Fall 2011 FRiGG

The new issue of FRiGG is out. I read most of the stories in it this morning and then went back this afternoon and read one or two of them again. I love Karen Britten's story "The Miracle." I know I love a story when I get jealous while reading it. I end up thinking, why the hell didn't I write this myself? Then I slap myself across the face once or twice as a kind of warning not to let these things slip by me anymore. "The Miracle" is serious and strange and very, very funny. It's even got a kind of horror element to it. That's right, I said horror. And have you ever tried to write a serious, funny story with a horror element to it? Not easy! Serious/funny? You've gotta be fast, nimble and maybe a little bit weird. Hell, even being just plain slightly amusing in writing is almost impossible and yet she's funny in the most surprising ways here. And she managed to keep shanking me with perfect sharp sentences I couldn't see coming. I'd quote them, but I don't want to ruin the surprises if you haven't read the story. Which I strongly advise you to do right now - or after you finish reading this. It's got that perfect brand of weirdness - something fresh, something different going on. Even the names of the characters surprised me. They just seemed right. Couldn't have been anything else. Absolutely non-arbitrary. I also really liked Vallie Lynn Watson's Veronica stories. I could see myself reading a full-length book of them someday - that is, if such a thing were to come into existence somehow. If I were an editor - which I am way too selfish and lazy to even think about being - I'd get in touch with her with a few questions at hand. There's plenty of other good stuff in this issue of FRiGG, as well as my own story Cobarde, the inclusion of which I am grateful for. Always nice to be included. In there with the other kids. I hope it gets some laughs out of somebody somewhere - or at least freaks somebody out.