontier. She blogs at reginalynn.com. post comment

July 4, 1776: To Preserve, Protect and Defend ... [04 Jul 2008|04:00am] wired_news http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/326345485/dayintech_0704 http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/07/dayintech_0704 1776: The Declaration of Independence is signed. It will take 117 years before someone gets around to saying, "Hey, maybe we should preserve this thing." The Declaration of Independence can be fairly said to stand alongside the Magna Carta and Bill of Rights as the most important documents in the history of democracy. Its significance was understood from the moment it was signed, so one is left to wonder why its preservation was ignored for so long. During the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence was rolled up and toted around like a Thomas Bros. map, although, given the vicissitudes of war, that's perhaps understandable. Less understandable is what came later. Water was spilled on it while it was being copied in 1823. Then it was tacked up on the wall at the U.S. Patent Office for about 40 years, where it was subjected to a strong northern light. Finally, the suggestion was made in 1903 that maybe it shouldn't be exposed to sunlight and, oh, by the way, maybe it should be kept dry, too. The latter turned out to be a bad idea because the Declaration, which was written on parchment, actually needs a bit of moisture to keep from cracking. It wasn't until 1951 that the first modern preservation efforts began. The document was sealed inside a bronze, bullet-proof glass case at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. Humidified helium replaced oxygen to prevent further erosion, and the glass was filtered to cut down on light exposure. Beginning in 1987, using camera equipment developed for the Hubble Space Telescope, preservationists were able to monitor the Declaration for even the most minute signs of fading or flaking ink. The measures proved effective, so much so that the Declaration outlived its original protective case. After undergoing careful inspection for further erosion in 2003, the document was resealed in a titanium casement filled with inert argon gas. Similar preservation techniques are used to protect the Bill of Rights and Constitution. The Declaration of Independence remains on display in the rotunda of the National Archives, where it is seen by roughly 6,000 tourists every day. At night, when the crowds have all gone home, the case is lowered 22 feet into a vault. That's almost as much protection as the French give to Napoleon. Source: History.com post comment

From Foldup Kayaks to Swim Goggles, Wired Reviews the Hottest Summer Gear [04 Jul 2008|04:00am] wired_news http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/326345486/reviews http://www.wired.com/reviews Our blowout Summer Test gadget reviews have something for everyone from lightweight tents, folding bikes and GPS navigators to tricked-out training watches and pro-quality swim goggles. post comment

ON BACHELORHOOD [04 Jul 2008|12:22am] lord_whimsy “Woman inspires us to great things," remarked Alexandre Dumas, "and prevents us from achieving them.” Hiyoo! Link 2 comments|post comment

A city that takes its fireworks seriously [03 Jul 2008|11:16pm] jedediah http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2008/07/03/11287.html From up here on Mary Anne's roof, at 11 p.m. on July 3rd, I can see two extensive neighborhood fireworks displays (more than a dozen rockets each just in the ten minutes I've watched), one of which is quite close. (Sadly for me, the closest one tends to prefer noise to pretty colors.) Then there are at least five others in the middle distance that have sent up one to five rockets apiece (or so). And bits of a display off in the downtown direction that may've been the city fireworks over the lake; there was a steady stream of fireworks over there, but I ran downstairs to get a sweater (because it's actually chilly here tonight, for some reason, even though it's Chicago in July) and ran back, and they'd stopped. I think this has all been going on for a couple of hours. I briefly contemplated going to the city's display, because I think I enjoyed it last time (two years ago), but it ended up feeling like more trouble than it was worth. So I wandered up to the roof around 11, and have seen lots of fireworks in the past 15 minutes. Still going on, in dribs and drabs. (Added later: the last one I saw was at about 11:40, at which point they were about five minutes apart and I decided to give up and go inside.) And there'll be more tomorrow. IIrc, on the Fourth two years ago we drove back from seeing Too Much Light, and through the whole half-hour (or so) drive there were fireworks in the sky to the left and the right, in nearly every neighborhood we went through. So if you like fireworks, Chicago's apparently the place to be on and around the Fourth. Good stuff. post comment

