41.1 Winter 2018 $5.00 Galactic Poet by Akua Lezli Hope Table of Contents 05 Wyrms & Wormholes • Vince Gotera 07 SFPA Announcements 13 President’s Message • Bryan Thao Worra 19 From the Small Press • Herb Kauderer 25 Stealth SF: In Transparent Petropolis • Denise Dumars Poetry 03 How Assumption Defeated the Unisex Invaders • Ken Poyner • Tree of Swords • Deborah L. Davitt 04 [distinct clang] • Christina Sng • Failing Masterpiece • Bruce Boston 05 Trying NOT to Make a Sound • Lauren McBride • Filling Out Forms • Melanie Stormm 06 The Timeport Stops • David Barber • [the new models] • dan smith 07 [Murdering invisible man] • Matthew Wilson • [time travel lodging] • LeRoy Gorman 08 End of Fairy Tales • Matthew Wilson • If You Would Seek a Seeress • Rebecca Buchanan • [endless loop] • Greg Schwartz • [afraid] • Angelo B. Ancheta • [whiskey tasting] • LeRoy Gorman 09 Nightmare on Elm Street • Frank De Canio 10 The Seraph and the Six of Swords • Mindy Watson • White-Nose Syndrome • Robert Borski 11 Dar Lugal • Deborah L. Davitt 12 New Planet Landscape 7 • Ken Poyner • [writer by day] • LeRoy Gorman • Nightshade • Steven Wittenberg Gordon 14 Golden-Red Sunrise with Sea Monsters • Kendall Evans 15 My Pet Cthulhu • Josh Brown 16 memory • Brittany Hause • Interplanetary Poet • John Grey • [dark smoke] • Roxanne Barbour • Changeling • David C. Kopaska-Merkel 17 Hot on fhe Trail of Martians • Donald Raymond • Honoring the War God • Deborah L. Davitt 18 Ship Down • Vonnie Winslow Crist • [galaxy birth] • Roxanne Barbour • [Rustless metal shell] • Brian Garrison 20 Contest at Olympus Mons • Matthew Wilson • [communications satellites] • Roxanne Barbour • Notes of a Rebel Princess to Herself • Maya Chhabra 21 The Golden Cloak • Marge Simon 22 Song of Shadows • Casey Clabough • After Ash • Jan Steckel 23 The City Was Missing • Salik Shah • 24 Green Men Don’t Talk • Sara Backer • A Progressive Reader Sighs in a Barnes and Noble New Release Bay • Richaundra Thursday 28 Gilgamesh Tomb Found in Iraq • Michael Kriesel • Clock Flies • John Caulkins 29 His Seed • Akua Lezli Hope • New Stars • David C. Kopaska-Merkel 30 dogsledding • Brittany Hause • Track 60 • Benjamin Schmitt • [en route] • Angelo B. Ancheta • [outside the chicken joint] • Greg Schwartz 31 The Stars Sing • Beth Cato 32 Venusian Arachnoids • David F. Shultz • Keep On Till Morning • David C. Kopaska-Merkel 33 Universal Immigrants • Ann K. Schwader • Vipers • Efren L. Cruzada 34 On Hunting Werewolves • K. S. Patterson • Shovel • Sara Backer 35 Schrödinger Is Considered for Publication • David Barber 36 [at the center] • Tamara K. Walker • Animatronic Aliens • David C. Kopaska-Merkel • Haetae Moon • Jessica Jo Horowitz 37 Black Hole Haberdashery • Sandra J. Lindow • [microgravity peculiarities] • Roxanne Barbour • [out damned spot] • dan smith • [zombie apocalypse] • Greg Schwartz • [flickering flame] Christina• Sng 38 Thor at the Skateboard Park • Gary Every • The Nostalgic Time Traveler • John Richard Trtek 39 In the Folklore of Brain Worms • Richard Weaver • Everything started with the Big Bang, they say • Juanjo Bazán 40 safari • Brittany Hause • An Indigo Sheath • Nora Weston 41 Cinderella Continued • Kathleen A. Lawrence • Tupilak in Failed Séance • Joshua Gage 42 XenoPoetry: Japanese Tanka • Hiroyasu Amase (translated by Natsumi Ando) 43 Eloise • Robert Borski Back [lost stick insect] • Tamara K. Walker • [pancake-shaped disk] • Roxanne Barbour • How It Pleasured Me • Akua Lezli Hope Art 15 Superkitty vs. Octopus • Jack Foo Front Galactic Poet • Akua Lezli Hope 21 The Golden Cloak • Marge Simon 11 into the Light • Christina Sng 23 Stilt Runner • Denny E. Marshall Star*Line 2 Winter 2018 How Assumption Defeated the Unisex Invaders We had been pushed out of Asia. The armies of Somewhere Near Orion’s Belt Were lugubrious and tasteless, But essentially unbeatable, taking Our best and doing better. From their landings in China They had rolled unconcerned forward, Silent as a guilty nine-year-old child, As unaware of our proclivities as one Might expect any inter-galactic bully to be. Our stand at the Urals Was to be grand and as glorious As a Thanksgiving Day parade, And an unexpected success, though Only in the planners’ eyes. Every soldier and refugee civilian Knew the length of our lives would be Resistance, and we would resist As otherwise there would be extinction. But then, in some ways unknown, And still the subject of martial supposition, Stellar events aligned, struck a species Specific mathematics and informed Their biology it was time: and each Stopped and elegantly, slowly, began To divide. I only imagine they thought that we would do the same. Our quickness in their interval kept us proud, and alive. —Ken Poyner Tree of Swords The tree stood, gnarled and contorted, just below the barren snowline, perched