Welcome to the celebratory 40th issue of our ongoing web periodical, the FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Since its inception into a subdermal fraction of Earth's global consciousness just over fourteen annular revolutions ago of the host planet orbiting humanity's wandering G-Type main-sequence star, ourSelf (as dichotomous representatives of the bloodHost), otherwise referred to as the nanoHorde, tentatively offer what might best be described by your kind as 'a simulacrum of pride' in having successfully arranged for this latest issue of stories and art to grace the world wide web in the manner which our progenitors intended, which is to say, entirely devoid of corporate association, meaning by a forum free of advertisements polluting the margins and without the concurrent gravitational associations ordinarily applied to commercial ventures.
Welcome, our primogenitors, welcome to
Table of Contents:
titles and images hyperlink to their respective stories
by Keith Graham
by Shaun Lawton
by Icy Sedgwick
by John Shirley
by John Claude Smith
Hello everyone, it's your friendly editor in chief, here on my Freezine weblog, hosted by blogger since April of 2009, now entering our fifteenth year of presenting a curious hybrid of online open forum creative writing workshop and cyber-fanzine designed for aspiring and established writers and the concurrent host of endless readers.
Our patron saints include (but are not limited to) the late Harlan Ellison, who's credo was "the writer must get paid," and Philip K. Dick, whose impact on the burgeoning science fiction scene may never cease reverberating altogether. Of course we as creative writers have our own motley array of personal influences, and my own would be too extensive to comprehensively list here, but for me I'd have to say that my personal "ground zero" is Ray Bradbury, since first being exposed to his lyrical genius when I dared to open up the weathered and worn Bantam paperback copy of The Illustrated Man I'd discovered on my parent's bookshelf at the tender age of eleven.
It was that first story, The Veldt, that so captured my imagination and sent a disturbing thrill into my prepubescent guttiwuts. And then of course, all the stories that followed, which launched me on my Bradbury obsession, collecting all his books of short stories until the day I read Fahrenheit 451, and my heart was seized under its magical spell. When I read Something Wicked This Way Comes, that truly lit my aspiring writer's soul aflame, for it remained my favorite novel for years to come. Some other novels I really loved were S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, William Golding's Lord of the Flies, and John Gardner's Grendel, to mention a few favorites. By the time I reached high school, I discovered John Crowley's Beasts, along with a veritable cornucopia of fantastical writers and their lyrical fever dreams, too many to recall or list here.
But enough of that. I'm here to thank our four contributing authors for daring to showcase their writing in the freezine. The nanoHorde, those digital fingerprints of the future, touching down through my brain and this plastic Acer computer keyboard to send the urgent message out there, are still contacting me, and if you haven't figured out what that underlying message is, well it's all been encoded in our modern English language, archived in this very blog, and ultra-hilit through the underlying thread of editorial comments concerning the bloodHost and their decidedly outlandish mission, which would never have been transmitted from the future year 2045 (or thereabouts) if it hadn’t been for the Hydrox Tesla Station and its nine human occupants orbiting Ceres.
Just as it would never manifest without the contributions of its participating writers. Thanks first goes out to Keith Graham, who's stuck by my side since even before the inception of this too often obfuscated cyber-rag. I really am indebted to your friendship and influence on our digital fanzine. Here's to future success paving the way forward with ad-free stories and art as outlined by the mysterious nanoHorde, which has possessed us to do this thing. Your story's perfect to start this latest issue rolling, so thanks for contributing once again.
I'm so happy to feature another story by Icy Sedgwick, for it was twelve years ago, back in May of 2011, that we published her story The Porcelain Woman. That was another time, another place, altogether removed from the present seething reality we all find ourselves in now. That's just the way the universe actually works. Some call it the multiverse, and as far as I'm concerned, it's all the same thing. It's just hardly anyone gets even remotely close to its center enough to see the whole thing with their eyes closed. This is a terrific tale you've penned and sent us, Icy, thank you so much for returning to the party!
This issue had its nucleus formed when John Shirley sent me TWO TECHNO TALES to help celebrate its fortieth edition. I'm happy with the cover image that I was able to render with the help of Deep Dream Generator and my patented 'universal colorizer' style template (which is a smartphone's photo of an abstract color analog painting done by my wife, Shasta) and some plain text prompt to urge the ai-ware along. Making digital graphic art from words and photos has become my favorite new hobby, synthography. While apparently many people online seem to have allowed themselves to get really rattled up by its array of implications, I myself am grateful I was born to be alive during this initial rise of ai and its myriad applications. Thanks John for remaining our Polaris, the star which ever guides us forward through our mutual creative writing dream together. Without you, well you already know what they say. It would be dead in the water.
And finally, thanks to our long standing cohort in this emphatic endeavor. John Claude Smith has contributed his fourth story with us now, after many years of being part of our close knit group of rag tag writers. It really just fell into place with a natural precision I find just a tad uncanny, tbh. The way I was able to generate the iconic psychedelic image which to me, suits the title and theme of the story so well, it seems as if it were really meant to be. I can't thank you enough, my friend, for digging in deep and submitting what I consider to be one of your most classic tales. It really caps off this issue with style.
The Freezine Returns After A Series Of Moments.
Stay tuned. Catch up. Good night. Reach out.
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