[04 Jul 2008|12:09am] andyhat Lately I feel like I'm completely losing track of the new books and magazines arriving at my place. There ends up being a fair bit of lag before I get things entered into librarything, what with needing to scan covers and edit all the data to be accurate, and magazines don't get entered there at all. Plus, there the new arrivals are intermixed with my efforts to catalog my existing library. So, taking a cue from various other bloggers, I'm going to try just taking quick photos of the incoming titles a couple times a week and posting them here. At least that's the plan; we'll see how I do actually carrying it out. ( <br>And more beyond the cut... ) So, this week's mail brought me an above average haul, I think. First up there are James Doig's two volumes of Australian gothic and horror stories from mid-19th to mid-20th century. All reprints, but the stories and authors are all completely new to me (and probably to anyone else who doesn't specialize in Australiana). I had picked up a couple of Graham Roumieu's Bigfoot books from amazon a couple months ago and enjoyed them, so I took advantage of a gold box coupon for In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot, which looks as fun as the others. A bunch of new lit mags this week: F&SF, Light: A Quarterly of Light Verse (featuring amusing work from John Updike, tomsdisch and many others), the Missouri, Kenyon, and New England Reviews, the Canadian Descant (with its charming "Genuine Canadian Magazine" seal on the front cover), and of course, the always wonderful Black Static. Then we've got the first two books from clarkesworld's Wyrm Publishing: Realms, collecting the first year's stories from Clarkesworld Magazine, and Memorare, a new novella by Gene Wolfe. Leigh Brackett's The Ginger Star is the latest in Paizo's Planet Stories line of pulp reprints. From Prime, the much-delayed limited edition of Jeff VanderMeer's Secret Lives has finally arrived. My own secret life as a cat-rescuing superhero is included. From Night Shade, I got my copy of Walter Jon Williams' new "post-singularity" novel Implied Spaces which has been getting some good buzz and I'm quite looking forward to reading. In other hard SF, I also received Charles Stross' new novel Saturn's Children (which has one of the worst covers I've seen recently; if I'd received this month's SFBC catalog before ordering the trade edition, I think I would have gone for the book club edition with its "exclusive cover" instead). I must admit to having no recollection of ordering Jenny Davidson's The Explosionist, but it looks like it's a YA alternate history from a first-time novelist. I must have read a good review somewhere. Read Responsibly is last year's new collection of Unshelved, Bill Barnes' and Gene Ambaum's hilarious library comic strip. There's a new collection just out as well, but apparently it's back-ordered at the moment. The Diving Pool is a collection of three novellas by Yoko Ogawa, translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder, presented in a lavish paperback (complete with French flaps and rough cut edges) from Picador. Two were previous published, in The New Yorker and Zoetrope, one is new (at least in English). Burning Babies is Noah Cicero's collection of poetry and prose, and Treatise is his new novel, both from A-Head Publishing. I don't know much about either, but I've enjoyed the poems I've sampled so far and the novel looks interesting. From the Book Depository (who somehow manage to offer free worldwide shipping on UK books), I received the cute little Picador UK edition of Richard Hamblyn's The Invention of Clouds, a biography of Luke Howard, the Quaker and amateur meteorologist who developed the nomenclature for clouds that we still use today. And lastly, there's the enormous new book from Taschen, publishers of gorgeous coffee-table art books, this one a history of the photography of large penises. A beautiful and fun production all around (and even the cover is a clever two-layer arrangement that allows one to remove the model's underwear...) There's no mail tomorrow, so that should be all the books for this week. post comment

[03 Jul 2008|08:53pm] retrobabble [ mood | chipper ] I have a four-day weekend. Woo! As a result, what do I do? Watch a PBS story about Norwegian architects designing a multiplex in the United Arab Emerites (UAE). (The show is from my favorite series called Wide Angle, if you're interested.) The design in Dubai is particularly fascinating; I've been following it for a few years. (Can't touch a architectural magazine/blog/group/website without some feature story on Dubai.) Then someone who I never talk to about architecture mentioned the buildings, and then secritcrush and I were discussing the insaneness of architect David Fisher's proposed rotating building in--you guessed it--Dubai. (That's it below.) So I thought it merited a least a short blog post. You want the future, o SFF writer? It's here, baby. Underwater hotels and artificial islands as art sculptures. Oh, forget it; check it out here. Dubai is nuts indeed. But way cool. post comment

