"Clapping for the Fairies" sold to Helix SF

Helix SF has agreed to buy "Clapping for the Fairies", a second person, choose-your-own-adventure, lesbian horrortale written for the Liberty Hall Shimmer sponsored contest.

This is the second story I've sold to Helix (check out Pretty Little Thing) and I'm happy that it's found such a good home.

IROSF reviews "Pretty Little Thing"

The IROSF review of Helix #4 is up!

Here's what Lois Tilton has to say about "Pretty Little Thing"

A young woman stalks a psychopathic murderer by using herself as bait. But she ends up with two stalkers following her instead of the one she intends to trap.

This piece is told from the alternating points of view of all the characters. The thought processes of the psychopath and the obsessive are both interesting, but I can't help thinking the story would have worked more effectively without the woman's point of view, explaining her scheme.

She praises this issue of Helix and recommends "Gherem" by Mike Allen and Charles Saplak

As always, thanks for the review.

Critical Ink

David de Beer reviews Helix #4 on his blog.

This is what he has to say about me:

Sara Genge wrote a clever little story for Mytholog, that I enjoyed enough to place on my MAM of the Flashies list.

Anitta is being followed by two distinctly different men.

A story told in three contrasting pov's, all in first person and rather cleverly working on the premise of thought-diaries, a, I suppose, theoretical advancement of online blogging to some extent.
Very clever, entertaining, and more than a little creepy at times. The dark, savage undercurrents are skillfully executed, and the story never loses its intrigue.
Two nits - 1, the Darwin references is a bit of a wrong perception of what Darwin and natural selection actually means, but can be forgiven since they belong to Claude, and his understanding of natural selection is the same misguided perception held by the public at large.
2, some inconsistency with Claude's pov, and a few stretches of credulity in the plot.
Overall, a thump of a good read, well worth the time and one really can't say too much about this for fear of spoiling the plot.

I'm glad he got the Darwin references. I tried to use the totally screwed up Darwinism as a way to show that the character is seriously sick.

Thanks for the review! Glad you liked the story.

Keep 'em coming.

Critical Ink

Marshall Payne from Tangent has reviewed "Pretty Little Thing"


Sara Genge uses multi-viewpoint first person in "Pretty Little Thing." While Claude is a charming narrator at first, it quickly becomes clear that he is a psychopath stalking Annita, a young black woman who’s been rejuvenated to look like a teenager. The speculative element is provided with a future replete with nanos and thought diaries, the latter figuring into the structure of the narrative. Genge is a new writer and I remember her vivid story, "Godtouched," in Strange Horizons. "Pretty Little Thing" isn’t as strong, but still interesting enough. Genge is definitely a talent to watch.

Nice!

While we're at it, here's what has been said about "Godtouched"
From Tangent, but this time from Ellisabeth A. Allen:

Moving on to "Godtouched" by Sara Genge, we find a vividly depicted postapocalyptic setting and the disturbed (or "godtouched") country girl, Denise. Mostly a sketch of Denise's raw and virulent world, the story boasts a small plot in the form of Denise's choice—city sophistication or rural poverty?—but the atmospheric tale, promising enough for a novel's lead, doesn't need high-octane events to draw you in.

IROSF is harder on "Godtouched". This is Lois Tilton's opinion:

As an ecocatastrophic Cautionary Tale, the vision of the Waste intrigues, but Denise's story is too slight, not sufficiently original to be of as much interest as its setting.

Thanks for the reviews, both good and bad.

"Pretty Little Thing" up at Helix SF

My story "Pretty Little Thing" is up at Helix-SF.

www.helixsf.com

This story was easy to start but hell to finish. I wrote it last year in Paris. I got the idea returning home late-ish at night by Metro and then joined a party in my Residence where I talked to interesting people who helped me flesh it out. I had fun "researching" this one. Then I was stuck and it took me several months of tinkering to finish the story.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and tell me what you think.

Acceptance! "Pretty Little Thing" to Helix

Helix wants "Pretty Little Thing".

It's nice to know that in this reptile ridden world, nice things can still happen that don't involve dismemberment of green individuals.