New York Review of Science Fiction #334
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedSpecial For a Better Future Issue: A Diplomat’s View of Diplomacy in Star Trek; Brian Stableford: The Role of Technology in French Utopian Fiction; Russell Blackford on Ian McDonald’s Luna: New Moon; Eugene Reynolds on Jo Walton’s My Real Children; A.P. Canavan on Steven Erikson’s Willful Child; Martin Morse Wooster on John Joseph Adams’s Loosed Upon the World
Congress Magazine Issue 02 August 2016
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedCongress Magazine‘s second issue came together in an unexpectedly thematic manner: it’s all about the ways sexuality allows us to step outside ourselves. Our first story, “The Archivist’s Companion” by Mr. Andrew S. Fuller, is a science fictional near-future hipster romance set in Portland, featuring a librarian who finds herself by losing herself in both a virtual environment and in real life. We’ll then mix things up with our first interview, with Hugo Award-nominated erotica author Dr. Chuck Tingle. Dr. Tingle’s story “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” was somewhat controversially nominated for a Hugo Award this year, and we’ll find out the results this very month at WorldCon in Kansas City. Dr. Tingle graciously agreed to speak with us about his nomination, plus topics such as current events, wrestling, dinosaur personalities, as well as the importance of stepping outside of one’s self to find true love.
Only something truly special could follow up such an epic interview, but luckily we have a reprint of Mr. Jesse Bullington’s “Porn Enough at Last,” a tale of un-censoring hentai in the post-apocalypse. Mr. Bullington’s opaque narrator is asked to step outside the ordinary in several ways, but for good reason, and to good result. And then we’ll end with Ms. Cecilia Tan’s “Crowdthink Consensus Thresholds: A Study,” whose rather dry title obscures a steamy story about virtual sex and real love.
Apex Magazine Issue 87
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedApex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Fiction
The Gentleman of Chaos — A. Merc Rustad
Fall to Her — Alexis A. Hunter
I Remember Your Face — E.K. Wagner
Paskutinis Iliuzija (The Last Illusion) — Damien Angelica Walters
Stay Crazy (excerpt) — Erica L. Satifka
Nonfiction
Interview with Author A. Merc Rustad — Andrea Johnson
Interview with Artist Marcela Bolivar — Russell Dickerson
A Discussion of Cult Films INK and The Frame with Star Christopher Soren Kelly — Betsy Phillips
Words for Thought Short Fiction Review — A.C. Wise
Poetry
Not Like This — Mary Soon Lee
Perplexities — Peter Venable
This Earth — Frank Tota
The Labyrinth Keeper — Anton Rose
Editorial
Words from the Editor-in-Chief — Jason Sizemore
Nightmare Magazine, Issue 47 (August 2016)
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedNIGHTMARE is an online horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE’s pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror.
We have original fiction from Amanda Downum (“Fossil Heart”) and G. Neri (“The Hunt for the Leather Apron”), along with reprints by Nicholas Kaufmann (“The Rest Is Noise”) and Lara Elena Donnelly (“The Dirty American”). We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, “The H Word,” plus author spotlights with our authors, a showcase on our cover artist, and a feature interview with horror gaming creator C.A. Suleiman.
Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 75 (August 2016)
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedLIGHTSPEED is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF–and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales.
This month, we have original science fiction by Mercurio D. Rivera (“Those Brighter Stars”) and Jeremiah Tolbert (“Taste the Singularity at the Food Truck Circus”), along with SF reprints by Kameron Hurley (“The War of Heroes”) and Maureen F. McHugh (“Laika Comes Back Safe”). Plus, we have original fantasy by Adam-Troy Castro (“The Assassin’s Secret”) and Tristina Wright (“The Siren Son”), and fantasy reprints by duo Kevin J. Anderson and Sherrilyn Kenyon (“Trip Trap”) and Delia Sherman (“The Red Piano”). All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns. For our ebook readers, we also have an ebook-exclusive reprint of the novella “The Bone Swans of Amandale,” by C. S. E. Cooney. For our book excerpt this month, we’re pleased to feature the introduction to The Big Book of Science Fiction, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, out this month from Vintage Books.
Locus August 2016 (#667)
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedThe August 2016 issue of Locus magazine has interviews with Nancy Kress and David D. Levine, and spotlights on Kelly Robson and Sam J. Miller. News includes the 2016 World Fantasy Awards nominations; the Library of Congress’s honor to Stephen King; the Shirley Jackson, Prometheus, and Seiun awards winners; SFnal titles on the NEA Big Read program booklist; SFWA’s move to include game writers; finalists for the Sunburst, Sidewise, Gemmell, Endeavour, and Eugie Foster Memorial awards; a report on science fiction in China by Preston Grassmann; and more.
