Alice In China

What would Alice in Wonderland have looked like in China?  First off, I think Chinese lifestyle is much more suited to the tone of the novel.  In China, people live their lives with less predetermination than we do (so, at least it seems to me. In case I'm offending anyone, sure wasn't intended).  It starts with buying stuff.  You haggle.  There are no fixed prices for anything, and agreeing on a price can take long.  Then, there are meetings and appointments.  All much more loosely than in the West, I can tell you.  Any plans you try to make in China had better come with a Plan B in case things don't work out quite the way you expect them to (because they usually won't).

So, no straight lines, at least not such as a Westerner could easily follow.  Oh yeah, and although people generally act friendly, they don't always mean it.  Like that one lady who kept charging Westerners more for water, especially if they didn't know any Chinese.  (I could call her the evil Water Witch and write a story containing wells, but that is for another time.)

So, a Chinese Alice, probably would have been less astounded by what one finds Down the Rabbit Hole, dressed in more silk, heavily embroidered.  The Caterpillar might have been a dragon, unhatched as of yet, and the endearing Cheshire Cat would have been a tiger of course.

I explored this different Wonderland that is, for all its differences, no less wondrous than what we already know, in this little poem.  Brew some tea, read, enjoy, and do not forget to take a close look at those tea leaves!

We Want Poooetry!

Happy news for poets! Niteblade has recently increased the pay rate for all accepted poems to 5$ per poem. In the world of poetry, I'd call that a grand thing indeed, and the Beloved Editor (aka Rhonda Parrish) cannot be praised enough for it.

At the moment, we are reading for the September issue. We would like to see more poems of high quality in the slush. Baffle us. Dazzle us. Sneak up behind us and shout BOO! Make us go all swoony with delight. Seriously, we can handle it. If you have something awesome, please read the guidelines here and send us the best you got. Get to it!

May: My Very Own Personal Poetry Month

So the last couple of days, I have been wow-ed on a regular basis. Hypothetically, I might have even shed some tears of joy. I think I'm still high from the sheer adrenaline.

Basically what happened is that I find myself poetry editor of Fantastique Unfettered and poetry co-editor (with Rhonda Parrish) of Niteblade.

Wow. WOW.

I don't really know why that happened, it just did and I am very much grateful and already feeling the weight of responsibility. Good then that I'm an ambitious gal. I mean, I just lost two markets I can sell my poems to, so I have to compensate in ambition, right?

A note about FU: I am very much tempted to spout out all the things I'd like in my poetry editor's inbox, the market is still quite new and there are possibilities. But I won't give in. Just this much, spec poetry loosely defined, genre-bending is acceptable. The quality of the work counts. I like my slush (submitting early in the reading period seems prudent): poetry-editor@fantastique-unfettered.com
(Please know that every poem is read twice at least, unless it is very obviously not a good fit for FU.)

I should also mention that you can find this review of Stone Telling #3 on FU's site. Please keep checking back (or follow me on Twitter or whatever) for there is more to come

For Niteblade, so far things look easier (from my end; and perhaps I should say clearer). The zine isn't quite so new, the tastes, at least genre-wise are established: horror and fantasy. All that's left for me to do is apply my pickiest, most critical self to the submissions, but since Rhonda and me will be co-editing the poetry...wait, no, we still want the best. Guidelines here.

Please send us things with their own heart...