Black Gate

The new Interzone features contains stories by Jason Sanford (“The Ever-Dreaming Verdict of Plagues”), Mercurio D. Rivera (“Tethered”), Jon Ingold (“The Fall of the City of Silver”), Fiona Moore (“The Metaphor”) and Stephen Kotowych (“A Time for Raven”); art by Richard Wagner, Ben Baldwin, Jim Burns and Martin Hanford. There’s also the regular columns, Ansible Link by David Langford, Mutant Popcorn by Nick Lowe,  and Laser Fodder by Tony Lee; book reviews including an interview with Lavie Tidhar conducted by Maureen Kincaid Speller.

You can also download issue 230 for free, containing stories by Aliette de Bodard, Nina Allan, Lavie Tidhar , Patrick Samphire and Tim Lees.

In other news, Locus reports that the Amazing Stories trademark has been acquired, possibly for use as the title for an online magazine. This would be how many times the dead magazine has been resurrected? Although this time, a true resurrection, as it wouldn’t have a physical paper form.

Webzine Strange Horizons is conducting its 2011 fund drive, where your donation supports one of the first (and one of the few surviving from that era) on-line speculative fiction markets. Publishing weekly for over a decade (which in Internet time is something like a century/), Strange Horizons features short fiction (this past week it was Lewis Shiner), regular columns from the likes of John Clute and Matthew Cheney, articles, poetry and book reviews. To my knowledge, Strange Horizons is the only paying on-line market that relies on the “public broadcasting” non-profit model of member donations to keep operations afloat. So the one value of “subscribing” is you at least get a tax deduction out of it.

As of Friday, they were a little over a quarter of the way towards their goal of $8,000.

The new Black Static cover features Ben Baldwin‘s illustration for Ramsey Campbell’s “Recently Used”: here’s the opening paragraph:

Tunstall thought he hadn’t slept when the phone rang. He clutched it and sat up on the bed, which felt too bare and wide by half. On the bedside table the photograph of him with Gwyneth in the sunlit mountains far away was waiting to be seen once more, and beyond it the curtains framed a solitary feeble midnight star. He rubbed his aching eyes to help them focus on the mobile as he thumbed the keypad. “Hello?” he said before he’d finished lifting the phone to his face.

Other fiction includes “Dermot” by Simon Bestwick, “A Summer’s Day” by K. Harding Stalter, “Still Life” by Simon McCaffery and “How the Sixties Ended” by Tim Lees.  Non-fiction columns by Stephen Volk, Christopher Fowler, Mike O’Driscoll and reviews by Tony Lee and Peter Tennant.

In related news, Mercurio D. Rivera’s “Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us” from Black Static # 18 is up for the 2011 World Fantasy Short Story Award. Here’s the download.

You can subscribe to the print version here, or the electronic edition here; there’s also a special discounted rate for a joint subscription to both Interzone and Black Static. Also, the publishers are reintroducing lifetime subscriptions. What you’re buying, in essence, is a 10-year subscription at the current rate.  If you think you’re going to live for at least another decade, and you think Black Static will also be around for as long, this could be a bargain for whatever time you and the magazine have after that. If that weren’t enough, you can also opt for joint lifetime sub that gets you sister publication Interzone for a slightly reduced rate.  Sign your life away here.

The August Realms of Fantasy is its 101st issue, the significance of which editor Douglas Cohen makes some sage observations. Fiction includes “The Progress of Solstice and Chance” by Richard Bowes, “Isabella’s Garden” by Naomi Krtizer, “Collateral Damage” by Katie Riedel, “Snake in the Grass” by W.R. Thompson and “Leap of Faith” by Alan Smale.  Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

You can subscribe to either print or digital editions.

The new Interzone features “Insha’ Allah” by Matthew Cook, “For Love’s Delerium Haunts the Fractured Mind” by Mercurio D. Rivera, “The Walrus and the Icebreaker” by Jon Wallace, “Eleven Minutes” by Gareth L. Powell and “Of Dawn” by Al Robertson.  There’s also an interview with Lisa Goldstein and the usual assortment of book and video reviews. as well as David Langford’s “Ansible Link” column.

The publishers are reintroducing lifetime subscriptions. What you’re buying, in essence, is a 10-year subscription at the current rate.  If you think you’re going to live for at least another decade, and you think the magazine will also be around for as long, and this could be a bargain for whatever time you and the magazine have after that. If that weren’t enough, you can also opt for joint lifetime sub that gets you sister publication Black Static for a slightly reduced rate than the individual rates.  Sign your life away here.

Apex Magazine is a monthly on-line publication of science fiction, fantasy and horror edited by Catherynne M. Valente. The current issue features three stories: “The Whispered Thing” by Zach Lynott,  “The Tiger Hunter” by Rabbit Seagraves, “The Secret Protocols of the Elders of Zion” by Lavie Tidhar and, continuing with titles that all start with “The,” poetry by Saladin Ahmed, “The Djinn Prince in America: A Micropic in 9 Tracks.”  Jason Sizemore’s  non-fiction piece is “Five Genre Books that Raise Mind-numbing Philosophical Questions.”

You can subscribe and get 12 issues for just $19.99.

In another matter, you can read my review of Thomas Liggoti’s aptly named short story collection, Grimscribe. If you dare.

[Stealth Edited by Editor to add: There is also poetry by Rhysling-nominated poet Elizabeth McClellan in Issue 27, entitled “Down Cycles.” The lady’s work is worth a look!]