Events coverage with photos and reports includes the Locus Awards Weekend and Readercon. The column by Kameron Hurley is entitled “When to Quit Your Day Job”. Carolyn See is remembered with an obituary. Reviews cover new titles by China Miéville, Jo Walton, Kij Johnson, Michael Swanwick, Joe Abercrombie, Jennifer Mason-Black, Mary Robinette Kowal, Richard Kadrey, Angela Slatter, Sarah Tolmie, Greg Egan, Michael M. Bartlett, Walter Jon Williams, Kelly Barnhill, Rachel Caine, Gail Carriger, and others.
Flash Fiction Online Issue #35 August 2016
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedThe August 2016 issue of Flash Fiction Online. “Creation” by Sara Norja is a haunting Faerie tale of a creature tasked to build a castle of despair. But what he finds in the ruins is more than he ever expected.
Marina J. Lostetter returns to FFO with “You Are Not a Metaphor,” a dark yet beautiful story about a disease that robs the individual of their identity. If love means putting the other person’s needs ahead of your own, this story is a true testament to what that means.
Originally published in Crossed Genres, we’re delighted to bring you Rachael K. Jones’s “Mamihlapinatapei,” a dinosaur story we couldn’t resist. With a name like “Mamihlapinatapei,” it’s not a stretch to say language is a powerful tool in identifying and processing the world around us. But what exactly is the worth of naming how the heart feels?
In our final story, an original time travel caper from Benjamin C. Kinney, “The Time Cookie Wars,” friendship goes astray when tested by a box of Milano cookies. If you’ve ever hidden your cookie stash in the frozen broccoli box to keep your roommate from eating them all, this is the story for you.
Don’t miss Jason S. Ridler’s latest installment of FXXK WRITING: The Glom of Doom. He may not be tossing around sunshine and roses over there in his column, but Jason knows his stuff. He’s been into the trenches and back. Go check it out.Edited by Suzanne W. Vincent. Artwork by Dario Bijelac and Lura Schwarz Smith
The Dark – Issue 15
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedEach month The Dark brings you the best in dark fantasy and horror! Edited by award winning editor Sean Wallace and brought to you by Prime Books, this issue includes two all-new stories and two reprints:
“Floodwater” Kristi DeMeester
“Wheatfield with Crows” by Steve Rasnic Tem (reprint)
“Some Pictures of Monsters” by Rhonda Eikamp
“Hairwork” by Gemma Files (reprint)
Clarkesworld Magazine – Issue 119
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedClarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art.
Our August 2016 issue (#119) contains:
* Original fiction by Kali Wallace (“First Light at Mistaken Point”), Dale Bailey (“Teenagers from Outer Space”), Emily Devenport (“Now is the Hour”), Sean Bensinger (“The Engine”s Imperial”), Ryan Row (“Reclamation”), and Karla Schmidt (“Alone, on the Wind”).
* Tobias S. Buckell (“The Fish Merchant”), Madeline Ashby (“A Stopped Clock”).
* Non-fiction by Jason S. Ridler (Frankenstein’s Soldier: David Morrell and the Creation of Rambo), an interview with N.K. Jemisin, an Another Word column by Cat Rambo, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.
Mothership Zeta Magazine – Issue 4
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedThe Q3 2016 issue of Mothership Zeta.
Mothership Zeta is the first ezine project to come out of Escape Artists (publisher of podcast magazines Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and Podcastle). We are an ebook-only zine that focuses on new fiction with a fun undertone along with nonfiction from experts in science fiction, science, and more!
Table of Contents
Editorials
Fiction: War Profiteering by M. Darusha Wehm
Fiction: The Call of Chewing Gum by Russell Reed
Nonfiction: Inside the Matrix by Pamela L. Gay
Fiction: For the Children by Jamie Wahls
Nonfiction: The Story Doctor is (In) by James Patrick Kelly
Nonfiction: Interview: Finder’s Carla Speed McNeil by Adam Gallardo
Fiction: The Boy Who Made Flowers by S.B. Divya
Nonfiction: The Absence of Being Alone: Companions in McCaffrey’s Pern, Lackey’s Valdemar, Hobb’s Farseer by Sean R. Robinson
Nonfiction: Lasting Fiction Review: Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl by Karen Bovenmyer
Fiction: Ratcatcher by Amy Griswold
Nonfiction: I Wish I’d Read Xenogenesis Twenty Years Ago by Rachael Acks
Fiction: Looking for Morticia Addams in All the Wrong Places by Barry Charman
Fiction: Eating the Sun by Beth Goder
Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #205
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedIssue #205 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies online magazine, featuring stories by Raphael Ordoñez and Samantha Murray.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #204
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedIssue #204 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies online magazine, featuring stories by E. Catherine Tobler and Benjanun Sriduangkaew.
