micro cosmos note II

full moon, full micro cosmos
the micro cosmos reached completion. the final sequence went live on Friday. which happened to be the day of full moon. it is all up now, here: BluePrintReview Issue 24: micro cosmos. 19 pages. 27 contributors. thanks again to all contributors for sending their micro/cosmic texts and images. it was a pleasure to edit this issue.

micro cosmos note, part I + II
after the first sequences of the micro cosmos launched, i put a blog note together with some reflections, realizations, background information, links and quotes: micro cosmos note I.

now that the issue is complete, some additional notes:

sequence sorting & review
like the previous issue, the micro cosmos went live in sequences. new sequences always were added on top of the starting list. now that the issue is complete, the micro cosmos took its final step, and turned around, into its original sorting, starting with 'The Writer', and ending with 'Conversations between Kingdoms'
+ an interesting review on the theme of sequences in bluerpintreview is up here in Yes, Poetry: On Our Radar).

sorting
the sorting of the blueprintreview issue is based on various factors: text length (shorter stories first, longer stories later in the issue). another factor is title length, for the starting-page shape. also, there is the aim to create a vivid image combination throughout the issue. if the issue comes with poetry and prose, it usually is a mixed sorting of poem - prose - poem - etc.
beyond all those factors, it was fascinating to see how the sequences of this micro comsos issue shaped into smaller 'micro theme' circles inside the whole issue, how the texts and images clicked together, without knowledge of each other.

for example, the 3rd sequence: 3 stories, each picking up on another constellations in the social cosmos of society: 2 colleagues (March 2037), a woman + a man (Intentions), a father + child (Red Giant)

or the 5th sequence (consisting of "Turville Woods" / "Our Vernal Ties" / "The Rain Connaisseur") - this turned into a contemplation on the physical and natural world that surrounds us: the forest, the wild animals, the invisible line between civilization and wilderness, our vernal ties and connection to the season, and to the base elements of this world: stone, air, water.
.. and the rain. which also appears in the following sequence, in "cold / warm / lukewarm": "I will most likely cry right now. And it will be the warmest rain I've ever felt on my face."

the images
one idea for this issue was to ask contributors to accompany text submissions with an image submission, to shape a 'roundabout' of stories and images ("accepted stories will be combined with an image from another contributor & vice versa").
i didn't expect this to work out for the full issue, and it didn't, which is fine. but it lead to a wider variation of images, and to an interesting side effect: for 3 images, there are now notes on the process, developed through the work on the issue:
- meta-cosmos / Intentions
- Five / taxi thoughts
- circination / Conversation between Kingdomswhich lead to this comment from Steve Wing: "It is nice to have this added depth, I think. It is something special, to show not only the photo, but also a glimpse of its roots, of the seed it grew from."
and one more photo note, as i rejoice in notes these days: the 3 images are combined in the collage above.

next issue: two²
like i wrote in the first note, the micro cosmos issue had a second, unplanned underlying theme layer: figures+numbers. there were stories composed out of 3 sub-stories, and out of 5 sub-stories. there was a story tryptich. a 3-way mirror. a four radius. (more details on this, in the micro cosmos note I, second thought: "three, and 2, 4, 5, 6").
following up on this structural theme, the next issue of blueprintreview will have the theme "two²" - with 2 being the concept both in a formal, and in a thematic way. the call for submissions is online already: BluePrintReview #25: 'two²'.
(submissions open June 1, and close June 27.)

blueprintreview birthday
while the cosmos expanded, blueprinreview crossed its birthday. i hadn't been aware of that - it was the "happy birthday" notes in facebook that made me realize it. but how beautifully fitting, i thought. i now noted the date in the calendar: on 22nd May 2005, the first issue of blueprintreview went live. an overview of all issues is up in the blueprintreview issue archive. happy 5 year birthday, blueprintreview!

