Black Gate

I buy Asimov’s for the fiction, but I always read Sheila Williams’ editorial first. This issue, she write some wise words on what appreciation means to authors — even authors who’ve made it to the pinnacle of their field.

Isaac Asimov… told me that he hadn’t felt himself a complete success until his peers, the Science Fiction Writers of America, named him a Grand Master… On our way to the Readers’ Award celebration that year, I mentioned Isaac’s wistful comments about the Grand Master Award to Stan [Schmidt, editor of Analog]. Stan was stunned. Despite all his accomplishments, even Isaac Asimov needed reassurance? Did this mean the situation was hopeless for the rest of us?…

I’ve always thought that Isaac’s desire for SFWA’s Grand Master Award had more to do with the human need to set goals and strive forward than it did with any further wish for career validation. After all, by 1987 Isaac had already won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards, and five Locus Poll awards. In 1982 he’d finally made the New York Times best sellers’ list as well. Yet if even Isaac was not quite satisfied, then what about all the unsung scriveners — those that only win one or two awards, those that only end up with one or two nominations, and those that are never even nominated?…

I recently came across an amusing Facebook comment by Daniel Hatch. “I’ve been publishing stories for twenty-five years now, and every time someone says they’ve read one of them, I feel like I’ve won a Hugo. I think I have seven of them.”… So readers… let those writers know when you read and enjoy their tales. An appreciative comment may not be a Hugo or a Nebula, but it can be exactly what an author needs to keep producing their very best stories.

There’s lot of great fiction this month, with stories from Will McIntosh, Paul McAuley, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and many others.

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New editor C. C. Finlay seems to be settling in nicely. His first effort as editor, the July-August 2014 issue of F&SF, produced a Nebula Award, for Alaya Dawn Johnson’s “A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i.” It’s too early to see if his second, the May-June issue, will fare as well, but it did includes good stories from David Gerrold, Albert E. Cowdrey, Sarah Pinsker, Amy Sterling Casil, and others, so things look promising.

And so on to the third issue, with stories by Rachel Pollack, Richard Chwedyk, James Patrick Kelly, Naomi Kritzer, an Archonate story featuring Cascor the discriminator by Matthew Hughes, and others. Martha Burns reviews the fiction at Tangent Online, saying “The Deepwater Bride” by Tamsyn Muir “gives us some of what P.G. Wodehouse gave us with Bertie Wooster’s zippy argot… brilliant.”

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

NOVELLAS

• “Johnny Rev” – Rachel Pollack

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I was delighted to meet Lynn and Michael Thomas, the editors of Uncanny Magazine, at the Nebula Weekend here in Chicago. Their editorial this issue nicely summarizes all the fun behind the scenes.

The Thomases were at the Nebula Award Weekend a couple of weeks ago. Shenanigans with other authors and editors included planning a heist of the Tiffany glass dome at the Chicago Cultural Center after we were kicked out of Millennium Park for being there past closing time, many great panels, author arm wrestling at 3 am, epee with plastic spoons at 3:30 am, watching Nick Offerman delight half of the Nebula Awards audience, totally subtle Nebula Awards speeches that certainly weren’t mentioning any kerfuffle, no siree (congratulations to all of the winners and nominees!), and the inaugural Uncanny Magazine Space Unicorn Contributors Pizza Party.

The pizza party was especially fun, with eight or so contributors to Uncanny Year One, the editorial team, and a Kickstarter Backer and his wife who purchased the meal as a backer reward eating delicious Chicago pizza together in our Palmer House hotel room while Caitlin hooted and hollered. One of the things we love about conventions is spending time with the phenomenal creators who we work with online. We know they’re talented and creative from their work, but it’s a blast to find out how they’re genuinely warm, funny, good people.