[03 Jul 2008|09:01pm] wintersweet [ mood | pleased ] [ music | Marching - HALCALI ] I'm reading telophase's Anime Convention Artist Alley Survival Guide and thinking I owe her a box of chocolate or something. I've been wanting something like this for a LOOONG time. Well, who knows; if I get on the ball maybe we'll meet each other at a convention someday. 1 comment|post comment

Hail and Farewell for now [03 Jul 2008|11:24pm] ellen_kushner Delia & I are off to the wilds of Maine tomorrow, to a magical house over the water lent us by her oldest friend, for a lengthy and much-needed writing retreat: she to finish her revisions on The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen (sequel to Changeling) and I to try to finish a couple stories and start a script for a kids' play - oh, and finish that comic script! By July 15 we must make our way toOdyssey to teach, and from there proceed at a stately pace to Readercon. So don't look to hear from us for awhile: in Maine we will have access only to dial-up connection, mostly - and a good thing, too, or I would be spending every available minute for the next few weeks just playing with Wordle, a cool new toy that matociquala found for us: This is of the opening and closing paragraphs of The Privilege of the Sword. Enchantment, thy name is Wordle. 1 comment|post comment

Taking the Edge off the Cranky [03 Jul 2008|08:04pm] cranky_editors [rae_is] Dear Writer, To say that I am intimidated to be editing your work does not even begin to sum up the situation. You are a Very High Profile writer, and I am a twenty-something kid, and yours is the first book I have been primary editor on--which you know. You are also famous and a big enough deal that you could get away with being an absolute terror. All of this makes it all the more gratifying that you are kind, respectful, wonderfully easy to work with, terrifically responsive to feedback, mindful of deadlines, and generally a pleasure to work with. Thank you for making this editor a little less cranky. You're pretty awesome. Love, Me 3 comments|post comment

Dark -- Continuing Mostly Dark Until Sunday [03 Jul 2008|10:17pm] dr_phil_physics [ mood | chipper ] Deluge A series of heavy thunderstorms trained across the lower part of Michigan on Wednesday 2 July 2008. The first one, tracking north of Muskegon, was moving at around 40mph and missed us. But it merged with a second storm moving at 60mph which was aimed right at us. As the winds picked up and the rains came at us at a steep angle, Mrs. Dr. Phil asked if I wanted to bet when or if we'd need the generator. I said that I didn't know when, but that sometime in this string of storms the power would go out and we'd be on our own. Shortly after that, at 2:38pm EDT, the power went out. It was quite dark in the house. Six seconds later and the automatic backup generator came on. I tell you, spending that money last summer was genius. ( More story... ) But... No sooner had I started typing this entry at 10:05pm Thursday night, then the lights went out for two seconds. Not the laptop, of course, or the DSL/wireless on the UPS. But... huh? Went to the garage door and peeked inside. Two green lights, no red or flashing red. The power had already come back up and the generator shut down sometime in the past half hour. Not sure why the power glitch. Usually the transfer switch closes with a helluva thud and fast. But I didn't hear the switch, so I think that after the power was back on and stable it hiccuped due to something else. Or something momentarily brought it down. Anyway, 31+ hours on the backup generator and no error codes when it finished. Yay. Dr. Phil post comment

Heads up: Travel to the Pole [03 Jul 2008|07:44pm] sartorias For anyone who enjoys travel reports, poletopole is writing these amazingly vivid, fascinating posts on their journey to the poles. Wow. Go here. post comment

Analysis: NSA Spying Judge Defends Rule of Law, Congress Set to Strip His Power [03 Jul 2008|06:00pm] wired_news http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/326264899/analysis-nsa-sp.html http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/analysis-nsa-sp.html President Bush's arguments for his secret wiretapping of Americans are not legal, a federal court judge ruled Wednesday standing up for a law intended to curtail Presidential spying abuses. His reward? Come Tuesday, the Senate is expected to pass a law legalizing Bush's dragnet and ordering the Republican-appointed judge to throw out cases against telecoms that helped with the spying. post comment

