It’s my hope that Ace Masters, the publisher of Written Word, has a better fall than summer. A hacker caused him a lot of trouble and diverted energy I’m sure he would have preferred be directed toward creative endeavors. He explains the situation in an updated publisher’s note on the site. I was glad to see issue #14 posted, and more than willing to ignore a few typos.

I’m going to sneak in a review of the cover story from the June issue (# 12), “Glass Towers and Gears” by Gloria Weber. The link was repaired after my review of that issue went live.

Told in the third person point of view of a robot named Lez, the story has the predictable missing pieces when the cyborg can’t make the jump between data analysis and emotional interpretations. And, of course, she gets turned off at key points.

Some of Weber’s metaphors are delightful. Consider “the lights of the city swam at the edges of the floor like a sea of blinking, swirling stars wishing to be tread upon.” And that Lez moved “like she had been walking since inception.” Yet, when the brown-skinned Ajur reaches out to touch Lez’s cheek, the image of “hot fudge being drizzled across white silk sheets” gave me pause. And I couldn’t believe Lez’s hair “swam across the carpet like rogue sunshine, almost reaching the other wall.”

Playing out some scenes to a full conclusion would have given me a clearer idea of what the relationship between Lez and her “mistress” was. I assume they were love scenes, with Lez being turned off, or allowing herself to “slip offline” in a futuristic closing the bedroom door technique. Ending just as the action started left a lot of questions in my mind.

Likewise, the connection between Lez and Mr. Lesnah could have been one of lovers or saviors. Grinder, Lez’s creator, appears at the beginning and end, but his “darling” disappears. What this odd assortment of people was doing, living together in a building made of glass so there are no secrets, I’m still not sure.

The cover story of Written Word #14 is “The Clock Tower Girl” by Keir Roopnarine. The timepiece stopped chiming 15 years prior, and no one was able to break into the room with the works for repairs. Though it kept ticking, the campus of Saint Anstey Royal College gave up on hearing the beautiful, musical chimes.

William is the only one who sees Rysia in the clock tower, peering down on life going on below. And when he summons the courage to look for her, the door mysteriously opens for him, revealing a strange new world.

“I touched her cheek, thinking my hand would pass right through her. Instead, my fingertips met her warm skin, and those sleeping eyes fluttered open.
“Oh,” she said, “I’m so sorry. How long was I asleep?
“Uh. Not long-Rysia, where did you go?
“Go? I haven’t gone anywhere.”
[...] And so Rysia learned that she disappeared, and I learned of how she became trapped.

Roopnarine has rendered a haunting and beautiful allegory; a study of being trapped in one’s body, aware of what is going on around you but helpless to express yourself until one person loves you enough to see through the barriers. Using first-person narration, the author nails the voice of a young man, William, both enchanted and devastated by what he discovers. The pacing is perfect, the suspense builds, and I never saw the end coming.

I’ve often heard it asserted that the important thing is just to get kids to read and not to worry so much about the material they read. Marshall Payne’s “Class War” harkens back to the television series, Welcome Back, Kotter, examining the power of literature to inspire young minds, even when it’s in graphic or comic book form.

“Little White Truths: An Aston West Tale” by Todd M. Hunter is a space opera with a few interesting twists. Aston West is bored and battling addiction to black market smuggling and pale green drinks he’s forgotten the name of. He enjoys being distracted by a woman whose “skimpy white skirt barely covered her legs, and matching fabric patches that were not enough to leave any of her ample breasts to my imagination.” But he keeps his business head about him.

“Rainy Day” by Debra Purdy-Kong is a very sad tale of a girl taking care of her parents, instead of the other way around. She kept the last note her dad gave her, promising to help out as soon as he could. Her mom is too vain to ask for help. Claire learns to see the letter as a “reminder not to become a penniless failure who ran away from problems and responsibility.”

“The Face at the Window” by K. S. Dearsley is a creepy story of a woman haunted by an attack no one believes occurred. Her husband takes her out into a deserted cottage in the country to help her get over it. The horror elements are riveting; the reader is left unsure whether Jenny is being stalked by anything other than her own internal boogie monsters.

The overarching theme of Written Word #14 is people trapped in their minds, their bodies, or situations beyond their control and the unpleasant consequences. Written Word rose above its difficulties, even though it meant jumping from July to October when someone with the nom de plume of Jennifer Taylor, and too much time on her hands, ruined the summer.