Status Updates From Uncanny Magazine Issue 68: ...

This Story Does Not Exist: Ayako is an AI made by the Creator to write stories. That will take away something from the Woman, so she tries to drown the AI in the bath before leaving the apartment. Ayako is broken beyond repairs and the Creator is taking her apart, while the AI is writing stories for itself. Interesting. 4*

The Parsley Girl: I like this poem. A woman trades her unborn baby to a witch for some parsey she is craving. The witch raises Persinette as her apprentice, then the girl transforms into a princess, marries a prince and continues doing witchcraft.

Frognative Dissonance: good essay about The Muppets

A Field Guide for Broken Sons in Transit: some non-English words play a big part in it, I think, and I don't know them

I Write in English Because I Can: good essay

Interview: A. W. Prihandita: good interview, even if I didn't like the story too much.

The Memory Hounds of Bak-Ankham: 3* Workers are cleansed by hounds at night. A young woman feels a link with the man on her right. He tries to remember and is consumed by a hound, then he is reborn as a hound. She is reborn too, but she decides to fight the houndmaster and the guards. Doomed to fail, I think. Creepy description of "Rebirth"

An underground butterfly: not rating poetry. I don't get this one.

No Kings / No Soldiers: not rating poetry. Not sure I fully get it.

These Stories Teach Us How to Fight: good essay about the anti-ICE movement in Chicago. I hope things are getting better

Interview: Christopher Caldwell
“Be My Horse, Ride the Cowboy” is the third story with those characters.

Words That Wither, Words That Bloom: 3* Vanis grew up with an indifferent mother who didn't praise her. She replaced her as willow-touched Queen. She had a daughter and she tried to praise her. Then she has a son and he steals her power, the end. Unsatisfying ending, but the world was interesting.

I Met You on the Train: 4* Very good, about male entitlement a little bit. Jake meets Nathalie on a train and he keeps going back in time to try different things and spend more time with her. She always ends the night talking about her wife and he can't go back that far, but still he doesn't let it go. Creepy,

The Doorkeepers: 2* Wenda works as a doorkeeper, guiding people through time traveling Doors (possible futures). The doors are somehow collapsing, not clear why. Wenda will die of cancer, but she only takes steps to prevent that at the very end.

Girl Stuff: 1* I don't get it at all. Casey, Kim and Rae are girls at the beginning, before becoming something else. Kim becomes a truck and likes it a lot. Casey becomes a gun, then a bicyle and she tries a bunch of other shapes. Rae becomes a boy. Casey decides to shoot herself into the sun. Why? How does that world make sense?

Uncanny Interview with Marie Brennan: good

Thank You, Patreon Supporters! skipped

The Uncanny Valley: fine

Be My Horse, Ride the Cowboy: 1* Davion (going under 'Elijah') meets a 'nigga' in a drag bar and they have sex, then the man reveals he knows his real name and has a task for him and Tommy. They go to Sister Angelica's church and put two coins in her collection basket. That summons the man and he takes away the years she stole from her parishioners. Not enough explanation and too much time on the sex scene.