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Fantasy and Lightspeed

Fantasy and Lightspeed

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bgfantasy2John Joseph Adams is the editor of the anthologies By Blood We Live, Federations, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Living Dead (a World Fantasy Award finalist), The Living Dead 2, The Way of the Wizard, Seeds of Change, and Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse.

Forthcoming work includes the anthologies The Book of Cthulhu, Brave New Worlds, and The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination.

And guess what else? He is now the editor of Fantasy Magazine and Lightspeed Magazine, the critically-acclaimed online short fiction magazines published by Prime Books.

Here are the guidelines for Fantasy.

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Some Little Infamy

Some Little Infamy

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johannes-cabalI have been asked to write a few words on how the Johannes Cabal novels came to be published with a particular view to explaining some of the intricacies of the publishing trade. Because I am nothing if not didactic (“Didactic” means, among other things, to speak in a lecturely manner. I hope you’re taking notes – there will be a test afterwards), I have also added a few notes of advice at the end for folk who want to get into the professional novel writing gig.

There is no precise moment when Johannes Cabal leapt from my brow, side, or any other part of my anatomy. He was, as is often the way, formed by a slow aggregation of assorted ideas over quite a lengthy period that probably starts sometime in the mid to late 1980s. I had and, I must admit, still have a habit of inventing stories for my own amusement with no intention of writing them down. Usually the reason for not taking it too seriously is because I’m playing with other people’s characters, and the copyright situation discourages me from making the stories concrete; virtual fanfic, if you like.

Back in 1985 I saw a film that, as a Lovecraft fan, I was all set to hate. Instead, having seen Re-Animator I came out of the cinema enthused and excited by such a gonzo approach to Lovecraft’s work. Inevitably, I started playing around with ideas for a sequel. There used to be an old vicarage in Kearsley, southwest of Bolton on the road to Manchester, that caught my eye whenever I went by. It was a tall, severe, Victorian building with a large, circular window on its attic floor, glaring out from beneath the eaves. The window made me think of a Lovecraftian tale, and I imagined a rival to Herbert West living there. Unlike West, however, he used magic upon which he had imposed a scientific rigour. Herbert West comes to him to collaborate with predictably gory results.

I never got very far with this particular story because I found myself becoming more interested in the unnamed magic-using re-animator.

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Coming Soon — Black Gate 15!

Coming Soon — Black Gate 15!

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bg15_320aTeam Black Gate has been putting in a lot of overtime, and we’re just about ready to pull back the veil on our latest production. Black Gate 15 is another massive issue, with over 350 pages of fiction, reviews, and articles.  It contains 22 stories — more than any issue in our history — totaling over 150,000 words of adventure fantasy.

Jonathan L. Howard returns to our pages with “The Shuttered Temple,” the sequel to “The Beautiful Corridor” from Black Gate 13, in which the resourceful thief Kyth must penetrate the secrets of a mysterious and very lethal temple.  Howard Andrew Jones bring us another swashbucking tale of Arabian fantasy featuring Dabir & Asim, this time a lengthy excerpt from his blockbuster novel The Desert of Souls.

Harry Connolly returns after too long an absence with “Eating Venom,” in which a desperate soldier faces a basilisk’s poison — and the treachery it brings. John C. Hocking kicks off a terrific  new sword & sorcery series with “A River Through Darkness & Light,” featuring a dedicated Archivist who leads a small band into a deadly desert tomb, and John Fultz shares the twisted fate of a thief who dares fantastic dangers to steal rare spirits indeed in “The Vintages of Dream.”

Plus fiction from Vaughn Heppner, Darrell Schweitzer, Jamie McEwan, Michael Livingston, Frederic S. Durbin, Chris Willrich, Fraser Ronald, Maria Snyder, Brian Dolton, and many others.

In our generous non-fiction section, Mike Resnick educates us on the best in black & white fantasy cinema, Bud Webster turns his attention to the brilliant Tom Reamy in his Who? column on 20th Century fantasy authors, Scott Taylor challenges ten famous fantasy artists to share their vision of a single character in Art Evolution, and Rich Horton looks at the finest fantasy anthologies of the last 25 years. Plus over 30 pages of book, game, and DVD reviews, edited by Bill Ward, Howard Andrew Jones, and Andrew Zimmerman Jones — and a brand new Knights of the Dinner Table strip.

Black Gate 15 will be on sale next month. We’ll have a detailed sneak peek, with tantalizing story excerpts and artwork, right here in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

Cover art by Donato Giancola.