micro cosmos note I

now that the first 2 sequences of the micro cosmos launched, some notes i wanted to add, plus some links and quotes:

the cover image -
is a story in itself. the image was induced by the previous issue of blueprintreview, (dis)comfort zones. after the issue was complete, an exhibition opened not far from here, titled: "Man Son - on the distress of the situation". it was the dis-theme that made me go there. one of the exhibition items was a pyramid, bleak on the outside. the inside consisted of angled mirrors.
i stepped inside that pyramid. the exhibition guide closed the door behind me. a sound generator kicked in. and i was there. inside this mirror sculpture that looks different for everyone, as your own reflection influences what you perceive. which actually is only enhancing the truth that all our impressions are filtered by our mind. we live in a personal micro cosmos of this world, each of us.
following that, later, was this thought: the stories we write and read - they are like pyramids of words, and we send them out, and receive them, and can step inside someone else's micro cosmos while we read them. but again, our take on the story is influenced by our perception. and even the same story can feel different when read on a later point, as it always includes our own reflection, too.
that's one of the thoughts that shaped out during the editing of the micro cosmos issue. while there, in the pyramid, i only wanted to take 1 picture as memory, and only later realized how fitting that picture might be as micro cosmos cover. the full story of the dis-day, and the full picture, is up here: virtual notes: into the dark.

three, and 2, 4, 5, 6 -
the previous (dis)comfort zones issue also brought the shift from launch-all-pages-at-once to launch-the-issue-in-sequences. for the micro cosmos issue, there will be 6 sequences, most of them are 'launch groups' of 3 pages. 3 is a number you will find a couple of times in the issue: Finnegan Flawnt sent 3 connected flash stories, The Writer - The Fool - The Families. later in the issue, there will be a 3-Way-Mirror appearing, and a story consisting of 3 sub-stories. but 3 is not the only number: there are the twins of Africa in Place de la Revolution. the two collages in Butterflies of Night. a story named four radius. and 2 (completely unrelated) stories, each composed of 5 sub-stories.
all those component structures made me think of molecules, and the different ways the same elements can be structured - it almost feels like all those figures form a second, unplanned, underlying layer of this issue. and whenever i see the image "Hard at Work" that combines with "The Writer", it feels like a geometric reflection of this layer.

thematic connections -
the main idea of launching the issue is sequences is: to give the single pieces more space. a side effect of the 'launch groups' is that they enhance the thematic / formal connections and counterparts between the group pieces that otherwise might have gone unnoticed.
for example, the countryside setting that is an element of all 3 new stories. Butterflies of Night takes the reader right into the micro cosmos of a farm, to caterpillars and bugs. in Imaginary Birds, the countryside is almost iconized: the story is set inside a clapboard house. and The Math Ex.am retreats even further: in it, the characters move in a train that crosses through fields and fields of sunflowers and lavender.

parallel to that, the sequences provide more space to follow external links, sometimes with surprise discoveries: if you visit The Next Naked Alien, and then follow Michael Brandonisio's link to Counterexample, you arrive at TRANS - a space poem. here a line:

colonize Venus, colonize Mars
-----------------embodiments interstellar take shape
caste anew

----
and some feedback and a first issue reflection:

story + image: The Math Ex.am / 'tracks' -
one of the concepts of BluePrintReview is that the included texts and images are usually from unrelated places, to add an additional, unplanned dimension both to the text and the image.
for Daniela Elza's story "The Math Ex.am", i tried a number of images. non really clicked. there were 2 other text that were still without matching image, too, so i wrote to 3 photo contributors of previous issues and included 3 key words. the next day, i received 'tracks' from Karyn Eisler. now that the page went live, i received notes from both, i wanted to share them:

"I think the photo seems very appropriate and even more meaningful when I think that both Karyn and myself are from Vancouver. I love it. all those different tracks one can travel, or branch out on. perfect." - Daniela Elza (+ to follow an.other word track, try this: Poemeleon)

