Magazines – Page 163

Jan/Feb Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine Now on Sale

Tuesday, December 28, 2010 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

The big January/February double issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction goes on sale today.

The issue features four novelettes by Matthew Corradi, Albert E. Cowdrey, Pat MacEwan, and “The Bird Cage,” by Kate Wilhelm. There are short stories from Alan Dean Foster, Rick Norwood, Chris Lawson, James Stoddard, Jim Young, Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg, and Richard A. Lupoff.

Asked about the issue, Editor Gordon van Gelder had this comment:

I hope the presence of a Ghost Wind and a Whirlwind in the issue won’t lead anyone to conclude the issue is long-winded.

F&SF is published six times a year; issues are 258 pages. It is the longest-running professional fantasy magazine in the country, and has been published continuously since 1949.

The new cover price is $7.50; cover artist this issue is Kristin Kest. The magazine’s website, where you can order subscriptions and browse their blog, is at www.sfsite.com/fsf/.

We covered the Nov/Dec issue of F&SF here.

Just in time for Xmas (or whatever you celebrate this time of year)…

Saturday, December 25, 2010 Soyka Comments 0 Comment

Just arrived in the mail is Interzone‘s concluding issue of 2010 featuring the cover artwork of Warwick 2651 Fraser-Coombe; the combined pieces of the six issues this past year form a complete work called “Playground (Hide and Seek).”

A signed and individually numbered limited edition print can be ordered from the artist’s website.

In terms of fiction, this issue features the work of Jason Sanford with three stories and introductions by the author. Additional stories are by Matthew Cook and Aliette de Bodard.

Goth Chick News: A Very Bradbury Christmas

Thursday, December 23, 2010 Sue Granquist Comments 1 comment

womans-day2 Last week’s post, about how ghosts and Yuletide have as close an association as brandy and eggnog, prompted a quantity of mail from you lot. Not surprisingly, the readers of Black Gate know all about the creepier part of the holidays. But you’re also sort of warm and gooey on the inside as well, going all sentimental on me about your own Christmas traditions.

And your emails reminded me about something I had forgotten for a very long time involving Christmas, Ray Bradbury and a ghost story.

Many years ago in the early fall, my beloved Grandfather passed away very peacefully in his sleep. Being nine, I was convinced that no one in the whole world could be more heartbroken than me; I had been my Papa’s only grandchild for most of my young life and he had made me the center of his whole world. However, though I remember my own first experience with grief, what I recall most vividly is seeing my own Dad cry over the loss of his Father. To this day it is the only time I’ve ever seen my stoic Dad shed a tear.

Back then, and until this day, Mom was an avid fan of Woman’s Day magazine. So much so that she kept and cataloged her back issues primarily for recipes but for other interesting tidbits as well. Some weeks after my Grandfather’s funeral, Mom went into her library of Woman’s Day and pulled out an issue from December, 1973. I remember her using a scrap of paper to mark a place in the magazine and leaving it on Dad’s desk for him to find.

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She Likes Us…

Saturday, December 18, 2010 Soyka Comments 2 comments

Lois Tilton has some nice words to say about content provider (or what used to be called a magazine) Blackgate in her year-end evaluation of sources for SF&F short fiction:

blackgate-issue-14-cover-150

Black Gate put out only a single issue this year but made up for it in the sheer mass of sword and sorcery and other adventure fantasy. The quality was high; I’m happy to see this zine has given up its excessive attachment to endless story series. My favorite was “The Word of Azrael” by Mathew David Surridge, possibly the ultimate sendup of sword and sorcery.

She also cited Interzone as her favorite SF magazine. While I hardly begin to touch the depth of her coverage, I feel the same way. I was also interested to see her comment that,

F&SF remains one of the most diverse publications in the field, with a mix ranging from mundane science fiction to horror. It provided more stories that ended up on this list than any other publication, but I wish there hadn’t also been so many silly stories of little merit…

That’s always been my impression and I wonder if Gordon van Gelder feels compelled for some reason to publish these “silly stories” as a kind of tribute to the pulp tradition of stories that were silly even by the standards of the era. Of course, that’s part of the charm, I suppose. Sort of like the whole “Crouching with Dragons” phenomenon in which you’re making a purposefully bad movie, but doing it really well. On the other hand, seeing it one time is kind of amusing, but a regular diet makes you all the more desirous of something with higher nutrition.

