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Rich Horton's Market Summaries:
Summary: Lone Star Stories, 2004
One more online 'zine I should have mentioned is Lone Star Stories. This 'zine, at http://literary.erictmarin.com, is edited by Eric Marin, and features three or four short stories and some poetry each issue. It has appeared bimonthly since the start of 2004 -- six issues so far. As of now, the stories are only available for the two month period their issue is current.
The six issues each included at least one reprint (once there were two). So, on the year there were 19 stories, 12 of them originals. The original stories were by Jay Lake, Mikal Trimm, Stephanie E. Burgis, Barth Anderson, Josh Rountree, Kevin Anderson, M. Thomas, Chris Roberson, and Jason Erik Lundberg. Decent reading, on the whole. Among the better stories were Burgis's "Giant", a short-short retelling of "Jack and the Beanstalk" (or a similar story) from the Giant's viewpoint; Anderson's "The Ninth Arrest", one of several stories I've seen retelling the Passion with a somewhat changed role for Judas -- and quite well done; Jay Lake's "Pax Agricola", an amusing tale of a plant with somewhat pleasant properties -- only maybe the recipient doesn't really want those benefits; and Josh Rountree's "Friday Night Gods", an amusingly different look at football.
