WEATHERED STATUES issue

~ PROUDLY PRESENTS ~


RepFix
by Keith Graham

© 2014 by keith graham (art by jesse stevens)
+ Click the respective images below to read the stories +

CRYPTID'S LAIR

by Gene Stewart

© 2014 by gene stewart (art  by gene stewart)

MERCY STREET

by Edward Morris

© 2014 by edward morris (art by shasta lawton)

OF CADENCE AND WEATHERED STATUES

by Vincent Daemon

© 2014 by vincent daemon (art by kara koma and shaun lawton)

The bloodhost have reported back to me recently that the plasmatic balance phase of their mission is over now—which I suppose means that the quantum harmonic oscillator has reached its equilibrium point at last. The state of quantum flux that the FREEZINE has been undergoing appears to have surpassed a certain critical point during the stabilization of this phase transition.  Since I've been the sole repository for the nanofleet's cryptic communications with us since the inception of our webzine just over five years ago, I've been able to deduce certain things about the nature of the alleged "nanobots" supposedly coursing through my bloodstream and occasionally hijacking my central nervous system in order to get me to make this 'zine available free of charge to those curious or daring enough to either read or submit the stories slowly piling up in our archive.  

I believe that despite having been conceived five years ago (in the summer of 2009, kicking off with veteran author John Shirley's never-before-published novella SKY PIRATES) this webzine as a matter of fact is yet undergoing a gestational period; that is to say, it remains in utero until that glorious and undetermined date in the future upon which it may be literally borne as a fully developed infant having its umbilical cord snipped and then gulping its first lungfuls of oxygen.  That is a metaphorical way of stating that the Freezine is most certainly "not dead yet," and in fact has a long way to go before assuming its plastic childhood.  

Some of you may (or may not) recall that in a past issue, I quoted the nanohorde as having stated that the cosmological constant could be countered—temporarily eclipsing quantum chaos—which effectively levels the electromagnetic "playing field" by utilizing dark matter or energy itself to "stabilize the entire operating system."  I've been dwelling on this and other cryptic messages as best that I can, and have begun realizing that the nanohorde may in fact have been sent to us from the future by none other than humanity itself.  In fact, I am becoming more certain of this as the nature of our webzine begins to gel in my mind.  

Just take a look around you today at the state of our world, not to mention our own country in the USA. Things are trending so severely towards "political correctness" in the arts, that it's getting more difficult for writers and artists to express themselves without overt puritanical censorship stripping the material of its essence. Everything must either be packaged into its appropriate "genre," or stamped with a "For Mature Audiences Only," or otherwise compromised to the point that more and more commercial mainstream platforms are becoming less provocative and original. Never mind the supposition that parents themselves should become the responsible moderators of what their children should and shouldn't look at; this trend towards pulling the teeth out of anything we read or see appears to be paving the way toward a future where we all gradually succumb to becoming more robotic ourselves—to the point our cellphones do our memorizing and thinking for us, our iPads raise our children, etc., all so that we may be free to do what, exactly—?—remain plugged into our own mobile devices and allow the complete mechanization of our very souls?  

The simple reason that whatever surviving faction of humanity left in our future may have figured out a way to send these nanobots back in time to infiltrate us is merely to get as many people today to cease and desist—even if only momentarily—with their usual feeding and consumption of that which is being offered for sale in the marketplace and try to just once give freely of their art and writing so that money is removed from the equation—to be replaced with an earnest passion for discourse. Of course this is not to suggest that our own host of wonderful published authors lack sincere passion; not at all.  They would never have been successful in the first place had they lacked both drive and real talent. No, the nanobots have apparently been sent back in time to us today in order to merely try and gently slap us awake enough to simply allow a forum in which freedom of expression—devoid entirely of the soulless machination of money and advertising—may be heralded and appreciated for what it is.  Namely a temporary respite from the raging waters of commercialization.  

That is why I started the FREEZINE in the first place. It's a webzine which doubles as a creative writing workshop and a platform for both aspiring and professional authors and illustrators to showcase their writing and drawings in order to give them more exposure and feedback so that they may continue to grow as artists and eventually boost their efforts at being paid and published in their own right. It's a global community effort left almost entirely up to its readers and subscribers as well as the authors and painters contributing their work to participate in so that we may all help each other along on our respective journeys toward hopefully making careers out of our writing and artwork. 

If you have taken the trouble to subscribe to the FREEZINE either by email or Google + or facebook's Networked Blogs or Blogger, etc., thank you very much for supporting local and worldwide creative writing and art.  If you haven't subscribed or otherwise followed this webzine yet, now is the time to do so.  Our growing roster of veterans are on the verge of crossing into the second or third trimester of developing the foetal form still incubating within these hypertext markup pages.  We are about to embark on a new chapter of our overall development, so be sure to stay tuned in and tell all your reader, writer and artist pals about us so that we may ultimately achieve a following big enough to go viral and help all the respective contributors get the exposure and experience they need to hone their chops. 

