Copyright 2007 MYTHOLOG www.mytholog.com All Rights Reserved Magazine en-us Stories and poems, essays and reviews, writers and editors, illustrations and artists, that find myth in places odd and ordinary. Full version at: www.mytholog.com http://mytholog.com For the Summer we decided to try an experiment - limit the wordcount to 1000. Far from seeing a reduction in either the amount or quality of literature, we've turned out an issue with fifteen carefully selected works. Included are two special features, Lily Ann Hoge's treatment of relationships and Diana Woods' expression of life and vitality, specially selected to round out the issue with work of a slightly higher wordcount. We're leading off with an outstanding sequel commissioned of Gerri Leen. Grab an iced tea or a lemonade and cool down by reading a few hot works of short fiction. And if you're subject to chills, let Sarah Rakel Orton's erotica warm you up. Read on, friends... http://mytholog.com/v5n3.html http://mytholog.com/v5n3.html Gerri Leen is back with a sequel to last issue's excellent work, "The Weight of Things Forgotten". We asked her to see what she could do, and it certainly paid off. This is myth, in a classical setting, about the settlements we make in order to live with one another and ourselves. That is the subject; the vehicle is the stuff of gods. (996 words) http://mytholog.com/fiction/leen_memory.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/leen_memory.html We get a lot of stories telling us how the world works. That's what myth does, neh? All of them represent a point of view, a set of assumptions and, of course, they have to. Few of them get beyond the ideology of the moment and intepret the larger sweep of the unfolding drama of man and the world. Man and the world: that's what Scott Munro's piece does in eight astoundingly concise vignettes. Wow. (738 words) http://mytholog.com/fiction/munro_history.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/munro_history.html This editor used to walk with his grandfather and pick up nuts and bolts, bits of wire, screws and roofing nails, and other sundries along the roadside. We'd then take them home and put them in separated trays in the garage. It was great exercise, good for concentration, a lesson in frugality, and an excellent way to always have the right part on hand. More importantly, there was a bond and an introduction to the world of men that simply can't be replaced. JD Bradley tackles a more common experience that is every bit more powerful than basic maintenance and grooming. (965 words) http://mytholog.com/fiction/bradley_haircut.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/bradley_haircut.html Youth is the obsession of our people, and the world of adults has long since been marginalized by the young up and coming celebrities (Yuccies?) - the shallow Paris Hiltons of the world. Adulthood seems to begin somewhere roughly between 25 and 35, when it begins at all. The world is not getting older; it's getting younger; it's adults who are getting older. You will not find stories like Diana Woods' tale on nightly television, accompanied by crowds and music. For that, you have to click on Gypsy Woman above. If you do, you will see what the adults are doing when the kids are off posing for the cameras. (1041 words) http://mytholog.com/fiction/woods_gypsy.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/woods_gypsy.html Do we ever really remember, past a certain point, what it's like to be creeped out as kids, or not to be when perhaps we should have been. Sarah Hilary's flash fiction is reminiscent of the dreams you might have after a childhood screening of "The Blob". (301 words) http://mytholog.com/fiction/hilary_phosphorus.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/hilary_phosphorus.html When Joan Osbourne crooned "What if God was one of us?" she reinvigorated in popular culture what the champions of the Incarnation, like St. Athanasius the Great, had articulated some two thousand years ago. Tristan Moss's story successfully proposes the same scenario. What if God identified with our weaknesses? (636 words) If you missed Tristan's piece "Scaffolding" in our Winter 2005 issue, we can't commend it highly enough. http://mytholog.com/fiction/moss_elusive.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/moss_elusive.html This was the first piece we accepted for the issue. We took one look at it and said, "absolutely", "of course", and simply "yes". Orton's fairy tale erotica is distinguished by its unflinching viscerality. We think you'll feel it too. (810 words) http://mytholog.com/fiction/sarahorton_littlered.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/sarahorton_littlered.html The world is full of enemies. The world is full of enemies, and we must either be afraid or violent. That is the assumption that has grounded our culture for the last couple of decades. It is the primary topic of television fiction in all genres, the primary selling point of our equally entertaining news, and dominates the world of our children's pastimes. Gunnells, takes a step back and looks with humor and irony at the meaning of heroism at such a time. (993 words) This is Mark's seventh publication in MYTHOLOG, and he has carried a piece every issue for the last eight, including the honor he received in the Winter awards issue Workday Adventurer. He actually has his own place in the archives and is the reason that honor was created. Frankly, we hope he never stops. Keep them coming, Mark! http://mytholog.com/fiction/gunnells_warrior.