[04 Jul 2008|01:52pm] cranky_editors [khaybee] I was reading a history when I came across this: The Wesleyan Missionary in 1838, at Mangungu, was under John Hobbs with his wife and daughter, Emma May I say this is ever so wrong! I mean, his wife and daughter? 2 comments|post comment

Realms of Fantasy: April 2002 (Issue 46) [03 Jul 2008|07:26pm] slushmaster Part forty-six in my ongoing retrospective as I read the fiction to the back issues of Realms of Fantasy and offer my thoughts, right up to the present.  This time around I'll be discussing the April 2002 issue. This retrospective marks one of those milestone issues for the magazine, at least to me.  Why?  Well, we have a couple of firsts, and a couple of lasts this issue that are worth mentioning.  Let's start with the lasts.  This issue marks the last editorial we ran.  It also marks the last issue Rebecca McCabe appears in the masthead as Assistant Editor.  Fittingly then, the last editorial is written by none other Rebecca McCabe, which was her third editorial in the magazine.  In it, she addresses the rumors of missing manuscripts that had been directed toward her, and defends herself and her work over the course of almost eight years as assistant editor.  I found this goodbye to be both thoughtful and eloquent. Now let's talk about the firsts.  This marks the first issue that my direct predecessor, Carina Gonzalez, appears in the masthead.  While she took over for Rebecca, and I in turn took over for Carina, Rebecca and I were and are listed as Assistant Editors (Rebecca started off as Editorial Assistant before being given the sexier title of Assistant Editor), Carina is listed as Editorial Intern.  Why this is, I don't know, but her responsibilities were similar to ours.  Either way, this issue marks an official passing of the torch.  What it also marks is the first time there has been a significant change in the editorial fiction department.   To me, this is very important, which is why I feel compelled to go on at some length.  Shawna is the editor, and since the fiction is arguably the most important feature of the magazine, this magazine is a reflection of her tastes more than anyone else's.  But let's not forget that it was and is her tireless assistants who wade through the slush, and what we pass along from the slush is a reflection of our tastes.  What Shawna takes from our selections for publication isn't only what she considers worthy of the magazine, it's also where her tastes and ours intersect.  Those intersections can be viewed as glimpses into the tastes of her assistants.  And since no two people share the exact same tastes, the kinds of stories we've passed (and will pass) along to Shawna will sometimes differ.  I couldn't tell you all of Rebecca's slush survivors, but if I read an author bio and it mentions this is the author's first publication, or that before this publication the author only had small press credits, it's quite likely these authors were slush survivors.  Same thing goes for authors from Carina's era, and I've read a number of her slush survivor tales before I started these retrospectives.  And having read these tales, I can tell both Rebecca and Carina's tastes are somewhat different than my own.  Not better or worse, just different.  What this means (to me anyway) is that when these editorial changes take place, while the vision of the magazine remains Shawna's, subtle shifts in some of the fiction we publish will take place.  I mean, how can they not?  If Rebecca, Carina, and I all have somewhat different tastes, it stands to reason that Shawna's tastes will intersect with ours in different ways.  This in turn will lead to some different types of slush survivors being published, which will lead to a slight shift in the the flavor of the magazine.  Let me reiterate that these changes would be subtle.  Everything remains a story that Shawna likes, but a different assistant editor means that sometimes a different kind of story is being brought to her attention.  Let me be very clear here, as what I'm discussing can be a touchy subject if minterpreted.  I'm not talking about the abilities of the various editors, nor am I talking about the merits of the various stories we've passed along to Shawna that have been published.  I'm just talking about how different stories will ring the bells of different readers, and how this could influence the personality of a magazine.  It's certainly so for editors, so I don't see why it wouldn't be the case to a lesser extent regarding assistant editors.  As to who is better at their job and who pulled out the best slush survivors, well, you may feel free to debate such things among yourselves, but for the purposes of these retrospectives I have no interest in going down that road.  