Sunday, October 6, 2024

Now Available as an eBook on Amazon

     ~  the garden of compass flowers


~  by  shaun  lawton  ~


π•»π–‘π–†π–˜π–’π–† π•»π–—π–Šπ–˜π–˜ presents  a series of electronic books 
beginning with 
 
   ~ the garden of compass flowers ~ 
              by shaun lawton 

   

Sunday, June 30, 2019

Heralding the 24th issue
in the Year of the Replicant



photo above taken in outer space courtesy of ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM



head bowed in self reflective prayer

the asteroid fetus dreams

seeing nothing from its hollowed out

eye sockets and waiting in patience

as it plummets along the trajectory

of the spun rosetta stone orbit

that traces the long drawn out

lineage of its chimerical evolution

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Drone Express



 Send me your tattered, your torn manuscripts of those special stories or novels of yours that either have proven difficult to sell or place, or perhaps may be in search of an extra-special crow's nest amidships on the Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, our ragtag proto-literary cybernetic vessel traversing the world wide terrain of speculative fictional letters on the web since the summer of 2009, when our flagship novella Sky Pirates by John Shirley launched for its epic serialization in sixteen daily installments.


   Most of this evolving tesseract has been hyperbookmark'd here at this masthead site which attempts to keep up with the task of compiling the latest issues of the Freezine (even now there are only 23 issues thus far released; the nanoswarm just recently updated the site.) As much of the artwork used for the Freezine that has been possible to save has been archived here at the official sister-site:  the FREE ZINE ZONE.

   Whereas the FoFaSF principally concerns itself with the open, free and willing showcasing of short stories and novellas, adorned with corresponding artwork, representing facets of some of the cutting edges of current speculative fiction, the FREE ZINE ZONE remains for the most part a wordless site (w/the exception of artist's bylineshyperlinked to their own respective websites) with its main showcase being the collection of original illustrations that each hyperlink back to the story or chapter in the freezine where they first appeared.

   Consider this a form of post-paradigm digital fly-fishing, if you will, while keeping Harlan Ellison's creed in the forefront of our thought at all times: Pay the WriterBelieve it or not, this philosophy beats at the heart of the Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, despite outward appearance. The freezine is not Warner Bros. It is just a blog. Besides aspiring to be a preliminary stepping stone for creative writers everywhere, it's also a forum which doubles as an easygoing platform upon which anyone's short stories or novellas may be posted (or serialized daily, as the case may be) to reside among other examples of the craft already archived and visible in the drop down margins for posterity. One question to ask ourselves as we continue to browse and read...is the browser reading us, as well? Not only a reasonable question, but one which I think we should all stop for a moment to consider more deeply. Never mind that for the moment. On to the freezine.

   The Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction remains a full-immersion online reading experience. Designed eminently for the countless smartphones and internet browsing devices slowly taking over the world out there, this platform distinguishes itself by remaining entirely free of any form of paid advertisements. The real reasons for this may be found in a bottomless well as deep as a quasar at the center of the galaxy, along a conduit which connects the entire living universe since its inception buried so long ago in time that our genetic memory of it may no longer be trusted. It's a platform that intends to continue allowing as much of a writer's original voice as can be humanly preserved, so long as that voice embodied by the written word expresses the age old art of storytelling in clear and challenging ways.

   It's my blog, and I'm a spec-flex geek surviving a living holocaust of information along with the rest of you. We're poised on the threshold of the year 2019 togetherthe year the movie Bladerunner was set in a rainy, neon-lit Los Angeles, which many of us remember all too well.
I like to sit back and consider that those futuristic images director Ridley Scott presented us in glorious, cinematic color all of those thirty-six years ago are really so drenched with nostalgia by now they qualify as pure duende. This is the Year of the Replicant. I am gathering stories for consideration in our next issue, #24. The freezine remains open to submissions until the end of June, more or less. We're hoping for a summer issue and you'll have to shut your eyes and tune into this branewavelength we're currently riding the edge of this solar storm out with in order to get a sense of what the so-called "theme" is supposed to be.  Get it? It's no secret science fiction has always been about the present moment—projected into a bright, futuristic vision. Put that together with the observation that the truth of our own real experiences always outdoes the most feverishly imagined fantasies, then divide by Stephen King's caveat about fiction being "the truth held within the lie," and you don't need me to provide any guideline whatsoever for your story to have merit and be considered for inclusion among our growing TOC.    

   So get at it. Send us anything the written word can make a little sense out of what is happening to our world right now at this very moment in time. You may think of it as a sixth extinction event underway during the Holocene epoch. However, try not to fixate inordinately on space, the way we have a tendency to do, as moderately sentient terrestrials. You'll get the picture if you shut your eyes tightly enough and dream harder. Remember that while the Drake equation and the Fermi Paradox may be fun tools to provoke our imaginations about the nature of our cosmos and the possibility of there being extraterrestrial races out there, don't ever forget that we each represent the living end of a long blood line extending backward into the past and buried in a shroud of time.  If you can perform the small exercise of merely swapping what you normally think of as "space" and replace that with "time," you should be able to see back through countless geological periods of successive extinction events to the point they reveal for us countless respective worlds in time that came before us and are now lost forever.

