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Eighty Nine
1989: a cusp between decades.
The year the Berlin Wall came down and Voyager went up. Ted Bundy and Emperor Hirohito died. The birth of the first Bush administration and computer virus.
In San Francisco and Newcastle the ground shook, in Chernobyl it melted. Tiananmen Square rocked the world and Tank Man imprinted on the international consciousness. Communism and Thatcherism began their decline, Islamic fundamentalism its rise.
It was the year Batman burst onto the big screen, we went back to the future (again) Indiana Jones made it a trifecta at the box office and Michael Damian told us to rock on.
Based on a play list of 26 songs released in 1989, Eighty Nine re-imagines the social, political, cultural and personal experiences at the end of the decade which gave the world mullets, crimped hair, neon-coloured clothing, acid-wash denim, keytars, the walkman, Live Aid, the first compact disc and MTV.
The year the Berlin Wall came down and Voyager went up. Ted Bundy and Emperor Hirohito died. The birth of the first Bush administration and computer virus.
In San Francisco and Newcastle the ground shook, in Chernobyl it melted. Tiananmen Square rocked the world and Tank Man imprinted on the international consciousness. Communism and Thatcherism began their decline, Islamic fundamentalism its rise.
It was the year Batman burst onto the big screen, we went back to the future (again) Indiana Jones made it a trifecta at the box office and Michael Damian told us to rock on.
Based on a play list of 26 songs released in 1989, Eighty Nine re-imagines the social, political, cultural and personal experiences at the end of the decade which gave the world mullets, crimped hair, neon-coloured clothing, acid-wash denim, keytars, the walkman, Live Aid, the first compact disc and MTV.
156 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2011
1 person is currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
Jodi Cleghorn
33 books78 followersJodi is an author and poet (former editor and publisher) with a penchant for the dark vein of humanity. She is the editor of 7 anthologies and publisher of a further 5. Her short stories and poems have appeared in local and international publications.
"Elyora" (also published as "River of Bones"), an Australian gothic horror set in the New England Highlands, is her debut novella (short listed for an Aurealis Award). She is also the co-author of the epistolary serial "Post-Marked: Piper's Reach" with her writing partner Adam Byatt (due for release with Vine Leaves Press 07/19)
Her flash fiction collection "No Need to Reply" was followed by the curated collection "The Heart is an Echo Chamber". "The Starling Requiem", a noir science fiction novelette is her latest publication.
Since 2016 she's been designing and building poem squares and postcards from cut up books, and extended her love of narrative into tarot reading in 2017.
"Elyora" (also published as "River of Bones"), an Australian gothic horror set in the New England Highlands, is her debut novella (short listed for an Aurealis Award). She is also the co-author of the epistolary serial "Post-Marked: Piper's Reach" with her writing partner Adam Byatt (due for release with Vine Leaves Press 07/19)
Her flash fiction collection "No Need to Reply" was followed by the curated collection "The Heart is an Echo Chamber". "The Starling Requiem", a noir science fiction novelette is her latest publication.
Since 2016 she's been designing and building poem squares and postcards from cut up books, and extended her love of narrative into tarot reading in 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 24, 2011
1989 was a memorable year for me, for reasons my parents wouldn’t like to remember… It was the year boys first started to notice I was a girl! Looking back, it’s debateable whether this was because my bright red swimming costume really suited me, or because of its associations with Baywatch! Either way, it was a year of cycling down to the beach, balancing a blaring ghettoblaster and enjoying the sunshine… and the attention. What did 1989 mean to you?
One way to find out is to read "Eighty-Nine", a collection of twenty-six short stories each framed around a lyric from a popular song that year. Think the Eurythmics, Tears for Fears, REM, The Cure, Cher, The Wonderstuff and the B52s… then think again, because that’s what these authors have done.
Journeying into worlds populated by book-burning terrorists and shape-shifting political activists, by ghosts, vampires, devils and a cybernetic freedom crusader with one last trick to play, "Eighty-Nine" is a testament to the imagination. Whether that imagination succeeds or not is, of course, another question.
I like my short stories to have strong backbones, solid ideas. I like to be swept up by them immediately; twirled and dizzied from page-turning; and I want the ending to justify the time I’ve spent with them. Short stories don’t have to change my life. They don’t always have to make me see the world in a different way (although I love them all the more if they do). When it comes to speculative fiction, I’m not one for quiet contemplation. So the stories I liked in this anthology, and the stories I didn’t, reflect my own personal taste. If you’re similar to me, then fourteen of the stories in this anthology will get your hearty tick of approval, which is the majority of its stories.
And even though the rest didn’t do it for me, that didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate what the authors were trying to achieve. By using lyrics to inspire authors, editor extraordinaire Jodi Cleghorn has compiled a body of work that doesn’t have a single cementing theme, yet I didn’t feel that this was an issue. In a way it led to the creation of its own theme: a bunch of writers having a whole heap of fun.
