Penduline – 2012

For an online publication, Penduline offers a massive amount to read in flash fiction, sudden fiction, prose poetry, and short fiction. This issue, themed “WTF?,” contains strange, but entertaining stories, no doubt aimed to make you say, “WTF?”

For an online publication, Penduline offers a massive amount to read in flash fiction, sudden fiction, prose poetry, and short fiction. This issue, themed “WTF?,” contains strange, but entertaining stories, no doubt aimed to make you say, “WTF?”

Several of the stories are about non-human characters such as “Diary of a Sex Doll” by Anthony Isaac Bradley (narrated by the sex doll: “Matthew kissed me today. It was a good kiss, rough, but not desperate. I wouldn’t mind another one of those.”) and “TGIF” by Naomi Krupitsky Wernham, about a fly (“He hated being on walls, evading flyswatters like he was the one throwing food all over his house and talking about disgusting things.”).

“Nose Antenna” by Richard Peabody is a humorous piece about a man trying to pull out a long nose hair, “thick and black and nasty looking like a black mamba snake seen on shrooms.”

“Fifty-Nine Cents” by Mira Martin-Parker explains how difficult it is for a person who likes to keep to him/herself to “do well in this world”: “It’s almost impossible to succeed when you’re not interested in television. When you don’t have a cell phone. When you like to spend time by yourself.” The story is entertaining in its truth; it does seem difficult to succeed without keeping up-to-date with the happenings and media.

There is so much to read in this issue; make sure to take a look at Steve Castro’s “Repaying a Debt,” Éanna Cullen’s “Life on the Rails,” Thomas Griffin’s “To Write or Not to Write” (“If writing were the equivalent of a back rub, well, then, I suppose sheets of paper would line up in reams for their turn.”)

Other authors in this issue include Brad Garber, Martin Cohen, Dan Crawley, Nicole Wolverton, Howie Good, Timothy L. Marsh, Sarah Wilson, Molly Bonovsky Anderson, Dave Lordan, Tom Daley, Susan Pashman, M. V. Montgomery, Daniel Maclaine, Chad Stroup, Roland Goity, Daniel Romo, Mark Rosenblum, Gary Leising, Barbara Westwood Diehl, Josh Crummer, Brad Garber, Kelsey Garmendia, Thad DeVassie, and Patrick Kelling.

And while it seems like there is a lot here for an online magazine, it is all quality work. There are lots of goodies, well worth returning to several times during the week, if need be, to finish reading.
[www.pendulinepress.com]