   Now that the great fishing-reel of our own time-line has greatly wound itself up (or spooled itself out, however one comes to think of it) and we're all still here to enjoy the remaining pockets of breathable air in both our lungs and the atmosphere, I'd like to take this time to wish you all the very best adventure life has to offerthe one which best suits your particular character. We're all characters here, aren't we? Individuals caught up in a grand meta-play called Life. We ask ourselves "where did we come from?" meaning "from whence did we originate as a species?" seldom considering the answer may reveal things too startling, terrifying or wondrous for us to handle. The idea we're part of something that has always been here may only occur in flashes of insight, now and again, but certainly we wouldn't want to live every breathing moment in full realization of this, would we? Why not, I ask.

   At the very least, please be sure to take some time from your routine and write a letter to a family member or a friend. Put the words down on paper, nice and neat. Keep it short, fold up the page, slip it an envelope, peel off a stamp, stick it on the front, jot down your return address in the upper left corner, and print your recipient's address in the middle. Or just write them an email. But if you take the time to hand write them an old fashioned letter, don't forget to affix a stamp and then drop it in a mail box some where nearby. If there isn't a mail-box, look for a mail-slot in a local hotel. Or better yet, tie your letter to a drone, send it GPS express.

   Or feel free to write a stellar story and submit it to the Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

   All queries, letters, or submissions in the form of poems, short stories, novelettes, novellas, and novels to be considered for publication and serialization in a future issue of the Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction should be sent to:


freezinefantasysciencefiction@gmail.com 


and I will reply as soon as I can.  2019 stands ahead of us as another cross-loop in the neverending portals of time being stitched in this ongoing experiment called life.  Together we can all hop to it and get through it in record-breaking style.  Please share this post and tell all your friends about it. Or you may just subscribe by email and stay updated every time a new story or chapter from a novella gets serialized in daily installments during a future issue. Thank you for paying attention.  ~the ed.




 (a digital fanzine for the 21st century, currently undergoing an extensive 
ground-zero reset mirroring the universe's blossoming brane)

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Next IsSuE: FALL 2018


the FREEZINE of FANTASY and SCIENCE FICTION 
returns this fall for a brand new issue: #22 



Our last issue (#21: Hallowe'en PiΓ±ata Issue ☠)  ran throughout the month of October, 2017. We serialized Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (originally published in 1838) in daily installments, one chapter at a time.  In addition, we published poems by Jhon Longshaw, D. L. Myers, Ashley Dioses, KA Opperman, Adam Bolivar, Shaun Lawton, Marge Simon, and Bruce Boston.  Finally, on Halloween Day, we published an original story by John Shirley, "And When You Called Us We Came To You," previously published in a very obscure journal that is no longer readily available.  

The FREEZINE has slowed down from its original frequent pace of six issues per year (every other month) to a slow crawl (2 or 3 times a year down to potentially once a year), but the BloodHost (the horde of nanochips sent back in time from humanity's distant future to the  year 2009 that entered my bloodstream and took over my neuro-processing in order that this online fanzine be released) have issued a warning that we must, by any means necessary, continue publishing free fiction and artwork at least once a year, so the Fall 2018 issue is in preparation at the current time (thanks, BloodHost). 


 THE KING
In Yellow



If you or anyone you know would be interested in having your poems featured in the forthcoming issue (our 22nd thus far since the summer of 2009) feel free to submit your poems to:  freezinefantasysciencefiction@gmail.com   
and our friendly editor in chief will reply in due time (before October).   Deadlines are roughly mid-September, so start thinking about what sort of poetry you think would fit under such a banner as ours. Share this post with your writer friends and poets who you feel would like to be featured. 


FREEZINE
archives


The Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction has been monitoring human development from the distant future and will continue to do so for as long as the Nanohorde flows through my central nervous system, dictating me to continue putting out this 21st century fanzine. Thanks to all the authors and artists who have contributed generously over the last nine years. This webzine will remain a blog hosted on blogger owned by Google operated by yours truly and will continue to function as a chimerical hybrid of creative writing workshop, online social community network, nexus of visual artistry, promotional platform for both aspiring and established writers, and happens to be fueled and propelled by nothing other than our mutual love for the fantastic, science fictional, and horrific stories bordering on the supernatural we've all become addicted to over the years.  This webzine remains an unorganized, nonprofit endeavor whose sole mission is to allow a venue for struggling writers to showcase their stories to be shared with anyone and everyone, for feedback and to get more exposure to a wider readership, and just for fun.  There's a vast archive of stand alone short stories as well as 15 novellas serialized in daily installments still waiting to be read on any portable device or computer screen you can manage to acquire. 


