Uncle River's cultural speculative fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, the British Interzone, and Canada's Transversions, among many others. His story, "Love of the True God," published in Talebones #10, qualified for the Preliminary Ballot for a Nebula Award and was a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. As of June, 2002, his "How We Know What Happened" is the cover story of the current Absolute Magnitude #18, and his "My Stolen Sabre" from the Dec. '01 Asimov's is due for reprint in David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's Year's Best Fantasy #2.
Uncle River is due to appear as a panelist at two SF conventions in Summer, 2002: ReaderCon in the Boston area, July 12-14, and ArmadilloCon in Austin, Aug. 16-18. Trained in Jungian Analysis and holding what he believes to be the world's only earned Ph.D. in Psychology of the Unconscious (Union Institute, 1974), Uncle River has lived as a hermit/writer in the mountain Southwest for the past 20 years.
MOGOLLON NEWS
Set in the real New Mexico ghost town of Mogollon where Uncle River lived for five years, the fictitious "Mogollon News" began as a column in the Silver City Enterprise, at the time New Mexico's oldest continuously published weekly paper, in 1985. The "Mogollon News" ran as a regular feature on Public Radio Station KRWG, Las Cruces, from 1986-90, and has appeared as a column in several regional newspapers. Through the 90s, it was a regular feature in the leading British experimental speculative fiction periodical, BBR. Sufficiently authentic to back-country life that Uncle River's local postmistress wondered why she didn't know the people whose tales appeared in the paper, the complete "Mogollon News" comprises over two hundred stories, like the ones posted here. (Available in book-manuscript format to interested publishers.)
THUNDER MOUNTAIN
Thunder Mountain, (Mother Bird Books, 1213 Durango, Silver City, NM 88061, 189 pp., trade papberback, $11 + $1.50 shipping.) Set in the fictitious Thunder Range of remote Southwestern New Mexico, Thunder Mountain "explores how the land can live and how human spirits can bond with the land" (BBR). Thunder Mountain will show you the difference between an outlaw and a criminal.
"Uncle River transcends mere authorship to become an authentic voice of the abused land." . . . Paul DiFilippo, Asimov's Science Fiction
". . . a new sort of creature, perhaps related to magical realism, which I hope gets positive notice in both of its home worlds - New Mexico regional writing and science fiction...The way the book is structured makes an important read, which is good since the story is pleasant and brings laughter and tears at the right places." . . . Don Webb, The New York Review of Science Fiction
XIZQUILSpeculative fiction, poetry, articles, and art, Uncle River edited XIZQUIL from 1989-98, through 16 issues, winning a Rhysling Award for Year's Best Long Poem from the Science Fiction Poetry Association and placing stories regularly on the Honorable Mention list in Gardner Dozois's annual Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies.
"What better place than the genre of the fantastic to explore new ways of telling stories? XIZQUIL, edited by Uncle River, is firmly pointed in this direction." . . . Michael P. Belfiore, Tangent.
Preview of Uncle River's Novel, Mogollon News
Contact SouthernNewMexico.com if you are interesting in publishing Uncle River's "Mogollon News."
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At last measurement, the snow on the shady side of the street was eighteen feet deep. This measurement was taken by having Joe Malloney, who is six feet tall, stand with a surveyor's stick on his head. Unfortunately, Joe froze stiff, and while the local rescue crew was digging him out, the surveyor's stick got lost in the snow. It is probably deeper by now, though no further measurements have been attempted.
You will be relieved to learn, however, that Joe froze so quickly he didn't have time to suffocate. So he was carried down to the Bloated Goat where, with liberal ministrations by Drs. Jim Beam and José Cuervo, he is recovering rapidly.
The Bloated Goat Saloon opened for business as usual at 10:00 AM on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Whiskey is six dollars a shot. Tourists are recommended to bring their own firearms as rentals go fast, especially when the weather keeps everyone in. A round on the house will be provided to anyone who brings up some new bar stools or tables as there is a severe shortage of furniture since the big blizzard the week before Christmas.
On the sunny slope, in the meantime, daffodils and grape hyacinths are blooming again, and the first crop of salad greens is almost ready for harvest. Several attempts have been made to erect a greenhouse so tropical fruit could be grown, but falling boulders have always shattered the glass thus far.
The road is usually plowed after storms in time for the mail to come in. However, anyone wishing to visit Mogollon should be warned that it gets muddy on warm days. Four wheel drive is not advised as it only digs a hole faster, and the helicopter costs to pull out the extra weight are that much greater as well. In fact, one Jeep Cherokee disappeared altogether. The passengers only just managed to escape by smashing the windshield. They all have required a very expensive course of therapy (which can usually be provided in the back room of the Bloated Goat).
Anyone wishing to visit Mogollon should be advised that the best time to arrive is between dawn and sunrise. Since the road is only passable when frozen and impossible to negotiate after dark, anyone still in Mogollon after 8 AM should plan to be here at least twenty-four hours.
Accommodations are generally available without reservations if you don't mind sharing your quarters with the bears. However, there is no food service in town this winter. So you should bring plenty in case the weather closes in. Four thousand calories per person per day is usually adequate even when it is very cold. But bring extra as the bears will probably want a share.
Read more samples from the Mogollon News
Winter
The Silver Creek Temperance Society
Blasting
The Balloon
Ice
Halley's Comet
The Libyan Invasion
A Case of Religion
Politics
Contact SouthernNewMexico.com if you are interesting in publishing Uncle River's "Mogollon News."