NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

Visionary Tongue is a magazine of dark fantasy in poetry, short fiction and artwork, also including interviews and reviews. What immediately leaps out is the amazing artwork from Ruby. Her line drawings are incredibly detailed with elements showing gothic, mediaeval and Celtic influences. The writing shows some of the same influences, though it is clear that 'Dark Fantasy' is interpreted widely to include nature poetry with an element of mystery, such as Geoff Steven's lovely BOIREANN DAYS:

	a suspended ceiling of slate sky
	and basalt warning bells
	hangs over the Burren landscape

	Another x-ray develops the black blooded poison,
	Imprisoned and breeding — what is the colour of grieving?

	Had I not seen it myself I scare would have believed it,
	but there it was, staring at me again.

Anna Packham's short story LOVE IN THE BLOOD also has a twist in the tale, but this time a chilling twist at the end of an atmospheric story of emotional displacement. Packham consistently creates a sense of dislocation and alienation through the story:

This village has always felt like an empty stage in the gap between applause. She has walked into her own dreams, or perhaps someone else's. Ella never sees the people, just footsteps in the snow and fabric snatching through closing doors.

She was a winter thing, a thing of northern winds and battlefields, of ice and endless sleet and sorrow. She wore a black dress and her lips were as read as berries. They were the only colour left in the world.