Take Advantage of Holiday Discounts at Lulu.com

Sunday, December 12, 2010 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

I got a reminder from Lulu.com this morning that the window for placing Holiday orders in time for Christmas is closing. Thanks Lulu!

Plus, they sent me the handy coupon at right. It’s good for 20% off any order (up to a total of $100 savings) until Dec 31, 2010.

I hope I don’t get in trouble for sharing it. Probably not. But if anybody locks you in a small room and shines a bright light in your face and demands to know where you got this coupon, remember these handy phrases: “I’ll talk! It was Gordon van Gelder.”

Or just go get your own coupon online, at their Daily Deals page.

Lulu is the leading Print on Demand (POD) publisher. Need a reminder of all the great titles available at Lulu?

Over the past year we’ve told you about the two volumes of The Clayton Astounding reprints, Vagabonds of Space and Planetoids of Peril.

For gamers, there’s the new role playing game of heroic rodents, Hyperborean Mice, featuring grim swords & sorcery action… with talking mice.

For short fiction lovers, there’s G.W. Thomas’ terrific Dark Worlds magazine, featuring tales of modern adventure fantasy, and the new incarnation of pulp magazine Startling Stories, from Wild Cat Books (shown at left).

And don’t forget Charles R. Saunders’ latest Imaro novels, The Naama War, and The Trail of Bohu.

At that and much more. Support your favorite small press publishers, and get some great gifts at the same time. How cool is that?

Apex Magazine 19 arrives, featuring C.S.E. Cooney

Monday, December 6, 2010 John ONeill Comments 3 comments

I’m very jealous of how punctual this magazine is. I suspect a pact with demonic forces.

The new issue of Apex has arrived, featuring fiction from our own marvelous C.S.E. Cooney, with her short story “Pale, and from a Sea-Wave Rising,” as well as less interesting people like Nick Wolven, with “Radishes,” and Erzebet YellowBoy, with the reprint “At the Core” (from Fantasy Magazine, 2006.)

The issue also includes two poems: “Flourless Devil’s Food” by Shweta Narayan, and “Cancelled Flight” by W.C. Roberts.

Apex Magazine 19 is sold online for $2.99; it’s also sold in a downloadable, pay-what-you-want edition through Smashwords, and in a Kindle edition (for 99 cents). Previous issues are available through their back issue page.

C.S.E.’s complete story is online. Here’s the first line:

Aquilo Vickery Makepeace, anatomy student, was looking for corpses when he found the undine.

I like it. We last profiled Apex with their November Arab/Muslim issue, the October issue and in August (also featuring C.S.E. Cooney).

Apex Magazine is edited by the ethereally beautiful Catherynne M. Valente. To join the Apex Army and donate, subscribe, or help spread the word, visit their online store.

Crossed Genres 25 Arrives

Wednesday, December 1, 2010 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

Crossed Genres, the online magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy with a twist, has just published its 25th issue.

Crossed Genres is edited by Jaym Gates and Natania Barron. This issue includes five complete works of fiction, including “We Shall Overcome,” by Nicole Givens Kurtz, and “The Gift” by Christie Yant, as well as stories by Jaymee Goh, Arthur Carey and Jacob Edwards.

The wonderful cover art (left), “Balloons,” is by Margaret Hardy.

Crossed Genres is published monthly; this is the first issue with the new editorial team. The magazine was previously edited by Bart R. Leig and K.T. Holt. The first issue appeared in September, 2008.

The genre (or theme) changes each issue. The genre for the current issue is “Celebration;” the genre for issue #27 (to be released January 1, 2010) is Tragedy. Submissions for Issue #27 will be accepted until midnight December 31. The next two genres are Superhero and Mystery.