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 34
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedJuly 2016 · paper edition 56pp · Ebook ISBN (9781618731364).
LCRW #34, head raised, peeps over the parapet.
Table of Contents
fiction
Yes.
nonfiction
Yes.
poetry
Yes.
Actual Tablet of Contention*
Fiction
Amanda Marbais, “Colossal”
Marco Kaye, “The New Ancient of Sophocles High”
John Richard Saylor, “All Things Returned”
Barbara A. Barnett, “The Shop of Dying Illusions”
Michelle Podsiedlik, “Recursion”
Nonfiction
Nicole Kimberling, “Savory Cinderella”
About the Authors
Poetry
Hazel Crowley, “Six Poems ”
Stephen Burt, “Two Poems”
Molly Gloss, “Superman, Sleepless”
Holly Day, “People in Boxes”
David W. Pritchard, “Four Poems”
Neile Graham, “Three Poems”
Anne Sheldon, “Three Poems”
A. B. Robinson, “Four Poems”
Cover
Kathleen Jennings, “Sydney Living Museums”
* None of this is actually under contention.
A Little More of the Above
Amanda Marbais, “Colossal”
Gerald is a reformed stutterer and droid-porn addict. That doesn’t broach the issue that he is also a colossal squid. His skin has turned to red, porous gelatin and his feet have erupted with a thousand suckers. He’s self-identified, because giving his condition a name provides him navigable expectations.He dealt with childhood epithets. With rage he anticipates new, supposedly clever tags from unseen assailants—Squirty, Red, or possibly Van Tentacles.
Marco Kaye, “The New Ancient of Sophocles High”
Over the past week, I had been doing illegal and potentially harmful things to my body in the name of Greco-Roman wrestling. I sprinted through my development in trash bags. I ate one egg for breakfast, nothing for lunch and half an energy bar for dinner. I devoured meat in my dreams. Mom insisted on whipping up some high-fiber dishes so, in her words, my “poor heart won’t go kaput.”
John Richard Saylor, “All Things Returned”
My father and I were driving through New State, that large, egg shaped land mass that appeared between Pennsylvania and New Jersey five years ago. We were on the highway that the government built, the only one that ran across New State. It was a five-hundred mile straight shot of concrete between what had been the east and west banks of the Delaware River and we were about a third of the way across it.
Barbara A. Barnett, “The Shop of Dying Illusions”
She was going to be that kind of customer. Rasheed could tell by the way she entered the shop. Grand pause to let the door clang shut behind her, then a dramatic toss of her long, liquid-like mane of black hair. She looked as if she had stepped straight off the cover of one of those paranormal romance books his sister used to read: skin-choking leather pants, knee-high boots, midriff-revealing top, hip jutted out at a ridiculous angle that couldn’t possibly be comfortable.
Michelle Podsiedlik, “Recursion”
The man at the funeral home gave Sarah what was left of Simon in a small white box. She didn’t ask what had been left to burn of an already burnt body.
The icy wind hit her as she walked outside. Tucking the box against her chest, she hurried to the car with her head down, blonde hair whipping against her neck, black coat snapping. Ryan waited in the driver’s seat, the engine still running. He glanced at her. Now what?
Nonfiction
Nicole Kimberling, “Savory Cinderella”
I came home from work one day last fall to discover the year’s first whole pumpkin waiting for me. She sat in the center of my dining room table apart from the rest of the CSA vegetables, and leaned at a sultry angle that said, “I have arrived, now come cook me.”
This is not an isolated incident.
Whole pie pumpkins have been appearing in my house for at least five years. Sometimes I find them loafing in empty pie plates as if to say, “Oh, if you weren’t doing anything perhaps you could make me into a pie.” Other times they hunch stoically in the refrigerator for more than a week while I ponder whether or not I feel like engaging an entire gourd.