The last tidbit I'll mention before moving along (finally!) is that any subtle shifts in the magazine's personality probably wouldn't show up for some issues yet, since we always have stuff in inventory. One other change I'll note is that in the masthead, Ryan Costa's brief run as Graphic Designer is over.  Replacing him is Jennifer Schneider. Now, on to the fiction ... The lead story is "Kallisti" by Richard Parks, which marks his eleventh appearance in the magazine.  This one is a piece of Greek mythology that deals with some of the key events leading up to the Trojan War, revolving most notably around Paris, Eris, and the Apple of Discord.  We also witness a chunk of the fallout based on Richard's ideas, and it leads to a twist ending that left me nodding my head.  I was expecting it, but was pleased nonetheless, since it struck me as the best possible ending and I was hoping the author would go here. Following this we have "Hubris" by James Patrick Kelly.  This also deals with Greek mythology and at the same time is a cross with metafiction, as it becomes a cross between modern literature and a man's encounter with the Greek Muse.  Saying more would give too much of this one away. After this we have "Honeysuckle Flowers" by Katya Reimann, a high fantasy tale set in the same universe as her trilogy of novels known as the Tielmaran Chronicles.  This one revolves around the tale of two lovers, and the woman is a witch.  The princess of their homeland is going to be married soon, and the lovers' lives are thrown into chaos by the arrival of her husband-to-be, who foolishly wishes to hunt in the Changing Lands, a magical land where no one returns from.  And his appointed guide into these lands is the witch's lover.  Things are made even more complicated by the fact that the witch has been summoned to attend the princess, which would force her to leave her lover.  Everything finally comes to a head in the Changing Lands in unexpected fashion. Then we have "The Rose in Twelve Petals" by Theodora Goss.  I actually attended the Odyssey Writing Workshop the same year as Theodora (or Dora, as many of us call her), back in 2000.  I believe that she is the first Odyssean to crack the pages of Realms of Fantasy.  There have been a ton of Clarionites (Clarioners?) published in the magazine, but the Clarion workshop is far older than Odyssey.  So this is kind of cool for Odyssey, as it was less than ten years old at the time.  Of course, you deserve the whole story behind this one.  Dora did indeed attend Odyssey, but she also attended Clarion in 2001.  In fact, if memory serves correctly, Shawna actually discovered this story while teaching at Clarion that summer.  She read Dora's story and liked it so much she decided to take it for the magazine.  This was her first published story, so it's a pretty good way to break in!  But it gets better.  "The Rose in Twelve Petals" was also selected for inclusion in Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 16, edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling.  Dora has certainly been one of the magazine's biggest discoveries, as she's since gone on to publish a host of short stories, and she's been nominated for both the Nebula and World Fantasy Award.  As to the story itself (he said, treating it like an afterthought!), it's a very unusal retelling of Sleeping Beauty.  As you might expect, it's told in 12 parts, and the rose plays an important part. Next up we have "Field of Angels" by Lauren Halkon, a bizarre high fantasy tale that deals with warring factions striving for the possession of various angels.  It's a tough one to describe beyond that, so I'll simply steal Shawna's editorial caption for this one: "Is it a fair trade--the food of the spirit for the hunger of the soul?" Now we turn our attention to "The Djinn Who Lives Between Night and Day" by Bruce Holland Rogers, which marks his third appearance in the magazine.  This one is a short tale, and there isn't much to say about it except that it deals with a djinn whose actions are so ambiguous he might be evil, or he might be good.  It's really left to the reader to decide. Finally we have "The Veil Beyond the Veil" by William Shunn, which marks his second appearance in the magazine.  This one takes an unusual look at the afterlife, as a woman finds herself being reincarnated again and again.  But usually the greatest changes is that she keeps coming to life in different worlds.  Wild stuff. So that wraps up this issue.  And my favorite story?  I'm a big fan of Homer's Illiad, so I'm going with "Kallisti" by Richard Parks.  Next time I'll get into the June 2002 issue.  Until then ...                        post comment

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