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Thursday, June 30, 2016

MUTANT RAIN FOREST ISSUE


  WELCOME TO THE 20TH ISSUE OF THE FREEZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION

For this extra special edition of our nonprofit cyber-rag, we're featuring four short stories: INEVITABLE, by Sanford Meschkow, MEERGA by John Shirley, THE RECIDIVIST by Brian "Flesheater" Stoneking, and LATE NIGHT EXTERMINATOR by Vincent Daemon; in addition, we close out this special commemorative issue with five poems by Bruce Boston reprinted from the 1992 Horror's Head Press collection he co-authored with Robert Frazier CHRONICLES OF THE MUTANT RAIN FOREST.

 Click the images below to read the stories and poems in this issue:

INEVITABLE    by Sanford Meschkow art by Les Bossinas for NASA
                       
In this vision of a crew aboard the space craft Ultima Thule, the author explores the questions of whether it's a commanding officer's duty to motivate junior officers toward a promotion along with more startling inquiries into the nature of their mission to space.



MEERGA     by John Shirley                                                   art (detail) by Will Ferret

In this moving short story about a near future where synthetic women are mass produced as sexual pets, the author looks beneath the genetically modified skin to peer deeply into our real human condition. Here's a tale about the triumph of the human spirit battling sexual objectification at its most perversely extreme. 



THE RECIDIVIST  by Brian "Flesheater" Stoneking    art by Jason Heckenliable

Personnel in hazmat suits at a military quarantine lab are holding a very special prisoner in lockdown. He is the perfect killing machine and carries with him a terrible secret. It's up to General Manning and his crew at the research station to insure this rogue agent does not escape to kill again. 



LATE NIGHT EXTERMINATOR     by Vincent Daemon              art by Kara Koma

We return to Vincent Daemon's twisted world of Dolton, Pennsylvania with the mis- adventure of Lee, who is not a doctor nor a paramedic, he's an exterminator.  He fucking kills bugs.  Lee's seen a lot of sick things in and around this tweaker town.  Lee's ready for the job when he gets a desperate call after midnight. The question for our readers remains: are you prepared?



5 poems by Bruce Boston from CHRONICLES OF THE MUTANT RAIN FOREST
        featuring 4 watercolors by Marge Simon plus an illustration by Shasta Lawton


And that's a wrap for the 20th issue (count 'em)of the FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction.  I want to give an emphatic shout out and props to the following authors and artists for having dared to contribute their outstanding stories and artwork to keep this free experimental weblog/zine going well into it's seventh year. Thank you to Sanford Meschkow, John Shirley, Brian Stoneking, Vincent Daemon, and Bruce Boston for contributing your original material to our cause. Thank you to Marge Simon for the four beautiful watercolors that went along with the first four Mutant Rain Forest poems; and thank you to Shasta Lawton for contributing the banner art in addition to the illustration for the fifth Mutant Rain Forest poem.  A heap of thanks goes out to Jason Heckenliable for allowing the use of my cellphone snapshot of his reptoid painting for Flesheater's The Recidivist; thanks to Brother Chief Cat Will Ferret for his gracious contribution providing a visual counterpoint to John Shirley's story; and a million thanks goes out to Kara Koma for her bugged out illustration used in Vinnie's Late Night Exterminator.  


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4 comments:

  1. Callum LeckieJuly 12, 2016 12:32 PM

    ar Trek, The Host, The Shining, Cloverfield, Galaxy Of Terror, Taken, Santa Sangre, The Fountain, The Exorcist, Frances, Day Of The Dolphin, Papillon, Ben-Hur, Old Joy, Cannibal Apocalypse, Kill Bill, Day Of The Dead, Land Of The Dead, Diary Of The Dead, Se7en, The Boondock Saints, Sin City, Mishima, Jackie Brown, Children Of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien, The Lion In Winter, Tootsie, Zodiac, El Topo, WAKING LIFE, A Scanner Darkly, This Is Spinal Tap, Holy Mountain, Fight Club, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Birdy, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Escape From New York, White Heat, The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen, Requiem For A Dream, Sid & Nancy, Martin, Spider, Old Boy, Videodrome, Reservoir Dogs, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mad Max, Phantasm, Blade Runner, Withnail & I, The Bad Lieutenant, Buckaroo Banzai, Being John Malkovich, Time Bandits, Frailty, Naked Lunch, The Thing, Kung Fu Hustle, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Hellraiser, How To Get Ahead In Advertising, The Devils Rejects, Spirited Away, Gangs of NY, Some Like It Hot, There Will Be Blood, LOTR, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, The Crow, Angels With Dirty Faces, The Descent, Split, Knightriders, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Tideland, From Beyond, Re-animator, The Warriors, Death Proof, Leon The Professional, Borat, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jesus Christ Superstar, Conan the Barbarian, The Ring, The Sound Of Music, Donnie Darko, Idiocracy, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Phantom Of The Paradise, Full Metal Jacket' - now thats a film list! 'How To Get Ahead In Advertising come on you're better than that. The Sound Of Music, Donnie Darko, Idiotcracy, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind' what? really? anyway ... you must be pretty smart to reconisge me as a 'Writer'" ! im no writer but thanks for adressing me as one. where im from im usally adressed as 'Pedo' or 'Nounce' anyway but thanks for RECONISING me as a 'Writer' (I wrote my first poem/story a year ago) anyway can I take your comments and qoute them on FB, twitter etc. as coming from you? trust me you will notice the diffrence in your book sales! anyway i lookin for a Writing 'teacher' my grammer & punction are poor too non exsistence(left school at 13)like that means something - see im learning from u all ready! arghhh fuck i admit it ...im no writer im a alcoholic speed/porn addicted 30 year old benafit clamer (been dead twice) what im trying to say IS I NEED A MENTOR! i willl pay for you service not much mind you tenner via paypal for each piece of writing i submit for revising/editoring the works think of me as a kinda "Kes/Casper" who draws pictures in pen, drawings going on my last sale (4 for 900 pounds worth LAST I SOLD(out)? does that work?) What IM TRYING TO SAY IS I NEED An EDITOR AND YOU NEED A STEWDENT A KINDA eZRA pound too Me (t.S ELOIT) OR toilet as i call him (who secretlly is quite proud of the fact that he is one of the best writers he as thus far horror-wise anyway read! & I read Kafka and Joyceprick as i call him ) who baiscally in a word i needs: MANGERMENT! "
    im a stud in NY and i ant scored once!" im not a fool...you know that. im a a maggot on a diemound - & you r the diemound that im paraistcally feeding off. my add . callec6@gmail.com wow! that was alot of writing more than more this week (1 week = 4 syablles) SO Lets get together write now in swwet harmony BECOZ YOUR COMMENTS Which are geniunlly funny and consrutive which kinda make upfor 14 yrs of itellectaiile FAMIN*. p.s this is not a joke im spilling my guts - confesing the world

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Callum LeckieJuly 12, 2016 12:48 PM

      too type! im on the edge of tears ... "Don't wait too be hunted too hide, that was always my motto" - Molloy, Beckett........ yours sinserally Cal Leckie spk soon I hope.

      Delete
    2. Callum LeckieJuly 12, 2016 1:38 PM

      “Are we, intellectual sirs, not actively or passively 'producing' more and more words, more books, more articles, ceaselessly refilling the pot-boiler of speech, gorging ourselves on it rather, seizing books and 'experiences', to metamorphose them as quickly as possible into other words, plugging us in here, being plugged in there, just like Mina on her blue squared oilcloth, extending the market and the trade in words of course, but also multiplying the chances of jouissance, scraping up intensities wherever possible, and never being sufficiently dead, for we too are required to go from forty to the hundred a day, and we will never play the whore enough, we will never be dead enough”
      ― Jean-François Lyotard, Libidinal Economy....took me a long time to find this qoute about 3 hrs to long

