News

Lost and Found

By on Monday, April 23rd, 2012

Who knows? In a thousand years, even you may be worth something.”

–René Belloq, to Indiana Jones

This past weekend I set shovel to dirt in the backyard of the home I grew up in, which just so happens to be three blocks from where I currently live. The plan is to create a garden in my dad’s backyard because the sun’s life-giving rays shine generously there – unlike my own backyard which could be likened to the Valley of the Shadow of Vegetable Death. The location I selected housed a sandbox once upon a time. But twenty years of disuse has removed all trace of it.

Claiming space for a garden out of unsullied lawn turf could be favorably compared to homesteading in the pioneer days, I think. It involves a lot of digging and sweating, for instance, and perhaps some wiping of the brow while scowling up at the burning sun. It leaves you with a thirst for a cold brew and a yearning to be somewhere else. But as I turned over one shovelfull of dirt and began breaking up the clod, an unmistakeably action-figure-like shape protruded from the grass roots. I pried the toy out the clay and wiped away the bigger chunks of soil, and the figure that emerged was none other than Han Solo: smuggler, gambler, hero of the Battle of Yavin, loveable scoundrel.

And lost toy.

And now here he was, nearly perfectly preserved after twenty years of tranquil waiting beneath the sod.

Han had been a stocking stuffer (circa 1984?), but to be honest, my Star Wars affection did not begin till much later in life, and I don’t think I really had any idea who Han Solo was at the time. He still received playing time (together with Admiral Ackbar, who was his stocking mate), and clearly made it out to the sandbox from which he never returned. Perhaps the sarlaac got him after all, in this timeline.

A good washing revealed that he’s in pretty good shape. Some of the paint has flecked from his hair, and his hands (tortured by Jabba’s guards, no doubt), but his limbs are all still accounted for and his paint job has weathered well enough. My daughter doesn’t mind the wear and tear. When I brought him home, she immediately fell in love. Han is now living the easy life, sleeping in the baby crib in her Fisher Price Little People house and hob-knobbing with some very friendly farm animals. Probably a better retirement than moving to Coruscant with Princess Leia to rebuild the New Republic, when you think about it.

Mention of one of our authors in The Millions

By on Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

There was a very nice write up about one of our recent contributors, Nancy Bourne, in The Millions. The story may sound familiar to many of you who write as a hobby, with a writerly identity perhaps largely unknown to your family and colleagues.

Here’s a link to the article: http://www.themillions.com/2012/04/the-activity-that-dare-not-speak-its-name-my-mothers-secret-literary-life.html

Review of Forge on Writer’s Relief

By on Thursday, January 19th, 2012

The webiste Writer’s Relief has made Forge their first lit mag spotlight of 2012! Writer’s Relief is out there to help creative writers effectively target their submissions, and is a great resource for anyone in the writing business. Check it out.

Cover art contest

By on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

We are now taking submissions for the Annual Forge Cover Art Contest. The winning artwork will be used on our covers for one year, and the winning artist will receive a prize of $50. Submissions must fulfill the following:

1. Address the theme of “little people opening things”

2. JPEG format, print quality (at least 300 dpi)

3. Size: 5.5 x 8.5 inches

Deadline: March 30, 2012

Email submissions to forgejournal@gmail.com with the subject line “COVER ART CONTEST”

The winner, selected by our editorial staff, will be announced May 1 and will have their art featured prominently on the website, as well as on print copies of the journal. The winner will also receive our prize of $50. The cover will be implemented starting with our July 2012 issue.

What’s new for 2012?

By on Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Forge shifts and jukes like a prize fight boxer. Here are some of the changes you can look forward to in the coming year.

Our first, and biggest, project is to overhaul the archives in order to make past issues more accessible. If you wander over to the Archives section at them moment, you’ll discover a nifty layout of thumbnails of the covers from the past issues. Our goal is to catalog the extensive, and mostly invisible, backlist of stories and poems and reviews and such and give them each an interactive table of contents like you see on our home page for the current issue. These TOCs will be accessed through the issue cover. This will take a while, so bear with us.

We are also introducing a Store with merchandise featuring more of our past cover artwork (“Past Cover Artwork” is really looking to be the popular pre-season choice for MVP…). We will be splitting the profits from sales with the artists.