precariously between boulders split by its ancient, knotted roots. Wind howled down from the glacial peak, knife-keen and cruel; the sun Star*Line 3 Winter 2018 reflected from the snow, pain-bright; clouds scudded the blue horizon, indifferent. Pinned to the ancient tree, a man hung, naked, pierced by seven swords, run through at shoulders, arms, legs and groin; his blood had frozen in red icicles connecting him to the ground. As black-winged crows landed on the branches above and beside him he somehow lifted his head to regard the ravens who’d arrived at the banquet of his life through dim and dying eyes. “Take what you will,” he whispered, racked. “The table is set, the cutlery provided. You need only feast, and when my life is spent, winter will finally end.” The crows moved to their feast as indifferent as the clouds and the sun, but when they’d torn out his eyes distinct clang and his entrails, a warm wind of the dinner bowl from the south drove them away. Pavlov’s cat The blood-ice began to melt, —Christina Sng then the glacier above, filling empty creekbeds with snowmelt, and for the first time in millennia, the ancient tree bloomed in spite of the swords that had pierced even to its wizened heart. And in autumn, it yielded fruit. —Deborah L. Davitt Failing Masterpiece The author of the world has far too many plots going on. —Bruce Boston Star*Line 4 Winter 2018 Wyrms & Wormholes Greetings, all! To those of you in the northern half of Terra, I hope you are staying warm. And to those in the antipodes, in the southern hemisphere, stay cool! And to those of us on other planets or in other dimensions, I hope you stay well: cool or warm, as you wish. Speaking of cool, Bryan Thao Worra will tell you about something very cool in his president’s message later in this issue: the SFPA’s 40th anniversary. Here at Star*Line we are celebrating the 40th by featuring cover artists who are also poets. Our cover artist this time is Akua Lezli Hope, who also has poetry in this issue. I asked Akua in particular to celebrate as well Black History Month (February in the U.S.). We actually began this in the previous issue: we honored Native American Heritage Month (November in the U.S.) with cover art by Yaqui poet Anita Endrezze. About the poetry this time, you’ll see some formal poems: a pantoum and a cascade by Deborah L. Davitt, a rondeau redoublé by Mindy Watson, gwawdodyn by Stephen Wittenberg Gordon, sonnets by Frank De Canio and Ann K. Schwader, a limerick by Lauren McBride, a fib by David C. Kopaska-Merkel, a spiraling abecedarian by Kathleen A. Lawrence, and a double abecedarian by Michael Kriesel: the first letter and last letter of line 1 are A, then line 2 begins and ends with B, and so on, using sometimes sound rather than letter on both ends . very interesting how Mike makes both ends of the Q line work. But even cooler, dig this: Mike’s abecedarian is in decasyllabics—each line has ten syllables! To you poets, keep writing wonderful poems and send them to Star*Line. To everyone, I hope you enjoy the poems in this issue. And stay warm. Or cool. But happy. Happy New Year, and happy 40th! Cheers! —Vince Gotera, Star*Line editor Trying NOT to Make a Sound Filling Out Forms ’Twas blue, not brown; oval, not round— Race (check one): the massive dragon egg we found. White Our mission flopped Gryphon when it kerplopped, Other (please explain): cracking not the egg but the ground. __________________ —Lauren McBride Ethnicity: Hispanic Non-Hispanic —Melanie Stormm Star*Line 5 Winter 2018 The Timeport Stops When some causal anomaly breaks the spell, logic snaps the Timeport shut, spilling wary travellers into the here and now, like this one, imperious in white thaub and sandals, with the face of an angel, returning to some far-off age after settling a debate—was the Reanimator Jesus just a meddler from uptime?—by simply visiting the tomb. The androgyne appears not to mind the circling TV crews, greedy for scraps from tomorrow. I had rolled the stone aside when peasant women came and peeked into the tomb . but white noise brusquely stops us knowing what the future knows. In years to come is this how our little tales are lost? Millions believed; isn’t that enough? must it also be true? They envy your Age, confides our Clarke box afterwards. For its innocence. Tests have proved these boxes empty, that somehow we are being tricked. Travellers are stirring, the Timeport rumoured to believe in itself again. Later, we find a souvenir left behind. The thorn plant Euphorbia, found in the Middle East since Bible times, whose pliable stems can be twined into a circle or a crown. —David Barber the new models already self aware play with their chargers —dan smith Star*Line 6 Winter 2018 SFPA Announcements SFPA Grand Master Nominations Nominations for SFPA Grand Master are currently being accepted.