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/gunnells_warrior.html Psychologists define integrity as the ability to maintain your own identity in the face of overwhelming opposition, from society, your culture, those you love, peers, from the world. Unlike integrity, mental illness is culturally defined - it is the collection of assumptions about what is real that typifies a particular people, for a finite time, in an individual culture. Sarah Ann Watts gives us a look at integrity in the context of mental illness, using each concept to illuminate the other. (500 words) If you missed Sarah's piece in the Autumn issue, be sure to read Erasure http://mytholog.com/fiction/watts_moon.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/watts_moon.html Seeing the world from under four feet tall, from pre-adulthood, allows for some unusual perspectives. That's when you decide that adults either get what's going on or they don't. And if they don't, can you really tell them? They just don't know anymore what nasty things lurk in the small world. (500 words) http://mytholog.com/fiction/rspyne_nasty.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/rspyne_nasty.html Anyone who has worked the graveyard shift can identify with the surreal lifestyle that results. BD Ferguson's piece gets it right - that sort of amiable indifference to and acceptance of the extraordinary that typifies the night set and ends with the sun. (695 words) http://mytholog.com/fiction/ferguson_comfort.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/ferguson_comfort.html A promise is a promise, and a deal with the other side is even more binding. Cath Smith gives us a fable that, believe it or not, could be just as helpful in the corporate boardroom as the Lancashire dales. (714 words) http://mytholog.com/fiction/smith_greenmist.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/smith_greenmist.html The bitterness of parting, and what life looks like when shaped by bitterness: that's what Donna Quattrone's story addresses. But she also tells us how the world and its demands make for our most difficult partings. This is a tale of the demands of our jobs disguised as merfiction. (857 words) If you read the previous issue, you'll also remember Donna's poem, Selkie Love. http://mytholog.com/fiction/quattrone_moon2.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/quattrone_moon2.html You don't go far today without realizing the world is changing, we're changing. The old adage that 'everyone said that in all times' isn't making us go back to sleep anymore. Kirchmeier's piece is about the penultimate generation. (175 words) http://mytholog.com/fiction/kurtkirchmeier_ourwings.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/kurtkirchmeier_ourwings.html Marriage is a compromise between your life and the life of another. Let anyone tell you otherwise, and either they haven't been married long, or won't be. Sure, it's more than that; much more; but it's always that - always a negotiated arrangement of boundaries and overlapping lives. It is a life composed of lives. Lily Ann Hoge explores, quite effectively, what happens when the one thing begins to devour the other. This is a modern myth about matrimony. (3628 words) http://mytholog.com/fiction/hoge_love.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/hoge_love.html We've enjoyed the Summer 1000 and have decided, with the occasional invited exception, to limit all submissions to 1000 words. This worked just too well, so we're going with it. Readers stay tuned and, if you're a writer, see our guidelines for submissions. If you're looking for a volunteer or intern position, visit our Openings page. If you missed the Spring issue, the Winter awards issue, or the Autumn issue, or are looking for a particular author or story, visit our Archives. http://mytholog.com/index.html http://mytholog.com/index.html MYTHOLOG, the quarterly electronic literary publication, has openings for three Junior Editors, an Index Editor, Continuity Editor, and Web Programmer. Duties for Junior Editors include voting on submissions and editing acceptances, occasionally working with authors; Junior Editors may become Associate Editors after working on the magazine for a time. The Index Editor must be able to FTP - basic HTML familiarity is a plus; the Index Editor is responsible for cataloging fiction, poetry, nonfiction, issues, and illustrations for each issue, including past issues. The Continuity Editor must have a keep eye for detail and must ensure continuity of author's names, titles, page titles, copyright dates, etc. throughout each issue and on the site. The Web Programmer must be conversant in PHP, MYSQL, HTML, and CSS, and be able to document his or her work on refining the magazine's extranet. Applicants should visit www.mytholog.com and familiarize themselves with the magazine, then contact the Chief Editor. While MYTHOLOG pays authors on publication, staff positions are volunteer or intern positions. Literary submissions from staff are considered on the same basis as others and are not given special preference. http://mytholog.com/openings.html http://mytholog.com/openings.html Spring is shaping up to be an issue of themes. Overall, there's a sense of breaking out, of Whitman's desire to sail and sail and sail. Whatever it may be. The constant ringing of bullets through the world. The constant drone of the mundane and the contrived. Somehow the season seems an invitation to leave the steady unendurable land. As always, authors have sounded the clarion call to do what poetry commands of our hearts. Read on, then, and see if you can't hear it. http://mytholog.com/current.html http://mytholog.com/current.html Mary Pat Mann has done it again. An excellent compliment to her essay on Mermaids, this fictional piece is an essay on resistance, escape, and rebuilding. Quite fitting for the times. http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/mann_peopleoftheislands.