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Tinseltown
by Erin Ward
Los Angeles is a place nobody is actually from. If you’re
beautiful, or just different and have something to offer,
then you come to L.A. It’s America’s foster home for
those corrupt oddballs with a gimmick, someone with a
quick ace up his sleeve, and those too gorgeous for their
own good.
You’d think I’d be right at home in a place like that, born
in a city that adopts all the lovely kooks and crazies of
the world, but never seems to really give birth on its own.
You’d think a lot of things, even that a blue girl in Los
Angeles isn’t such a bizarre thing nowadays…and maybe
never was. You’d be right; I’m L.A.’s albino baby with an
impeccable fashion sense. And then there’s Elliot. When I
met Elliot, he wasn’t Old Hollywood or New Hollywood, but
belonged there nonetheless. If merely for being anti-
Hollywood, he was a part of it. I loved him for every fault
and foible. And it was with great pride that I realized I
was one of them.
We may seem like opposites, but maybe we are really
two of a kind. Because that’s how it is in Tinseltown.
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Somethin' Else
by E.S. Parkinson
Set on the cusp of the 60s, when everything seemed grey
and staying put felt as scary as getting out, this is Jim’s
story – a working class lad grimly determined to get to
university, but dreaming of nights on the town and the
promise of rock and roll. Jim feels trapped in the post-war
housing development, the routine of work and school,
and with the girlfriend he can’t quite manage to fall in
love with.
Until he meets Edward – full of passion and possibility -
and in an instant, Jim’s world is turned upside down and
nothing is the same. Edward doesn’t seem to notice rules
or barriers and helps Jim to see the world through fresh
eyes. Jim and Edward long for escape, but in the end,
escape means different things to each of them and
brings with it as many questions as solutions.
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Synthetic Saints
by Jason Rolfe
When communication with an isolated Deep Space
Observatory is lost, Alex and his Synthetic partner,
Persephone, are sent to investigate. Depression is a
common problem. Suicide and accidental death are not
unheard of at stations like Cochrane. Alex and
Persephone are sent to learn which of these fates has
found Amanda Hayes.
What at first appears to be suicide, takes on all the
hallmarks of murder. On an isolated station run by a
single data analyst, murder is a seemingly impossible
crime. Alex, however, specializes in rogue Artificial
Intelligence Units and Synthetics, ‘spiritual’ machines that
claim sentience and demand basic ‘human’ rights. What
began as a ‘routine’ assignment leads Alex to question
the nature of the human soul and what may, or may not,
happen after death.
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