Vladimir's Mustache (and an electrocuted elephant)

Not much to report around here. Though I hope to be posting more frequently in the future, more than likely at a different url (can you believe someone's already bought StephanClark.com?), and probably in a more general way (though with continued interest shown to all things Former Soviet Union).

For the time being, I'll leave you -- if there is any "you" left, and not just the occasional passer-by from an obscure Google search -- with links to two stories of mine, both recently released.

The first, Vladimir's Mustache, tells the story of an actor during the run-up to the Great Patriotic War. Tired of playing peasants and factory workers -- the conventions of socialist realism -- this actor learns the dangers of Method Acting -- of following the teachings of Stanislavski rather than Stalin -- when he's cast as Hitler in a propaganda film.

The story, a companion piece to Kamkov the Astronomer, published in Vol 3.1 of The Cincinnati Review and excerpted in that magazine's archives, can be found in Ninth Letter, which mixes great design with a cast of contributors I'm more than happy to join. The publication was recently named best new literary magazine in these United States.

The second story, Topsy the Elephant, was published in this week's LA Weekly. Dushan Milic contributed some great artwork to the story, but you'll have to follow the link to see it because it apparently can't be downloaded to your hard-drive -- at least, I can't figure out how to do that.