It was one of those gloomy days today which made it hard to find the motivation to write. Instead, I caught up on some reading and thought a little bit about how to resolve the plot problem in my story. I'll focus more on the latter tomorrow.

Today I read Four Seasons in One Day -- a gorgeous little chapbook by Jason Erik Lundberg and Janet Jia-Ee Chui, and the first issue of Flytrap, a new 'zine put out by Tropism Press.

Four Seasons in One Day features three short stories and one poem, with each related to a different season. The illustrations are well done and complement the stories perfectly.

The first story, entitled Night Off shows us one possible scenario when a certain jolly fellow cannot make his Christmas deliveries and must find someone to take his place. Rather than present us with another variation on a well-worn idea, Lundberg instead comes up with a novel twist which is similar in theme to his story in the recent Intracities collection.

This is followed by the Spring-themed story, Ghost Dancing. Stephan has an 'imaginary' friend named Fiona who claims to be looking out for him, but often ends up causing trouble. This causes conflict between Stephan and his mother, and leads to Stephan coming to a new understanding of what happened to his father.

In The Sleepers, Janet Jia-Ee Chui brings us the tale of a Singaporean family in Australia during a typically hot Summer in Melbourne. May wants to stay, but her mother insists they move in order to cater for May's disruptive younger brother, Jinn. The Sleepers is filled with rich imagery and as far as I could tell, the Australian aspects were pretty much spot-on.

The chapbook wraps up with a short poem, entitled Scarlet. I really enjoyed this one and the way it described the changing colours of Autumn. In summary, Four Seasons in One Day is a quick but enjoyable read, whatever the season.

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Issue One of Flytrap was a real treat, with plenty of stories from some great new names in short fiction. In addition to the short fiction there are also quite a few poems, some non-fiction articles, and brief biographies for the contributors at the end.

My favourite stories this issue were Fishing, I Go Among Them by Greg van Eekhout, Like Cherries in the Dark by Jay Lake, Never, Incorporated by Michael Jasper, Rain by Gabriel Edson, and Carving by Derek James. There wasn't a bad story in the bunch :)

Heather Shaw and Tim Pratt have done a great job with the layout and getting the mix of stories just right for this issue. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with for issue 2. This is definitely a 'zine to keep an eye out for!

What I'm Reading:
Fantasy & Science Fiction, August 2003
Wolves of the Calla (Dark Tower V) by Stephen King