Getting Your Fix #1 – Online Magazines

From time to time it is said that short fiction is a dying form and that publishers just aren’t publishing it any more. To that I say: bollocks! Short fiction has never been healthier and more available than it is now. There are more anthologies than you can shake a stick at, e-book shorts are sold for the device of your choice via assorted retailers, authors post free online fiction on their websites and then there’s the crown jewel of the short fiction world – online magazines.

To the surprise of no-one who knows me, I love online magazines. (Check out the Shiny Stuff section for links to my favourite stories!) And really, what’s not to love. So long as you have an internet connection and some kind of tech to read on, you have easy access to a vast quantity of free fiction. If you don’t like reading on a computer screen, then you can throw a few quid the magazine’s way and subscribe to get the e-book versions delivered to your preferred reading device, and many magazines do podcast versions of their stories and dead-tree versions as either individual issues or end of year anthologies.

But me, I read on screens. (Laptops, unlimited broadband and wifi – the three best inventions in the universe, I tell you true. Kindles and iPads come a close second.) I slush for Lightspeed, so would, of course, highly recommend anyone taking a shuftie at it. They publish some awesome fantasy and science fiction, along with author interviews (and they’re reopening for subs on 20th June, if you’re that way inclined!) Lightspeed also has a sister magazine – Nightmare - for the horror aficionados, though I’ll confess to not having read much of that as yet. (Bad Jen, no cookie.)

Strange Horizons is another firm favourite and has my highest stories-I-like hit rate of all the magazines I read, and always gives fascinating non-fiction. Beneath Ceaseless Skies is another top one, and is great for thoughtful secondary world fiction, as well as some gorgeous cover artwork. Clarkesworld completes the top tier online magazine roster, and another one with gorgeous cover artwork, however I find them a little bit highbrow at times so can be something of an acquired taste. Always worth a read though.

Crossed Genres can always be counted on for fiction that pushes at the traditional boundaries and has a specific interest for stories about under-represented people. (They also do some cracking anthologies, but anthologies are for another post!) Expanded Horizons is another great magazine pushing for more diversity in the field and publishes some truly breathtaking stuff.

In the department of ‘does what it says on the tin’, there’s Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and Alt Hist, which, no surprise, do heroic fantasy and historical/alternate historical stories, so if that’s your thing, that’s where you want to go. If you like longer short fiction, then may I point you at GigaNotoSaurus for all your novella pleasures. If you prefer much shorter short fiction, than Daily Science Fiction does flash fiction five days a week (and free subscription if you want the stories delivered via email.)

Other fab free online mags include Abyss & Apex, Indian SF, Subterranean Magazine, Apex Magazine, Philippine Genre Stories and Ideomancer, and if you get a taste for any of them, don’t forget to donate a couple of quid to show your appreciation and generally keep them going.

Lastly we have the hybrid online magazines – those that exist in both dead-tree and electronic formats and include, but are not limited to, things like: Albedo One, who sell PDF versions of their magazines, Something Wicked has moved to an annual anthology but back issues are still free on their site, Shimmer has some of their content free online while selling the full issues in print and multiple digital formats, and fans of the TTA Press range of mags can easily buy DRM-free digital copies of Crimewave, Interzone and Black Static from Smashwords.

So, yeah, no-one’s publishing short fiction at all. ;-)

More fun on t'internet

Been having fun listening to podcasts this week.

Over on Podcastle, and highly recommended, is the beautiful tale: And Their Lips Rang With The Sun by Amal El-Mohtar, gloriously read by N.K. Jemisin (I could listen to Jemisin read things all day!)
This originally appeared in print in Strange Horizons so you have the bonus option of reading it there or listening to it here!

Alt fiction have added another couple of podcast panel things...

There's the Publishing Panel with John Berlyne, John Jarrold, Jon Weir, Peter Crowther, Jenni Hill & Stephen Jones and a panel on Blogging and the Internet with Alasdair Stuart, Lee A Harris & Vincent Holland-Keen.
Only downer is most of the questions from the audience are inaudible, otherwise fascinating listening.

Over at the Happiness Patrol, Sam Stone and David J Howe join regulars Lewis, Tara and Dale to talk about the Dr Who finale. Also there are secret volcano lairs. :-D

Moving away from the podcasts... for a damn fine piece of fiction, try
The Six Skills of Madame Lumiere by Marissa Lingen to be found in the latest issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

On the non fiction front, over at Fantasy Magazine, Genevieve Valentine tells you Ten Things You Should Know About Eclipse. Fun stuff.

For more educational matters, over at Clarkesworld Sarah Goslee's Packing for a Very Long Trip talks about space agriculture. Awesome!

In the department of 'Bet you didn't know that!' over on the Bitch Magazine blog, Ashley McAllister talks about Melvil Dewey and female librarians in From the Bitch Library: Outing the Father of Librarianship.

Over on Deadline Dames, the fabulous Lilith Saintcrow talks writerly solitude in By Yourself.

Elizabeth Moon tells you why Women Writers Are not Pets. She also does an excellent summary of the ramifications of the Gulf oil spill.

Oh, and Liz Williams has got a stunning deal for anyone wanting to read more of her fiction...

Mmmm, lovely!

Cool stuff!

Being a celebration of fun things genre on the inter-webs... :-)

First up: Alt Fiction!
Did you go? If, like me, you could not, here's the word from some peeps that did - Magemanda and Cheryl Morgan

And, lo, there were podcasts! The lovely Alt Fiction peeps will be bunging a new one up every Monday so you can listen to panels without leaving the comfort of your own bedroom/living room/office/beachside residence... So far there's Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell in conversation about all things horror; and Kim Lakin-Smith, Tim Lebbon, Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane talk Dark Fantasy vs Horror.

Had been a bit meh about the whole idea of podcasts, but podcasting conventions is definitely a cool way to experience the things you missed. Hope more conventions do it.

Shall now have to look out for more podcasts of stuff... and maybe listen to some of the Clarkesworld podcasts of their fiction... :-)

Talking of Clarkesworld... in their latest issue, they've got an interview of Caitlin R. Kiernan which is quite cool.

And going a few issues back, an absolute must read is Kari Sperring on The Celts (writing as her alternate self, Dr Kari Maund.)

Over on Strange Horizons, Cécile Cristofari writes about Aboriginal Lovecraft. Now there's two words I've not seen in the same sentence before!

Fantasy Magazine has a very interesting piece on Eastern Europe's Hidden Castles, by Aidan Doyle. Apparently "Eastern Europe is home to a vampire citadel, a fortress built by God and a castle whose herd of goats saved Christendom". Who knew?! :-)

If you haven't seen the new Robin Hood film yet, Mari Ness makes it easy for you...

Ekaterina Sedia talks about anthologies here.

Seanan McGuire's got a nifty story up on Edge of Propinquity:
Sparrow Hill Road - Last Dance with Mary Jane

And there's more Aztec goodness to be had from Aliette de Bodard in the latest Beneath Ceaseless Skies with Memories in Bronze, Feathers, and Blood

What's not to love! :-)