TELL THEM THAT I'M YOUR GUN: I'm currently putting together the pieces for a science-fiction novel which will have as one of its themes the work of peacemaking. How can peace be built--not merely the absence of war, but a place of reconciliation and restitution?

So recommend things to me! If this idea makes you think of books, movies, whatever, why not email me? There's a link on the sidebar, or it's eve_tushnet@yahoo.com .

I note that this is not a pacifist novel and I'm not super interested in that argument; I'm interested in stories of peacemaking. (Stories which take place within severely disciplined and controlled environments with obvious power systems, like military units or prisons, and stories about people who themselves are kind of crazy and chaotic and not obviously peaceful, are especially welcome.)

Here, have a picture. (Via Andrew Sullivan.)

eta: In case this helps provoke ideas: I think I'm mostly looking for nonfiction, though fiction is also definitely welcome; and I'm very interested in stories of institutions designed/ostensibly designed to promote peace, reconciliation, healing, or rehabilitation which instead become complicit in violence and degradation. ...And thanks very much, to those who have already written with suggestions.

THEY RECOGNIZED HIM IN THE BREAKING OF THE BREAD: Over the weekend I finished the first round of edits on my novel. The working title is New Wineskins. It is 64,618 words long (about 108 pp in 12-pt Times New Roman) and is the achingly sincerist story of a transgendered Yale student who becomes unintentionally pregnant. It is Catholic--mackerels snapping left and right--and desperately undergraduate. There's lots of discussion of feminism also. Despite these facts, I think it's pretty awesome.

I realize that the target audience for this novel may consist of: me. But I hope that's not true! I really, really, really need extra eyes for this, so please PLEASE email me at eve_tushnet@yahoo.com if you want to read the draft. I promise it sucks less than at least 80% of the bestseller list, no lie. Also I think people who have edited my stuff before will tell you that I take criticism well. I've been astonished at how gentle people think they have to be w/fiction criticism, when journalism is basically about your editor telling you precisely where and how you suck. (And sometimes being wrong, but not mostly.)

Also, if you a) think a friend might be interested in the draft (esp a transgendered friend or a friend who has been pregnant), PLEASE PLEASE TELL THEM--I would really love as many different perspectives on my handling of Other People's Experiences as possible and I am working hard to make sure that I have readers who will be able to tell me when I'm being an ass,

and b) relatedly, if you or your friend are not sure you can look at the novel until you know more about it, EMAIL ME and I will answer any questions. E.g. I totally know that people might need to know where the protagonist ends up in terms of gender and/or religious identity before they can settle in to reading the draft.

And finally, if you ask for the draft, I do NOT expect you to read it or comment. I mean, I really, really hope you do! That's why I'm asking. But if you get bored, or get distracted, or don't have anything to say except :/, or whatever, THAT IS OKAY. Asking me for the draft is NOT a commitment of any kind, to any action.

So yeah. No pressure, just a potentially-awesome novel which needs your help to be made less stupid.

If you feel like circulating this plea to more readers, I will think you are cool and also say a prayer for you. To... hm... let's say St. Francis de Sales, the patron of journalists.

LADY CHURCHILL'S ROSEBUD WRISTLET #24 aka The One I'm In. Here's a review of the whole zine, in case the fact that I'm In This One! isn't enough for you. You can download each issue as an e-book for just $4 each.

First of all, there is kind of a LCRW "house style," ably demonstrated by this issue. It's hard to describe fully, but some elements include lush prose, a mysterious and troubling atmosphere, and direct references to and subversions of various well-known fantasy genres. A strong premise with unusual, surrealist imagery. Since my story has all these elements (I mean, I hope the premise is strong!), rest assured I have nothing against this stuff; but devouring the whole magazine at once may not be the best way to bring out the stories' unique characteristics.

Alexander Lamb, "Eleven Orchid Street": Very creepy parable of (it seemed to me) class and origin, the trap of fatalism and the trap of an embittered imagination. Expanding one's experiences can lead to the feeling that the old experiences have been drained of substance and meaning, rather than giving them renewed meaning. The kill-your-television stuff at first felt cliched, but was done so spookily that I ended up on board. The futuristic atmosphere worked too--a very lightly sketched Clockwork-Orangey place. Definitely my favorite story.