Poetry
Hazel Crowley, “O Muse”
o muse,
patron saint of sunken ships,
give us the freedom to roam
the courage to swat away the fakery
the tools to tear apart the rigging that
holds up the
too close sky
and, one day,
fists full of stars,
we will riot on
Stephen Burt, “Cosplayers In Line At The Starbucks”
Even the scowling ones in ninja drab
appear to be having a ball. And the awkward
guards who also serve around Queen Mab
Molly Gloss, “Superman, Sleepless”
Lying here hearing every rustle of leaf,
every bird’s peep in a hundred miles,
hearing even a child coughing, tossing in her bed
twelve towns away, a man shifting his weight
to take a sip of water, no, whiskey, the sigh
of his chair as he shifts his hips, a book
opening, no, closing as it’s put aside for sleep
Holly Day, “People in Boxes”
matchstick bones, the outlines of deer and
water deities turned light blue with time
scrawled along the arms and legs of a forgotten
priest or poet or king with the point
of a blade or the tip of a pin
dipped in ink and stuck in, again and again
the long-legged blond woman wearing antlers
on her head
the short, bearded man frozen into the
mountain
David W. Pritchard, “Memoirs I Would Read”
This is my experience: followed from the Hirshhorn by the Barbara Kruger noises. Which Whitman was quoted for the station of the Metro? Meanwhile, you didn’t care enough to change your life. It will not be OK. I demand confessions, I demand retrospectives based on them. I make a list to assuage a tendency:
Neile Graham, “You Put a Spell On Me”
Somehow I thought there’d be more:
lark’s tongues, bat song, mooncakes
and starry ale, a sonic screwdriver,
Billie Holiday breaking my heart again.
I was so sure there was a trick:
Anne Sheldon, “Twice in My Late Morning Dream”
I dream I wake and weep.
Ragged tortoise cats
I do not own
stretch and bawl.
I just manage to herd them
A. B. Robinson, “Totally ’80s Fishnet Gloves”
All the deep blonde side parts in the world
All the next-gen washcloths in the world
All the Rotten Broth
All the Mystical Fire Paks in the world
and the broken teeth
and the burnt lungs . . .
About these Authors
Barbara A. Barnett is a writer, musician, orchestra librarian, Odyssey Writing Workshop alum, coffee addict, wine lover, bad movie mocker, and all-around geek. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Shimmer, Daily Science Fiction, Flash Fiction Online, Fantasy Magazine, and Wilde Stories: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction. Barbara lurks about the Philadelphia area and has been known to frequently burst into song. babarnett.com.
Stephen Burt is Professor of English at Harvard and the author of several books of poetry and literary criticism, among them Belmont, The Forms of Youth, and All-Season Stephanie, a new chapbook from Rain Taxi Editions. Sooner or later Stephen really will cosplay Kitty Pryde.
Hazel Crowley is a writer living in Boston, Mass.
Holly Day has taught writing classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minnesota since 2000. Her poetry has recently appeared in Oyez Review, SLAB, and Gargoyle, while her recently published books include Music Theory for Dummies (3rd edition), Piano All-in-One for Dummies, The Book Of, and Nordeast Minneapolis: A History.
Molly Gloss is the author of five novels, including Wild Life (James Tiptree, Jr. Award) and The Dazzle of Day (PEN West Fiction Prize). Her story “Lambing Season” appeared in The Best of the Best: Twenty Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction.
Neile Graham married a poet and herds students, professors, and writers for a living so she’s much beset by syllables and phrases, sentences even, lyrical and not. The ones she has written down herself have appeared most recently in Interfictions, Liminality, and Through The Gate, as well as a few collections, most recently Blood Memory, and a spoken word CD, She Says: Poems Selected and New.
Kathleen Jennings was raised on fairytales in western Queensland. She trained as a lawyer and filled the margins of her notes with pen and ink illustrations. She has been nominated for the World Fantasy award and has received several Ditmar Awards. She lives in Brisbane, Australia.
Marco Kaye is a frequent contributor to McSweeney’s, and has been published on the New Yorker.com’s “Shouts & Murmurs.” He is at work on a novel. This is his first story in print.
Over the past 30 years, Nicole Kimberling has become an expert at disassembling plants of all kinds only to turn around and reassemble them into a item called “dinner.” She lives and works and in Bellingham, Washington.
Amanda Marbais’ fiction has appeared in a variety of publications including Hobart, Joyland, the Collagist, and McSweeney’s. She lives in Chicago where she is the Managing Editor of Requited Journal.
