It came to pass in the year of the Twin Comets that Father Ignatz of Jupiter Base came to Iolanthe, moon of...
She can’t understand
but listens to their weeping
for the men she’s claimed
and tries to mimic... 
Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay. Penguin, March 2010, $34.00, ISBN 9780670068098.
Reviewed by Liz... 
BARB: I remember, growing up, all winter long we heard thunder.
We lived outside Syracuse – ...
He wove through the ballroom, past swan princesses and pirate kings, dodging breasts and codpieces as they... For our summer issue this year? A lighter note. (Shocked? So are we!)
We’re kicking off with return contributor A.C. Wise’s “Operation: Annihilate Mars! Or, Doctor Blood and the Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron” – because there is no saying no to spacefaring, crime-fighting drag queens. Try it. We’ll wait.
Our second piece for this month, Vicki Saunders’s “Deus Ex Chelonia,” takes us on the most whimsical post-apocalyptic quest we’ve read in years and years.
We’re only running two fiction pieces this issue to make room for an interview with this quarter’s featured author: Ideomancer alumnus Sofia Samatar speaks with us about language, craft, and her first novel, A Stranger in Olondria. Her “Undoomed” is also featured in our poetry section this month, alongside work from Alicia Cole and Rob Bliss, and reviews of this quarter’s new releases.
We hope you enjoy this quarter’s issue, and if so, please consider dropping something into our tip jar. Ideomancer relies on reader donations to pay its contributors for their excellent fiction and poetry, and even five dollars makes a big difference.
Enjoy the issue, and have a bright and happy summer!
Leah Bobet
Publisher
Contents
Vol. 12 Issue 2
Editor’s Note
Fiction
“Doctor Blood and the Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron” – A. C. Wise
“Deux ex Chelonia” – Vicki Saunders
Poetry
“Undoomed” – Sofia Samatar
“Artemis Speaks to Aphrodite” – Alicia Cole
“Solaris” – Rob Bliss
Interview
“Sofia Samatar, author of A Stranger in Olondria”
Reviews
Karen Lord’s The Best of All Possible Worlds – Liz Bourke
Where Thy Dark Eye Glances: Queering Edgar Allan Poe – Claire Humphrey
And we’re back, with our first issue of 2013, a double handful of emotional stories and poems for the dark beginnings of spring. Our March issues always fall, without plans for it, into a travelling theme; here are some tales for the road.
Gabriel Murray’s “Swan-Brother” takes us into an alternate historical world for a story that’s infinitely close to home; Leah Thomas’s “Rubbernecking” gauges the distance between us and the house next door, and how near or far it can really be; and Sunny Moraine’s “The Horse Latitudes” combs two blood-soaked pasts and turns its bearings toward a new way.
Poetry from Megan Arkenberg, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Alexandra Seidel, and Michele Bannister travels through crossroads and orbits alike, into the space between where we are and what we desire – and as always, our book reviewers bring you their thoughts on the latest releases.
We hope you enjoy this quarter’s issue, and if so, please consider dropping something into our tip jar. Ideomancer relies on reader donations to pay its contributors for their excellent fiction and poetry, and even five dollars makes a big difference.
Enjoy the issue, Happy New Year, and we’ll see you in the springtime!
Leah Bobet
Publisher
Contents
Vol. 12 Issue 1
Editor’s Note
Fiction
“Swan-Brother” – Gabriel Murray
“Rubbernecking” – Leah Thomas
“The Horse Latitudes” – Sunny Moraine
Poetry
“Songs at a Crossroads” – Megan Arkenberg
“The High Tree on the Hill” – David C. Kopaska-Merkel
“Uncertainty Principle” – Alexandra Seidel
“Orpheus in Orbit” – Michele Bannister
Reviews
M.C. Planck’s The Kassa Gambit – Liz Bourke
Felix Gilman’s The Rise of Ransom City – Liz Bourke
Melanie Rawn’s Touchstone – Liz Bourke
As we head into winter – and our final issue of 2012 – we’re happy to offer up three stories and four poems by authors from Sri Lanka to Shanghai to Saskatchewan: all of them delving into what it means to make a change, and the consequences that rush in after.
In Sara K. Ellis’s “Sub”, one inner-city girl makes a change for the better, and comes to grapple with what better means; Adam Mills’s “The Artist in the Tower” meditates on revolution, myth-making, and the tension between how people lived and what we can believe; and Rachel Derksen’s “Alterations for Beginners” tells a story about impact, and how we make it when nobody’s looking.
Poetry from Vajra Chandrasekera, Lisa M. Cole, Yunsheng Jiang, and Holly R. Appling touches on the moving of the seasons, the ending of the world, and people’s moves toward and away from each other both – and as always, our book reviewers bring you their thoughts on the latest releases.
We hope you enjoy this quarter’s issue, and if so, please consider dropping something into our tip jar. Ideomancer relies on reader donations to pay its contributors for their excellent fiction and poetry, and even five dollars makes a big difference.
Enjoy the issue, Happy New Year, and we’ll see you in the springtime!
