We’ve got more great free fiction and features this month.
Fiction:
“On the Shadow Side of the Beast” by Ruth Nestvold
“Starter House” by Jason Palmer
“In Memory” by Eric James Stone
“Edison’s Dead Men” by Ed Turner
We also have a new Popped Culture comic and a confession from serial book burner Lavie Tidhar.
Read it all here.
Our holiday sabbatical is over. Apex Magazine is once more open to submissions. For your convenience, I am copying our guidelines below:
Guidelines for Apex Magazine:
1. Dark SF/horror SF.
2. Word DOC (.doc) or RTF (.rtf) as an attachment, or pasted in the body of an email.
3. Maximum of 7,500 words. Firm limit.
4. Double spaced. Please use Courier or Times New Roman as your font. Font point size of 12.
5. No multiple submissions. No simultaneous submissions.
6. We no longer accept post mailed submissions. They will be discarded unread.Payment for new fiction will be 5.0 cents per word (made within 30 days of publication). We claim first world electronic rights for 90 days from publication, non-exclusive electronic rights for an additional 9 months, and non-exclusive anthology rights.
We will try to answer all submissions within four-six weeks. Right now, estimated response time is 20-30 days.
Submit to submission@apexdigest.com
Remember to check the guidelines before you submit for any changes or updates. They can always be found at http://www.apexbookcompany.com/submissions/
The Ferrett over at The Watchtower of Destruction has put up a great (and early!) review of Sara Harvey’s CONVENT OF THE PURE. Check out a little of what he had to say:
“Sara’s writing is passionate and evocative, and if it was just about a girl and her ghost it would be enough – but her world-building is top-notch, filled with the kinds of great ideas that you wish you could steal yourself (grafting angels? Neat). She’s also one of the more tactile writers I’ve ever read; you can practically reach out and touch the gnarled red skin of the imps that Portia is tracking down, feel the moss on the stone corridors she’s lurking in.”
Read the rest of the review here! And remember to reserve your copy of Sara Harvey’s CONVENT OF THE PURE!
Also of note: Greg Lamberson over at Fear Zone has listed Fran Friel’s MAMA’S BOY AND OTHER DARK TALES as one of his Favorite Horror Collections of 2008! Make sure to get a copy of this fantastic collection for this new year!
The Blackness Within will be published by Apex Book Company.
Edited by Apex Magazine senior editor Gill Ainsworth.
Publication is scheduled for late 2009/early 2010.
Gill’s Guidelines:
Somewhere in a parochial village in Herefordshire, England, the Celtic God, Moccus, was re-born. Whether the winds were blowing in the wrong direction, or whether the times were accommodating, no-one knows, but it happened.
If you haven’t heard of Moccus, google. You’ll find he’s a Celtic pig-god whose influence affected all aspects of life, particularly fertility. The word pig has many connotations in today’s world and doesn’t necessarily limit Moccus to a pig-like appearance. Neither does it make a pig-like appearance mandatory. In other words, there is a lot for the imagination to explore.
I’m looking for stories that encompass all stages of Moccus’s reappearance from infancy — contemporary — to death (his middle age and near-future) — and how his influence spread throughout the world. He is powerful; his presence will be felt even in the backwaters of the Nile Delta. What I’m looking for are truly international takes on this theme, with settings from all over the world. The UK has already been covered.
This is primarily a horror/dark fantasy anthology but will stretch to the near future. That means no space exploration, nor out-and-out far-fetched science, and I don’t want apocalypse-type stories — the world will continue even after his death. However, psi stories, dark fantasy (not high fantasy) will all be considered. I’m not afraid of a little adult content. If in doubt, try me. Worst-case scenario is rejection — in the nicest possible way.
But please proof read. I don’t take grammatical problems well. Know your its from your it’s, effect from affect and please, please, to lay is a different verb from to lie. I rest my case.
Specifics:
Open to submissions on 1st March 2009 and will close when full. If you submit before this date, your story will be deleted.
# Word count between 3000 and 7000 words
# No simultaneous submissions and no multiple submissions; please wait until you’ve heard back before sending another story
# Stories should be sent either as a Word DOC (.doc) or RTF (.rtf) and attached to your e-mail. A short covering letter stating approximate word count and giving contact details is expected. If you send your story in the body of an e-mail, it will be deleted unread
# Contact details should be given on the manuscript as well as in the body of the e-mail
# Courier New, 12 point. Double line spacing, with indented paragraphs. A hash (#) denotes a section break.
Single space between full stops and double speech marks for dialogue. Otherwise, follow your UK/US/SA/Aus… formatting, spelling etc, but please remain constant throughout; don’t switch from one to another.
