BH.net: stories, tales, dreams

Border Hopping is pleased to announce the launch of our Fiction section.

When the relaunch of Border Hopping occurred in March of 2009 and we asked for submissions, the articles, the journal writings, and the poems flooded in. Fiction did not. In fact, it is still a much smaller proportion of the submissions we receive. We don't ask why. We just ask for more fiction, please!

To start, we are offering some work from three very different writers. And, as usual, we are spanning a variety of places on the globe.

1. Lyndsay Hemphill takes us to Barcelona, where romance is as potent as the local history:

Be sure to ring your bells liberally, Chris, our bike tour guide instructs us. We'll be riding through some narrow streets and you'll have to let people know we're coming.

Crisp dings fill the air in the cobbled courtyard as we ring our bells with childlike enthusiasm. All right, time to take off, Chris says. We hop up on our bike seats and begin pedaling after him. Slowly we file into a long line of thick-tires, gears, and eager tourists.

Read "The Allure of Barcelona" >>


2. To offer an opposing view on love, the words of Aaron Greenberg delve into a very different, and certainly complicated sort of triangle, as relayed from China:

So, 22 Haitians and a Jew fly into Beijing. The Jew is me. The 22 Haitians are not. The two of them I know are Ti Robert and Marie Lynne. I know them because they are my best friend Cecille's parents. Cici's name is on all my hotel reservations for the trip. Our tour guide, Buddy Sun, when he takes attendance at the airport, says "Cici", and I have to raise my hand and say, "Here." He suspects nothing.

Read "China" >>


3. Clayton Violand, also a contributing photographer, takes us from Alaska to Beijing to Belgrade to Para Cruz, in a spiritual journey of sorts:

During the winter months of November and December people living above the Arctic Circle's southern boundary are deprived of sunlight entirely. Each year the citizens of northern Alaska wait for a day in mid-November when the sun must inevitably sink to bed; it will retreat back beyond the horizon line as in the closing to a dramatic film

Thoughts After Alaska >>


Go to Fiction >>

BH.net: and late summer travelers

When is a better time to set pen to paper (or fingers to keypad) than the wiling days of August and September? But don't be deceived; our authors are not rendered passive by late summer sun.

1. Lori C. Brown reminds us of reasons to open our hearts:

I have just experienced an angel, in her own right; reminds me that people are still good. They still have the drive to want to help people, and have compassion towards all.

Read "Being in the Moment: Unpredicted Call" >>


2. And, to open our eyes and ears to the possibilities that await us:

The air smells of dark chocolate and honeydew, accompanied by the seconds of breeze that smells of espressos and cigarettes. My physical body is positioned elegantly, my fingers press on the handle of my coffee cup, and before I take a sip I stare down at my cappuccino's foam; realizing the barista has created the pattern of a sun... it will be a good day.

Read "Being in the Moment: Florence Café" >>


3. A chaser of moments, it is no surprise that Brown is a poet of such precise and complex images:

Times of a table click in moments
Black décor bumbles in lineage
Beams of lime smoke from a tube and the iridescent blues dress the room in sections
I am allured by fusions in a box

Read "Random Nights" >>


4. In fact, her prose and poetry are sometimes impossible to distinguish:

Days are getting warmer on the island, and peace seems to be in the wind.
The island is inspirational, and so are the people in it.
I learn something new everyday.
... I find something new everyday.
And I feel something new everyday.

Read "Everyday" >>


5. Corinne Conover takes us on an abstract stroll through Spanish history and photography, (coincidentally?) echoing many of Brown's themes:

I thought about several angles that I could harp on when introducing my version of Spain in only one week's time to a reader. Any reader. One was a historical factor of the Spanish Civil War and how the first female photojournalist, by the name of Gorda, tapped into the sensationalism of warfare on the battlefield of Spain in 1937. She captured this tragic time alongside her partner on and off camera, Mr. Capa. They were a dynamic duo that went into the trenches of war unarmed, only with film and a tripod.

Read "Life on a Wire" >>


6. New Yorker and resident border hopper (oh we love oxymorons!), Farrah Sarafa winds down her recent batch of poetry bonbons with City-centric words, such as:

Projects in black, monsters release back
toxic fumes
That moved love to become
in the first place

Read "Inferno in Harlem" >>


7. Freedom and Mobility in NYC:

Constrained—functioning within frames
of geographical limits and
other’s ideology for so long
I am now free

Read "Freedom and Mobility in NYC" >>


8. One of several new writers* in our midst, Noel Shafi elegantly mingles mind and body in Aruban waters:

Strolling through glossy white sand with silver plated shells and stones
Floating in gentle waves and translucent waters with a placid mind
Submerged in oceanic therapy-soothingly permeating pores and stimulating
nerves

Read "Aruba" >>


9. Second of several new writers*, presenting the introspective Jess Gill:

I could write about the tan line on my left wrist, of the shadow of my silver and turquoise watch now imprinted on my skin.

I could write about the mosquito bites tracing a trail along the side of my right leg, verbose in its catalog of places I've traveled.

Read "This is Thailand" >>


10. ...who, we understand, is not only well-traveled, but romantic and spontaneous:

He bowed his head lightly, before moving closer to me on the dance floor, holding a beer in one hand. I forgot I was in four inch heels, had a sprained foot, and wore a tight dress that I would normally never wear out in daylight. The lights rotated, and we simply shuffled from side to side, my hips swaying more than his.

Read "A night in Paris" >>


*Stay tuned for news regarding our other new authors.

Bali meets NYC: the jewery designs of Lisa Grant

Left: the flexibility ring, $125

Lisa Grant is a New York native with a passion for Bali, one that she expresses through metal.

"Its chic and timeless appeal transcends all ages and backgrounds," her website explains. "Influenced by both places she calls home: the funky urban vibe of the downtown NYC streets as well as the simple natural elegance and beauty of life in the rice paddies of BALI."

The pieces are each handcrafted in her workshops in Bali, using updated traditional silversmithing techniques.



Shop online: lisagrant.com

BH.net: new photos of Alaska, Cairo, Giza, India, Nepal, Normandy, Paris, and Washington State

From Clayton Violand
1. Alaska and Washington, United States
2. Normandy and Paris, France





From Alexandra Galante
3. Cairo and Giza, Egypt




From Angie Spicer
4. Dharamsala , Bir, Rajgir, Bodh Gaya, Tso Pema, McLeod Ganj, Bhagsu and Varanasi, India
5. Thamel and Swayambhunath, Katmandu, Nepal