Issue Two, November 2009
Howdy. Welcome to the second awe-inspiring issue of Jersey Devil Press. In completely accidental celebration of the impending family-togetherness of Thanksgiving, we’re bringing you seven fantastic pieces of fiction, all relating to sisters.
Well, OK, only Meg Tuite’s “Sister” and Julie Brown’s “Foreign Exchange” actually deal with sisters in the sibling sense, but Sonny James Traylor’s “Of Seagulls and Fishes” and Milan Smith’s “Exodus” both feature other kinds of sisters. “English Degree,” by Ryan Werner, is about an industry my sister at least once threatened to become a part of. Tom Mahony’s “Thinking Man’s Metal” was read by Monica Rodriguez, who has a sister. And I totally thought “Bound,” by Richard Radford, used the word sister. It doesn’t, actually, but you’ll probably think it did, too, after you read it.
So, yeah. Sisters. They’re awesome.
Maybe we should have just called this the “Stretching Rationalizations for the Sake of a Vaguely Cohesive Intro” Issue.
Links to the individual stories are below, the .pdf is here. Happy reading.
– Eirik Gumeny
Sister, Meg Tuite
“I was fifteen, after all, and if something was happening in my room I had to give myself time to hide whatever it was I wasn’t doing.”
Foreign Exchange, Julie Brown
“There is nothing creative about harboring jealousy in relation to one’s sister.”
Of Seagulls and Fishes, Sonny James Traylor
“Then God sounded like a woman.
‘Get up and fight you lazy, Irish bum!’ she screamed.”
English Degree, Ryan Werner
“I wrote the script for A Midsummer’s Wet Dream a week after I got fired from the gas station and a month before I graduated college.”
Thinking Man’s Metal, Tom Mahony
“It sounded simple enough. But nothing was ever simple with Joey involved.”
Bound, Richard Radford
“‘A few years ago, I was just like you,’ Bernie said.
‘I was fearful! I was angry! I was ugly!’”
Exodus, Milan Smith
“And so the sun set and the day grew dark, and Brindle turned from the others, who remained in the field, and walked to the barn.”