Short Fiction Roundup: This Just In

Short Fiction Roundup: This Just In

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interzone-286a1The new Interzone has a refreshing look after last year’s garish series of yellow and redish installments. Haven’t had a chance to more than glance at the contents, but any story called “Noam Chomsky and the Time Box” sounds like my sort of fare.  Here’s a synopsis:

If anyone needed more proof that the gadget driven marketing scam that was the American Empire is now completely dead, the utter failure to adequately create demand for the world’s first personal time machine should suffice as proof. Nintendo, Time Warner, and Apple computers have all backed off their various offers to buy out Time Box incorporated, and while last year it seemed impossible that the product might suffer the same fate as Betamax and electric cars, a year later it’s becoming obvious that people without a history or a future are uninterested in the kind of time travel the Box offers. The public seems content to leave history to the necrophiliacs and Civil War Buffs.

apex-21a1In addition to this Douglas Lain penned tale, there are stories by Michael R. Fletcher, Sue Burke and Sarah L. Edwards, as well as the 2010 James White Award winning “Flock, Shoal, Herd” by James Bloomer.

The latest issue of Apex Magazine features fiction from Cat Rambo, Forrest Aguirre and Nalo Hopkinson.  According to the publisher,

“This issue marks the second issue following our new distribution model. In short, we wanted to give a premium to those who subscribe digitally and/or purchase each issue by making the content available to them one month prior to its release on our website. This means that full text of the stories and poetry will be available the first Monday of March right here, along with sneak peeks of this issue’s contents.”

Changes at Weird Tales

Changes at Weird Tales

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weird-tales-357Weird Tales editor Ann VanderMeer announces a re-vamped website, higher pay rates, a nifty new submissions portal, a new schedule, and a blog:

In addition to launching this new website, editor-in-chief Ann VanderMeer and publisher John Betancourt have raised the pay rate to 5 cents per word and implemented a new submissions portal for potential contributors… The new site also features a blog, through which VanderMeer and the rest of the Weird Tales team will discuss fiction and topics related to the revamped magazine…

Weird Tales will return to its normal quarterly schedule this year, with future issues slated for May, August, and November.

The submissions portal is based on the one designed by Neil Clarke for Clarkesworld magazine, and he implemented this one for Weird Tales.  Matt Kressel designed the new website.

The upcoming issue of the magazine, number 357 (!) includes fiction from N.K. Jemisin, author of Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Karin Tidbeck, and J. Robert Lennon, plus an interview with Caitlin R. Kiernan.

The Weird Tales team includes Paula Guran, nonfiction editor, and art director Mary Robinette Kowal. Dominik Parisien and Alan Swirsky have joined Tessa Kum as editorial assistants.

The new website is here.

Wizard and ToyFare Magazines Cease Publication

Wizard and ToyFare Magazines Cease Publication

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wizard-issue-234Longtime comic magazine Wizard, once one of the most popular publications in the industry, has folded. Its sister magazine ToyFare, dedicated to pop-culture toys and action figures, has also ceased publication. Both magazines were owned by Wizard Entertainment.

Wizard was launched in 1991, near the height of the “speculator boom,” fueled by the arrival of Image Comics and the rise of superstar artists such as Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee. Dedicated to covering news, pricing trends, and personalities in the field, Wizard quickly captured a large readership and brought real production values — including glossy paper, full-color interiors, and rock-star journalism — to comic fandom for the first time.

With its regular Wizard Top 10 and Market Watch columns, which reported on the “hottest back issues” of the month and predicted future price trends, Wizard catered to a new generation of fans and buyers who purchased comics chiefly for their collectability and perceived future value.

It also shared much of the blame when the comic marketplace collapsed as those speculators, burned by numerous bad investments, fled the market in the late 90s.

toyfare-16111Two-thirds of comic book stores across the country closed between 1993 and 1997,  many major publishers were driven out of business, and even Marvel Comics declared bankruptcy in 1997.

For most of its life every issue of Wizard also had a price index, allowing collectors to track the price of their latest hot comics month-to-month (but I only read it for the articles).

At the peak of its popularity Wizard sold over 110,000 copies/month through Diamond alone.  With its final issue, that number had dropped to 17,000.

Publisher Wizard Entertainment made this announcement yesterday:

Wizard Entertainment is ceasing publication of the print magazines Wizard and ToyFare. Wizard World, Inc. will begin production of the online publication ‘Wizard World’ beginning in February. We feel this will allow us to reach an even wider audience in a format that is increasingly popular and more readily accessible.”

Wizard Entertainment continues with its other ventures, including the Chicago Comic Con and many other conventions. Their website is here.

Rogue Blades Entertainment Announces eSsassins Electronic Anthologies

Rogue Blades Entertainment Announces eSsassins Electronic Anthologies

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assassins1Jason M. Waltz at Rogue Blades Entertainment tells us the distinguished heroic fantasy publishing house has added a series of electronic anthologies to its already-crammed slate of planned publications for the year:

RBE is proud to introduce not only four additional titles under the Clash of Steel series, but its first four e-only anthologies as well! Better yet, these four e-anthologies deliver even more of the eagerly desired Assassins: A Clash of Steel print anthology to be released later in 2011! These 4 eSsassins titles carry over the same steel-bearing protagonists in dangerous, powerful prose, and the same eye-catching cover art from Didier Normand that the print anthology pledges.

