Black Gate

The new Black Static cover features Ben Baldwin‘s illustration for Ramsey Campbell’s “Recently Used”: here’s the opening paragraph:

Tunstall thought he hadn’t slept when the phone rang. He clutched it and sat up on the bed, which felt too bare and wide by half. On the bedside table the photograph of him with Gwyneth in the sunlit mountains far away was waiting to be seen once more, and beyond it the curtains framed a solitary feeble midnight star. He rubbed his aching eyes to help them focus on the mobile as he thumbed the keypad. “Hello?” he said before he’d finished lifting the phone to his face.

Other fiction includes “Dermot” by Simon Bestwick, “A Summer’s Day” by K. Harding Stalter, “Still Life” by Simon McCaffery and “How the Sixties Ended” by Tim Lees.  Non-fiction columns by Stephen Volk, Christopher Fowler, Mike O’Driscoll and reviews by Tony Lee and Peter Tennant.

In related news, Mercurio D. Rivera’s “Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us” from Black Static # 18 is up for the 2011 World Fantasy Short Story Award. Here’s the download.

You can subscribe to the print version here, or the electronic edition here; there’s also a special discounted rate for a joint subscription to both Interzone and Black Static. Also, the publishers are reintroducing lifetime subscriptions. What you’re buying, in essence, is a 10-year subscription at the current rate.  If you think you’re going to live for at least another decade, and you think Black Static will also be around for as long, this could be a bargain for whatever time you and the magazine have after that. If that weren’t enough, you can also opt for joint lifetime sub that gets you sister publication Interzone for a slightly reduced rate.  Sign your life away here.

“There was a man, Magnus’s son,
Ragni his name. In Reykjavik
Stands his office, six stories,
Far from the harbor in the fat past.
Birds nest there, now abandoned.
The sea washes along Vesturgata,
As they called it.

In those days
Ragni’s son, a rich man,
Also a scholar, skilled in law,
Thomas his name, took his wife
From famished Boston, far away.
Brave were her people, black-skinned,
Strong with spear, with shield courageous,
Long ago.”

I was flicking through my Flist, and what should I see but Francesca Forrest talking about solar superstorms and poetry and Ragnarok? If you know Francesca even a little, this would not surprise you.

And yet I was astonished.

Following her link to Tor.com, I beheld this magnificent poem by writer Paul Park. It went live in April. Why it has taken me this long to pay attention to it, I’ll never know; it’s a mystery, as Geoffrey Rush says in Shakespeare in Love.

I wish I’d written it. Never could’ve, but there you have it.  I’m snake-hearted and sick with envy. My eyeballs are melting a little. I may still be trembling. What a rush!

Lovers of Nordic sagas, flock over to Tor.com. Strew your comments like jeweled offerings.

And then, go on and read Francesca’s great review of it at Versification, a new site for speculative poetry reviews. Francesca has provided a map, so that you can track the hero’s movements. And links as well, to things like Hallgrimskirkja.

It’s very exciting. I wonder else Mr. Park has done…

We last covered Tor.com with their interview of our Managing Editor, Howard Andrew Jones.

The August Realms of Fantasy is its 101st issue, the significance of which editor Douglas Cohen makes some sage observations. Fiction includes “The Progress of Solstice and Chance” by Richard Bowes, “Isabella’s Garden” by Naomi Krtizer, “Collateral Damage” by Katie Riedel, “Snake in the Grass” by W.R. Thompson and “Leap of Faith” by Alan Smale.  Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

You can subscribe to either print or digital editions.

The new Interzone features “Insha’ Allah” by Matthew Cook, “For Love’s Delerium Haunts the Fractured Mind” by Mercurio D. Rivera, “The Walrus and the Icebreaker” by Jon Wallace, “Eleven Minutes” by Gareth L. Powell and “Of Dawn” by Al Robertson.  There’s also an interview with Lisa Goldstein and the usual assortment of book and video reviews. as well as David Langford’s “Ansible Link” column.

The publishers are reintroducing lifetime subscriptions. What you’re buying, in essence, is a 10-year subscription at the current rate.  If you think you’re going to live for at least another decade, and you think the magazine will also be around for as long, and this could be a bargain for whatever time you and the magazine have after that. If that weren’t enough, you can also opt for joint lifetime sub that gets you sister publication Black Static for a slightly reduced rate than the individual rates.  Sign your life away here.

Apex Magazine is a monthly on-line publication of science fiction, fantasy and horror edited by Catherynne M. Valente. The current issue features three stories: “The Whispered Thing” by Zach Lynott,  “The Tiger Hunter” by Rabbit Seagraves, “The Secret Protocols of the Elders of Zion” by Lavie Tidhar and, continuing with titles that all start with “The,” poetry by Saladin Ahmed, “The Djinn Prince in America: A Micropic in 9 Tracks.”  Jason Sizemore’s  non-fiction piece is “Five Genre Books that Raise Mind-numbing Philosophical Questions.”

You can subscribe and get 12 issues for just $19.99.

In another matter, you can read my review of Thomas Liggoti’s aptly named short story collection, Grimscribe. If you dare.

[Stealth Edited by Editor to add: There is also poetry by Rhysling-nominated poet Elizabeth McClellan in Issue 27, entitled “Down Cycles.” The lady’s work is worth a look!]