There’s some particularly good work among the longer stories in this issue. Michael Enright’s ‘Mirrors in Mirrors’ sees its narrator wake up from a ten year coma. His awakening shocks the staff of the facility which has been looking after him. He can’t remember much about his past life. He’s told there was a car accident, and that his wife was killed. He can’t remember having a wife, though he asks if her name was Linda. He has fragmentary memories. He wonders if his waking world is just a dream. Bill Murray has been sent to interview him for Sixty Minutes. It’s bizarre enough to be a dream. Enright’s story is well written, and has a tone similar to the likes of ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, treading between the surreal and the real.

Lisa McMann’s ‘Like Waves on Rocks’ is one of the best pieces in the magazine, and one of the best stories I’ve read out of all the magazines covered in this series of reviews. The narrator is an old man living in a retirement home. Because of the high turnover of staff, he’s afraid to get fond of any of the nurses. But he does get close to one in particular, who reminds him of his wife. This nurse shares her secrets with him - that she’s in the witness protection programme, that her husband murdered a woman, that her son is living in Canada with her parents. She is to give evidence at her husband’s trial, but she disappears and the narrator is worried about her fate. He has his own secrets too. He moved to the area to escape his own past and his part in the deaths of two people. This is an extremely well-crafted story, and the threads weave together just right.

’Dominique’s Mother’ by Steve Newton is another of the standouts. A man meets his ex-wife at a Paris dancehall. He’s not even sure she recognises him, but he’s propelled back into the past, recalling their relationship and its break up. The different past and present threads weave together just right. The characters are sympathetic and well drawn.

’Poppies’ by Wenonah Lyon is set in the British trenches of the First World War, and illustrates the cruelty of war and the decimation of a generation. Maggie Shearon’s ‘Smoke: A Ghost Story In Three Voices’ would not have been out of place in the likes of Nemonymous. Meanwhile, among the shorter prose pieces, ‘The Potato’ by Anne Marie Jackson had a certain appeal, for its sense of humour, and it’s a nicely written piece, short and simple.

There’s plenty more worth reading in the Spring edition of Gator Springs, including some great poetry by D.B. Cox and Levi Wagenmaker. Other authors featured include Kay Sexton, Rachel Elizabeth Cole, Tobie Willis, Cynthia Day, Patsy Covington, Tawsha K. Brinkley, Joseph M. Faria, and Mark Budman. The haiga artwork by Jerry Dreesen really contributes to the look of the magazine. As editor Carrie Berry explains, Haiga art is related to Haiku poetry. In a few strokes of his brush, Dreesen can create the image of a cat about to pounce on a mouse. The images are accompanied by haiku-style poetry. Anyone wishing to check out Dreesen’s work can visit his website at http://www.jerrydreesen.com.

This is the first issue of Gator Springs Gazette I’ve caught up with. The magazine does have a slightly different character to Bonfire, but it still presents good quality writing. Perhaps part of the difference is that Gator is more rooted in North America, at least on the evidence of this issue, while Bonfire is more international.

Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.