Stop me if you've heard this one...

...a man drops by a blog, subscribes to a lit mag, and likes it. (No rimshot, sorry.)

One of my unstated and so far largely unfulfilled goals for the year has been to dive head-first into the lit mag scene; the smalls, the indies, the big ones, the ones I've foolishly and blindly submitted my own work to; everything and anything to get a grip on that elusive form called "the short story". I say largely unfulfilled because, uh, I've done little to achieve that goal. I--wait for it--suck.

Somewhere in my lit-blog travels, I became a fan of Gwenda Bond's Shaken & Stirred. Ms. Bond edits fiction for and writes reviews for Say..., a semi-annual lit mag that has the dubious distinction of being one of the zines I've subscribed to. And while I haven't quite finished all the stories contained in issue five ("...have you heard this one?") I can say that I'm certain I like the zine. The cover art is cool, so I've looked real hip-like carrying it into lunchtime coffee shops, and (more importantly) the stories are good. I think I approach story collections as sorts of literary "mix tapes," so there's of course some stand outs in there--"Within this Present Time," by Karen M. Roberts, and "The Last Bee Tree in Lynchburg County," by Catherine M. Morrison, in this case, so far. I think I've especially enjoyed the zine so far because it's been a reliable source of bite-sized pieces of literary non-Steve Erickson goodness for those moments when my brain just needed a little something else.

So if you're looking for some zine goodness, I'd say you'd do alright with Say...; I think you can order the most recent copy here, and I think there's subscription buttons on the Shaken & Stirred sidebar, and there's going to be a website here, soon. Enjoy!

And now, for the disclaimers.

1. (This endorsement is not to be considered a flattery-type response to the fact that Ms. Bond has been kind enough to drop by this humble blog to offer an occasional comment or two. I might not often come out lambasting books I don't like, but that doesn't mean that my I Like Good Books and Zines policy and my I Really Automatically Like People More Who Drop Comments On My Blog policy overlap, at all. Honest.)

2. (Nor does this endorsement have anything to do with the fact that I won the subscription drive prize, though winning my first random drawing since like third grade is way cool, I will admit. Honest. Though I will admit that when I saw I'd won, I kind of did a "Huh!" double-take at the monitor, and then some latent Catholic guilt kicked in when I realized I'd been lazy and I hadn't gotten around to finishing reading the mag or posting my approval/endorsement yet. I, uh, oh, what's the word...four letters, rhymes with duck...oh, yeah. Suck.)

3. (Though okay I will admit that all of this does provide a nice segue and/or hint at my next post topic, cough cough, end of last paragraph, cough cough...)