Volume 40, Issue 4
Fall 2017

Star*Line 40.4 cover
Cover: Raven in Eden
© 2017 Anita Endrezze
anitaendrezze.weebly.com
Wyrms & Wormholes
Hail and Farewell

Ave atque vale. Probably the Roman poet Catullus’s most renowned phrase, the closing words of his elegy for his brother. I employ this greeting in tribute to F. J. Bergmann, former editor of Star*Line, my predecessor. I hail Jeannie’s wonderful work with the magazine: her devotion to the genre of speculative poetry, her even greater devotion to the writers and artists she published over the last five years, and her supreme devotion to poetry overall, both as an editor and also as a exquisite and serious writer of poetry. She is one hard act to follow, as I have already learned in the weeks since I began reading submissions and accepting (and alas, rejecting) poems. Jeannie typically responded within a week—usually sooner—while my own response time has been quite a bit longer: four times longer at least. In following Catullus’s formula, I now also say farewell to Jeannie, but only farewell with regard to her editing these pages, because she will continue to be a force in speculative poetry and in poetry and literature as a whole. In fact, you will find one of her own amazing poems in this issue. Probably my title here should instead be hail and hail—ave atque ave. I hail Jeannie and wish her all the best in her continuing literary ventures. And I hail you, dear poets and artists as well as gentle readers: let’s tail the wyrms through the wormholes, trailblaze a fantasia of white-hole adventures. Everybody ready? Says Tenth Doctor: Allons-y! Dorothy: Follow the yellow brick road!

—Vince Gotera
Star*Line Editor

P.S. We are glad to celebrate Native American Heritage Month (November in the U.S.) with cover art by Anita Endrezze, Yaqui poet and artist.


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Star*Line Staff:

Editor: Vince Gotera
Layout: Vince Gotera & F.J. Bergmann
Production Manager: Vince Gotera

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Table of Contents

Features

  • Wyrms & Wormholes • Vince Gotera
  • President’s Message • Bryan Thao Worra
  • From the Small Press • David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Sandra J. Lindow
  • Stealth SF * Tacos al Pastoral * Denise Dumars

Poetry

  • Vampirette * Kathleen A. Lawrence
  • Little Red in Haiku * Christina Sng
  • Attack from Outer Space * Jeffrey Park
  • [instead of a halo] * Julie Bloss Kelsey
  • Medical Tourism * Davian Aw
  • Urban Apparition * Sergio Ortiz
  • Nothing Knew * Soren James
  • Alien Dowry * Robert Borski
  • Survivorship * F. J. Bergmann
  • Well, It’s Something * Juleigh Howard-Hobson
  • Prince Ichor’s Bouncy Castle * John W. Sexton
  • Treasures of Tyrants * Matthew Wilson
  • Skyrocketing Sales * Lauren McBride
  • Journey into Neptune * Christina Sng
  • Next Day Shipping * R. Mac Jones
  • Wet Work * James Dorr
  • Midwest Wonder Expo * Amelia Gorman
  • Charity of the Gods * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • In Silico * John Richard Trtek
  • If I Ask * Cas Blomberg
  • [Single Venus . . . ] * Matthew Wilson
  • [requiem for a starship garden] * Greer Woodward
  • The Ghosts of Sea Monsters * Herb Kauderer
  • Blood Bite * Bruce Boston
  • [spring in antartica] * D. A. Xiaolin Spires
  • arrival * John Reinhart
  • On Halloween Night * John Grey
  • Flowers for Asimov * William Shaw
  • Draught * Mike Allen
  • Egress * Marge Simon
  • In the Future * Gene Twaronite
  • [alien / restructuring] * Susan Burch
  • [down to earth] * C.R. Harper
  • You Sing Your Murder Ballad * Gillian Daniels
  • The Big Bang * Dante Mori
  • Waiting * John Richard Trtek
  • [time travel dining] * LeRoy Gorman
  • Wayfaring King * Beth Cato
  • [gateway to ancient cultures] * Robert Shmigelsky
  • [space seed chutes] * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • Vaginoplasticine * Alison Rumfitt
  • One Day * Lisa Timpf
  • When the Fates Spin Ballads * Chiamaka Onu-Okpara
  • For Preserves * Cassandra Rose Clarke
  • Auction of Dead Worlds * Matthew Wilson
  • October 31st at Midnight * John C. Mannone
  • The Valet of the Shadow of Death * David Clink
  • Chronosphere * Angelo Niles
  • When the Aliens Arrived on Earth to Visit the Dogs * Alan Ira Gordon
  • incandescent darkness * John Reinhart
  • They Come Walking * Deborah L. Davitt
  • Elemental * Deborah L. Davitt
  • She Came to See Me * Kim Whysall-Hammond
  • [Vast tundra …] * Ronald A. Busse
  • Extant III * Angelo Niles
  • Zombie Idioms * Herb Kauderer
  • Revenants * Bruce Boston
  • medi(a)cation * Frank Leblanc
  • Sunrise on the Flat Earth * Ruth Berman
  • [rotting fingers] * Greg Schwartz
  • [martian odyssey] * Kate Lisinska
  • [bruised universe] * Ann K. Schwader
  • [Absolutely no parking] * Matthew Wilson
  • Spellbinder * B.R. Strahan
  • Shapechanger * Kevin Griffin
  • Carbon Footprint * Ann K. Schwader
  • The Jinni’s Wish * Anna Kander
  • Exercise 2050 * Mary Soon Lee

Illustrations

  • Little Monsters * Denny E. Marshall
  • Young Witch to Saturn * Christina Sng
  • Egress * Marge Simon

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