      Delete
    3. shaunJuly 12, 2016 4:07 PM

      Callum Leckie I remember you the ghost of yr image haunts me through static electricity - - thanks for taking the time to comment so profusely, seems I hooked a live one after all this time and it's about time I tell you. Keep checking yr callec6@gmail.com inbox, I will be sure to email you soon and by that I mean any time which often remains unpredictable especially when you're sitting on and/or watching the pot. Thanks for checking out the FREEZINE now in it's 8th year, I will continue putting this cyberrag out in my own good time, and as for mentoring and working with you on generating word texts with which to poison the world to the point of madness, why it sounds like a rollicking endeavor so just give me some time to gather my wits, of which there's only one, it's around here somewhere so be patient. My cathode crystal tells me you moved here from the UK, no? In the core of the rotten old apple no less. Stay tuned to this same bat channel and if you haven't already "Followed" this Freezine on Blogger I'll assume you'll do so now--we need the boost in membership as this here remains a rather elite motley crew of random souls gathered together for some of the best fiction and artwork this side of Sagittarius-A*

      *Yours in cybertext {Bruce Boston coined that phrase I might add} Shaun L.

      Delete

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Archive of Stories
and Authors

Callum Leckie's
THE DIGITAL DECADENT


J.R. Torina's
ANTHROPOPHAGUS


J.R. Torina's
THE HOUSE IN THE PORT


J.R. Torina was DJ for Sonic Slaughter-
house ('90-'97), runs Sutekh Productions
(an industrial-ambient music label) and
Slaughterhouse Records (metal record
label), and was proprietor of The Abyss
(a metal-gothic-industrial c.d. shop in
SLC, now closed). He is the dark force
behind Scapegoat (an ambient-tribal-
noise-experimental unit). THE HOUSE
IN THE PORT is his first publication.

Sean Padlo's
NINE TENTHS OF THE LAW

Sean Padlo's
GRANDPA'S LAST REQUEST

Sean Padlo's exact whereabouts
are never able to be fully
pinned down, but what we
do know about him is laced
with the echoes of legend.
He's already been known
to haunt certain areas of
the landscape, a trick said
to only be possible by being
able to manipulate it from
the future. His presence
among the rest of us here
at the freezine sends shivers
of wonder deep in our solar plexus.


Konstantine Paradias & Edward
Morris's HOW THE GODS KILL


Konstantine Paradias's
SACRI-FEES

Konstantine Paradias is a writer by
choice. At the moment, he's published
over 100 stories in English, Japanese,
Romanian, German, Dutch and
Portuguese and has worked in a free-
lancing capacity for videogames, screen-
plays and anthologies. People tell him
he's got a writing problem but he can,
like, quit whenever he wants, man.
His work has been nominated
for a Pushcart Prize.

Edward Morris's
ONE NIGHT IN MANHATTAN


Edward Morris's
MERCY STREET

Edward Morris is a 2011 nominee for
the Pushcart Prize in literature, has
also been nominated for the 2009
Rhysling Award and the 2005 British
Science Fiction Association Award.
His short stories have been published
over a hundred and twenty times in
four languages, most recently at
PerhihelionSF, the Red Penny Papers'
SUPERPOW! anthology, and The
Magazine of Bizarro Fiction. He lives
and works in Portland as a writer,
editor, spoken word MC and bouncer,
and is also a regular guest author at
the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival.


Tim Fezz's
BURNT WEENY SANDWICH

Tim Fezz's
MANY SILVERED MOONS AGO

Tim Fezz hails out of the shattered
streets of Philly destroying the air-
waves and people's minds in the
underground with his band OLD
FEZZIWIG. He's been known to
dip his razor quill into his own
blood and pen a twisted tale
every now and again. We are
delighted to have him onboard
the FREEZINE and we hope
you are, too.

Daniel E. Lambert's
DEAD CLOWN AND MAGNET HEAD


Daniel E. Lambert teaches English
at California State University, Los
Angeles and East Los Angeles College.
He also teaches online Literature
courses for Colorado Technical
University. His writing appears
in Silver Apples, Easy Reader,
Other Worlds, Wrapped in Plastic
and The Daily Breeze. His work
also appears in the anthologies
When Words Collide, Flash It,
Daily Flash 2012, Daily Frights
2012, An Island of Egrets and
Timeless Voices. His collection
of poetry and prose, Love and
Other Diversions, is available
through Amazon. He lives in
Southern California with his
wife, poet and author Anhthao Bui.

