ezine | frenetic | editorial

 

Welcome to the sixth edition of our ezine on the theme ‘Frenetic’. We all know how busy and hectic our lives can be. We are constantly dealing with the demands of work, of family and friends, of a world where we are constantly reminded of how connected we are, more connected than ever before. Yet it can feel like we are living in a world in which there never seems to be enough time to do the things we want to. Always just on the edge of drowning in the outstanding items on our ‘to-do’ lists. Our mental capacity always on the precipice of overload. The pieces we have selected for this edition are all infused with a sense of this frenetic existence and once more we are delighted to present a wide range of work from contributors based around the world. We hope this will offer you a little bit of respite from your hectic schedules, that you get to take some time out, even for just a few moments, take a breather and enjoy the fantastic contributions featured for you in this edition of our époque press ezine. 

 

We are delighted to feature a short piece by David Brennan, whose debut novel, Upperdown, we published in 2019 - if you haven’t read it yet then we recommend you check it out. David’s work has also been featured in our past ‘Borders’ themed ezine. Here we feature an extract from one of David’s longer pieces called A Love Song to Tokyo. We certainly feel it encapsulates the ‘Frentic’ theme perfectly as it plunges you in to the intense and busy world of Tokyo. Not only do we have the text for you to read but you can also savour the audio version and hear it in David’s own words.

 

We are also extremely proud to introduce our first ever stop motion animation feature by the award-winning founder of Herringbone Arts, Fran Malone. The piece is called R U Still Awake. This charming animation captures the frenetic nights and hazy days of what it is like parenting two small children. The atmospheric music and dreamlike quality of the production really caught our attention and we look forward to seeing more of Fran’s work in the future.

 

They say that you wait ages for a bus and then two come along at once, and so it is with our features, as we are also privileged to be able to share the animated music video C Saw by the band The Lost Gecko. The song and video, animated by Marc Corrigan from Wicklow, Ireland, charts a journey which is both turbulent and awe-inspiring, one which mirrors the writer’s own struggles with dark thoughts and family struggles. 

 

From a visual arts perspective we have a selection of the thought provoking digital portraits by Rob Birch from his collection of images titled I Know Kung Fu. Rob’s work is highly commended, has been described as ‘visual skepticism’ and is featured on Saatchi Art online. 

 

The quality of the written word submissions we received was extremely high.  To Breath is to Scream, by Lisa Fransson, is a darkly atmospheric short story which takes the reader into the frenetic mind of the main protagonist. A mind which is scared and troubled, haunted by events of the past. In, And then the Light Turned Green, by Mehar Luthra, we are given an insight into the mind of a young mother, a character who is so focused on her frenetic socialite existence she is oblivious to a dark secret which she is finally confronted with. 

 

Dermot Christophers short story, Monkey Brain, is a frenetic piece of writing in its own right. Dermot seeks to capture the human thought process and explore the complexities of human consciousness through the trigger point of a cycling incident. Illustrating how the smallest of things can have much larger mental repercussions. A similar theme is explored by David O’Dwyer in his short story, The Empty Glass, where a routine day out and the opportunity to make a small purchase can be enough to one of his characters over the edge. 

 

It is our pleasure to welcome back Alan McCormick, with his short story Cream Crackers, a tragi-comic portrayal of a young boy’s chaotic attempt to bring his dream of becoming a superhero alive. The theme of teenage confusion is also explored in the short story Red Pen by Patrick Doherty, and also in Growing Up, by luvan, a fable about a ‘Peter Pan gang on acid’ which takes us into the strange world of a gang of young people. 

 

We have poetry from Trish Bennett, who was driven to write The Raucous of Wings one autumn day, when the sky was alive with sound, and The Slip, which evokes the slowing of time against the frenetic pace of the early days of motherhood. We also have a poem from Rus Khomutoff, the experimental Brooklyn poet, called Boundaries, Russ uses free form poetry to try to capture the moment, a moment of truth something unique, something alive.

 

We hope you enjoy all of the pieces we have selected for you. Please do share knowledge of our ezine with your friends and contacts to help promote the excellent work of our contributors.

 

Sean Campbell