So let me tell you about my favourite stories. “Nowhere Land” by Maria Kelly introduces us to Area Zero, the ultimate correctional facility where there’s one way in – through ‘The Bullet’ – and no way out. “Chronicle Child” by Lily Mulholland tells of a Japanese fortune teller and her lover’s poor choices. “All I wanted” by Rob Diaz II takes us to Medina, a planet with only one rule: “you don’t go home until Medina gives you everything you want”. And “The Story Bridge” by J M Donellan shows what happens when of a man who’s had enough meets a chatty little boy.
Another reader – you perhaps – is likely to have very different favourites to mine. You might like more of the stories, you might like less. But that’s the beauty of anthologies – there’s plenty for everyone. Of course, unless you buy a copy, you’ll never find out…
Launching on October 25th, you can pre-order a print or ebook of "Eighty-Nine" now.
One way to find out is to read "Eighty-Nine", a collection of twenty-six short stories each framed around a lyric from a popular song that year. Think the Eurythmics, Tears for Fears, REM, The Cure, Cher, The Wonderstuff and the B52s… then think again, because that’s what these authors have done.
Journeying into worlds populated by book-burning terrorists and shape-shifting political activists, by ghosts, vampires, devils and a cybernetic freedom crusader with one last trick to play, "Eighty-Nine" is a testament to the imagination. Whether that imagination succeeds or not is, of course, another question.
I like my short stories to have strong backbones, solid ideas. I like to be swept up by them immediately; twirled and dizzied from page-turning; and I want the ending to justify the time I’ve spent with them. Short stories don’t have to change my life. They don’t always have to make me see the world in a different way (although I love them all the more if they do). When it comes to speculative fiction, I’m not one for quiet contemplation. So the stories I liked in this anthology, and the stories I didn’t, reflect my own personal taste. If you’re similar to me, then fourteen of the stories in this anthology will get your hearty tick of approval, which is the majority of its stories.
And even though the rest didn’t do it for me, that didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate what the authors were trying to achieve. By using lyrics to inspire authors, editor extraordinaire Jodi Cleghorn has compiled a body of work that doesn’t have a single cementing theme, yet I didn’t feel that this was an issue. In a way it led to the creation of its own theme: a bunch of writers having a whole heap of fun.
So let me tell you about my favourite stories. “Nowhere Land” by Maria Kelly introduces us to Area Zero, the ultimate correctional facility where there’s one way in – through ‘The Bullet’ – and no way out. “Chronicle Child” by Lily Mulholland tells of a Japanese fortune teller and her lover’s poor choices. “All I wanted” by Rob Diaz II takes us to Medina, a planet with only one rule: “you don’t go home until Medina gives you everything you want”. And “The Story Bridge” by J M Donellan shows what happens when of a man who’s had enough meets a chatty little boy.
Another reader – you perhaps – is likely to have very different favourites to mine. You might like more of the stories, you might like less. But that’s the beauty of anthologies – there’s plenty for everyone. Of course, unless you buy a copy, you’ll never find out…
Launching on October 25th, you can pre-order a print or ebook of "Eighty-Nine" now.
October 11, 2011
Thoroughly enjoyed every story in this amazing anthology from Literary Mix Tapes (eMergent Publishing). From the gently confronting, to the incredibly raw, I don't think I have ever seen the year 1989 in such a light! I am honoured to share the pages of this anthology with my debut story, Soldier Out of Time and look forward to revisiting each of its companion stories - to experience the ride all over again.
September 3, 2012
I was given a copy of Eighty Nine by the editor, Jodi Cleghorn, without any expectation of promotion. When I read the collection, I was so delighted by the consistent quality of the stories, I offered to post reviews.
Anthologies, even from a single author we admire, tend to be a bit up and down depending on our individual tastes. I read the opening stories of Eighty Nine and enjoyed them, then found I was up to the middle of the book and still reading avidly without wanting to pause, not even between stories. There are 26 individual tales here, based, as the blurb reveals, on a playlist of songs from 1989, and I did not rate any one of them less than a high 3 from 5. In those cases where I liked them less, it is definitely a question of taste rather than poor penmanship. Every story brings a different style and a different subject, [all a little bleak, as reflects the mood at the end of the nineteen eighties] so I will share those I enjoyed most.