Phoenix's
AGAIN AND AGAIN

Phoenix has enjoyed writing since he
was a little kid. He finds much import-
ance and truth in creative expression.
Phoenix has written over sixty books,
and has published everything from
novels, to poetry and philosophy.
He hopes to inspire people with his
writing and to ask difficult questions
about our world and the universe.
Phoenix lives in Salt Lake City, Utah,
where he spends much of his time
reading books on science, philosophy,
and literature. He spends a good deal
of his free time writing and working
on new books. The Freezine of Fant-
asy and Science Fiction welcomes him
and his unique, intense vision.
Discover Phoenix's books at his author
page on Amazon. Also check out his blog.

Adam Bolivar's
SERVITORS OF THE
OUTER DARKNESS


Adam Bolivar's
THE DEVIL & SIR
FRANCIS DRAKE



Adam Bolivar's
THE TIME-EATER


Adam Bolivar is an expatriate Bostonian
who has lived in New Orleans and Berkeley,
and currently resides in Portland, Oregon
with his beloved wife and fluffy gray cat
Dahlia. Adam wears round, antique glasses
and has a fondness for hats. His greatest
inspirations include H.P. Lovecraft,
Jack tales and coffee. He has been
a Romantic poet for as long as any-
one can remember, specializing in
the composition of spectral balladry,
utilizing to great effect a traditional
poetic form that taps into the haunted
undercurrents of folklore seldom found
in other forms of writing.
His poetry has appeared on the pages
of such publications as SPECTRAL
REALMS and BLACK WINGS OF
CTHULHU, and a poem of his,
"The Rime of the Eldritch Mariner,"
won the Rhysling Award for long-form
poetry. His collection of weird balladry
and Jack tales, THE LAY OF OLD HEX,
was published by Hippocampus Press in 2017.


Sanford Meschkow's
INEVITABLE

Sanford Meschkow is a retired former
NYer who married a Philly suburban
Main Line girl. Sanford has been pub-
lished in a 1970s issue of AMAZING.
We welcome him here on the FREE-
ZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction.


Owen R. Powell's
NOETIC VACATIONS

Little is known of the mysterious
Owen R. Powell (oftentimes referred
to as Orp online). That is because he
usually keeps moving. The story
Noetic Vacations marks his first
appearance in the Freezine.

Gene Stewart
(writing as Art Wester)
GROUND PORK


Gene Stewart's
CRYPTID'S LAIR

Gene Stewart is a writer and artist.
He currently lives in the Midwest
American Wilderness where he is
researching tales of mystical realism,
writing ficta mystica, and exploring
the dark by casting a little light into
the shadows. Follow this link to his
website where there are many samples
of his writing and much else; come
explore.

Daniel José Older's
GRAVEYARD WALTZ


Daniel José Older's
THE COLLECTOR


Daniel José Older's spiritually driven,
urban storytelling takes root at the
crossroads of myth and history.
With sardonic, uplifting and often
hilarious prose, Older draws from
his work as an overnight 911 paramedic,
a teaching artist & an antiracist/antisexist
organizer to weave fast-moving, emotionally
engaging plots that speak whispers and
shouts about power and privilege in
modern day New York City. His work
has appeared in the Freezine of Fantasy
and Science Fiction, The ShadowCast
Audio Anthology, The Tide Pool, and
the collection Sunshine/Noir, and is
featured in Sheree Renee Thomas'
Black Pot Mojo Reading Series in Harlem.
When he's not writing, teaching or
riding around in an ambulance,
Daniel can be found performing with
his Brooklyn-based soul quartet
Ghost Star. His blog about the
ridiculous and disturbing world
of EMS can be found here.


Paul Stuart's
SEA?TV!