Liz Williams, "Dusking": Seems like it will be bog-standard Victorian revisionism (modesty and the Bible are evil! Fairies bite!) but has a really fun ending. The ending made me very fond of this one, and it's short enough that you get there before you really get irritated at the protagonist.

Jasmine Hammer, "Tornado Juice": Super-intriguing double premise (every strand of a girl's hair contains a world + people living inside a tornado), but ultimately this felt like a slight story which was trying to be dark but (for me) didn't quite pull it off. Still, the images are fun and very fresh.

Alissa Nutting, "Leave the Dead to the Living": A mortician who smokes his clients' hair to imbibe their memories. Very Tim Powers in Expiration Date. Once again, though, the story felt slighter than the premise.

"A Story Like Mine": Hey, I'm In This One! Various origin stories of a scar.

Dennis Danvers, "The Broken Dream Factory": You know, I'm not sure what to make of this one. For a while it was quite smug (and even if that's intentional, I don't find it any more illuminating or pleasant!) about its protagonist's commitment to producing broken dreams in an America which prefers banal happiness. Then it twisted into a really odd reworking of the Orpheus myth. I still think colliding two over-easy stories doesn't make one complex story... but I could be wrong about that. If any of you all read this issue, let me know what you thought! (And of course about the other stories, too.)

Anya Groner, "The Magician's Keeper": Stockholm Syndrome parable. I didn't get much out of this, I have to admit.

Overall, I'd say three stories I didn't write were good, one really good; and even the ones I didn't care for had intriguing premises and imagery. Given how easy it is for fantasy to feel played-out, a twelfth-generation xerox, that seems like an accomplishment to me. I didn't grok the poetry or comic well enough to comment on them, but I will note that part of the fun of a zine like this is the ads: Did you know there's a Joan Aiken collection coming out?! Plus lots more neat fantasy collections, weird novels, and magazines.

Get it here! Get more here! Remember, just $4/issue for an ebook version!

"A STORY LIKE MINE." I have a piece in the new Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. Some few, persistent readers may remember it as a revised version of "Recognition."

It's... sort of fantasy/"slipstream"? It's one of those weird pieces where I didn't expect it to do anything, but it seemed to hit a chord with people--I was surprised at the response. The LCRW version is better than anything you've seen, and anyway, I've never been able to track down the old version, even through the Wayback Machine.

A quote from toward the beginning:

Once upon a time there was a boy whose face broke open.

He was shaving in front of the mirror one day--he had only just started shaving--when his hand slipped and his face split. Underneath the skin there was horror. Where the skin split he could see oily, black things, writhing and pulsing. He cried out, dropped the razor. His mother knocked on the bathroom door and asked if he was all right. He tried to hold his face together, tried to pinch the edges of the cut in the hope that it would somehow heal itself. He told her he was fine.

Whatever was under his skin smelled foul. The stinking stuff began to crawl out from between his fingers. In the bright bathroom light he could see that it was reddened black, like blood clots, and it had a gelatin texture.

find out more

"BETTER": Short story by me, at Doublethink. What if the aliens are just better?

THE NEW THIRD ORDER IS HERE! And I'm in it!

Third Order is a magazine of "faith, fiction, and the occasional extraterrestrial."

My story in this issue is the one I've sometimes summarized as "Catholicism = AIDS," and other times as "Anthony Bourdain as a Vietnamese chick in space." So if that sounds interesting to you, go read it--it's short.

I haven't had a chance to read the other stories in this issue yet, but I can definitely recommend the awesome cover illustration!

"STORY WITHOUT A NAME": I have a poem-type thing in the current issue of Dappled Things.

MEMORIES OF THOSE SWEET YESTERDAYS, SPENT WITH SQUID: Oh hey! My short story, "Retroactive Continuity," is online!

SCHRODINGER'S SQUID IS THE GAYEST SQUID. I have a short story, "Retroactive Continuity," in the current issue of Doublethink. It's the one about the netsuke squid. (Inspired by an anecdote from Maggie Gallagher's Abolition of Marriage, by the way.) The story doesn't seem to be online, but I'll let you know if that changes.

(something vaguely resembling an explanation of the post title here)