Black Gate

The editorial masterminds at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly have cracked open another rich vault of adventure fantasy tales, including stories by James Frederick William Rowe, Andrew Knighton, Cullen Groves — and Black Gate blogger Matthew Wuertz.

Here’s the editorial introduction to issue Q29 from the website:

Even as the summer heat beat us mercilessly, our will remains unbowed! We have ventured from the heat dome, through the wasteland, and we have again gathered the greatest tales of adventure to be found and brought them to you. Not only do we have a full cargo of stories and poems, we have a bonus story, AND we are leveling up to include story-specific artwork as well.

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is one of the most reliable regular sources of new adventure fantasy. Here’s the complete fiction TOC, with fiction links.

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Earlier this week I summarized the results of the annual Locus Awards vote for Best Magazine, as reported in the July issue of Locus magazine. I was very proud to see that Black Gate came in at #8 (out of 27 magazines). I was also surprised to see that Tor.com had placed #2 on the list, beating out magazines like Fantasy & Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and Analog. Locus readers tend to favor the fiction magazines over media sites and online blogs…. but then again, Tor.com has gradually become one of the top sites on the internet for genre fiction.

Witness the month of May and early June at Tor.com, which featured brand new fiction from Genevieve Valentine, Brian Hodge, Nisi Shawl, and many others. There’s plenty here for adventure fantasy fans, including “Orphan Pirates of the Spanish Main” by Dennis Danvers, an SF tale featuring Stan and Ollie, orphans who receive a mysterious postcard from their father, who disappeared decades ago into the deadly Abyss in New Mexico; P. Djeli Clark’s “A Dead Djinn in Cairo,” in which Special Investigator Fatma el-Sha’arawi, in an alternate 1912 Egypt, faces rampaging ghouls, saucy assassins, and clockwork angels in the ancient ruins beneath Cairo; and Theodora Goss’s “Red as Blood and White as Bone,” a dark fantasy about a kitchen girl who lets a ragged woman into the castle during a raging storm, certain she is more than what she appears to be.

Links and brief descriptions for May-June fiction at Tor.com are below.

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The July 2016 issue of Locus is numbered #666… so naturally it’s the horror issue, with lengthy interviews with Peter Straub and Joe Hill, and a photo story on “Stephen King and George R.R. Martin in Conversation.” The magazine is also packed with the usual reviews, news and features — including a photo spread on the Nebula Awards weekend, held here in Chicago.

But the big news for me was the detailed results of the annual Locus Awards. Amongst all the vote counts for Best Novel, Best Collection, and Best Editor, were the surprising results for Best Magazine. Surprising to me, anyway. 27 magazines were ranked by the readers of Locus; here’s the Top Ten.

1. Asimov’s SF
2. Tor.com
3. Fantasy & Science Fiction
4. Clarkesworld
5. File 770
6. Lightspeed
7. Analog
8. Black Gate
9. Uncanny
10. Strange Horizons

I was surprised and pleased to see Black Gate ranked above such excellent magazines as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Interzone, Nightmare, Shimmer, and Weird Tales. I want to thank everyone for their support — believe me, it means a lot.

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The complete July issue of Lightspeed is now yours to enjoy free online. This month brings new fantasy by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz and Kenneth Schneyer, and fantasy reprints by A. Merc Rustad and Spencer Ellsworth, plus original science fiction by Ted Kosmatka and Jilly Dreadful, along with SF reprints by Genevieve Valentine and Seth Fried.

In his editorial, editor John Joseph Adams shares some award good news, plus intriguing news about his new book line with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt:

We’re thrilled to report that Alyssa Wong’s story, “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” from the Queers Destroy Horror! special issue of Nightmare (Oct. 2015), won the Nebula Award for best short story! Congrats to Alyssa and to all of the other winners. You can find a full list of the winners at SFWA.org/nebula-awards…

John Joseph Adams Books News

In my role as editor of John Joseph Adams Books for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, I just acquired two books in a new series by Molly Tanzer (author of Vermilion).

The first book is Creatures of Will and Temper, a Victorian-era urban fantasy inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which epee-fencing enthusiast Evadne Gray and her younger sister are drawn into a secret and dangerous London underworld of pleasure-seeking demons and bloodthirsty diabolists, with only Evadne’s skill with a blade standing between them and certain death.

Publication of book one will likely happen in late 2017. Can’t wait for you all to read it!

I’m especially intrigued by the Book News. We covered Molly Tanzer’s Vermilion here, and I’m very interested in seeing her latest. John has proved to be an editor with a very keen eye… What other wonders will he offer us through John Joseph Adams Books? I’m looking forward to finding out.

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I was delighted to receive a copy of the latest issue of Weirdbook in the mail. The last one, Weirdbook 31, the first new issue in nearly 20 years, was an unqualified success. This one seems to be packed largely with unknowns, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Best of all, it appears barely 9 months after the previous issue, which is a hopeful sign — and no easy task for a trade-paperback sized magazine that clocks in at 173 pages.

The issue contains no less than 25 tales of dark fantasy and the weird, as well as 9 poems. Here’s the complete table of contents.

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I don’t know much about Carol Hightshoe’s online magazine The Lorelei Signal, but Amy Bisson has been nudging me to check it out. And now that she has a story in the latest issue, I promised I’d have a look. The website is clean and easy to navigate, and Carol has a fine intro on the first page that explains exactly what the magazine is all about.

The Lorelei Signal is a web based magazine dedicated to featuring 3 dimensional / complex female characters in Fantasy stories.

This does not mean I don’t want to see complex male characters either, balance is the key. I just don’t want to see female characters who are weak, having to be constantly rescued, etc. Females in the story should have the same strength of character as their male counterparts and not be there as window dressing. This has been changing over the years in fantasy writing – the idea of the female character being nothing more than a sidekick, the princess to be rescued, etc. has faded significantly. But, she still shows up occasionally.

The title of this magazine was taken from the Animated Star Trek episode by the same name. In that episode the men of the Enterprise fell under a siren song and it was Lt. Uhura who had to take command of the Enterprise.

It was a pretty hokey set-up to finally get a female in the command chair of the original Enterprise, but at least she got there.

This issue includes no less than a dozen short stories and one poem. Here’s the complete TOC.

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Beneath Ceaseless Skies was nominated for a World Fantasy Award earlier this month (alongside Black Gate, we humbly point out), and I must say, they make for some very stiff competition. BCS is one of the top markets for adventure fantasy, and it just started buying longer stories. At only $15.99 for a full year, it’s a terrific bargain. I finally bought a subscription back in May, and I’ve been heartily enjoying it.

Issue #203 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies is dated July 7 and features fiction by Mishell Baker and Rachael K. Jones, a podcast by Rachael K. Jones, and a reprint by Aliette de Bodard. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

“Fire in the Haze” by Mishell Baker
And yet everywhere I looked, my periphery supplied ghosts of him: lounging indolently on a couch, reaching up to add a final stroke to a poem, bowing over my hand. And there, of course, pausing at the foot of the narrow stairs to the grand bedchamber. Looking over his shoulder, a half smile adorning the human face he wore even when we were alone.

“The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles” by Rachael K. Jones
Hester’s skin itched all over, and she longed for cool sand sliding against her bare belly. One, two, three eggs into her mouth, one sharp bite, and the clear, viscous glair ran down her throat. The shells were tougher than she expected. They tasted tart, like spoiled goat’s milk. She waited for the change, but the sun crawled higher and nothing happened.

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