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/mann_peopleoftheislands.html Overcommitment is the bane of writers, of editors, and of a whole lot us - even if we're simply overcommited to our jobs. All that heroic work on weekends and after hours - but is heroism all it's cracked up to be? http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/gunnells_godhelpsthose.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/gunnells_godhelpsthose.html This editor has been painting cabinets for two days - another kind of commitment. It seemed like a wonderful opportunity, but sometimes the idea of it is more appealing than the grind. If you could subcontract your life, would you? Oh for a doppleganger, or a nice ambitious intern! http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/adambales_partytime.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/adambales_partytime.html What if you're stuck with your job? No delegating, not really even half committed -- it's just not for you. Do what we all do, sooner or later . . . http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/saragenge_gohome.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/saragenge_gohome.html Like it or not, pretty sentiment or not, the fact is that childhood is about grief. Not entirely, but partly enough. And where you find grief, you find God since He, like no one else, is acquainted with sorrows. http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/stewartsternberg_god.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/stewartsternberg_god.html Grief and love are intertwined. They fly or fall, one with the other. http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/angiesmibert_oneforsorrow.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/angiesmibert_oneforsorrow.html Would you choose to forget your pain? One needn't ask if you actually have pain. If you don't, you haven't lived long enough to be reading this anyway. If you could let it drain out of you like a slow trickle of water, would you? Or do you need it? Imagine if you had an eidetic memory - would that be a blessing or a curse? http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/gerrileen_theweightofthings.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/gerrileen_theweightofthings.html Sometimes it's not our pain we want to forget, nor our work that we want to delegate; it's our dreams. http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/jillianboand_bast.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/jillianboand_bast.html If the past can be forgotten, can the future be remembered? Sometimes it's so easy to see the future - the future of a person - that, if you do it in front of people, they get offended, as though their privacy has been violated. "Character is destiny," said Heraclitus. But be careful about predicting out loud, unless you're pretty sure of your own future as well, and that the news will be good news. http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/emilymzcarlyle_mrbreslaw.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/emilymzcarlyle_mrbreslaw.html What if you remembered things that no one else could? Or maybe just one other person could remember. That would be the one you'd share the rest of your life with, because that would be a life no one else could possibly share. http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/sarahfrostmellor_olympus2006.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/sarahfrostmellor_olympus2006.html Maybe that's the one. The one that gives you that inescapable feeling that pleasure is anything at all if you're together. The one to whom you've never spoken. But, of course, you could ruin it. http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/johnyoung_philiaandphobe.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/johnyoung_philiaandphobe.html Fascination can be a whimsical ride, though. It can make you dance like a marionette or . . . http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/billwest_whistlelikeaclanger.html http://www.mytholog.com/fiction/billwest_whistlelikeaclanger.html Uniting yourself to another - you learn this quickly - is always a loss as well as a gain. People who don't expect this, and plan on it, don't stay committed. It's a way the young seldom know, and fewer and fewer learn. It's the old way, and it sings. http://www.mytholog.com/poetry/donnaquattrone_selkielove.html http://www.mytholog.com/poetry/donnaquattrone_selkielove.html The gods have been popular this season but, if they were again born among us, how would they fare? Would they find the same reverence they once knew, or would we leer at them? http://www.mytholog.com/poetry/ncwhitehead_birthofvenus.html