The July/August issue keeps the Uncanny success story going, with original fiction from Mary Robinette Kowal, E. Lily Yu, Shveta Thakrar, Charlie Jane Anders, Sarah Monette, and Delilah S. Dawson, a reprint by Scott Lynch, nonfiction by Natalie Luhrs, Sofia Samatar, Michael R. Underwood, and Caitlín Rosberg, poems by C. S. E. Cooney, Bryan Thao Worra, and Sonya Taaffe, and interviews with E. Lily Yu and Delilah S. Dawson, all under a cover by Antonio Caparo.

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After covering this industry for several decades, I don’t get surprised all that often. But I was surprised when I read this Facebook announcement from author Shveta Thakrar:

I’ve been sitting on this a little while, but today is a good day for an announcement! I have sold my nagini story, “She Sleeps Beneath the Sea,” to Faerie Magazine, and it will appear in the “Midsummer Night’s Dream” issue, out next month!

I am BEYOND excited. I have adored this magazine for so many years, and now I get to be in it with a story starring mythical beings from my heritage! [Editor] Carolyn Turgeon worked with me to get the text just right for the magazine, and I can’t wait for you all to be able to read it!

I had no idea Faerie Magazine published fiction. It describes itself as a quarterly print magazine “that celebrates everything magical and extraordinary.” I found this description of the latest issue on their website:

Issue #31 is our “Midsummer Night’s Dream” issue, with all kinds of nocturnal delights … moon goddesses and bioluminescent bays and fireflies, enchanted slumber and night-blooming flowers and nourishing night creams… and much more!

Shveta was kind enough to send me tear sheets of her story, and I was astounded at the beautiful artwork. Not only is the magazine wonderfully designed, but it has full color artwork and photos throughout. Here’s a sample of two of the four pieces accompanying Shveta’s story.

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Grimdark is a new quarterly magazine of dark fantasy. It hasn’t been around around all that long, but I’ve been impressed with what it’s done in a short period of time. Editor Adrian Collins summarized the ‘zine’s aesthetic in the first issue:

Grimdark Magazine started out as the identification of a gap in the niche ezine market coupled with an obsession with grim stories told in a dark world by morally ambiguous protagonists.

In his review of the first three issues, Fletcher Vredenburgh seems to like what he sees:

From a swords & sorcery perspective, the biggest — and potentially most interesting — new publication out there is Grimdark Magazine… grimdark fantasy is nihlistic/realistic storytelling that moves the genre forward/destroys the genre, and features characters with realistic motives/who are utterly vile. Whether you like or hate the fiction coming out under the rubric, Grimdark Magazine, by its very nature, is going to feature S&S…

Each issue is packed with original stories, interviews with some of grimdark’s leading lights, and reviews… There are scads of other short stories (not all of them fantasy), some of which I enjoyed quite a bit. The author interviews provided nice insights into the hows and whys of what they’re doing. The interviews also make obvious that grimdark isn’t any sort of cohesive artistic movement, just a bunch of dark stuff by a bunch of grim people.

At only $2.99 a pop, I’ll be keeping up with Grimdark Magazine…

The latest issue went on sale on June 28, and contains new fiction by Matthew Ward, Tara Calaby, Mike Brooks, and Richard Ford, as well as novel excerpts from Alex Marshall and Mark Lawrence, a book review, interviews with Peter V. Brett and Brandon Sanderson, and an article by BG author John R. Fultz. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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Beneath Ceaseless Skies 176 has two new short stories by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam and Karalynn Lee, a podcast, and a podcast reprint by Michael J. DeLuca:

The Girl with Golden Hair by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
“Where are all the people?” she asked. I neighed, unsure. Why would they hide in their caves when two strangers appeared?

Court Bindings by Karalynn Lee
The sparrow had too diminutive a mind to realize it could serve you longer by taking time to eat and sleep.

Audio Fiction Podcast:
The Girl with Golden Hair by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

Audio Vault:
The Nine-Tailed Cat by Michael J. DeLuca
Introduced by the author.

Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam’s short fiction has also appeared in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Interzone. Her previous story for BCS was “Everything Beneath You” (issue 164). Karalynn Lee had one previous story in BCS, “Unsilenced” (Issue 105).

Issue 176 was published on June 25. Read it online completely free here.

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