For the SEPT 2014 issue, we have four original stories to share with a troubled yet hopeful world, and we welcome three new bloods into our fold.  They are writers Gene Stewart and Edward Morris, as well as artist Kara Koma.  Please greet them with enthusiastic applause. 

Our first story, "RepFix" features returning Freezine Veteran Keith Graham with an updated take on Robert W. Chambers' infamous tale "The Repairer of Reputations."  Considering that the FREEZINE serialized the entire contents of THE KING IN YELLOW in our last issue six months ago, the editors felt that was the perfect story to kick off the SEPT issue with.  Thanks Keith for taking a chance on this forum and submitting your fourth story to our ragtag literary cyber-vessel.  It perfectly sets the tone for both the science fictional and fantasy aspects of this webzine.  Thanks to Jesse Stevens, one of the original Freezine artists, who submitted his "Plastic Children" painting for Nigel Strange's three part novella, an image of a boy holding a toy ray gun which I consider to be our mascot.  

Up next is newcomer to our zine, Gene Stewart's splendid short story "Cryptid's Lair," featuring a sketch drawn by Gene himself in black and white and colorized with mysterious methods by yours truly.  This story arrives just in time to expand the parameters of our 'zine's oeuvre into the strange and wonderful world of crypto- terrestrials, a field of study which ever remains tantalizingly within our peripherals in search of missing links which might further explain the mysterious phenomena we have come to take for granted as our natural world.  A somewhat blurred and warm fuzzy thanks goes out to Gene for taking a chance on our online magazine. We are certainly glad to have him on-board.  

The third story also comes from a newcomer to our fold, everyone please supply a hearty round of cheers and applause to Edward Morris, whose surreal prose poem "Mercy Street" somehow manages the impossibly disturbing trick of marrying the legacy of Anne Sexton with that of the King in Yellow.  The Freezine is very proud indeed to host this beautiful tale sure to please aficionados of the two aforementioned legends in print.  Thanks to my wife Shasta for having long ago provided the original magic marker illustration on glossy photo print paper used in a previous story from our last issue and now zoomed-in upon and transformed into the mercifully symbolic image which currently represents Edward's eulogy to one of America's most important contemporary poets.  Make no mistake about it, Anne Sexton shall forevermore remain contemporary due to already having become immortalized. A dangerous and exuberant Thank You to Edward for opting to submit his controversial piece to our Freezine.  

Last but not least comes the return of one of the Freezine's most provocative veterans, Vincent Daemon.  Vincent recently underwent an extended leave of absence from the trappings of the internet in order to focus on his own life.  Imagine our splendid surprise when he announced his return to our online community and furthermore submitted his short story about certain horrors of the Vietnam War, Of Cadence and Weathered Statues. Our editors were able to break it down into four daily installments replete with cliffhangers. Artist Kara Koma also contributed her illustration, "Weathered Statue," for Chapter 3. The nanohorde were extremely pleased with this rendering of the strange hybrid vision from our war vet's compelling experience lost amid the horrifying ruins of a Vietnamese swampland.  Kara's dedication for this piece is as follows:  "Dedicated to Grandfather who literally lost his mind in such a war, and came back in body, but never in soul."  Thanks for providing such heartfelt artwork for Vince's story, Kara. As soon as we get a moment, our editors will upload your illustration to the FREE ZINE ZONE, our sister-site which archives all the artist's galleries associated with past stories. 

Vincent has dedicated his story to his own Dad, adding the following post-dedication: "Dedicated to my father, who fought in this ridiculous, horrid war, with so many other poor bastards, and at least came out of it better than most. Parts of this story are based on certain strange war-tales he told, but just WHAT is the fact and what is the fiction shall remain between He and I."  

A billion echoing Thank You's go out to Vincent for having submitted his material to accompany the august roster of tales archived for posterity exclusively on the FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction.   Of Cadence and Weathered Statues represents his sixth story with us, catapulting him to the topmost rank of contributors. May all your hard work in the realm of creative writing pay off in loads of Karma and piles of currency some day in the not-so-distant future, my friend.  

And that's another wrap.  Thanks for sticking with us.  Thank you for your comments and feedback and for supporting a webzine devoted to having nothing to do with your standard advertising and soul destroying finances.  Stay tuned next month for a special Halloween Trilogy of Terror, towards the end of October.  As they say on Devil's Night, "Fire it up, Fire it up!"   See you all then.