In the Labyrinth

The Zenchilada: Food, Art, and Fiction

Here's another one of those fabulous Kickstarter projects** that deserves support from anyone who welcomes the mix of short fiction, art, and food -- glorious food from around the world happily conjoined in one sumptuous magazine. A feast for the eyes and for the tastebuds! The Zenchilada has been until now a digital magazine but it's now reaching out to a new audience on Kickstarter in hopes of producing the first hard copy issue for Issue # 4, "On the Saffron Trail." Stop by the online version of The Zenchilada to view previous issues -- each organized by delicious themes, watch the film above on the upcoming issue and get inspired to contribute a little something to the project over the next month. As a writer who is always thinking of food as essential condiment in writing fiction, I am delighted at Zenchilada's very unique collaboration of my favorite things.

**Kickstarter is an online source where artists, educators, musicians, and creators of all kinds can pitch their projects and their funding needs directly to the public. There is a limited time in which each project must reach its funding goals -- so if you see something you like, don't wait! Support them now.

Read It On The Web: Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, "The Erlking"

 

The New Yorker recently published its list of "20 under 40" new authors to watch. This week's edition features the story "The Erlking" by one of the 20 under 40 authors, Sara Shun-lien Bynum (who is also the author of National Book Award Nominee, Madeleine is Sleeping.) It is at turns a quirky, funny story and disturbingly dark. A mother and daughter attend an "Elves Faire" put on by the local Waldorf School -- an event filled with the usual children in homemade fairy wings, expensive wooden toys and dolls for sale, kettle corn and guys playing banjo. Mother and daughter go there for an outing -- and though they hold hands, their minds are completely elsewhere; each trapped by a separate fantasy about what they want from the event, about what matters to them, while on the fringes of the suburban playground setting lurks the Erlking -- a malevolent figure out of the fairy tradition. It is a fabulous, chilling story and will also be published in Kate Bernheimer's new collection of contemporary fairy tales, My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, coming out this fall.

*As a side note: I think The New Yorker makes stories available for free during the week of publication -- which means you may not have much time to read it online. I highly encourage you to take a peek at it before it goes -- or else, pick up a copy of The New Yorker. **The photograph that accompanies the story is by British fashion photographer Tim Walker. Check out his website to see more of his astonishing (and very yummy sort of work.)

Catherynne Valente's "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship of Her Own Making"

I am kicking myself for I meant to post on Monday about this terrific new online project by the inestimable Catherynne Valente. Every Monday Valente will post a new chapter in her YA novel, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Valente is one helluva talented and fearless storyteller, and I am always amazed by her work -- the first chapter, is wry and wonderful!  And there is an audio version of it as well...how cool is that?

While the novel is being offered for free, readers do have an opportunity to donate whatever they think might be fair. Let me encourage you to donate to this remarkable writer for the pleasure of her work -- and you can go here to find out why Valente's entrepreneurial spirit in the face of adversity should be supported and celebrated.

Reading for the Shivers

Here in the desert, the sunlight is so beautiful and the days balmy, that it's a bit hard to celebrate the natural spookiness of Halloween's dark forests, stormy graveyards, and pallid, overcast skies. So I've pulled out some tales from the JoMA's archives-- all intended to set one up with the appropriate set of shivers. 

Barth Anderson's The Parade of You, is a very creepy and strangely redemptive autumn harvest of flesh chomping zombies and masks.

Heinz Insu Fenkl's How Master Madmen Came to C'hing Feng Temple, is a cautionary tale about confronting demons and their appetites, with a warning to hold onto your soul. You might not want to read this one over the lunch hour.

Tim Pratt's Jubilee is an eerie tale of grief, violence, and unnatural acts of fishing of supernatural creatures. Edgy and very Twighlight Zoney.

Veronica Schanoes gives poetic advice on How to Bring Someone Back From the Dead. This one breaks your heart.

And if we must give a nod to Death, then try Jane Yolen's tricksterish Godmother Death, and my own young adult tale of Death and riddles in Jack Straw.

Of course you want more suggestions, so I highly recommend stopping by James Hynes blog, where he has another terrific list to whet your appetite as well as more suggestions by posters in the comments.

art: "Twisted Devotion" by Vince Marcone of My Pet Skeleton.