Last year I had the good fortune to be an Associate Editor for Sybil’s Garage, a small press genre fiction magazine that I greatly admire. The magazine has quickly established itself as a source for great fiction under the leadership of Matthew Kressel. So when I was asked if I wanted to be an editor again this year, I had to say yes.

The reading period opens on January 15 and the guidelines have changed slightly:

Sybil’s Garage publishes a wide variety of speculative fiction, including traditional science fiction, fantasy and horror as well as more atmospheric/slipstream stories. For issue no. 7 we seek to cast a wider net and encourage contributors to send us both atmospheric/slipstream stories as well as those with traditionally strong plots and characters.

We also will look at stories with little or no speculative element, but with speculative tendencies (e.g. weird but not-necessarily supernatural.)

In addition, we are very interested in seeing stories written by and/or including varied ethnicities, social classes, and nationalities. We’d like to see more stories featuring under-utilized cultures and settings as well. Our editors and readers represent a variety of backgrounds and we’re always working to ensure that our publication reflects that as well.

Please send us your best work.

Full guidelines can be found here.

My short Twitter poem-ish piece just went up on Outshine. This is my first time trying something like this, but I was happy with the way it turned out. The idea was to try to come up with something that was near-future and optimistic SF, and that also fit into 140 characters or less. What will likely be my highest paying (per word at least) gig.

Sybil’s Garage No. 6

It’s my pleasure to help spread the word that the 6th issue of Sybil’s Garage is now available. I helped read for this issue and Matt Kressel, and the other editors, have done an amazing job of putting together the magazine. Less a magazine, this is more of a mini-anthology and well worth your time and money. Details are available at the website and there will also be copies for sale at Wiscon.

http://www.sensesfive.com/sg6.php

Table of Contents

Poetry
Liz Bourke —  “The Girl”
Donna Burgess —  “Ashes”
Lyn C. A. Gardner —  “God’s Cat”
Alex Dally MacFarlane —  “The Wat”
Susannah Mandel —  “Metamorphic Megafauna”
Tracie McBride —  “An Ill Wind”
Kristen McHenry —  “Museum”
Jaime Lee Moyer —  “One by Moonlight”
Daniel A. Rabuzzi —  “Backsight”
Michel Sauret  —  “Brick Wall Giants”
Michel Sauret  —  “Son of Man”
J.E. Stanley —  “City of Bridges”
Sonya Taaffe —  “Skiadas”
Marcie Lynn Tentchoff —  “Sun-Kissed”

Fiction
Rumjhum Biswas —  “Mother’s Garden”
K. Tempest Bradford —  “Élan Vital”
Autumn Canter —  “Day of the Mayfly”
Becca De La Rosa —  “Not the West Wind”
Eric Del Carlo —  “Come the Cold”
Jason Heller —  “The Raincaller”
Paul Jessup —  “Heaven’s Fire ”
Vylar Kaftan —  “Fulgurite”
Keffy R. M. Kehrli —  “Machine Washable”
Sean Markey —  “Waiting for the Green Woman”
James B. Pepe —  “I am Enkidu, his Wild Brother”
Simon Petrie —  “Downdraft”
Genevieve Valentine —  “The Drink of Fine Gentlemen Everywhere”
Stephanie Campisi —  “Drinking Black Coffee at the Jasper Grey Café”
Toiya Kristen Finley —  “Eating Ritual”
Donald Norum —  “An Old Man Went Fishing on the Sea of Red”

Non-Fiction
Interview with Paul Tremblay by Devin Poore

http://www.sensesfive.com/sg6.php

I mentioned this before, and at the risk of being shameless in my self-promotion, the Pirate Issue of Shimmer Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams, is still available (apparently) as a free download on the Shimmer website. Hey, it’s free fiction. If you don’t mind reading on a screen.

I just wanted to pass on a request from Beth Wodzinski of Shimmer Magazine for help. They are looking for a slush reader and a web assistant.

Full details can be found here.

I may be biased, Shimmer bought two stories from me, but they’re a great independent publication and though you wouldn’t get paid, you’d be helping keep a desperately needed market going.