Karen L. Newman has been a published writer since 2004 in the horror, science fiction and fantasy genres. Over two hundred and fifty of her short stories and poems have been published both online and in print. Her books include EEKU (Sam’s Dot, 2005) and ChemICKals (Naked Snake Press, 2007) and her work has been nominated for a Dwarf Star Award. She won the 2005 Mary Jane Barnes Award and two of her poems received honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. She edits the online magazine Afterburn SF, which publishes speculative short stories, and is the editor for the print poetry magazine Illumen. She also write reviews for Dark Discoveries. Her reviews have also been featured in Noneuclidean Cafe, The Dream People, Night to Dawn, and Gothic Review.
Depends on your point of view. The seventh episode of The Middleman, “The Cursed Tuba Contingency”, finally has Lacey and The Middleman going out on a date, but in the end they break it off. The romantic tension between them is well done. It reminded me Moonlighting. The writer, Hans Beimler, left an opening for them to be linked romantically again. I hope it happens.
The references to the movie Titanic are obtuse, if you’re not a fan of the movie, which I am. The song played by the string quartet on The Middleman was, I believe, the same as that played by the string quartet on the deck of the doomed ship. The formal dress and dancing reminded me of the ballroom scene in the movie. I liked the statement that the ship on The Middleman is eighty-six feet longer than that of the Titanic, foreshadowing that there’d be fewer survivors than in 1912.
I think a string instrument or trumpet (for the Taps reference) would have been better choice of instrument than a tuba. Having The Middleman and Lacey alone in the theater is unrealistic these days, what with the low profit for the proprietor for that kind of attendance. Still, the episode was entertaining, these faults minor. The casting, again, is superb. The colorful costume made me feel as if I was inside the pages of a comic book. This show is well worth the time to watch.