Petrichor Machine

Happy New Year, everyone! We here at the Machine want to thank everyone who submitted to our inaugural issue of Petrichor Machine. We can’t tell you enough how much that kind of support means to us. Now we get to kick off the new year combing through all the incredible content we’ve accrued and putting it all together with rainbows and unicorns in order to make a great book. We’ll re-open for submissions again once we re-group and re-evaluate our publication schedule. Keep an eye out for the release of issue number ONE round about May! We’ll still be around posting blogs here and there as we put the book together so we hope to see you around!

As I type this, the air is getting colder and crisp and it’s making my fingers chilly on the keyboard. I know that’s not a sensation I should like, but it feels kinda nice, reassuring somehow. Weird. Anyway, Our Hero hasn’t been the only one with his nose in a book and an opinion that needs blabbing. So, dear readers, here’s some more good stuff you need to go discover:

• I recently re-discovered and re-read Rock Springs by Richard Ford. Go read it. If you already have, go read it again. And again. Ford’s work is the epitome of graceful economy adding up to so much more than the sum of its parts. Love.
• Kabuki: The Alchemy by David Mack.  This graphic novel is actually the last in a series, but I didn’t know that when a good friend of mind put it in my hands and said she heard it call my name in the bookstore in which she was putzing around.  So I opened it up and read it.  No, that’s not quite right. It went more like this: it opened itself up to me, swallowed me whole, digested me as I was digesting it, and then spat me out, rebuilt. I’m not kidding. The art alone was enough to grab me: gorgeous collage work and boundary-breaking layouts, stunning drawings, paintings, colors, shapes, design. I promise you’ve never seen another graphic novel like this one. But then throw in a story that’ll blow you out of the water and make you want to go make art, write, think, do, create. The story ostensibly follows a woman escaping a life of violence in order to emerge reborn into a life of creation. But really, what it’s about is making art, telling stories and the ways in which the act of creating changes, challenges, inspires life to really begin. It makes you want to go out and start, rather than think about starting for another day. You need to read this. It should be required reading for anyone who creates. Needless to say, I’ll be seeking out the rest of this series.
• Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I picked up this book on a whim, because I work in a bookstore and was lucky enough to find myself re-shelving it. Marquez paints an exquisitely disturbing portrait of an old man in his bold last years. Our protagonist takes us through his life, faces growing old head-on by deciding on his 90^th birthday, to hire a young virgin whore. The romance he finds is couched in delusions and jaded world-views, and yet we experience elation with him as he discusses aging frankly and with bravery before facing, finally, the fear of death that comes with learning to love.  More than anything, it’s a fantastic character portrait, economical and careful in its words and details so that you as the reader feel a huge punch from such a slim novella.
• I know Our Hero has already mentioned Big Lucks, Artifice, Barrelhouse, and Hobart, which I have also been thoroughly enjoying, but I have to also give a shout-out to another journal.  Camera Obscura is a gorgeous journal full of great stories and full color photography. I’ve been really loving the way the art and literature come together here. This journal uses the relationship of text and image in a way I kind of love to dream about. Fantastic.
• I know it’s not a book, but I have to say, seeing The Secret of Kells blew me away enough that I feel it bears mentioning.  This is a phenomenal animated film that explores art and storytelling masterfully. The animation style is a unique blend of intricacy and simplicity. Less is more except when more is more, and I can’t put it better than that. Suffice it to say that the film uses all of its medium and language to tell a superb story in the best way possible, which is something we here at the Machine love to see. You owe it to yourself to watch this film.
• Speaking of things that use their medium to the fullest, the comic, The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal is a fantastic example. E.K. Weaver writes and draws the story of two dudes driving across country, getting to know each other, and maybe even falling in love. But make no mistake: despite its ingredients, this recipe adds up to a great story about people, more than a love story or a queer story or a comic story. Talk about breaking through the boundaries of genre! What really makes this comic shine is the organic writing, the honest characters, the distinct voices, and the way the art supports and adds to the story.  These are no mere illustrations: the pencil work is as expressive as the characters. Seriously. Check it out.

One last thing: We here at the Machine would love to advertise for your magazine. I mean it. In our first issue, we want to not only showcase great work, but also give our readers a list of great journals to go out and read next. We’re excited about the great things going on in the indie publishing world right now, and we want to share it with our readers. So! What does this mean for you? Well, send us an inquiry about ad space to petrichormachineATgmailDOTcom. We’d love to trade ad space with you. We know how hard it is making ends meet, especially for upstart journals, so we’re not setting prices here. Rather, we’d like to talk to you, find out what you can do or want to do. It may not be conventional, but screw convention. Trading feels cozier, somehow, doesn’t it? Friendly. A community. Anyway, we look forward to hearing from you.

Peace.

-Marie

Here in New England, all the leaves around Machine HQ are starting to put on their Autumn colors.  The air has that quality to it where you can almost, almost taste wood smoke, apple cider, candy corn, and the cheap plastic of monster masks with every breath.  Sometimes you catch yourself straining for that smell, nostrils flaring dramatically like a silent movie.  Most days, there’s just enough crispness to the air to warrant something with sleeves.  It’s sweater weather, which, for me, means walking around weather.  But the sun starts hitting the sack earlier and earlier, and the dark gets colder and colder; inevitably, I’m driven inside to the comforts of hot beverages, horror movies, and, that most splendid of eye-destroying pastimes, reading in bed.  There’s a whole lot of time for that last one.