Paul Stuart is the author of numerous
biographical blurbs written in the third
person. His previously published fiction
appears in The Vault of Punk Horror and
His non-fiction financial pieces can be found
in a shiny, west-coast magazine that features
pictures of expensive homes, as well as images
of women in casual poses and their accessories.
Consider writing him at paul@twilightlane.com,
if you'd like some thing from his garage. In fall
2010, look for Grade 12 Trigonometry and
Pre-Calculus -With Zombies.


Rain Grave's
MAU BAST


Rain Graves is an award winning
author of horror, science fiction and
poetry. She is best known for the 2002
Poetry Collection, The Gossamer Eye
(along with Mark McLaughlin and
David Niall Wilson). Her most
recent book, Barfodder: Poetry
Written in Dark Bars and Questionable
Cafes, has been hailed by Publisher's
Weekly as "Bukowski meets Lovecraft..."
in January of 2009. She lives and
writes in San Francisco, performing
spoken word at events around the
country. 877-DRK-POEM -




Blag Dahlia's
armed to the teeth
with LIPSTICK


BLAG DAHLIA is a Rock Legend.
Singer, Songwriter, producer &
founder of the notorious DWARVES.
He has written two novels, ‘NINA’ and
‘ARMED to the TEETH with LIPSTICK’.


G. Alden Davis's
THE FOLD


G. Alden Davis wrote his first short story
in high school, and received a creative
writing scholarship for the effort. Soon
afterward he discovered that words were
not enough, and left for art school. He was
awarded the Emeritus Fellowship along
with his BFA from Memphis College of Art
in '94, and entered the videogame industry
as a team leader and 3D artist. He has over
25 published games to his credit. Mr. Davis
is a Burningman participant of 14 years,
and he swings a mean sword in the SCA.
He's also the best friend I ever had. He
was taken away from us last year on Jan
25 and I'll never be able to understand why.
Together we were a fantastic duo, the
legendary Grub Bros. Our secret base
exists on a cross-hatched nexus between
the Year of the Dragon and Dark City.
Somewhere along the tectonic fault
lines of our electromagnetic gathering,
shades of us peel off from the coruscating
pillars and are dropped back into the mix.
The phrase "rest in peace" just bugs me.
I'd rather think that Greg Grub's inimitable
spirit somehow continues evolving along
another manifestation of light itself, a
purple shift shall we say into another
phase of our expanding universe. I
ask myself, is it wishful thinking?
Will we really shed our human skin
like a discarded chrysalis and emerge
shimmering on another wavelength
altogether--or even manifest right
here among the rest without their
even beginning to suspect it? Well
people do believe in ghosts, but I
myself have long been suspicious
there can only be one single ghost
and that's all the stars in the universe
shrinking away into a withering heart
glittering and winking at us like
lost diamonds still echoing all their
sad and lonely songs fallen on deaf
eyes and ears blind to their colorful
emanations. My grub brother always
knew better than what the limits
of this old world taught him. We
explored past the outer peripheries
of our comfort zones to awaken
the terror in our minds and keep
us on our toes deep in the forest
in the middle of the night. The owls
led our way and the wilderness
transformed into a sanctuary.
The adventures we shared together
will always remain tattooed on
the pages of my skin. They tell a
story that we began together and
which continues being woven to
this very day. It's the same old
story about how we all were in
this together and how each and
every one of us is also going away
someday and though it will be the far-
thest we can manage to tell our own
tale we may rest assured it will be
continued like one of the old pulp
serials by all our friends which survive
us and manage to continue
the saga whispering in the wind.

Shae Sveniker's
A NEW METAPHYSICAL STUDY
REGARDING THE BEHAVIOR
OF PLANT LIFE


Shae is a poet/artist/student and former
resident of the Salt Pit, UT, currently living
in Simi Valley, CA. His short stories are on
Blogger and his poetry is hosted on Livejournal.


Nigel Strange's
PLASTIC CHILDREN


Nigel Strange lives with his wife and
daughter, cats, and tiny dog-like thing
in their home in California where he
occasionally experiments recreationally
with lucidity. PLASTIC CHILDREN
is his first publication.