There's a new webzine, with some pointed fiction, fiction that didn't quite fit onto the Procrustean beds of the few editors who still work for the dwindling number of print publications: Helix SF. It's run on the principle of the storyteller's bowl. If you like the story, you are expected to toss a coin or three into the teller's bowl, to induce him to tell another. Here are a few teasers about the contents of the first issue, July 1, 2006.
Singer/songwriter Janis Ian is happy to have joined the mainstream by becoming a science fiction writer—mainstream?—but her observations have not grown less sharp than they were many years ago when she became famous for "Society's Child." I leave it to you whether she hasn't seasoned "Mahmoud's Wives" with a generous pinch of something else.
There's Beth Bernobich's tale about happy—well—family holidays and keeping it all among the cousins: The food, the old stories, the new gossip, the over-familiar kin, the gifts, and the unexpected present. It all has a certain Je ne sais quoi and that "I know not what" is what makes all the difference.
Bud Webster's excursion into the dangerous world of loofah mining has to be read to be disbelieved. Spoiler warning: Pet lovers will be glad to know that all the oil-drenched Mexican hairless dogs come back safe and sound, scrubbed a glowing pink, and happy, but that's a footnote in this compelling study of the exploitation of our natural resources.
But I won't spoil all the surprises, even by giving teasers: click through and check Helix out.