Eibonvale Press

[Eibonvale]

I have opened the forthcoming collection by Rosanne Rabinowitz for preorders. I don't always manage to do this, but in this case, here it is! I am currently working on the final stages of this one so it should not be too long before release. You can find it here: http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/books/books_resonance.htm

(The above is not the final cover!)

[Eibonvale]

Eibonvale Press will be open for submissions for a new anthology edited by Allen Ashley and Sarah Doyle. “Humanagerie” will showcase both poetry and short fiction on the theme of animals. The book will not be about animals as such, but will instead be inspired by the characteristics that animals possess, and the points at which these intersect with – and manifest in – humanity. It will also be based on the strange and beautiful adjectives used to describe such traits, such as:


Aquiline – eagle
Chelonian – tortoise or turtle
Leporine – hare
Ostracine – oyster
Pieridine / Pierine – butterfly
Vespine – wasp / hornet
and many many more. You will find a much larger list in the guidelines.


We are interested in shifting states, in scenarios that explore duality, hybridity, and liminality. We are asking writers to consider how animalistic attributes might manifest in the human psyche – or vice versa. We want hints of scales, tails, fur and fins… gills, claws, paws and spines… glimpses of horns, tusks, teeth and tongues… stalking, slinking, slithering and stomping… roars, whimpers, howls and song. We want breath, heat, musk. We want landscapes ranging from urban wastelands to frozen tundra, from bedsits to coastlines, from suburbia to savannah – and the imagined worlds between. We want water and we want fish out of water. We want the visceral and the vulnerable, the slippery and the synaesthetic, emergence and extinction.


The submissions window will run from March 1st until May 31st 2018. The word limits are up to 60 lines for poetry and 4,000 words for fiction.


Download the guidelines here.

[Zaharoff]

Allen, Nina - A Thread Of Truth

This had been on my radar after reading Ms Allen's tightly stitched The Silver Wind.
That title was recently picked up by a major publisher, leaving no HC copies available.
Luckily, Eibonvale still carries this earlier work, though it is less time slip than Silver Wind.
In this collection, the opening stories often feel like unresolved memories.
The sundering of adolescent friendships, office rumors, the hotel front of smuggled immigrants.
Our perception is unclear, deliberately so, and the reader is on sandy footing throughout.
The final tales are outstanding.
A misfit adolescent, befriended by a reclusive old man, enigma in the Moscow subway, and an arachnophobe, dealing with his terrors.
The final story also contains a tale within a tale of an unpleasant, perhaps buried, village secret.
One really must pay attention with Allen's stories, as often seemingly throwaway lines return to haunting effect.

[Zaharoff]

Rabinowitz, Roseanne - Resonance And Revolt

A surprisingly enjoyable collection that displays many of the themes of Eibonvale press.
Misperceived realities, time slips, detours into the back country.
The collection is bookended with two train tales. Neither express is ordinary.
The old folk song “In The Pines” echoes in both rail stories.
Other tales capture moments when the veil of time lifts briefly, affording viewers at either end of an age to catch sight of each other.
There are journeys, the rare quest, as characters search for answers, or for themselves.
One of the stories was sprinkled with Yiddish words, of which I knew maybe a third. Unlike Harlan Ellison with "I'm Looking For Kadak," no helpful glossary provided.
Most of the characters seem troubled or haunted.
A nice, and nicely affordable, introduction to this author.

[Zaharoff]

Watt, D. P. - An Emporium Of Automata

Watt’s first collection, originally published in a small printing, is a sumptuous buffet. The stories are gathered into three sections, which Daniel Corrick, in the Introduction, offers a sketchy roadmap.
The opener, “Dr. Erbach’s Emporium Of Automata,” sets the tone. The seaside pleasure fair of a simpler age, pre-internet, where favored diversions include a peculiar museum of mechanical curiosities. Luring those whose curiosity is matched by their innocence.
One hundred and ten years old, what an age to reach! The sweep of history, what a life! Or was it such a life? She seldom did anything, aside from the annual holiday. After all, she was only “The Butcher’s Daughter”.
“Room 89” should strike an dissonant chord with M. R. James devotees. Weatherby decides to spend a month in Ryde. Diverting enough burg, close enough to other sites, towns, should boredom prod investigation. The proprietress is efficient, and he makes a steady friend in Major Turnbull. The room is another matter altogether. And yet, Weatherby keeps to a parsimonious budget, so cheaply bought, dearly paid, as they say.
The second section, on surface, are mostly mundane observations of Roberta. An odd creature, intelligent, morose, manipulative, dismissive, holding fixed opinions that she may, or just as likely may not, elaborate upon. I have known, and continue to meet, others of this type. Best avoided, should you ask me. Not so the various male narrators who share a morbid fascination for Roberta.
The third section is more difficult to categorize (possibly why Mr. Corrick was so vague in his intro). Tales wander through theatre and puppets, the fog of Kafka permeates. Traumatized villages and dimly remembered czar … or was that commissar? Less straightforward, less traditional, these nudge the reader off-axis into so much loose sand, only to abandon the baffled traveler.

[bendk]

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

Watt, D. P. - An Emporium Of Automata

Thanks to TLO, I was able to buy the Ex Occidente version of An Empire of Automata. They accidentally sent me two dust jackets.

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE