The new issue of LCRW (#29!) is best read while at work. There is a cooking column ("How to Seduce a Vegetarian") by Nicole Kimberling as well as fiction and poetry from Jennifer Linnaea, Neile Graham, Sarah Blackman, Claire Hero, and many more wonderful writers. Actually, that thing about reading at work. OK, it's good at home, too.

Unexpected tales of the fantastic, & other odd musings by Nalo Hopkinson, Karen Joy Fowler, Karen Russell, Jeffrey Ford, and many others Contains stories by the amazing Jeffrey Ford, the fabulous Karen Joy Fowler, the unlikely Kelly Link, the thrilling Nalo Hopkinson, the shockingly good Karen Russell, the unnerving James Sallis, and dozens of uncanny others, as well as useful lists of many kinds and straight-shooting advice from Aunt Gwenda. Edited by Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant Introduction by Dan Chaon Contents include: “Travels with the Snow Queen” by Kelly Link “Scotch: An Essay into a Drink” by Gavin J. Grant “Unrecognizable” by David Findlay “Mehitobel Was Queen of the Night” by Ian McDowell “Tan-Tan and Dry Bone” by Nalo Hopkinson “An Open Letter Concerning Sponsorship” by Margaret Muirhead “I Am Glad” by Margaret Muirhead “Lady Shonagon’s Hateful Things” by Margaret Muirhead “Heartland” by Karen Joy Fowler “What a Difference a Night Makes” “Pretending” by Ray Vukcevich “The Film Column: Don’t Look Now” by William Smith “A Is for Apple: An Easy Reader” by Amy Beth Forbes “My Father’s Ghost” by Mark Rudolph “What’s Sure to Come” by Jeffrey Ford “Stoddy Awchaw” by Geoffrey H. Goodwin “The Rapid Advance of Sorrow” by Theodora Goss “The Wolf’s Story” by Nan Fry “Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland” by Sarah Monette “Tacoma-Fuji” by David Moles “Bay” by David Erik Nelson “How to Make a Martini” by Richard Butner “Happier Days” by Jan Lars Jensen “The Fishie” by Philip Raines and Harvey Welles “Dear Aunt Gwenda, Vol. 2” by Gwenda Bond “The Film Column: Greaser’s Palace” by William Smith “The Ichthyomancer Writes His Friend with an Account of the Yeti’s Birthday Party” by David J. Schwartz “Serpents” by Vernoica Schanoes “Homeland Security” by Gavin J. Grant “For George Romero” by David Blair “Vincent Price” by David Blair “Music Lessons” by Douglas Lain “Two Stories” by James Sallis “Help Wanted” by Karen Russell “’Eft’ or ‘Epic’” by Sarah Micklem “The Red Phone” by John Kessel “The Well-Dressed Wolf: A Comic” by Lawrence Shimel and Sara Rojo “The Mushroom Duchess” by Deborah Roggie “The Pirate’s True Love” by Seana Graham “You Could Do This Too” “The Posthumous Voyages of Christopher Columbus” by Sunshine Ison

2 x 18. 3 x 12. 4 x 9. 6 x 6. There are many ways to look at or approach the number 36. It is a square and therefore seemingly as far from a prime number as it is possible to get. (37 is a prime: so the previous statement sounds interesting, but is wrong.) There are not 36 short short stories within. But there are at least 2 poems although they are not 18 pages each. There is a cover from kAt Philbin. There are stories of possibly eerie encounters; stories of regrettable encounters; stories that do not hold a single encounter, except the imminent encounter between you, the reader, and the writer who is somewhere other in space and now retreating further in time each day. And if the enchantment of fiction — and poetry and nonfiction — works as planned, that magic will take someone’s thought that has been encapsulated in words, those words that were encased by ink, that ink that was pinned to paper, and then maybe, just maybe, that magic will be enacted upon you by the act of reading and you will take into your synapses, the space between your synapses, something of what that far distant writer hoped to impart in these words. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 36 Early Autumn 2017. ISSN 1544-7782. Ebook ISBN: 9781618731395. Text: Bodoni Book. Titles: Imprint MT Shadow. LCRW is (usually) published in June and November by Small Beer Press, 150 Pleasant St., #306, Easthampton, MA 01027 smallbeerpress.com/lcrw. twitter.com/smallbeerpress · Printed at Paradise Copies (paradisecopies.com), 21 Conz St., Northampton, MA 01060. 413-585-0414. Print subscriptions: $20/4 issues. Please make checks to Small Beer Press. Library & institutional subscriptions are available through EBSCO. LCRW is available as a DRM-free ebook through WeightlessBooks.com &c. Contents © 2017 the authors. Cover illustration “I Was Raised by the Forest” ©2017 by kAt Philbin (katphilbin.com). All rights reserved. Thank you, lovely authors and artists. Please send submissions (we are always especially seeking weird and interesting work from women writers and writers of color), guideline requests, playlists, &c. to the address above. Peace.

We kick off this issue with A. B. Robinson’s amazing “Sonnet Crown for Third Officer Ripley.” Then there are stories of beasties and strange places and stranger people; long, long journeys; and questions, so many questions. Also: Nicole Kimberling’s lovely food column looks at white asparagus.

May: gone. June: gone. July: moving fast. Here are gods, snakes, death, and demons. On the lighter, crunchier side: carrots and apples. Twice a year this zine slips out into this world, less internationally than it used to. Maybe I just need to stand at airports and offer it as in-flight reading? Maybe I can persuade an airline to make it their in-flight magazine? How refreshing it would be to pull LCRW out of the seat pocket. Since LCRW only comes out twice a year, that leaves 10 months to be filled in with other zines. Airlines, ping me. We can make this work. In the meantime, good things are here. Made by Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link. This 2 minute 45 second issue is Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 45 and is going out in August 2022. ISSN 1544-7782. Ebook ISBN: 9781618732071. Text: Bodoni Book. Titles: Imprint MT Shadow. LCRW is (usually) published in June (. . .) and November by Small Beer Press, 150 Pleasant St., #306, Easthampton, MA 01027 · [email protected] · smallbeerpress.com/lcrw. twitter.com/smallbeerpress · Printed at Paradise Copies (paradisecopies.com · 413-585-0414). Subscriptions: $24/4 issues (see page 13 of the print issue or PDF for options). Please make checks to Small Beer Press. Library & institutional subscriptions: EBSCO. LCRW is available as a DRM-free ebook through weightlessbooks.com, &c. Contents © 2022 the authors. All rights reserved. Cover illustration “Nausicaa” © 2020 by Ashanti Fortson (ashantifortson.com). Celebrating! Zen Cho’s LA Times Ray Bradbury Book Award for Spirits Abroad and Isabel Yap’s Ladies of Horror Awards for her story “Syringe” and her collection Never Have I Ever. We brought two titles out as ebooks recently: Susan Stinson’s novel Venus of Chalk and Howard Waldrop’s collection Dream Factories and Radio Pictures. RIP Angélica Gorodischer and Geoffrey Goodwin. Since December 2021 Gavin has been on the couch/working from home (not in the office or shop) with something along the lines of CFS or post-viral fatigue so everything Small Beer has & will be slowed down for the foreseeable future. Thanks to Laura, Kate, Beth, Franchie, Diya, & Jess at Book Moon for shipping LCRW (&c) and running the bookshop like a dream. We’re switching websites and point of sales systems at Book Moon so your orders and patience are much appreciated. Please send submissions (especially weird and interesting work from women writers and writers of color), guideline requests, &c. to the address above. Thanks again, authors, artists, readers.

Three million years from now a thought form called oufaobf will randomly coalesce into LCRW 35 at the same time as 1.2 million monkeys type it out. Which means there will be 2 copies out there in that there far future galaxy. Will Nicole Kimberling's recipe blow them away? Fiction by Danielle Mayabb or James Warner? Could be. Table of Contents Fiction Danielle Mayabb, "People Are Fragile Things You Should Know By Now" James Warner, "The History of Harrabash" Clinton Lawrence, "The Peach Orchard" Kate Story, "The Ghost of the Cherry Blossom" Jessy Randall, "Anonymized Orgies, Inc." Andrew Ervin, "Presently Engulfing the Mid-Atlantic States" Jack Larsen, "The Equipoise with Lentils" Diana M. Chien, "Maria Taglioni and the Highwayman" S. E. Clark, "Genius Loci" Henry Wessells, "Extended Range; or, The Accession Label" Emily Jace McLaughlin, "Above the Line” Nonfiction Nicole Kimberling, "Holiday Treats: Believe the Dream" Poetry Catherine Fletcher, "Four Poems from Spook Speak, A Tale of Espionage” Cover Aatmaja Pandya, "A Wizard of Earthsea" About the Authors Eleven stories, 4 poems, a column. A zine. An occasional outburst. History is written by the people who write. These are not usual days. These are not the usual times. This is a time of grief. This is a time of gloominess. This is a time of anger. This is a time of witnessing. This is a time to stand up and be counted. We will support the ACLU. We will fight for equality, inclusiveness, for health care. We will fight racism, misogyny, hatred, and intolerance. We will write the history of our times together. Gavin J. Grant Kelly Link

There are no ghostly bumps in the night, no loud noises, no cheap shot surprises to knock you out your seat. Instead: stories and poetry — so much excellent poetry! — that knock all the dust off your edges, the pencil off your table, the crown off the monarchy.