"so exciting to see my train tracks with Daniela's words, live, just now, after dinner, in Heviz, Hungary, with my blog post notes at home, taped to my stone wall behind my computer, waiting to be typed out, with a screen shot yet to be made ...." - Karyn Eisler

the new issue / directions / comparisons / story south
and here, a first reflection on the whole issue:
"This is so good, to see Butterflies of Night as part of the new sequence, along with such good pieces! Karyn's tracks especially knock me out today!
And I had this thought about the new issue: it follows after (dis)comfort zones, the most intense issue ever, an issue that went in a new direction. I think this new issue might seem a little mild by comparison, so far. But it is good in the way that the BluePrint Review always was good, in a quieter, more thoughtful, usually overlooked way that made you so glad that you were reminded. And now also you might be wishing every piece could be as exceptional as the nominated piece. My thought is that it is a very good issue. " - Steve Wing

---
and then there is .. a tablecloth surprise
this is just a detail, kind of irrelevant. i first had included it under "thematic connections". then removed it. and then thought: most things of the everyday are actually just irrelevant details. but without them, the everday would be missing so much. and added to that, i received Steve's line on things that are usually overlooked. so here it is. the table cloth surprise.

yesterday, after the new sequence went live, i revisited all 3 pages. and then noticed this word crossing: in all 3 new stories, there is the word "tablecloth" included in the first paragraph, almost like a hidden code word for this sequence:
• "On the red-checked tablecloth in a clapboard house somewhere in the middle of your country .." (Imaginary Birds)
• "She spread an old tablecloth on the ground between two rows of soybean plants. It was May, .." (Butterflies of Night )
• "I f.eared the look on his face, the same look he gave me when I was four or so and tried to se.cure a drumstick on my plate with a fork and knife. Instead, it flew a.cross the t.able.cloth .." - (The Math Ex.am)

best of web + flash stories

good news: Dzanc's "Best of the Web 2010" collection is officially finished and sent to the printer, it will be released in the middle of June. the collection is edited by Matt Bell, and guest-edited by Kathy Fish. Matt put a blog note on it online that generously offers a preview of the index and of the introduction. it's all up here: Best of the Web 2010: Finished! - click the cover at the bottom to get to the preview of index and introduction.

Matt Bell's introduction includes a note on print and online fiction, and on flash fiction that i would like to quote here, as it relates to the current issue of blueprintreview, which from concept started as flash issue. the quote also relates to the blueprint micronovel print plans for this summer:

"There is room - and perhaps even a need - for our literary community to have both print and online incarnations, and for both to thrive. We're lucky to have as many options as we do, arguably more than any generation of readers and writers has ever had.
Consider, for instance, the explosion of flash fiction as a form, which is, in my opinion, one of the hallmarks of current online literature: While the rise of flash has commonly been cited as a response to or panacea for the supposedly shortened attention span of contemporary Americans, I believe instead that the internet merely provided the room for new markets to arice, particularly those that might focuse on the kinds of fiction or essays or poetry somehow less popular with already magazines. This sort of thing can only be a good thing for the future of literature." - Matt Bell.

i can only second this view: print and online aren't counterparts or rivals, they are options that often connect and overlap.

but back to "Best of Web":
- the collection is now available for pre-orders at Dzanc Books.
- the full content overview is up here: Best of the Web 2010 - index
- this list also includes a story from the blueprintreview shortcuts/detours issue:
- "Nostrum" by Michelle Reale.

new: blueprintreview #24: micro cosmos

the new issue of blueprintreview is up!
#24: micro cosmos

this is a flash fiction issue, launched in sequences, streaming from philosophic to funky to galactic and back to this earthly dimension

for starters: Finnegan Flawnt: The Writer – The Fool – The Families >>> Shannon Anthony: The Next Naked Alien >>> Kate Brown: Place de la Revolution

& artwork by: Carlye Birkenkrahe ('Hard at Work', 'Gravity', 'Inspired') >>> Michael Brandonisio ('Gigante') >>> bl pawelek ('demos')

and that’s just the first cosmic sequence. so much more to come.

here is the cyber link that beams you into the new blue: http://www.blueprintreview.de/

new cosmic sequences will unfold every couple of days, check back or just follow the announcements on twitter and facebook.

enjoy this micro cosmos ~
Dorothee

PS: and make sure to check out the note on the bottom of the starting page, with the links to the blueprintreview book blog Daily s-Press, and the call for micro novel manuscripts