So, what’s been on my radar lately?

Well, I was lucky enough to re-discover my copy of the Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway under a pile of clothes when I was doing some Fall cleaning.  No need for fancy exposition on this subject: Hemingway is the king of the fucking mountain when it comes to literature (Editor’s note: Our Hero’s opinion is solely his own, and is not necessarily endorsed by the rest of the Petrichor Machine staff).  Everybody’s read “Hills Like White Elephants” (with it’s incorrectly-capitalized preposition; argh!), but other gems to check out are “Fathers and Sons,” “the Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” and “Banal Story.”  And a bunch of others.  Pretty much all of it.  Did I mention I love Hemingway?

I lent one of my fellow editors my copy of Jorge Luis Borges’ Ficciones, and when I got it back, I decided to give it another go through.  Borges is, I think, a prime example of what makes up the heart of the Machine; the writing in Ficciones is elegant, and the concepts are goddamn mind-bending at points.  You work your way through this book and ask yourself, “was that really a story?  Does it count as fiction?”  I mean this in a good way, of course; Borges makes you question what makes a story a story.  Is it narrative?  Is it character?  Is it plot?  “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” primarily concerns an encyclopedia entry for a place that doesn’t exist.  “The Library of Babel” is simply a description of a place that can’t exist.  The whole thing is amazing (and, from what I understand, was a pretty big influence on Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves).

Also on the re-reading docket: Allen Ginsberg’s Reality Sandwiches.  I’m a sucker for Ginsberg’s poetry the same way I’m a sucker for Hemingway’s fiction.  Maybe I let them both get away with stuff for which I’d crucify another writer. I don’t know; I don’t care.  Ginsberg makes me wish I wouldn’t get murdered twenty minutes into an attempt to hitchhike across the country these days.  Go find and read his poem “the Green Automobile;” you owe it to yourself.

A good chum of the Machine (and the fine fellow who runs Device) recently lent me an interesting book: Overqualified by Joey Comeau.  It’s a story that moves at a dead-run, wherein the reader follows the decline of the narrator’s life, presented entirely through a series crazy application letters sent to companies.  The book actually got its life as a series of real letters Joey Comeau sent to various business entities.  I blew through the thing in record time; it’s fast, it’s fun, it’s pretty damn hilarious, and, at points, it’s unexpectedly insightful and tragic.  If I did star ratings, I’d give this six electric eels out of five stars.

Essays!  I am, admittedly, most interested in fiction.  I dig poetry; I hate memoir.  Other creative non-fiction typically flies under my radar.  But sometimes that “other stuff” makes a blip on my screen.  Right now, that blip is Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times.  This bad Larry has oodles and oodles of active authors spitting their thoughts on the modern writing experience.  Is it great?  Nah.  I’ll cop to that.  The essays within haven’t rocked my proverbial world.  But there are some quality observations made here and there.  And there’s a bit of optimism about the world of literature (and it’s presented in a fine, un-syrupy, non-Chicken-Soup-y way), which we could all probably use now and again.  The opening essay of the collection, “Not Fade Away” by Christian Bauman, has been the best of the bunch so far (sue me, I haven’t finished the book yet; I’m one of those assholes who reads six or seven things nearly-simultaneously).

You know what’s really been getting me hard, proverbially speaking, in the realm of reading?  The other lit journals out there.  Yowza, but there’s some STELLAR stuff going on out there right now.  The very fine people at Big Lucks are working on their third issue; issues #1 and #2 are worth your time and money (and more).  In particular, issue #2 is knock-your-eyes-out-of-your-head good, from the gorgeous cover art to the super-fine content (including a piece by moi; narcissism, go!).  Another rockstar-cool publication out there worthy of your attention is Barrelhouse; these cats crank out a book that doesn’t just have it’s finger on the pulse of pop culture, it’s got its teeth sunk into the damn jugular of pop culture.  Honestly, there’s too much good to say about Barrelhouse, so just go check them out.  Similarly, take a wander over to the website for HOBART: another literary journal.  I recently read their themed issue revolving around games (yes, games), and it was righteous.  I’m talking about cool, literary approaches to stuff like Scrabble, Magic: the Gathering, and D&D.  For real.  Okay, okay, last lit journal plug: Artifice.  This magazine almost melted my brain.  When you think of the term “experimental,” you’re thinking of Artifice, only you’re thinking too small, too weak.  Crank that idea in your head up to 11, and you’ve got this publication.  Stunning.  Groovy.  They’re publishing people who are doing shit that you never thought of doing…and that’s a great, great thing.

Okay, okay, that’s it.  I swear, this thing just got away from me.  Go.  Read.  Love.

-Brandon “Our Hero” Gretter

Petrichor Machine is a literary journal in-the-making. We’re currently accepting submissions! Please check out our SUBMIT! page for details. We hope to hear from you very soon.

Thanks!!

~The Editors