My own New Year’s resolution is to post more on the blog. I say it every year (not out loud, to anyone in particular — let’s be clear about that), but just like my resolutions to eat more green vegetables and finally read Moby Dick, this one may be hit and miss. But I’ll try. Possible blog entry titles: “Disappointment with LOST, or, Why Its Fine with Me If George R.R. Martin Takes Another Ten Years to Complete his A Song of Ice and Fire Series.”

Brevity is the soul of … something, I think. Or maybe not.

2011 Pushcart Nominations

By on Saturday, December 24th, 2011

As the sun sets on 2011, it’s a great time to reflect on the year. We were thrilled with another great vintage of fun, challenging, and beautiful contributions to Forge; as always, the Pushcart nomination season requires very hard decisions. We are proud to have offered the works listed below as our 2011 nominations.

Thanks to all of the very many talented artists who shared their work with us last year, and special congratulations to the nominees. We hope you’ll take the time to look over these great stories and poems, if you did not see them when they were originally published.

Happy holidays!

Truth Thomas “What the Snake Whispered in Eve’s Ear”

JP Dancing Bear “Pueblo”

Robert P. Kaye “Learning to Fail in the Cadaver Archipalego”

Sondra Friedman “If a Tree Falls”

Charles LaFave “The Man Who Hides the Future in Apples”

Caroline Misner “A Necessary Sadness”

Submissions to the 2011 Million Writers Award

By on Thursday, March 17th, 2011

We’re happy to announce that we’ve submitted three of our stories to the storySouth Million Writers Award.

The Million Writers Award is a yearly award recognizing works published online. It’s a great institution and strives to highlight the excellent writing that takes place in the many journals who publish their work on the web.

Here are our three entries, published in 2010:

“The Kindness of Strangers” by Tad Crawford

“The Minds of Boys” by Luke B. Goebel

“Not Even Jail” by Sean Jackson

Rice Boy web comic

By on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

I’m not sure how I’ve missed this for so long.

The website www.rice-boy.com contains several storylines set within a created fantasy world, a clear labor of love by artist (and writer) Evan Dahm.

Wikipedia describes his stories as surrealist, fantastic, epic. Those are all true, but don’t quite capture the awesomeness. Add to that Dahm’s innovative and original artistic designs for landscape, cities, characters (it sometimes brings Dr Seuss to mind …), all surrounding compelling storylines, and you have something that must be experienced.

Two primary stories exist: Rice Boy (now finished) and Order of Tales (ongoing, and in black and white). Both are set in the same world, but have very different qualities of tone and design. Both are equally impressive. Rice Boy is striking for it’s artistic vision and use of color and design. Order of Tales moves in a drastic new direction, abandoning color for black and white. It employs a strong focus on story and character, and is a well-paced adventure narrative with a satisfying conclusion.

Dahm uses deceptively simplistic artwork in a sophisticated way to tell his stories, and the visuals he is able to achieve are often quite stunning. (Just check out one of the opening pages … it’s almost like something out of a Vincent Van Gogh painting.) It soon becomes clear that Dahm is using the artwork exactly as he wants to set the tone. He often propels the story with nothing but images.

If you haven’t seen this site before. I’d highly recommend checking it out.

www.rice-boy.com

UPDATE: A third storyline is now in progress, entitled Vatu, and is quite good. Don’t miss it!

Paintamations

By on Sunday, April 18th, 2010

My sister recently introduced me to the artwork of Michael Burton, and I have to share it because it’s so incredibly cool. Among other things, he creates short videos called paintamations. These are achieved through a painstaking process where the artist photographs a painting, changes it slightly, and photographs it again, etc. Thus the title – it’s animation, through painting. You have to see it to appreciate how amazing it is. Here’s one entitled “Channel.”:

Here’s Michael Burton’s website: http://www.burtonworldart.com/index.html

Nominations to the 2009 Million Writers Award

By on Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Forge has nominated three of its stories from 2009 for the Million Writers Award. This award recognizes stories published in online journals, and was created to show that quality stories are not exclusive to print. The Award’s mantra is expressed much more elegantly on the website.

Here are our three entries:

“Sarah and the Enchanted Forest” by Maria Pavlova (Translated by Juliana Chakarova)

“The Precious Thing” by John Riebow

“Honey, You’ll Be Wanting My Autograph” by Mary Creech Gulledge