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Weird Tales Closes to Submissions

Weird Tales Closes to Submissions

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weird-tales-359aHoly cats! That was fast. The editors of Weird Tales magazine have announced it is closing to submissions on Tuesday, June 5th.

Now, Black Gate magazine is in no position to throw stones about being closed to submissions. We’ve been closed since roughly the Napoleonic era. But still… didn’t Weird Tales just announce it was open?

Let me check. Yup, it did.

[If you’re too lazy to click on that link, you can just scroll down the page to the announcement four days ago.]

All right, we’re done being snarky. And we will note that the magazine is only closing to fiction submissions — artists and disheveled arcane researchers, your contributions are still valued. [Okay. We’ve still got a little snark left.] Here’s the official announcement:

Heads up that at noon eastern time on Tuesday June 5th we will be closing for fiction submissions. We will still be looking at art and nonfiction proposals.

There’s still time to finish your submission and get it in the mail by Monday morning. Stock up on coffee, turn off the phone, and channel Clark Aston Smith. Fame and Fortune await you.

But act fast.

Weird Tales Reopens to Submissions

Weird Tales Reopens to Submissions

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weird-tales-359aAttention all aspiring fantasy writers! (Yeah, I know that’s most of you.) Weird Tales has re-opened to submissions.

Now, I know you never read Submission Guidelines. But before you run off to send editor Marvin Kaye your latest short fiction masterpiece, I urge you to check out the guidelines. There’s lots of news — for example, the pay rate has dropped from 5 cents/word to 3 cents/word — but perhaps most interesting is the announcement that the magazine has shifted to themed issues. Upcoming themes include Elder Gods & Cthulhu (#360), Fairy Tales (#361) and Undead (#362), and if you’ve got a story in the latter two categories, the editors are especially interested:

Please know that each issue of Weird Tales – beginning with issue 360 – will be featuring a theme. This means that HALF of each issue will be devoted to strange and innovative takes on that theme. This also means that HALF of each issue will be devoted to the unclassifiable and eclectic tales that have always been the soul of Weird Tales.

Our current needs are… Stories for our Undead issue (#362). This issue is quite far along, but we seek unusual and radical takes on Zombies, Ghouls, chiang-shih’s, the Lich and other creatures yet undefined. Even vampires, if you have found a new wrinkle. Theme-related poetry is welcome.

We also have a bit of space left in the Fairy Tales issue (#361), so if you have worked on something for us, send away.

Be sure you are submitting an unpublished story or poem.

Because we publish half of the magazine as unthemed content, you may submit any variety of fantasy including science fiction (though we will not use much of the latter). We are currently most interested in stories between 3,000-5,000 words, but longer stories are acceptable. However, it may take quite a while for a long or unthemed story to be published. Short shorts, i. e., flash fiction, are definitely of interest to us.

The complete guidelines are here.

Clarkesworld #68 plus PKD and Gnosticism

Clarkesworld #68 plus PKD and Gnosticism

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cw_68_300The May  issue of Clarkesworld is currently online. Featured fiction: “Prayer” by Robert Reed, “Synch Me, Kiss Me, Drop” by Suzanne Church and “All the Things the Moon is Not” by Alexander Lumans.  There are also audio versions of all three stories, read by Kate Baker. Non fiction by Aletha Kontis, Jeremy L.C. Jones and Elizabeth Bear.  The cover art is by Jessada Suthi.

All of this is available online for free. However, nothing is really free. The magazine is supported by “Clarkesworld Citizens” who donate $10 or more. There’s also a Kindle edition.

One personal reaction to Bear’s very funny essay, “Another Word: Dear Speculative Fiction, I’m Glad We Had This Talk”: I agree that Lenny Bruce didn’t get funnier when he got angrier (his drug problems certainly didn’t help), but I found George Carlin to be more interesting the angrier he got. Maybe he wasn’t quite as funny, but his anger certainly resonated with me.  Sometimes having your “face pressed down into a trough of human misery until the bubbles stop” is necessary to remind people that life is not a television sitcom. At least the ones who haven’t already drowned.

Someone else who got less interesting when he started taking himself too seriously (and, once again, the drugs didn’t help) was Philip K. Dick. Simon Critchley examines Dick’s metaphysical worldview as expressed in Exegeiss, a posthumously published series of philosophical 133948681ramblings. While I tend to think all this stuff really is the result of a bad acid trip, Critchley as a professor of philosophy for the most part keeps a straight face. Some of you may laugh out loud not only at the source material, but the attempt at exegesis.

We last covered Clarkesworld with issue #67.

Spring 2012 issue of Subterranean Magazine Now Available

Spring 2012 issue of Subterranean Magazine Now Available

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subterranean-magazine-spring-2012I admit I never know when to blog about Subterranean magazine. I really enjoy it, and I used to go to great lengths to acquire the print issues. But now that they’ve converted to an online zine they’re releasing the contents in a rolling format, a new story or article every week.

Do I announce it here when the first article goes up? Or wait until the entire magazine is posted, two months later? By the time a new issue is up, I’ve already forgotten what I did last time. So over the years I’ve finally developed a consistent system: I blog about it whenever I remember.

So here I am to tell you about the Spring 2012 issue. And it’s got a terrific line-up, nearly 70,000 words of fiction, including two big novellas from Jay Lake and Allen Steele:

  • “The Weight of History, the Lightness of the Future,” by Jay Lake (24,000 words)
  • “Angel of Europa,” by Allen Steele (19,000 words)
  • “Sic Him, Hellhound, Kill Kill!” by Hal Duncan
  • “Random Thoughts Before a Fatal Crash,” by Caitlin R. Kiernan
  • “Here and There,” by Neal Barrett, Jr.
  • “A Holy War,” by Mike Resnick

Subterranean is edited by William Schafer, and published quarterly. The Spring 2012 issue is completely free and available here.

We last covered Subterranean magazine with their previous issue, Winter 2012.

Weird Tales 359 Arrives

Weird Tales 359 Arrives

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weird-tales-359aWell, sort of.

I’ve been waiting expectantly for this one. It’s something of a watershed issue — Ann VanderMeer’s final issue as editor, and the first from the new publishers, Nth Dimension media (as we reported back in August). It has fiction from Stephen Graham Jones, Tamsyn Muir, Evan J. Peterson, and many others, and articles from Paula Guran, Michael Skeet and Kenneth Hite.

At least, so they tell me. I haven’t been able to find a copy. I blame the death of Borders, where I used to be able to buy it. I’ve been checking the magazine section of my local Barnes & Noble (where I get F&SF, Asimov’s, Analog and Interzone), but no luck.

But Ann VanderMeer tells me it’s out. New publisher John Harlacher tells me it’s out. So it probably is. If you see a copy in the wild, let me know will you? Speaking of Harlacher, here’s what he says about this issue, and the spectacular cover:

The first Weird Tales issue by our company, Nth Dimension media, has gone to press, and will be in your mailboxes by the end of February. It’s edited by Ann VanderMeer, has art direction by Stephen H. Segal, and is quite beautiful… Stephen worked with our artist, Dave Buchwald (known in the graphic design world for creating the covers of 2600 magazine), to create this cover, and we think it represents a style we will use for the near future. It features the new/old logo, an intriguing symbol by Jeff Wong (www.JeffWong.com), and a stunning piece of art by Aurielien Police. The layout achieved what was most important to me – an emphasis on art, while keeping the writer in the forefront.

It really is a great cover. Click on the image at right for a bigger version. Love the dapper robot dude.

Cover price for the issue is $6.99 (I guess). It is probably 80 pages. The complete table of contents is here. We last covered Weird Tales with issue 358.

Apex Magazine #36

Apex Magazine #36

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apexmag05-12May’s Apex Magazine features  ”Decomposition” by Rachel Swirsky  (who is interviewed by Maggie Slater),  ”Tomorrow’s Dictator” by Rahul Kanakia and “The Chaos Magician’s Mega Chemistry Set”  by Nnedi Okorafor.

Naoto Hattori provides the cover art. Nonfiction by Tim Akers  and editor Lynne M. Thomas round out the issue.

Apex is published on the first Tuesday of every month.  While each issue is available free on-line from the magazine’s website, it can also be downloaded to your e-reader from there for $2.99.  Individual issues are also available at  Amazon and Weightless. A version for the Nook will also be available in the near future.  Twelve issue (one year) subscription can be ordered at Apex and Weightless for $19.95; Kindle subscriptions are available for $1.99 a month.

May/June Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine now on Sale

May/June Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine now on Sale

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fandsf-may-june-20121Great cover on the latest issue of F&SF courtesy of Max Bertolini, illustrating “Maze of Shadows” by Fred Chappell, another tale of Falco the shadow thief. Has there ever been a good dungeon-delving cover on F&SF? No idea, but this one makes up for it. Click on the cover for a humongous version, and check out the creepy dude in the shadows. Here’s the complete table of contents:

NOVELLA

  • “Maze of Shadows”  – Fred Chappell

NOVELETS

  • “Liberty’s Daughter”  – Naomi Kritzer
  • “Asylum”  – Albert E. Cowdrey
  • “Taking the Low Road”  – Pat MacEwen
  • “The Children’s Crusade”  – Michael Alexander

SHORT STORIES

  • “Necrosis”  – Dale Bailey
  • “Typhoid Jack”  – Andy Stewart
  • “City League”  – Matthew Corradi
  • “Grand Tour”  – Chris Willrich

As usual, Lois Tilton has already reviewed the issue in detail at Locus Online. Here’s what she says about “Maze of Shadows”:

Master Astolfo has accepted the commission of a nobleman to guard his house with shadows in order to protect a mysterious treasure within. Falco and his fellow-apprentice Mutano have duly constructed a shadow maze, but a blind man sent to test it easily finds his way through. The chateau [pun, there?] also houses the cat that has Mutano’s voice, while he can only converse in cat – a situation that Mutano wants to remedy…

There’s a thing about series: if built around an ingenious and fascinating notion, such a premise can carry the first story a long way. But in the subsequent installments, we expect and require rather more. There is plenty of more in this one. The shadow trade figures prominently, the details sufficient and comprehensible for the purpose of the story without a lot of unnecessary backgrounding. The mannered narrative voice of Falco is engaging. There is also a neatly complex plot full of interwoven mysteries to keep readers involved. And some extraordinary cats.

The cover price is $7.50, for a thick 258 pages. Additional free content at the F&SF website includes book and film reviews by Charles de Lint, James Sallis,Paul Di Filippo, and Kathi Maio, and the “Curiosities” column by Jack Womack. We last covered F&SF here with the March/April issue.

April-May Black Static Magazine Arrives

April-May Black Static Magazine Arrives

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455_largeThe April-May Black Static features new horror fiction from Carole Johnstone (”The Pest House”), Jon Ingold (”Cracks”), Priya Sharma (”The Ballad of Boomtown”), Joel Lane (”The Messenger”) and Daniel Kaysen (”Pale Limbs”).

Nonfiction by the usual suspects, Peter Tennant, Christopher Fowler, Tony Lee, and Mike Driscoll. The editor is Andy Cox.

Black Static alternates monthly publication with sister SF and fantasy focused Interzone.

In other news, check out this NPR feature about Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Come, which should resonate with anyone who, as I did,  read the book9780380977277_custom as a young boy.

Strange Horizons April 16, 2012

Strange Horizons April 16, 2012

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This past week’s issue of Strange Horizons features a story by Andrea Kneeland. “Beneath Impossible Circumstances”:

Analise wants to have a baby. A real baby. I tell her that if we had a baby together, it would be a real baby. It would be a real baby and it would have parts from both of us, and it would be a real person made from both of our genes, and that I want parts of myself in a child just as much as she wants parts of herself in a child. When I tell her these things, she turns on the faucet or runs the vacuum or opens the refrigerator door wide and sticks her head in like she’s looking for something so she can pretend not to hear me and I can pretend not to see how damp and salted her reddening cheeks are, and on days like these, when I tell her things like these, the bed sheets between us stay cool and dry and I remind myself of the virtue of silence and I bite my lip to draw blood so that in the morning, when I move my mouth, the pain will remind me not to say a thing.

Other features include poetry by Virginia M, Mohlere, commentary by Adam Roberts on the 2012 Arthur C. Clarke shortlist and a review of Lev Grossman’s The Magician King by Bill Mingin.

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Clarkesworld #67

Clarkesworld #67

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cw_67_300The April  issue of Clarkesworld is currently online. Featured fiction: “Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes” by Tom Crosshill, “Draftyhouse” by Erik Amundsen and “The Womb Factory” by Gary Kloster.  Non fiction by Brian Francis Slattery, Jeremy L.C. Jones and Danile Baker.  The cover art is by Steve Goad.

All of this is available online for free; there’s even an audio podcast version of the Crosshill story read by Kate Baker. However, nothing is really free. The magazine is supported by “Clarkesworld Citizens” who donate $10 or more. There’s also a Kindle edition.

We last covered Clarkesworld with issue #66.