From richard.horton@sff.net Mon Mar 15 23:43:21 2004 Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2004 15:28:12 -0600 From: Rich Horton Newsgroups: sff.people.richard-horton, sff.discuss.short-fiction Subject: Summary: Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, 2003 Summary: Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, 2003 This has for several years been the premier little "'zine" of the SF field. I couldn't speak with complete certainty, but it seems at least nearly the founder, and surely the most prominent member, of what is now a large school of low-budget desktop produced 'zines, usually somewhat slipstream in focus, usually consisting of sheets of 8.5x14 paper folded and stapled, with light cardboard covers. However, with issue #13 (the second issue this year, dated November 2003), LCRW is tentatively moving a bit upscale: it is now perfect-bound instead of saddle-stapled, and the cover stock is of higher quality. The 'zine is somewhat bigger as well. For next year they have announced a move to thrice-yearly publication. All this talk about format should not obscure the content. LCRW has always featured quirky, intelligent, and experimental stories, along with some poetry, and with occasional other articles. This remains true. This year there were 24 stories, one of novelette length, a total of some 63,000 words of fiction. Somehow I managed to misplace my copy of the June issue, and my notes about it were very sketchy. I did note that my favorite stories were the novelette, "The Fishie" by Philip Raines and Harvey Welles; and Richard Parks's "The Plum Blossom Lantern". "Bay" by David Erik Nelson was also pretty solid work. >From November my favorite story was Eliot Fintushel's "Kukla Boogie Moon", a very odd story about a future when most everybody drinks "Kuke", complete with constant advertising. The plot involves teleportation, fundamentalists who oppose both Kukla Boogie Moon and teleportation, sludge, and a Rune on the Moon. Which says almost nothing about the story. (There is some engagement with the central idea of James Patrick Kelly's "Think Like a Dinosaur".) I also quite liked stories by David J. Schwartz, Tim Pratt, E. L. Chen, and Spencer Keralis. As ever, LCRW also features poetry, essays, film and 'zine reviews, and various little surprises. 2003 was another good year for LCRW.