# Payment is £15 per story or equivalent according to XE.com (through PayPal — I can’t issue dollar cheques) upon publication. If no currency preference is stated in the covering letter, payment will be made in pounds sterling.
# I ask for FNASR
If you have any questions, please ask. Submissions and questions to be sent to gill@apexdigest.com. Please put ‘Blackness Within’ in the subject line followed by either your story title or the word ‘question’. You should receive a ‘got it’ or answer to your question within 48 hours; if you haven’t received such, assume that it didn’t arrive and resend
I will endeavour to respond to submissions within 4 weeks but please don’t query until at least 2 months after sending your story.
We are hoping to raise $2500 in revenue within 14 days through the Apex store to assist with a financial crunch.
Day 1 Total: $126.60
The beautiful cover art adorning Nate Kenyon’s exciting cyberpunk novella Prime is by Russian artist Katja Faith. I encourage you to check out Katja’s deviantart page. Her work is fantastic.
Prime displays Kenyon’s versatility as a writer, as he makes like Richard K. Morgan in a gritty, SF-noir story that contains all the great thrills and wild plot turns that define the genre.
Look for Prime to be available for pre-order in Spring 2009 with an expected release date of late summer 2009.
I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein is now available for purchase as an eBook at Fictionwise.
Stories include the now classic SF stories “Sanctuary”, “Telepresence”, and “Kaddish For the Last Survivor.”
Fictionwise supports most formats, including those for the Kindle and iPhone.
One of our early 2009 titles, The Monster Within Idea, is a collection that contains nineteen stories from the dark mind of horror writer R. Thomas Riley.
Riley’s work has been compared to horror legends Richard Laymon and Dean Koontz. In our experiences, it is the way Riley instills a deep sense of humanity into his characters that makes his style of writing horror so empathetic and powerful. Those of you who have read the Apex anthology Gratia Placenti will be familiar with this very writing trait in the story “Only Spirits Cry” (also included in The Monster Within Idea).
Cover artist/designer by Justin Stewart.
Her lover was a supernova who took worlds with him when he died, and as a new world grows within Ekhi, savage lives rage and love on a small ship in the outer reaches of space. A ship with an agenda of its own.
Open Your Eyes is a space opera described by Jay Lake (Escapement, Green) as “echoing the fantastic imagery of Samuel R. Delany and the angst-ridden identity paranoia of Philip K. Dick.”
The fourth book in our novella series (#1–Temple: Incarnations, #2–Orgy of Souls, #3–The Convent of the Pure).
All pre-orders will include a chapbook containing an unpublished story set in the Open Your Eyes universe.
Publication Date: April 16th
http://www.apexbookcompany.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=77
Secrets and illusions abound in a decaying convent wrapped in dark magic and scented with blood. Portia came to the convent with the ghost of Imogen, the lover she failed to protect in life. Now, the spell casting caste wants to make sure that neither she nor her spirit ever leave.
“The Convent of the Pure is a compelling blend of the numinous and the creepy, with a rich, atmospheric setting. I devoured it in a single sitting!”
– Jacqueline Carey (Kushiel’s Dart)
All pre-orders will include a chapbook containing an unpublished story set in the The Convent of the Pure universe.
Publication Date: April 1st
http://www.apexbookcompany.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=78
Michael A. Burstein’s collection of Nebula and Hugo award-nominated short stories, I REMEMBER THE FUTURE, is now available from Apex Publications. This collection contains most of Michael’s most popular works, including the powerful “Sanctuary” and the unforgettable “Kaddish For the Last Survivor.” Also included are two new stories, including “I Remember the Future” and a fourth story set in his “Cosmic Corkscrew” universe named “Empty Spaces.”
I REMEMBER THE FUTURE includes a wonderful introduction from long-time Analog editor Stanley Schmidt and notes from Michael about each story.
Check out why Robert J. Sawyer calls Michael A. Burstein “an Isaac Asimov for the new millennium…”
Two of Brandy Schwan’s mesmerizing poems, “Lizzie’s Pears” and “Nothing to Gein”, from CATACOMBS AND PHOTOGRAPHS are now available as free PDF downloads! Get a tantalizing taste of what you’ll get in the poetry chapbook, and then pre-order a copy for yourself and get GRIM TRIXTER for only $5!
And check out Apex Magazine’s interview with Brandy Schwan in this month’s issue!
We present the cover art and design of Paul Jessup’s upcoming surreal space opera Open Your Eyes. This title is due for publication sometime in early 2009.
The best way to describe Open Your Eyes is Samuel R. Delaney crossed with Stephen Baxter. In the first chapter, the human protagonist makes love to a star going supernova.
Cover art by Daniele Cascone.
