In the latest issue of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet there is a particularly intriguing short story by Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud, "A City of Museums". It follows the adventures (briefly) of a young man who slipped away from his high school class while they were touring a museum and has been on the run in the unnamed city ever since. It is mostly a story of dodging the police and finding a place to sleep and then, oddly, meeting a curator who imparts a bit of wisdom about conspiracies and stories and our protagonist finds himself privy to unexpected knowledge. It's all very quick and yet not slick but rather old and museum-ish, if that makes any sense.

Small Beer Press (who gives LCRW to the world) has recently released a collection of Chateaureynaud's stories, A Life on Paper. I am sure it is all very surreal and fabulist and fine based on this example.

Shortly after receiving the magazine I was unexpectedly forwarded an advance copy of Kathe Koja's upcoming Under the Poppy. Gavin included a cryptic note about it being a "big sexy book" and after giving the first chapter a cursory look I can certainly attest to the bawdy sexiness of this one. It strikes me very much as Moulin Rougish, if that makes any sense (is that a style one can compare to?). Koja is such an interesting writer - her YA titles are always unexpectedly intense and deep; she mines the darkly rich side of the teen experience in a way that few authors do. Poppy is set in a Victorian brothel and includes an intriguing love triangle and various escapades of the decidedly not-teenage sort. It's Koja so it will be a ride like none other, that's for sure. And isn't that cover gorgeous? Hard to resist for that alone!