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Black Static
Black Static Issue 63
The May-June issue contains new horror fiction by Steven J. Dines (novella), Kristi DeMeester, J.S. Breukelaar, Matt Thompson, and Nicholas Kaufmann. The cover art is by Richard Wagner, and interior illustrations are by Ben Baldwin, Vincent Sammy, and Richard Wagner. Regular features include Into the Woods by Ralph Robert Moore, Notes from the Borderland by Lynda E. Rucker, Case Notes by Peter Tennant (book reviews, including an in-depth interview with Priya Sharma), Blood Spectrum by Gary Couzens (film reviews).
Cover art by Richard Wagner
Fiction:
The Harder it Gets the Softer We Sing by Steven J. Dines (novella)
illustrated by Vincent Sammy
Raining Street by J.S. Breukelaar
Bones of Flightless Birds by Matt Thompson
illustrated by Richard Wagner
Pyralidae by Kristi DeMeester
The Fire and the Stag by Nicholas Kaufmann
illustrated by Ben Baldwin
Columns:
Notes From the Borderland by Lynda E. Rucker
ON BEING INVISIBLE
Into the Woods by Ralph Robert Moore
THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU START TO SAY GOODBYE
Reviews:
Case Notes: Book Reviews by Peter Tennant
BLOOD ON THE PAGE: PRIYA SHARMA
All the Fabulous Beasts plus in-depth author interview
THREE OF THE BEST: JOHN LLEWELLYN PROBERT
Dead Shift
The Lovecraft Squad: All Hallows Horror
Made for the Dark
THE DIFFICULT THIRD COLLECTION: JAMES COOPER
Human Pieces
THREE THRILLERS
Find Me by J.S. Monroe
The Black Sheep by Sophie McKenzie
Final Girls by Riley Sager
Blood Spectrum: Film Reviews by Gary Couzens
Night of the Living Dead, Hammer Volume Two: Criminal Intent, Annihilation, Requiem, Govan Ghost Story, Imitation Girl, Fashionista, Images, Cure, Legend of the Mountain, Pyewacket, Keep Watching, Terrifier
Cover art by Richard Wagner
Fiction:
The Harder it Gets the Softer We Sing by Steven J. Dines (novella)
illustrated by Vincent Sammy
Raining Street by J.S. Breukelaar
Bones of Flightless Birds by Matt Thompson
illustrated by Richard Wagner
Pyralidae by Kristi DeMeester
The Fire and the Stag by Nicholas Kaufmann
illustrated by Ben Baldwin
Columns:
Notes From the Borderland by Lynda E. Rucker
ON BEING INVISIBLE
Into the Woods by Ralph Robert Moore
THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU START TO SAY GOODBYE
Reviews:
Case Notes: Book Reviews by Peter Tennant
BLOOD ON THE PAGE: PRIYA SHARMA
All the Fabulous Beasts plus in-depth author interview
THREE OF THE BEST: JOHN LLEWELLYN PROBERT
Dead Shift
The Lovecraft Squad: All Hallows Horror
Made for the Dark
THE DIFFICULT THIRD COLLECTION: JAMES COOPER
Human Pieces
THREE THRILLERS
Find Me by J.S. Monroe
The Black Sheep by Sophie McKenzie
Final Girls by Riley Sager
Blood Spectrum: Film Reviews by Gary Couzens
Night of the Living Dead, Hammer Volume Two: Criminal Intent, Annihilation, Requiem, Govan Ghost Story, Imitation Girl, Fashionista, Images, Cure, Legend of the Mountain, Pyewacket, Keep Watching, Terrifier
Magazine
First published May 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 11, 2018
The stories in this issue are particularly strong. Though, "Bones of Flightless Birds" by Matt Thompson and "Raining Street" by J.S. Breukelaar weren't quite as good as the opening novella, The Harder it Gets The Softer We Sing by Steven J. Dines, the stories "Pyralidae" by Kristi DeMeester "The Fire and the Stag" by Nicholas Kauffmann finish the issue very strongly.
Black Static continues to be a great source of dark fiction and new horror. I look forward to the July-August issue.
Black Static continues to be a great source of dark fiction and new horror. I look forward to the July-August issue.
January 27, 2021
RAINING STREET by J.S. Breukelaar
“I manage to get the Donald-thing in the groin…”
Not that this is necessarily a reference to a shapeshifter of the infamous Donald, but this Donald does seem to own a cat with an orange ear — and there is also mention of the two Kims that must have been written here before it happened! (“…the way Little Red Riding Hood looks like a Kardashian and Prince Charming more like a Korean alcoholic.”) These considerations aside, RAINING STREET proves that Black Static spoils you, because this is yet another of its classics. Like the writer in the Dines, this narrator is a writer coping with today’s Dire of Life, here the poverty of a single parent in the city, then encouraged by elderly neighbours, Marie and Donald (characters you will NOT forget easily), to go ‘beyond the three bridges’ for better foodstuff at a cheaper rate, ending up on Raining Street (and this is a place you will NOT forget easily, either!), with such direcity then being at least partly assuaged by reconnection with the narrator’s loving partner who died some years ago. A place that also resonates with the other Dines fiction in Interzone I reviewed yesterday. TTA Press spoils me rotten. Has done for years. You will not forget the snake beans and the stoical encouragement that the well-characterised narrator benefits from against the direcity of life. All in a style that crepitates semantically, syntactically and phonetically. And to inadvertently echo the title of the Dines novella above: “…and all I can recall from Raining Street are instruments lowered at the end of the song.” Literally unforgettable. Even if.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of my observations at the time of the review.
“I manage to get the Donald-thing in the groin…”
Not that this is necessarily a reference to a shapeshifter of the infamous Donald, but this Donald does seem to own a cat with an orange ear — and there is also mention of the two Kims that must have been written here before it happened! (“…the way Little Red Riding Hood looks like a Kardashian and Prince Charming more like a Korean alcoholic.”) These considerations aside, RAINING STREET proves that Black Static spoils you, because this is yet another of its classics. Like the writer in the Dines, this narrator is a writer coping with today’s Dire of Life, here the poverty of a single parent in the city, then encouraged by elderly neighbours, Marie and Donald (characters you will NOT forget easily), to go ‘beyond the three bridges’ for better foodstuff at a cheaper rate, ending up on Raining Street (and this is a place you will NOT forget easily, either!), with such direcity then being at least partly assuaged by reconnection with the narrator’s loving partner who died some years ago. A place that also resonates with the other Dines fiction in Interzone I reviewed yesterday. TTA Press spoils me rotten. Has done for years. You will not forget the snake beans and the stoical encouragement that the well-characterised narrator benefits from against the direcity of life. All in a style that crepitates semantically, syntactically and phonetically. And to inadvertently echo the title of the Dines novella above: “…and all I can recall from Raining Street are instruments lowered at the end of the song.” Literally unforgettable. Even if.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of my observations at the time of the review.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews