Opening Notes
For Issue 32, Autumn 2021, we begin on a windswept beach with cover artist Tais Teng and his evocative The Pianist Who Serenaded the Mermaids with Chopin’s Nocturne in E Minor.
The Pianist is Tais Teng’s sixth cover for Pup Literature. As Tais tells us, when he paints, a story often pops up, telling him what the painting is about. The Pianist began with an HDR picture of an abandoned piano. He then made the piano ‘a lot grungier’ and added the beach ambiance.
And this gorgeous cover also comes with a piece of literary accompaniment! The story asks — and answers — the question of just who would play the piano on this deserted beach.
Enjoy the breeze and catch a glimpse of who might be there to greet you, with the excerpt below!
The Pianist Who Serenaded the Mermaids with Chopin’s Nocturne in E Minor
by Tais Teng
All day long the piano stood in the middle of the shifting sands, its plastic cover flapping in the breeze. At dusk, when the sky was as green as a beetle shield, Gerald emerged from his beachcomber’s hut. The sea was quiet, the surfers long gone. Gerald lifted the cover, cracked his knuckles, and began to play.
Soon the first head emerged from the surf, bobbing like a fisherman’s float. Such shining eyes, reflecting the last of sunlight. The mermaids smiled but took care not to bare their sharp teeth or lick their rosy lips with their forked tongues.
“Gerald!” the mermaids called out. “Come to us. Play in Ran’s palace on the wide sandy bottom where the dance halls are lit by phosphorescent deep-sea fishes.”
Gerald shook his head.
“I am waiting for one of your sisters.”
To find out what happens next, pick up your copy of Issue 32, Autumn 2021!
And watch the replay of the Issue 32 launch on our YouTube channel!
Tais Teng’s covers are a combination of digital paintings, HDR photographs, and fractals. In short, he uses whatever works. When he started as an artist, there were no computers, so he still uses paintbrush and pencil. His novel Phaedra: Alastor 824, set in the universe of Jack Vance, was recently published by Spatterlight Press. The Dutch artist has also written a hundred books for both adults and children.
Tais Teng’s previous pieces for Pulp Literature include Youth Hostels of the Faery (Issue 3), Pesky Summer Jobs (Issue 6), Dieselpunk Explorers (Issue 9), After the Tsunami (Issue 19), and Queen of Swords (Issue 26). His story ‘Growing up with your Dead Sister’ appeared in Issue 8.
You can read more of Tais’s illustrated stories at deviantart.com/taisteng/gallery/50687452/illustrated-stories.
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