Click Below and Begin Exploring
the FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction
TODAY 





Thursday, September 25, 2014

The Return of Vincent Daemon







   The FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction heralds the return of Vincent Daemon beginning tomorrow, Friday September 26, 2014, with the exclusive four-part serialization of his Vietnam horror story Of Cadence and Weathered Statues.  

   This will be the fourth and final story featured in our SEPT, 2014 ISSUE.  Three stories are already up and archived permanently for your free reading pleasure:  Keith Graham's RepFix, Gene Stewart's Cryptid's Lair, and Edward Morris's Mercy Street.  Vincent Daemon's Of Cadence and Weathered Statues completes this latest issue.  

   Part I goes up tomorrow and the tale continues daily until its conclusion on Monday, Sept 29.  On Tuesday, September 30 all four stories will be bundled together in the official SEPT, 2014 ISSUE postingalong with the usual editorial comments and Thank You'sand of course will remain archived for posterity on the world wide web free of charge to subscribers or anyone who happens to stumble upon our website.  

   So be sure to tell your friends and fellow readers and writers to Subscribe by email or otherwise Follow the FREEZINE if they haven't gotten on-board already.  The FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction is an online creative writing venture flying low on the radar of this over-commercialized world. If you are an aspiring writer or artist and would like to see your story or artwork in a future issue, be sure to submit your material to
freezinefantasysciencefiction@gmail.com
and an editor will get back to you in due time. All rights reserved by the artists and writers. Thank you for reading and supporting local underground writing and art. 




The Bloodhost Awaken



Friday, September 5, 2014

the FREEZINE to release a new SEPT issue in 2014




Get a grip on your fleshy viewscreen device of choice and shave your toilets, because the FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction is about to set an IV drip of four new stories brought to you by a few veterans of our psychic war along with some new blood for your rapid eye movement scanning.   

Each weekend in September a new and original story will be published and archived on the main Freezine Blogger site as tradition demands, but the Bloodhost have also demanded we expand our domain to include Wordpress, so get ready for our scaly digital vines to insinuate our author's stories into deeper realms of the world wide web.  Our nanohost insist on broadening the expanse of our cyber-netting in order to improve our chances of scooping up more unsuspecting web surfers into following and subscribing and reading our inimical online digest.  

The Freezine is antagonistic towards any publishing house whose editorial staff rejects good stories or otherwise insists on processing them to the point you can't believe they're not butter.  We at the Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction are dedicated to the idea of providing the public with startling and original short stories or novellas that represent the written efforts of our most original practitioners of genre expansion be they rooted in fantasy, science fiction, or horror.  

Established in the summer of 2009, the Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction has been operating as an independent entity without any commercial backing or funding whatsoever.  The Freezine is an online creative writing cyber-workshop open to the public and catering to nonconformist individuals whose spirits resemble that of the honey badger.   If you haven't followed or subscribed to the Freezine yet, please take a moment to do so now.  Just follow this link to the Freezine's original site and figure it out.  Scroll down to see our list of at least twenty authors, some of which are award-winning published writers and some of which are just getting started.   

This month we will be surprising our subscribers and stumbling scrutinizers with a new story each and every weekend, to be archived for the reading posterity of future generations of online web surfers from virtually every location of the federation of galactic citizens.  This announcement has been brought to you by the mysterious horde of alien nanobots that are still coursing through my blood and central nervous system.  They have achieved a fantastic voyage in communicating here with our race through me and manage to occasionally hijack my brain temporarily in order to use my fingertips to type this message and bring the Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction to all of you, dear followers, subscribers, hangers-on, gawkers, and general readers of non-commerical, non-watered down science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories to keep you mesmerized and satisfied for as long as you keep coming back for more.   Stay tuned...the stories are coming.





Sunday, September 22, 2013

Late September Issue, 2013


With barely over a week left remaining in September, the Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is proud to announce a forthcoming trilogy of stories, brought to you by three of the webzine's longest standing veterans.    




Stay tuned throughout this final week as the month itself and everything we do becomes archived into history.  Along with all the boring mundane eventualities, three short stories are sure to stand out amid the banality.   


Wednesday,
September 25:


Idol Curiosity
by Gil James Bavel




Friday,
September 27:

Shuggoleth
by Shaun Lawton




Monday,
September 30:

Servitors of the Outer Darkness
by Adam Bolivar






The nano horde went completely radio inert over the last five to six months.  
We at the FREEZINE began receiving their transmission once again recently. 
Keep at least one eye trained on your inbox beginning tomorrow for the week.
This webzine yields entertaining tales of post weird fiction at random intervals.
The fleet of nano machines in my blood stream are still dictating my actions here. 
They are broadcasting the signals through my electromagnetic field to control me. 
Since the start of their inception I have scrutinized their commands very carefully. 
It appears they wish to provide us with a bunch of really cool free stories online. 

~Please Join Us In Welcoming  Back~