Saturday, 31 July 2010

RAY GUN REVIVAL: UPDATE


Issue 56

Dark Encounter
by James Hartley

The Battle Over Procyon
by James Coughtrey

The Green Planet
by Gordon Ross Lanser

Lifeline
by T.M. Hunter

The Vnimajici
by Caleb Jordan Schulz

Checker
by J.D. Williams

Of Machinery and Sea Life
by Pete Carter

JUPITER: UPDATE


Issue 29

July 2010


Features fiction from:

Rosie Oliver

Emma Knight

Mike Wood

Nigel Fisher

James Lecky


Cover art by Greg Hughes.

Friday, 30 July 2010

BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES: UPDATE




Issues now available in the Amazon Kindle Store

"Prashkina's Fire," by Vylar Kaftan
The nightmares had mostly stopped now, and my face only ached on hot days. I never looked at myself in the stream, so I wasn't sure what color the scars were, but my fingertips told me the skin was tough and dead. As for the rest, once I washed myself out with lemon juice, I just went on with my rituals in the temple, because someone had to. I tried not to remember.

"The Shades of Morgana," by Dean Wells
Sully could practically feel her glance brushing along his skin like silky smooth lips. It could, more to the point, the thing inside him, exploiting his senses as if they were its own. She stood and stretched, then strolled to the doors of carved tulgey wood that opened into the mews outside. Sully caught her fragrance, the scent of her feminine places, a smell of spice and rich dark petals of bloodleaf. "Sabrina? Don’t get too close."

BCS Audio Fiction Podcasts
The BCS Audio Fiction Podcasts will be taking a short hiatus in July, but they will return in August with audio stories by Vylar Kaftan, Erin Cashier, and more.

From the Archives:
"Blighted Heart," by Aliette de Bodard, from BCS #22
I felt the first cut like a violation. Pain burst in my chest, would not cease. I screamed and screamed until my voice was raw. No. No. I never asked for this! I saw a priest lift out a bloody, pulsating thing dizzyingly high above me, and a sensation of emptiness spread from the hole in my chest and swallowed me.

Friday, 16 July 2010

ABSENT WILLOW REVIEW: UPDATE



The Oracle by Ann Gimpel

Déjà vu by Michael Simon

The Owners by Christine Dougherty

Fire Wall by Kat Heckenbach



For the Love of Evil by Lorena Dorantes

Crude by Patrick Scalisi

House of Reflections by Eric Bonholtzer

The Cemetery Wraith by K. A. Opperman

Hell Sings Along by Maria Mitchell

SHORT-STORY ME

"We like hard genre fiction. That means crime, detective, fantasy, horror, mystery and science fiction. Some people call "Literary" a separate kind of short story, but it's not. Genre fiction today can be just as literary as any fiction in the way it develops characters, spotlights the human condition and is told with elegant style.

On the other hand, the story comes first. We like good, old-fashioned pot-boilers. Some publishers decry a twist ending as a gimmick. We disagree. There is nothing as fun as a surprise at the end of a story, as long as it fits logically into the narrative and is neither forced nor telegraphed. We don't publish romance, cozies, children's, poetry, erotica, polemics or non-fiction."

Thursday, 15 July 2010

BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES: UPDATE



"The Territorialist," by Yoon Ha Lee
"They will want you always," said Madame. "If you do not find a way to guard against them, they will pursue you. They love to destroy, and you make it possible for them to destroy again and again. If you are in their power, they can cut that page's throat again and again. You understand? They need not find something new to smash until they have wrung all the joy out of one toy, if you are with them. You must not let them take you."

"Throwing Stones," by Mishell Baker
The body was my own, and not my own. It was no mere trick for others’ eyes; my very joints seemed strung together more loosely, and my breasts ached under the tight bindings I had always worn. By the end of each night I had nearly adjusted to this female form, only to be wrenched back to my natural male one at the first whisper of dawn.

