Volume 37, Issue 4
Fall 2014

Star*Line 37.4 cover
Cover: King of the Blues
7”x18” acrylic on masonite
© Lance Berka
LanceBerka.com

Wyrms & Wormholes
Reach out and Touch Someone

First frost already, here; summer’s gone; and a post-equinoctial blood moon has manifested. The dark is rising—and another election season is upon us.

The flooding dark about their knees
The mountains over Persia change

—Archibald MacLeish, “You, Andrew Marvell”

Due to increasing difficulties with e-mail delivery, future Star*Line mailings will now originate from starlineeditor@gmail.com. Google may well be Evil Incarnate, but after changing over we heard from about 50 folks who had not been receiving Star*Line and SFPA e-mails using the previous addresses. Official SFPA announcements will be sent from sfpanews@gmail.com.

We’ve had concerns about membership attrition. In actual numbers, SFPA is growing: the current membership is 273, along with a few Star*Line subscribers (hi, you guys!), but the turnover is greater than ideal. Although comparable to that of other poetry associations, we are relieved that some losses were inadvertent—a number of the expired have rejoined (welcome back!). If nothing else, growing membership (and much-appreciated advertisers) will continue to finance Star*Line’s color covers; beyond that, we hope to increase the payment rate, and enhance and add to the programs SFPA provides.

Introduce your mundane fellow poets, as well as non-poetic friends and acquaintances, to our other-dimensional portal. Offer them fairy fruit. Open the door into the hill and invite them in.

“Aliens are comprehensible, and if they’re not comprehensible now, they eventually will be.”
              —N.K. Jemisin, interviewed by Karen Burnham, Systems Fail

Here’s to the power of our imaginations,

—F.J. Bergmann
Star*Line Editor


Buy this issue of Star*Line for $3.00 plus $2 U.S./$3 international shipping.

To order, send a check made out to the SFPA the PO Box listed on the officers page.

or pay SFPATreasurer@gmail.com via PayPal. Credit-card payments are accepted through PayPal.

Better yet, become a member and never miss an issue!

Star*Line Staff:

Editor: F.J. Bergmann
Layout: F.J. Bergmann
Production Manager: F.J. Bergmann
Mailing: F.J. Bergmann

Star*Line Reviews
Star*Line Archives
Star*Line History

spacer

Table of Contents

Features

  • Wyrms & Wormholes • F.J. Bergmann
  • President’s Message • Bryan D. Dietrich
  • From the Small Press • John Philip Johnson, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Sandra J. Lindow, Diane Severson Mori, Alex Plummer, Steve Tomasko Full reviews
  • Stealth SF: Consciousness Squeezed Like Juice • Denise Dumars
  • Xenopoetry • The human eats the alien ~ Ricardo Burgos López, trans. Fred W. Bergmann

Poetry

  • Srange Journey ~ Jane Røken
  • “alien cruiser” & “rising just under” ~ Tony Burfield
  • Street Sightings ~ Marge Simon
  • Denizen ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • The Universe in Black and White ~ Joe Nicholas
  • First Encounter ~ Lauren McBride
  • “reaching into black holes” ~ John Reinhart
  • Astral Gnome of Doom ~ Michael Kriesel
  • Paranormal Botany ~ James S. Dorr
  • Sez Who? ~ Neal Wilgus
  • Adrift ~ Lee Clark Zumpe
  • Bird, Dog ~ Isaac Black
  • “time travel:” ~ Matthew Wilson
  • Time Traveler’s Séance ~ Beth Cato
  • “artificial reality” ~ Fuson
  • FTL ~ LeRoy Gorman
  • The Apostate ~ Robert Borski
  • Nyarlathotep ~ Mark Jones
  • Thank Hecate for Insurance ~ Beth Cato
  • space traveler ~ Janet Butler
  • Metamorphosis ~ Lynette Mejía
  • time traveler’s last words ~ LeRoy Gorman
  • Moon Protection Factor ~ Robert Borski
  • “lights+off=” ~ Fuson
  • When the First Ship Left ~ T.D. Walker
  • “why can’t I” ~ Fuson
  • The Hundred Dragons of Sumbral ~ Mary Soon Lee
  • “a discount offered” ~ Fuson
  • Unblended Heritage ~ Robert Borski
  • Surreal Bucket List #7 ~ Bruce Boston
  • “tasting rooms …” ~ Denise Dumars
  • Disextinction Day ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • Operating Instructions for Mother’s Wardrobe ~ John W. Sexton
  • The Honeymoon ~ Matthew Wilson
  • Heere ther be Gods ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • Robo-Infidelity ~ Robert Borski
  • Memory in the Maze ~ Jason Matthews
  • “cyborg surgery” ~ Sandra J. Lindow
  • “new coat of not-here” ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • “‘driverless’ Hummer” ~ William Cullen, Jr.
  • Robot Evolution ~ Ken Poyner
  • A-Affordable Robots ~ Lauren McBride
  • House of Jaguar ~ Serena Fusek
  • Roadkill & Orgy of the Damned ~ Michael Kriesel
  • “election-year surveys” ~ C. William Hinderliter
  • “fangs in a glass” ~ LeRoy Gorman
  • “nine lives times” ~ Greer Woodward
  • “late summer flight” ~ LeRoy Gorman
  • “autumn morning” ~ Dietmar Tauchner
  • “rogue digitizers” ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • “star pilot …” ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • The Deal ~ Matthew Wilson
  • The Vampire Inventor ~ James S. Dorr
  • Final Thoughts of a Companion (Beta) ~ Anne Carly Abad
  • Sailing into the Reflection ~ Joe Nicholas
  • “spaceship” ~ Lauren McBride
  • Prospect ~ Alessio Zanelli
  • “martian greenhouse” ~ Carolyn M. Hinderliter
  • When Life Gives You Lemons … ~ Alan Ira Gordon
  • Selling Off ~ James Bettendorf
  • “public toilet:” ~ Matthew Wilson
  • Trapdoors in the Multiverse ~ Cornelius Fortune
  • Celestial Choreography ~ Terry A. Garey
  • Talent Show ~ Matthew Wilson
  • Pink Unicorns ~ Robert Borski
  • Frosty the Golem ~ David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • “sunrise” ~ LeRoy Gorman
  • More Tea or I’ll Appear ~ Ian Hunter
  • Since you’re asking ~ Mark Danowsky
  • “after an interstellar gale” ~ Yunsheng Jiang
  • From Grandma, with Love ~ Beth Cato
  • grateful children ~ Herb Kauderer
  • Tonight We Wear the Constellations ~ Liana Kapelke-Dale

Illustrations

  • Dead Dragon ~ Hanes Bach

background image sfpa logo