Leah Bobet
Publisher
Contents
Vol. 11 Issue 4
Editor’s Note
Fiction
“Sub” – Sara K. Ellis
“The Artist in the Tower” – Adam Mills
“Alterations for Beginners” – Rachel Derksen
Poetry
“Jörmungandr” – Vajra Chandrasekera
“After Songs” – Lisa M. Cole
“Haiku” – Yunsheng Jiang
“Apple” – Holly R. Appling
Reviews
Chaz Brenchley’s House of Bells – Liz Bourke
Barbara Hambly’s The Magistrates of Hell – Liz Bourke
Our third issue of 2012 is all about insides and outsides, and the delicate, permeable walls between.
Alexei Collier’s “The Bohemians” ponders the fine lines between persona and person, and how prepared we are – or aren’t – to see both in someone; Nathaniel Lee’s “Gastrophidia” literally tackles the disasters that occur when the things one holds inside break into open air; and James Will Brady – another Ideomancer author who’s made the transition to joining our editorial staff! – caps off the issue with “Judge,” which treads the tricky territory between part of the group and outsider, and who’s in or out in whose eyes.
Poetry from Ann Schwader, David Glen Larson, Barry King, and Alexa Seidel transmogrifies, metamorphoses, and takes on new forms – and as always, there are the usual book reviews.
We hope you enjoy this quarter’s issue, and if so, please consider dropping something into our tip jar. Ideomancer relies on reader donations to pay its contributors for their excellent fiction and poetry, and even five dollars makes a big difference.
Enjoy the issue, and have a wonderful autumn.
Leah Bobet
Publisher
Contents
Vol. 11 Issue 3
Editor’s Note
Fiction
“The Bohemians” – Alexei Collier
“Gastrophidia” – Nathaniel Lee
“Judge” – James Will Brady
Poetry
“A Metamorphosis of Dream” – Alexandra Seidel
“Ana Morphosis” – David Glen Larson
“Svartálfar Rising” – Barry King
“Launching Atlantis” – Ann K. Schwader
Reviews
Beth Bernobich’s Queen’s Hunt – Liz Bourke
John Scalzi’s Redshirts – Maya Chhabra
Kari Sperring’s The Grass King’s Concubine – Liz Bourke
Our second issue of 2012 goes on some wandering summer travels through three very different rural geographies.
Wendy N. Wagner’s “Barnstormers” shows us a night on a summer fairground tour in a small and dusty future; Maigen Turner’s “Eliza Jane Goes Into Town” – her first publication! – tells a frontier story about our complicated relationships with the wilderness outside our windows; and Frank Ard’s “The Sensation of Falling” is laced with geography changed and changing: the maps of home, family, and what away means shifting under your feet.
Poetry from Michele Bannister, Devon Miller-Duggan, Christelle Mariano, and Eric Zboya goes to other planets, other media, and underwater in your dreams – and as always, there are the usual book reviews.
We hope you enjoy this quarter’s issue, and if so, please consider dropping something into our tip jar. Ideomancer relies on reader donations to pay its contributors for their excellent fiction and poetry, and even five dollars makes a big difference.
Enjoy the issue, and have a wonderful summer, wherever your travelling feet take you.
Leah Bobet
Publisher
Contents
Vol. 11 Issue 2
Editor’s Note
Fiction
“Barnstormers” – Wendy N. Wagner
“Eliza Jane Goes Into Town” – Maigen Turner
“The Sensation of Falling” – Frank Ard
Poetry
“Anvil-Mistress” – Michele Bannister
“Teaching the Fisher Queen” – Devon Miller-Duggan
“Alimu-om” – Christelle Mariano
“M1″ – Eric Zboya
Reviews
Stephen Graham King’s Chasing Cold – Claire Humphrey
Mary Gentle’s The Black Opera: a novel of operas, volcanoes, and the Mind of God – Liz Bourke
Our first issue of 2012 tangles, as everything outside the window’s slowly waking up, with the complications of desire.
In Sofia Samatar’s “The Nazir”, two very different women struggle with being kept from the things they want — or, alternately, the price of getting them; S.E. Gale’s “Chorus of the Dead” mingles regret, desire, and silences into a less-usual story about death; and George Galuschak’s “The Wanting Game” defines a line between want, and sacrifice, and need.
Poetry from Kelly Rose Pflug-Back, W.C. Roberts, N. Marin, and Robert K. Gardner yearns for certainty, and completion, and what was and what could be — and as always, there are the usual book reviews.
We hope you enjoy this quarter’s issue, and if so, please consider dropping something into our tip jar. Ideomancer relies on reader donations to pay its contributors for their excellent fiction and poetry, and even five dollars makes a big difference.
Enjoy the issue, enjoy your spring, and may you get that much closer to the things you uncomplicatedly desire.
Leah Bobet
Publisher
Contents
Vol. 11 Issue 1
Editor’s Note
Fiction
“The Nazir” – Sofia Samatar
“Chorus of the Dead” – S. E. Gale
“The Wanting Game” – George Galuschak
Poetry
“Sweet Mercy, Her Body an Ark of Wild Beasts” – Kelly Rose Pflug-Back
“ZuZu’s Petals” – W. C. Roberts
“Vintage” – N. Marin
“Nightstorm” – Robert K. Gardner
Reviews
Elizabeth Bear’s Range of Ghosts – Liz Bourke
Michele Lang’s Dark Victory – Maya Chhabra
