Written Word, #10, April 2008

This month’s Written Word, #10, dives into darkness with fiction that feels so real it’s hard to believe it isn’t true. Readers who are easily disturbed are cautioned, but my comments should in no way be construed as criticism of some very fine writing by authors with the guts to tackle controversial issues.

The cover story by Jennifer Loring, “Judex Est Venturus,” opens with a woman being burned alive for practicing witchcraft while her lover watches. That horror is matched only by the subsequent details of sexual assault, humiliation, and torture portrayed with an almost psychopathic detachment from the protagonist’s/priest’s point of view.

The religious imagery and Biblical and Latin phrases are particularly powerful, bolstered by cover art that clued me in from the beginning that this story would deliver more than a few sleepless nights. Judas betrayed Jesus not so much to save himself but to fulfill the word of the prophets. What is this guy’s excuse? Loring delivers a riveting, scathing indictment of religion—and men—in this historically based short I’d classify as horror.

I continue to find it interesting that graphic violence regularly makes it into mainstream publications, but the same themes approached from a sexual angle are taboo, banished to often maligned romance and erotica lines. One example is “Nocturnal Emissions” by Joe Nobel, featured in Best Fantastic Erotica, which I recently reviewed for The Fix.

“Blood, Gridlock and Pez” by Kevin Anderson is a macabre account of a routine day gone extremely wrong by a protagonist who doesn’t have very good luck, particularly on his birthday. As he enters adulthood, not only does Craig have girlfriend woes, he recounts that:

“On my eighteenth birthday I found myself sitting on the highway, next to a corpse.”

The ironic voice and emotionally detached first person narration of a post traumatic stress disordered survivor makes this feel less disturbing than it really is.

“Flower Power” by Ada Milenkovic Brown springs up just in time. Karen, like Craig in “Blood, Gridlock and Pez,” has a lot to learn about life. But while brooding about her loneliness, she plays the “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not” game with a dandelion. The emotional power of this story lies in the only things that die—hopes and dreams.

Marlo Dianne’s “Change” is another sobering story, narrated by an abused, neglected child. I was hoping for Prince Charming to come along when Ellie kissed the frog, but this isn’t a fantasy or fairy tale.

I’m not sure how to classify “Jack Cash” by Faith Gardner. Demanding, know-it-all Jack is not a sympathetic protagonist, despite the fact that he’s eleven. Nor is his wimpy mother, who bows to Jack’s tyrannical behavior and demands. In fact, there is no one I like in this story except maybe Bubbles, the clown hired to entertain the guests at Jack’s birthday party. On the second read, I decided that clowns figure heavily in magical realism, and Jack is really an adult who refuses to grow up. Sort of like Donald Trump.

Thank the gods (editors) that Lorrie Unites-Struiff has a return engagement (“The C.O.D. Club” appeared in Written Word # 9) to close out this issue with “Bad Luck and A Heap of Trouble.” In this sweet, simple, straightforward Western, the cowboy gets the gal, the monkey gets his freedom, and no one gets hurt.

There isn’t much escapist, feel-good reading in Written Word # 10. Even the poetry and nonfiction (which I read but am not reviewing) is contemplative and sobering. That is in no way intended as negative criticism. The magazine’s aim is to publish high quality written literature, regardless of genre and form, and the editors have certainly accomplished that.