The Fix’s 1-Year Anniversary and 2 Reviews of Triangulation: Taking Flight.

Yesterday marked the 1-year anniversary of launching The Fix online. I wanted to commemorate this milestone with something insightful, stirring, and inspiring, but I ended up cobbling together an unremarkable and stock year-in-review editorial instead.

Not for lack of trying. I made several rewrite passes on it, as I wanted to convey my appreciation for The Fix’s writers and editorial staff who work so hard and with such dedication as well as express how heartened I was by the obvious shared love that these folks have for short form works—not to mention how honored I am to be entrusted with the efforts and contributions of such talented writers—but I ended up rambling and sounding like an award acceptance speech—one of those which gets cut short by the cued music. So I red-lined it to bare bones. Grumf.

Writing Stuff

“The Life and Times of Penguin” in Triangulation: Taking Flight received some nice commentary in a pair of reviews:

“The final story ‘Life And Times Of Penguin’ by Eugie Foster about self-aware toys in the hands of a destructive child is both touching and uplifting”
—Geoff Willmetts, SF Crowsnest

“Told from the point of view of a balloon animal penguin, the toy’s brief but eventful life manages to jam in enough existential angst to give Kierkegaard indigestion, an astonishing emotional depth, and yet fully embrace the essentially absurd nature of her story.”
—Martin McGrath, The Fix

Martin also described it as “Toy Story meets Voltaire’s Candide,” which tickled me when I read it, as “Penguin” is my homage to Candide which I wrote not too long after having seen Toy Story for the first time. Candide is one of my favorite satires, managing to deliver its message with humor and wit and, impressively, brevity. Rock on, Voltaire.

Received:
• Shiny contrib. copy of #37 of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine:

I have essentially transitioned to reading nearly everything from a computer screen, as I encourage all the editors and publishers who send me review material to provide me with electronic files—faster, cheaper, and greener for all to disseminate. But I still get a visceral thrill from holding a print copy of a publication with one of my stories in it. Go fig.