Congratulations, Jaym and Natania! Here’s to many more.

Wumpus Tales Now Open to Submissions

Sunday, November 28, 2010 John ONeill Comments 0 Comment

Attention all fiction writers looking for markets! Alexander G. Tozzi, publisher of the new magazine Wumpus Tales: A Magazine of Bizarre Fiction, tells us it is now open to submissions:

Ideally we hope to fill its pages with stories reminiscent of concepts you might find in an 80’s computer game, where aliens guzzle brain juice in a satellite cafe, wizards cheat at poker while their familiars operate pyramid schemes, and zombies delight in smashing each other’s tombstones.
We also want stories taking place in real life, though with some element of the genres worked in, such as a girl who enchants a rival’s makeup so that it turns her into a beast. Right now we are scouring every market list we can find, trying to get added. Submissions are the only thing keeping Issue Number One from being printed, and we hope that authors will read our guidelines before sending anything.

We’re looking forward to reading those stories (especially the one with the zombies!), so all you aspiring writers, get to work.

The website and submission guidelines are here.

Fantasy, The Middle-East, and a Conversation with Saladin Ahmed

Wednesday, November 17, 2010 Amal El-Mohtar Comments 37 comments

blackgateamal1 Hi! My name’s Amal! We’ve never met. Well, unless we have. But most likely we haven’t, because I’ve never blogged here before, even though Ms. Claire Rides-the-Lightning Cooney has mentioned me in my capacity as one of the Editors of Goblin Fruit in her ever-so-mighty three-part article extravaganza about mine humble ‘zine.

Anyway, towards summer’s end, Claire Too-Sexy-For-Trousers Cooney told me about a conversation our very own scurrilous blarneyful dear John O’Neill had with some friends, in which they were trying to think of Muslim SF writers, and coming up blank. Then someone thought of me! My vanity, it was flattered!

Except, I am not Muslim.

I am, however, a first-generation Lebanese-Canadian, and that may as well be the same thing.

Over the last nine years, I’ve had occasion to be startled, and then to cease to be startled, by the extent to which my Middle-Eastern-ness gets conflated with Muslim-ness as a matter of course, as well as the extent to which people feel entitled to learning my religion along with my name. This is not the space in which I want to think about why precisely that is – I have a blog too, after all – but it is the space which Ms. Awesomesauce Cooney offered me to talk about the ways in which we might see the Middle-East positively represented in fantasy, as well as showcase a writer of fantasy literature who does in fact happen to be Muslim.

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Weird Tales 356 Arrives

Wednesday, November 17, 2010 John ONeill Comments 39 comments

The latest issue of the Grand Old Lady of dark fantasy, Weird Tales, arrived at the Black Gate rooftop headquarters last week. This is issue 356, Summer 2010, of a magazine that’s been published semi-regularly since 1923.

This issue’s theme is “Uncanny Beauty: A celebration of the eerily sensuous.” Fittingly, it includes fiction from the eerily sensuous Catherynne M. Valente, as well as a tarot card riff on an eerily sensuous Lady Gaga video, written by the entirely sensuous Amal El-Mohtar.

Plus — there’s more fiction from Ian R. MacLeod, Kat Howard, L.L. Hannett, Mike Aronovitz, and poems by Natania Barron and the extremely cool F.J. Bergmann. Non-fiction includes an article on “Strange Faces” by Theodora Goss, a look at Weird Tales pulp cover artist Margaret Brundage by Paula Guran, a fine remembrance by Senior Editor Stephen H. Segal of long-time WT editor George H. Scithers, who recently passed away, a column about H.P. Lovecraft by Kenneth Hite, and the usual book reviews.

Editor Ann VanderMeer continues to collect sniffs from some of the old guard, who seem to find insufficient sword & sorcery in this incarnation of the new weird, but so far I find little to fault with the authors she has gathered around her banner. And the design and artwork remain top notch.

Cover price for the issue is $6.99. It is 80 pages; cover art is by Alberto Seveso. The website is here.

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