Each volume in the eSsassins line will contain four stories, totalling 15,000 – 18,000 words in length.  They will be sold in multiple electronic formats for $3.00 each.

The volumes will be released monthly, starting in February.  The RBE website lists the complete contents of each upcoming volume, including stories from Laura J. Underwood, Yeoryios Pantazis, Amy Sanderson, Charles Kyffhausen, and G.K. Hayes.

RBE’s previous Clash of Steel anthology was last summer’s Demons, which I’m currently reading and quite enjoying. Cover art for each of the upcoming volumes will be unveiled soon, so keep your eye on their website for updates.

Goblin Fruit: Winter 2011

Goblin Fruit: Winter 2011

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"Come buy, come buy!"
"Come buy, come buy!"

Do you remember Amal El-Mohtar? Poet, writer, Black Gate blogger?

Well! As I may have mentioned once or twice, she and Jessica P. Wick (who turns back into a mermaid when you spray her with a hose) co-edit a ‘zine called Goblin Fruit, which publishes “poetry of the fantastical.”

And… THE WINTER ISSUE IS LIVE!!! It’s ALIVE, I tell you! With (O my leaping lords of the great down under), soul-salivating art by Melbourne’s Omi Fam!

If we go by the art alone, this issue would be like a wolf pelt stuffed with sentient diamonds, or a lantern carved from a human skull. But I know the names of some of the poets (Rose Lemberg of Stone Telling, Leah Bobet of Ideomancer, Mari Ness of the Oz Blog at Tor.com, Loreen Heneghan, Christopher W. Clark, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Michelle Muenzler, and Neile Graham), therefore the possibilities for this issue are as endless as a winter’s night.

Go check it out! If you dare.

We last covered Goblin Fruit in our three-part review of the magazine.

Short Fiction Review #33: Oxford American Future Issue

Short Fiction Review #33: Oxford American Future Issue

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oxford-americanOxford American Issue 70 contemplates life in 2050 with 11 stories that share a pessimistic view of America’s future beset by natural and man-made disaster, human folly and avarice.  In other words, just like it is today, only worse.

While dystopia has always been a fundamental science fictional trope (indeed, the one that has historically been most likely to gain literary credence, e.g., Brave New World and 1984), there was a time, particularly during the Golden Age of the 1930s to 1950s but still continuing on in counterpoint to the New Wave movement during the 1960s/1970s, when writers portrayed a future improved by technology, not devastated by it. Even the cyberpunks, despite their bleak industrial noir settings, arguably depicted technology as a “force for good” when their renegade heroes turn the technological tables to upend the corporate masters.

Part of the bleakness here might be because Oxford American terms itself  “The Southern Magazine of Good Writing,” and the American South certainly has a collective consciousness of disasters dating back to the Civil War, but most recently with Katrina and the BP oil spill in the Gulf.  “The Vicinity of the Sick” by M.O. Walsh depicts a Louisiana where people have to wear bio-hazard suits to go in the water; a woman dying of cancer is driven by her reluctant husband to a restricted biohazard in hope of escaping the soul-sapping hazards of technological illusions that pervade “normal” existence in Connie May Fowler’s “Do Not Enter the Memory”; and a strange pair from opposite socio-economic backgrounds try to survive (and discover some basic bond of humanity) in the Bayou following ecological and technological collapse in “Maroon” by Susan Straight.  Along the same lines, in a non-fction piece, Kevin Brockmeier lists his “Ten Great Novels of the Apocolypse.”

In addition to ecological disaster, the stories share to varying degrees the usual suspects for end-of-the-world scenarios: the amoral corporate focus on the bottom-line and self-interest, the numbness of media and advertising that leads to unhealthful lifestyles, medical advances that keep people biologically alive in bodies long past expected mileage.

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New Year Short Fiction Roundup

New Year Short Fiction Roundup

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2011-snI’ve contributed book reviews to the SF Site since 1998 (wow, that’s a long time); in fact, it was the first on-line “publication” I wrote for (and, yes, you can end a sentence with a proposition, though, technically, I haven’t).  That’s where I “met” John O’Neill, which explains how I wound up here (for those of you wondering how that could possibly have happened).  You can see a list of all my SF Site reviews here.

My latest review in the January 2010 issue is about a short story collection entitled “She Nailed a Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror. ” Worth checking out for the title alone.

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In other short fiction news,  Strange Horizons now has a regular blog, as well as a slight shift in editorial scheduling, as outlined by new editor-in-chief Niall Harrison.