Quotation for the day
“Time was, when you went to the corner newsstand looking for your favorite science-fiction magazine, you had to poke your way through a few-score girlie sheets, a barrier of Confessions, mechanical, and how-to magazines—and then, if you were lucky, you might just find a battered copy of what you wanted. More often than not, it was upside-down and, often enough to make you gnash your teeth, it was last month’s issue, anyway. Stares, smiles, and—you suspected—jeers followed you out the store and all the way home, unless you happened to have a convenient newspaper into which you could tuck the magazine.
“Happily, today it’s different. Today the two dozen extant science fiction magazines—stf, in the terms of the trade—receive top priority at most newsstands, and the crowd at the corner is eager to discuss them with you.
“The science-fiction pulps and pocket-size magazines have quite suddenly become a respected form of escapist literature.
“Not long ago, you were home twirling the dials of your TV set. Westerns. Hackneyed murder mysteries. Variety shows ad infinitum. Quizzes and leering M.C.’s.
“Today, if you belong to the junior set, there’s Space Cadet and Captain Video and Flash Gordon. If you’ve outgrown knee-britches, there’s Eye Witness and Tales of Tomorrow as well as occasional science fiction on most of the better drama shows.
“That rapidly blossoming medium of entertainment, TV, has mated with that rapidly blossoming field of fiction, stf.”
—Milton Lesser, Looking Forward, 1953
Competition #76 — act fast!
The deadline for Competition #76 was five days ago, but our competition editor is traveling so you can still get an entry in if you act fast. Here’s the competition:
http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2008/competition0804.htm
Mel Hunter art
Longtime readers of F&SF will remember Mel Hunter’s covers. He’s probably known best for his series of covers about a lonely robot. (You can find links to a bunch of his covers here.)
Mel’s widow found two paintings of his that she’s trying to identify. She thinks they’re from the 1960s. Here they are. If you know where they were published, please speak up.
The giveaway copies are gone
All those copies have gone out to bloggers, so please don’t email us looking for one of the free issues.
I’m looking forward to seeing what the various bloggers make of the issue.
Get a Free Copy of the July 2008 Issue of F&SF
Over on the Forum, Gordon posted the following note:
We’re going to do a promotional giveaway with this issue. There’s a box of copies of this issue on its way to me and I’d like to give away the copies people who will blog about the issue. So here’s the deal:
1) Go to our "Contact Us" page: http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/contact.htm
2) Tell us where to mail your copy of the issue.
3) Receive the issue and blog about it. Naturally, we prefer if you read the issue before blogging about it, but I’m just insisting that you blog about it. (The first time we tried this promotion, people mistakenly thought they should blog about the magazine before receiving the issue. No. Get the issue first, then blog about it.)
4) Send us a link to your blog.
That’s all there is to it. I’ll post here when we run out of the giveaway copies.
Spread the word!
Slush
I took a picture of the slush pile from May 3 and May 5. This pile doesn’t include all the submissions—I skimmed about half a dozen off the pile before I took this shot.
F&SF, June 2008 now on sale
The June 2008 issue is now on sale. This issue features a new story by Al Michaud, and this month’s bonus web story is Michaud’s "Clem Crowder’s Catch," which is reprinted from our July 2003 issue.
Here’s the table of contents:
NOVELETS
- The Art of Alchemy – Ted Kosmatka
- The Salting and Canning of Benevolence – Al Michaud
- Litany - Rand B. Lee
SHORT STORIES
- Fergus – Mary Patterson Thornburg
- Character Flu – Robert Reed
- Monkey See… – P.E. Cunningham
DEPARTMENTS
- Books to Look For – Charles de Lint, covering The H-Bomb Girl, by Stephen Baxter; Black Magic Woman, by Justin Gustainis; Out of the Wild, by Sarah Beth Durst.
- Musing on Books – Michelle West, covering Dust, by Elisabeth Bear; God’s Demon, by Wayne Barlowe; Mister B. Gone, by Clive Barker.
- Coming Attractions
- Film: A Tale of Two Turkeys (Maybe Three) – Lucius Shepard, covering Cloverfield, The Orphanage, and I Am Legend.
- Curiosities – Paul Di Filippo, covering Return to the Future, by Diamandis Florakis (1973).
CARTOONS
- Arthur Masear
- Bill Long
- J.P. Rini
COVER
- David Hardy for "Litany"
Fantasy art sale
The Duirwaigh Gallery is moving, so they’re auctioning off fantasy art by the likes of Amy Brown, the Frouds, and Kinuko Craft at good prices. It looks like a good opportunity to pick up some art. Take a look at www.messagefromthemuse.com/duirwaigh.
May 11th is Review Matt Hughes Day
F&SF regular Matthew Hughes a free electronic copy of his new novel Template:
Special offer for reviewers, bloggers, newsgroup posters and people who just like to talk about books in public: in May, PS Publishing will release Template, a stand-alone Archonate novel that I consider to be my best work yet (even though it was written in 2003). I will send an rtf file of the book to anyone who commits to review, blog, post or otherwise harass the world about it. Just send me an e-mail at "himself(you know what symbol goes in here)archonate.com" and I’ll shoot you a copy.
James Nicoll, meanwhile, is trying to organize a review-a-thon:
I find it tremendously annoying that Hughes is not better known than he is. My cunning idea is that it might be fun if a bunch of reviewers on LJ should all agree to read and review Template on the same day. LJ doesn’t lend itself to the same kind of communal participation as rasfw but I think this could be worthwhile. Any volunteers? [Current Target Date: May 11th] I probably should have encouraged people to mention this on their blogs and livejournal accounts. Consider this said encouragement.
I also find it tremendously annoying that Hughes is not better known than he is. I read an advance copy of Template, and I have to say, it’s one of the best–if not the best–things Hughes has written to date. So please consider participating in the review-a-thon. Or just go out and order a copy!
The Ant King
I already did a Free Fiction Friday post on Benjamin Rosenbaum’s fiction, but now another of his stories is available as a free podcast from PodCastle: His F&SF debut, "The Ant King: A California Fairy Tale."