30 Years in the Bathroom, by Icy Sedgwick– It is 1989 and Diana Phelps, an aging star, stares at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her age is well hidden, but she made her film debut thirty years earlier and now not even her beauty is sufficient to bring her the work she loves or the adoration she craves. Reduced to begging, she pleads for Aphrodite to renew her charms, but the gods are as fickle as fame itself. (5)
Nowhere Land, by Maria Kelly– The residents of Area Zero watch as a new inmate is discharged from The Bullet. It’s a door, the only link they have with the real world, and they hope endlessly for a newcomer with a textbook that will help them understand where they are. They are dissidents: names and faces who simply disappeared, and they live in barracks to defend themselves from the monsters that inhabit this nowhere land. If only they could find a way back…. (5)
Chronical Child, by Lily Mulholland– At the Imperial mausoleum in Hachioji, Kiko-chan remembers her life as the Emperor Hirohito’s beloved concubine. She combs her hair, tugging free memories of her love and the warnings she offered in the hope he would choose love over duty. (5)
Amir, by Benjamin Solah- One of the stories that made me weep, as it brings the image of the lone, unarmed student in Tiananmen Square and the horror that image represented into every other field of war. Amir is the story of solidarity, a word du jour for 1989, when artists and students stood up to tanks. (5)
The Banging on the Door, by Jonathan Crossfield– As the tide of political power swings in East Berlin, a Stasi informer flees from the neighbours he once monitored. Alone in the dark forest, in a hovel that offers scant protection from the elements, he meets with the spirit of another who has been hounded from safety by a witch-hunt. There, he learns to fear what his neighbours once feared most: the banging on the door. (5)
Cocaine, My Sweetheart, by Jodi Cleghorn– And as a last recommendation, a nod to the editor herself. In a slightly different tribute to 1989, this story leaves behind the political turmoil and moves closer to more personal tragedies. Cocaine, the mistress of choice for the 1980s. A sequence of memories that leaps from one reality to another carries Rebecca and Toby back into the arms of their sweetheart. (5)
All up, this is high quality short general fiction. Some readers might disagree with my ratings, marking some stories higher and others lower. I believe, however, that all readers will enjoy this selection as much as I have.
Excellent. Recommended without reservation. Five stars.
Full review and links available at 1889 Labs
June 13, 2012
A collection of 26 short stories, based around the cultural, political and social happenings of 1989.
I was absolutely impressed with every story in this collection - and that happens rarely for me; there's usually one or two stories that are a little ho-hum, but not here. Maybe it was because I was in my late teens in 1989 and can relate to the times that are central to these stories, maybe it is because the editor has picked a collection of brilliant stories to fill this anthology.
Was good to see some stories from names I already knew (Icy Sedgwick, Lily Mulholland, Laura Eno, Jodi Cleghorn) but I was just as impressed by the new names (at least, new to me) such as Emman Newman, Jo Hart, Laura Meyer and many others.
A collection well worth having!
I was absolutely impressed with every story in this collection - and that happens rarely for me; there's usually one or two stories that are a little ho-hum, but not here. Maybe it was because I was in my late teens in 1989 and can relate to the times that are central to these stories, maybe it is because the editor has picked a collection of brilliant stories to fill this anthology.
Was good to see some stories from names I already knew (Icy Sedgwick, Lily Mulholland, Laura Eno, Jodi Cleghorn) but I was just as impressed by the new names (at least, new to me) such as Emman Newman, Jo Hart, Laura Meyer and many others.
A collection well worth having!
October 12, 2011
Another community project from eMergent Publishing's Literary Mix Tapes imprint. Twenty-five speculative fiction stories from emerging writers around the world are all linked by a playlist from 1989. There are some fantastic stories in here, underscoring the talent that's out there in cyberspace. Corralled by the indomitable Jodi Cleghorn, it's a testament to the creativity and chutzpah romping around in small, independent presses. Buy it!
Disclaimer: I have a story in this anthology and am damned proud to be in such fine company.
Disclaimer: I have a story in this anthology and am damned proud to be in such fine company.
June 13, 2014
I first picked up this collection after hearing so many good things about it and you know what? They are all true. Anthologies can be hit and miss, especially ones that "specialise" in a genre - not so with Pulp Ink.
I won't go through all the stories but suffice to say that every author brought something different to the table - revenge, sex, hitmen, greed and money. Some of the stories were told from differing POV - the criminal, the hired gun, the victim...
Certainly a collection that deserves its time in your collection.
Paul
ARH
I won't go through all the stories but suffice to say that every author brought something different to the table - revenge, sex, hitmen, greed and money. Some of the stories were told from differing POV - the criminal, the hired gun, the victim...
Certainly a collection that deserves its time in your collection.
Paul
ARH
December 16, 2011
Katharine is a judge for the Aurealis Awards. This review is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.
To be safe, I won't be recording my review here until after the AA are over.
To be safe, I won't be recording my review here until after the AA are over.
October 13, 2011
Such a diverse range of speculative fiction stories! Some are uplifting, some will make you laugh, and a lot will creep you out. I loved reading what my fellow authors did with their prompts.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews