Apparition Lit, Issue 9: Experimentation (January 2020)
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About this ebook
Welcome to the latest issue of Apparition Lit. This quarter’s theme was Experimentation. We offer you these four stories and two poems that delve into experimentation in ways that are as unique as individual strands of DNA.
SHORT FICTION
*One Song Ending by E.A. Petricone
*Passavanti's Fantasima by Julia August
*The Redoubtables by Premee Mohamed
*You Can Check Out Any Time You Like by Rhonda Eikamp
POETRY
*At the Bleeding Edge by Lisa Timpf
*Motes and Morsels by Dawn Vogel
INTERVIEW
*Artist Interview with Kim Myatt
ESSAY
*I’ll Try Anything Zero to Four Times by Clarke Doty
Apparition Lit is a quarterly speculative fiction magazine that features short stories and poetry. We publish original content with enough emotional heft to break a heart, with prose that’s as clear and delicious as broth.
New issues will be published each January, April, July and October.
ApparitionLit
Apparition Lit is a quarterly speculative fiction magazine that features short stories and poetry. We publish original content with enough emotional heft to break a heart, with prose that’s as clear and delicious as broth. Every issue of Apparition Lit includes:*Editorial from the staff*Four short stories that meet the quarterly theme*Two poems that meet the quarterly theme*Interview with the Cover Artist*Nonfiction EssayNew issues will be published each January, April, July, October.
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Apparition Lit, Issue 9 - ApparitionLit
Table of Contents
Editorial
A Word from our Editor by Tacoma Tomilson
Short Fiction and Poetry
One Song Ending by E.A. Petricone
At the Bleeding Edge by Lisa Timpf
Passavanti's Fantasima by Julia August
The Redoubtables by Premee Mohamed
Motes and Morsels by Dawn Vogel
You Can Check Out Any Time You Like by Rhonda Eikamp
Interview
Artist Interview with Kim Myatt
Essay
I’ll Try Anything Zero to Four Times by Clarke Doty
Thank You to Our Sponsors
Past Issues
A Word from our Editor
by Tacoma Tomilson
If you’re reading this, you survived 2019. Welcome to 2020.
2019 was rough in many different ways for many different people. And while a new year doesn’t guarantee change, it is the chance for a fresh start. And by fresh start, I mean that 2020 now has the chance to prove itself. I think you can do it, 2020. I believe in you.
As 2020 tests out new goals and attempts to improve upon its predecessor, we’ve got an exceptional batch of stories and poems to share with you, dear reader. We received many a submission focusing on science experiments, lab work, animals (both large, small, and embiggened), interviewers digging deep. . . but these are the works that made us stop and reconsider the facts:
You Can Check Out Any Time You Like by Rhonda Eikamp delves into a terrifying world of medical experimentation. (3,200 words)
A journalist weighs the worth of a world-altering event in The Redoubtables by Premee Mohamed. (4,400 words)
One Song Ending by E.A. Petricone twists the typical lab rat setup into a loving (and haunting!) tale. (4,700 words)
Julia August delivers intense characters in a socially fraught fantasy with Passavanti’s Fantasima. (4,000 words)
In At the Bleeding Edge by Lisa Timpf, a scientist accepts the inevitable conclusion of their experiments. (21 lines)
Motes and Morsels by Dawn Vogel applies a sweeter, but just as thought-provoking, note to the theme. (20 lines)
And don’t forget to check out I’ll try Anything Zero to Four Times by Clarke Doty. As always, Clarke’s brilliant and utterly unique voice shines in this personal and somewhat epistolary essay. (1,200 words)
The works in this issue skillfully capture the frisson of a new year--an experiment in growing one year older, in trying new things, and in failing but learning from our mistakes (*cough* 2019 *cough*).
Looking forward, our next theme is TRANSFIGURATION (submission period February 15-28). We’ll be seeking stories about meaningful change, no matter how tremendous or minuscule the metamorphosis. Can I somehow throw another transformation word in?
As we shift and settle into 2020, please consider supporting us on Patreon and following us on Twitter. Without our barnacled friends, this issue wouldn’t exist.
Thank you,
Tacoma Tomilson
One Song Ending
by E.A. Petricone
This is what I can do for them: keep their cages clean. feed them well. Treat them, occasionally. Keep them warm.
Give them something for the pain.
Praise them and rub between their ears.
I can give them a recognizable face, a reliable routine.
The rats value routine, I know.
*
Dr. Levy fired Rodney and the whole lab sighed in relief. Rodney acted like a Rodney. He’d yank the rats by their tails and jingle them like keys while they shrieked. Technically, I didn’t have the authority, but I’d throw him out of the lab whenever I caught him being cruel.
I like working with Joe, a part-time tech assistant who’d retired from something corporate. On his first night, Joe said he hated rats, but by the end of the week he was asking, Carlos, couldn’t I slip them some of my sandwich? I have a feeling he came around to me the same way.
Dr. Levy tries to help me out. She stresses my GPA whenever she introduces me to prospective students, which seems to assure them of something in my character and prevents the awkwardness of them assuming Joe is the resident and I am the tech. I don’t think people are unkind, but I think they are kinder when you satisfy certain conditions.
Each cycle I tell myself I won’t get attached, that rats are rats. But when you spend time with them you see their personalities—the one who likes to belly flop into the cage, the one who plays tricks on his siblings, the one who prefers carrots and the one who begs for broccoli. The one who beats every puzzle you hand to her. The one with extra-long whiskers who taps his nose to your hand like a kiss when you weigh him.
Most people owe their health to rats. I do. When I was young my parents lived in a perpetual state of anguish over my epilepsy, never knowing when I’d collapse, haunted by visions of me shaking alone, choking on my own vomit or cracking my head open. The medicine I take was first borne by rats. It’s not infallible, but I haven’t had a seizure in nearly five years.
Don’t get me wrong, Joe jokes when I catch him being gentle. I still don’t want to take my work home with me, if you know what I mean.
*
My niece Sofia understands. She’s a miniature version of my brother, except she loves me. She’s fascinated by my kind of rats, the ones with red eyes, pink ears, and white fur.
Uncle Carlos, do you wear a white coat so that you match? she asks one night before we tuck her in. The question is so fresh, so childlike in its logic that I throw up as soon as I’m out of her sight and ask Hana, my fiancée, not to look.
I buy Sofia a picture book about rats and read it to her in bed before I leave for work. When I adjust her blankets, I try not to flinch at the