BCS Audio Fiction Podcasts
The BCS Audio Fiction Podcasts will be taking a short hiatus in July, but they will return in August with audio stories by Vylar Kaftan, Erin Cashier, and more.

From the Archives:
"Of Shifting Skin and Certainty," by Justin Howe, from BCS #26
Such is our addiction. Living formless is its own refuge--our skin-shifting a means of escape, to always have a new identity waiting in the tank for when the one we wear becomes overly tiresome and persistent. But the King no longer wearies of change, and has but one face now to show the world. And though it resembles candle wax, it remains. "That is my difference," he says.

http://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/

Wednesday, 14 July 2010

HUB: UPDATE


Issue 124

Fiction
The City by Keith Harvey

Feature
Cogs and Biros, Arts and Science

Reviews
Turn Coat
Retribution Falls
Dead Streets


Friday, 2 July 2010

DARK FIRE: UPDATE


July 2010
Fiction
Feature Story:
You Killed Me - Edward Vitolo
Clock Watchers - Lachlan David
A Change of Profession - Michael Haynes
Stranger on a Train - Lori M. Myers
The 4th of July - Derek Napoli
Belong (gone) - Clayton Stealback

Thursday, 1 July 2010

BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES: UPDATE


Issue #46 -- July 1, 2010

The Six Skills of Madame Lumiere
by Marissa Lingen
"They will want you always," said Madame. "If you do not find a way to guard against them, they will pursue you. They love to destroy, and you make it possible for them to destroy again and again. If you are in their power, they can cut that page's throat again and again. You understand? They need not find something new to smash until they have wrung all the joy out of one toy, if you are with them. You must not let them take you.".

The Isthmus Variation
by Kris Millering
The true story the Slow Game tells is depicted in the scenes that are enacted as we players meet in the maze and move towards the central tableau. The audience members meet with each other, share what they have seen and try to decipher the overall meaning. The Slow Game moves ceaselessly, a great beast that never seems to shift and yet is never in the same place twice.

Audio Fiction Podcast 041
Memories in Bronze, Feathers, and Blood
by Aliette de Bodard, from BCS #45
His pain is too much; we cannot hide any longer. In a flutter of copper wings, we descend from the pine tree, settle near Nezahual: the hummingbirds on his shoulders; the parrots on the stone rim of the fountain; the lone quetzal balancing itself on the handle of the broom.

From the Archives:
"Six Seeds," by Sara M. Harvey, from BCS #27
Of course, this was very nice for all the other women of the world, but not for me. For me, Dollies were the chore of my life: winding them, bathing them in oil, mending gears and joints, and keeping good care of their pricier parts which pleasured the men. I cannot say that I hated it, nor that I was fond of it, only that it was my task every single day to care for these immortal metal beauties.


HEROIC FANTASY QUARTERLY: UPDATE

Issue 5


ANCIENT SHADES
by James Lecky
Although the admission pains me, I must confess that, under certain circumstances, I am a man for whom the goods of others become a temptation. Had I given myself more time...

ALDROM
by Matthew Wuertz
The sun pulled away from me like a warm blanket as men led me up the wide steps. Someone’s cough echoed in the vast interior of wherever we were, and though curious, I left...

NO TWO STONES
by Christopher Wood
1. Now. Still I am the strongest! I am atop this hill on the Third Moon. Behind me, my soldiers struggle up the slope. I raise my iron sword over my head; it shines...

BEFORE THE BATTLE
by Vonnie Winslow Crist
On this witch-kissed morning, as I trudge northward, dampness frizzes my hair, worms its way into my joints. Beneath winter clouds draped like dark cloth above...

WHAT SIEGLINDE SERPENTSLAYER SAID TO...
by Megan Arkenberg
The truth, my lord, is that I am sick of monsters. I am sick of the smell of mountain aeries and brood caves, cool and salty-wet. I am...

http://www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com/