http://www.mytholog.com/poetry/ncwhitehead_birthofvenus.html What would the old things look like, if they awoke among us: Bestial? Fey? Or would we find many faces? Two springs ago we published a triplet of poems from Mary Pat Mann. This Spring, it's Elizabeth Barrette who gives us a trio of poems surveying the fantastic and the omnipresent. http://mytholog.com/current.html#barrette http://mytholog.com/current.html#barrette This editor and a colleague were discussing whether, given the choice, we would rather keep all that our overtime and years of toil have earned us, or whether we would trade it all for a grass hut on the shore, taking tourists out in a small boat to pay for necessities. Both of us indicated the same preference. The next question was whether we had the courage to actively work to replace the one with the other. Here's hoping this Spring find you working toward your grass hut, away from the din and turmoil which, since it has become so familiar, we regard as the calm of our lives. -- Asher Black, Editor-in-Chief http://mytholog.com http://mytholog.com The Summer Issue is shaping up to be quite an interesting feast. We've limited the word count of each piece to 1000. Flash Fiction is 500 words or less. Short Short Fiction is between that and 1000 words, and Poetry can be up to 1000 words. We have some drabble and other novel forms, as well. Readers stay tuned and, if you're a writer, see our guidelines for submissions. http://mytholog.com/guidelines.html http://mytholog.com/guidelines.html Welcome to the 4th Anniversary Winter Awards and Staff Issue. That's right, this issue has twin purposes: to recognize superb writing in our pages over the past four years, with our Fourth Annual Retro Awards, and to showcase several Staff Pieces that we think you're going to love. If you're snowed in under blizzard conditions, like our Chief Editor, or just can't find anything on TV that doesn't depress you (I'm about to watch the 9th film in the Sharpe's series - thank goodness for the BBC and Netflix!), you'll find plenty here to intrigue, tantalize, and even scandalize: Mary Pat Mann's two nonfiction pieces, a flash fic feast by John Ritchie, and a parade of award pieces from issues past. - Asher Black, Editor-in-Chief http://mytholog.com/v5n1.html http://mytholog.com/v5n1.html Sam Spade (and Humphrey Bogart) termed a priceless art object, "the stuff that dreams are made of", but that hasn't stopped a growing number from becoming dream detectives that search for far more in their dreams and the dreams of others. Associate Editor Mary Pat Mann went to the PsiberDreaming Conference to do her own research. She takes us there in this report, a conscious journey across the liminal divide and into the unconscious, where the mind spends more active time than we might acknowledge. http://mytholog.com/reviews/mann_psiberdream.html http://mytholog.com/reviews/mann_psiberdream.html Sex or innocence? What is the mermaid's role in culture? For some of us, encountering them first as children, it was the possibility of something beyond. Mermaids represented the wish that the world not be an accident of binary mathematics, an anomaly that will one day work itself out, as the whole moves relentlessly toward entropy. We were in danger of the rigidity we were taught to impose on our perceptions becoming the object of those perceptions, and never escaping the prison of what we expect. Others encountered mermaids later in life, fascinated with their challenge to the conventions of sexual experience. MYTHOLOG asked Associate Editor Mary Pat Mann to write on the subject of Mermaids, and she has taken their story where she will. Complimented by illustrations from Teresa Tunaley and the mermaid mummy photo here generously provided by our star proofer, Rod Walker, she's given us an almost Fortean bestiary (or should we say anthropology?) of Mermaids in human culture. http://mytholog.com/essays/mann_mermaids.html http://mytholog.com/essays/mann_mermaids.html Quick bite? Associate Editor John Ritchie provides us a seasonal snack, with this flash-fic contribution. It's illustrated by the illustrious, industrious Teresa Tunaley. http://mytholog.com/fiction/ritchie_fastfood.html http://mytholog.com/fiction/ritchie_fastfood.html Each Winter issue we do a retrospective of past issues - and honor a number of pieces that typify what we're doing here at MYTHOLOG. The Retro is kind of like our own Grammys, Emmys, or Tony Awards. We don't pass out statues, but we do call attention to literature that has made a distinct splash here at MYTHOLOG and for our audience. Past retrospectives have honored work by Mary Pat Mann, Em Wycedee, and Michelle Erica Green, among others. This year, we're giving the Retro and special applause to sixteen pieces, a number chosen for the number of past issues http://mytholog.com/current.html#retro http://mytholog.com/current.html#retro El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) is being billed in some quarters as high fantasy. It is fantasy, and pretty good fantasy, but to see it in its true light, you have to cast off the prevalent comparisons and the excess of adulation. Asher reviews this film in his usual idiosyncratic (perhaps even polemical) style. In the end though, he notes that a review is just an opinion. http://mytholog.com/reviews/black_panslabyrinth.html http://mytholog.com/reviews/black_panslabyrinth.html Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:37:00 GMT