Shimmer Wants Copyeditors

Shimmer is looking for some help in the copyediting dept. Publisher Beth Wodzinski says:

We’re looking for any extraordinary qualifications (beyond the usual extraordinary qualifications of copy editing). Detail-oriented, willing to look things up carefully, even if they seem very obvious and impossible to get wrong, familiar with Chicago manual, experience preferred. Unfortunately, it’s a volunteer position, but the work is usually not overly burdensome.

Interested parties should contact Beth Wodzinski at beth[at]shimmerzine.com.

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F&SF Giveaway!

F&SF is giving away copies of the Sept. 2007 issue to people who are willing to blog about it. Gordon sez:

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. (Last time we tried this promotion, people mistakenly thought they should blog about the magazine in order to receive the new issue. No. The idea is to blog about this issue, even if the whole blog entry is short. So instead of blogging “The cover sucks,” you’re supposed to write “The cover OF THE SEPTEMBER 2007 ISSUE sucks.”)

4) Send us a link to your blog.

5) If you already subscribe, please don’t request a copy, though of course you’re welcome to blog about it anyway. 

Here’s the table of contents:

NOVELETS

Wrong Number by Alexander Jablokov

Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers by John Langan

The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang

SHORT STORIES

Envoy Extraordinary by Albert E. Cowdrey

Atalanta Loses at the Interpantheonic Trivia Bee by Heather Lindsley

Requirements for the Mythology Merit Badge by Kevin N. Haw

If We Can Save Just One Child by Robert Reed 

We’ve got copies at the office already, so these would be mailed out as soon as we get your requests.

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F&SF July 2007: Favorite Story Poll

What was your favorite story in the July 2007 issue of F&SF? Cast your vote in the favorite story poll!

July 2007: Favorite Story Poll
VOTING HAS CLOSED

Selection  
Votes
Stars Seen Through Stone – Lucius Shepard 68% 26
Daughters of Prime – Lawrence C. Connolly 8% 3
Car 17 – P. E. Cunningham 13% 5
Cold Comfort – Ray Vukcevich 3% 1
PowerSuit – M. K. Hobson 5% 2
I wasn’t impressed with any of them. 3% 1
38 votes total

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Trivium & Protest the Hero

I was just discussing music with Paul Tremblay via email, and I noticed that Trivium has their instrumental nigh-masterpiece The Crusade up on their MySpace page. I demand you go listen to it. Look, it’s instrumental, okay? There’s no screaming vocals, just blistering, bad-ass guitar work.

Also, while you’re at it, check out the video for “Heretics & Killers” by Protest the Hero. It’s bizarre–it’s got the band dressed up as the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz, but they’re all in the real world and out of work. It really must be seen. Now, I’ll warn you all with delicate auditory sensibilities: They’re not nearly as accessible as the instrumental Trivium track, though they’ve also got some blistering, bad-ass guitar work.

Protest the Hero‘s rapidly becoming my favorite band, despite their limited amount of output thus far in their young careers. They seem to pilfer the conventions of various metal and punk subgenres, which when combined together form a unique sound. The instrumentation is complex, and so are the lyrics. Check out what it says about their album Kezia on Wikipedia:

Kezia is a “situationist requiem”, similar to a concept album in that it tells a story. It is an elegy of a young woman named Kezia, the supposed savior of mankind, and her execution that is thought to be able to save mankind from its poverty, after the killing of God. The story is chronicled in the perspective of three characters: The Prison Priest, The Prison Guard/Gunman, and Kezia herself. Each character is designated a section containing three songs, with a single retrospective finale concluding the album. The three characters represent an aspect of the bandmembers themselves, endowing artistic fingerprints to a deeply personal album.

Check out the lyrics too; they’re wild.

Incidentally, if anyone knows how to get a hold of PTH’s Search for Truth album, or any of the other songs listed under “other songs” on that lyrics page, let me know!

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Slush Reader Job Openings

When asked for advice, I always tell writers that one of the best things they can do is read lots of slush. Well, I just told this to someone recently, and he reasonably asked: Do you know of anyone who needs a slush reader? As it happens, I don’t, but perhaps someone out there does.

So how about it? Does anyone have need of a slush reader?

UPDATE: Actually, if you’re interested in *becoming* a slush reader, feel free to comment or email me also. I’ll play Slush Cupid for all, since I am kind of doing that anyway.

UPDATE 2: Okay, so it seems like I’m just making myself kind of a middleman here, receiving emails which I then forward to interested parties. How about I just post a note for whatever magazines are looking for readers? That way anyone who’s interested can contact them directly. I mean, unless I know you personally, what’s the point of involving me in this process? I’m happy to play Slush Cupid, but that’s probably more easily accomplished by just posting a notice about the open positions, wouldn’t you all agree?

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F&SF: September 2007

We got the first batch of the September 2007 issue of F&SF at the office the other day, which contains:

NOVELETS

Wrong Number by Alexander Jablokov

Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers by John Langan

The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang

SHORT STORIES

Envoy Extraordinary by Albert E. Cowdrey

Atalanta Loses at the Interpantheonic Trivia Bee by Heather Lindsley

Requirements for the Mythology Merit Badge by Kevin N. Haw

If We Can Save Just One Child by Robert Reed 

It’s kind of a special issue for me in a couple of ways:

  1. The John Langan story (which I’m reprinting in Wastelands) thanks me at the end, because Langan was inspired to write it for the original post-apocalyptic anthology I’d been trying to sell; also, Gordon mentions me and Wastelands in the header note.
  2. The Kevin N. Haw story is a new slush survivor.
  3. Heather Lindsley is the second F&SF publication of one of my slush survivors.
  4. I came up with the title for the Cowdrey story.
  5. And it’s got a Ted Chiang story in it, which doesn’t have anything to do with me, but it really, really rocks.

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Beggar Confronts Culture Shock

July 12 —

SF author Susan Palwick, whose novel The Necessary Beggar is a finalist for this year’s Mythopoeic Awards, told SCI FI Wire that is about a family from another dimension who are sent into exile after one of their members is convicted of a crime.

More …

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