Michelle Podsiedlik lives in southern New Hampshire. Her speculative short fiction has appeared in WitchWorks, The Sirens Call, and Schlock Webzine. She has finished a suspense novel and blogs at michellepodsiedlik.wordpress.com.
David W. Pritchard is a member of the editorial Central Committee of Industrial Lunch. He is the author, with Greg Purcell, of the chapbook More Fresh Air and, with Kay Gabriel, Impropria Persona. Recent writings can be found or are forthcoming in Tripwire, the Brasilia Review, Tammy, and elsewhere. He studies Utopia as an MA/PhD student at UMass Amherst.
A. B. Robinson is a co-editor of Industrial Lunch, a magazine for poetry and art. Her chapbook 36 Stop-Motion Films of the Summer was released in 2015 by Industrial Lunch Press; poems have appeared in TINGE, N/A, and elsewhere. In the fall of 2016 she will be pursuing an MA in Creative Writing at UC Davis. She lives in Amherst with her partner.
John Richard Saylor is a South Carolina Arts Commission Fiction Project winner and a winner of the Linda Julian Award for the essay. His stories have appeared in the South Carolina Review and Emrys Journal. John has degrees from Yale, the University of Minnesota, and SUNY Buffalo. He lives in South Carolina where he works as a professor of mechanical engineering at Clemson University.
Anne Sheldon is a native Washingtonian, a storyteller, and librarian at Grace Episcopal Day School in Kensington, MD. Her work has appeared in Poet Lore, Weird Tales, The Dark Horse, LCRW, and other magazines. Her books include The Adventures of the Faithful Companion and The Bone Spindle from Aqueduct Press
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 34 July 2016. ISSN 1544-7782. Ebook ISBN: 9781618731364. Text: Bodoni Book. Titles: Imprint MT Shadow. LCRW is usually published in June and November by Small Beer Press, 150 Pleasant St., #306, Easthampton, MA 01027 · smallbeerpress.com/lcrw. twitter.com/smallbeerpress · Subscriptions: $20/4 issues (see page 21 for options). Please make checks to Small Beer Press. Library & institutional subscriptions are available through EBSCO. LCRW is available as a DRM-free ebook through weightlessbooks.com, &c. Contents © 2016 the authors. All rights reserved. Thank you, lovely authors. Submissions, requests for guidelines, & all good things should be sent to the address above. Printed by the very able people at Paradise Copies (paradisecopies.com), 21 Conz St., Northampton, MA 01060. 413-585-0414.
Interzone #265
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedThe July–August issue of Britain’s longest running science fiction and fantasy magazine contains new stories by John Schoffstall, Dan Reade, Suzanne Palmer, Ken Hinckley, Andrew Kozma, and Robert Reed. The 2016 cover artist is Vincent Sammy, and interior colour illustrations are by Richard Wagner, Martin Hanford, Dave Senecal, and Warwick Fraser-Coombe. Features: Editorial by Jo L. Walton; Ansible Link by David Langford (news and obits); Mutant Popcorn by Nick Lowe (film reviews); Laser Fodder by Tony Lee (DVD/Blu-ray reviews); Book Zone (book reviews, including an interview with Lisa Tuttle); Jonathan McCalmont’s Future Interrupted (comment); Nina Allan’s Time Pieces (comment).
Black Static #53
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedThe July–August issue contains ‘Inheritance, or The Ruby Tear’, a novelette by Priya Sharma, plus stories by Steve Rasnic Tem, Harmony Neal, Kristi DeMeester, Danny Rhodes, Stephen Hargadon, and Charles Wilkinson. The cover art is by Tara Bush, with interior illustrations by Tara Bush and Richard Wagner. Features: Coffinmaker’s Blues by Stephen Volk (comment); Notes From the Borderland by Lynda E. Rucker (comment); Case Notes by Peter Tennant (book reviews); Blood Spectrum by Gary Couzens (DVD/Blu-ray reviews).
Read about Black Static in The Guardian.
Uncanny Magazine Issue 11
Tags: No Author Royalties CollectedThe July/August 2016 issue of Uncanny Magazine.
Featuring new fiction by Aliette de Bodard, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Caroline M. Yoachim, Catherynne M. Valente, and Isabel Yap, reprinted fiction by Kelly Link, essays by Sarah Kuhn, Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky, Sigrid Ellis, and Kelly McCullough, poetry by Jessica P. Wick, Bryan Thao Worra, and Ali Trotta, interviews with Sarah Kuhn and Sabrina Vourvoulias by Deborah Stanish, a cover by Antonio Caparo, and an editorial by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas.