FICTION
Black Betty by Nisi Shawl
Portrait of a Courtesan by Megan Arkenberg
The Last Recall by Mason Ian Bundschuh
Second Place by Sarah A. Drew
Zeppelin Follies by Cat Rambo
The Remote-Controlled Doggirl by Lara Ek
Beaumains by Jo Thomas
Young Lions by Zachary Jernigan
My Other Half by Maria Stanislav

POETRY
Stuck On a Boat With a Soccer Mom by Helen Estrada

As always, the stories and poem are free to read on the website. Please read, enjoy, and let the authors know what you think with a comment!

Just ONE WEEK FROM TODAY, Crossed Genres releases our anthology Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm!

Continuing the series of the authors’ personal experiences with subversion is Timothy T. Murphy, whose story “Received Without Content” appears in Subversion. In the following video he talks about campus activism.

Subversion will be released on Monday, December 5! We’ll share one more video of an author’s subversive story that day!

Earlier Videos:
Jessica Reisman: Perspective
Kay T. Holt: The Pajama Revolution!
Barbara Krasnoff: Three Stories

It’s just two weeks until Crossed Genres releases our anthology Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm!

Continuing the series of the authors’ personal experiences with subversion is Jessica Reisman, whose story “A Thousand Wings of Luck” appears in Subversion. In the following video she talks about a 5-year-old’s “Perspective”.

Subversion will be released on Monday, December 5! More videos of authors’ subversive stories will be released each week until then!

Earlier Videos:
Kay T. Holt: The Pajama Revolution!
Barbara Krasnoff: Three Stories

It’s just three weeks until Crossed Genres releases our anthology Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm!

Continuing the series of the authors’ personal experiences with subversion is Kay T. Holt, whose story “Parent Hack” appears in Subversion. In the following video she tells about her office subversion in “The Pajama Revolution”.

Subversion will be released on Monday, December 5! More videos of authors’ subversive stories will be released each week until then!

“BROKEN SLATE is unexpectedly engrossing, with enough strength of character at its core to drag one along its richly carved path of violence, sex, submission, and rebellion. Martin is a compelling character, whose palpable determination not to be crushed by systemic cruelty and harsh circumstance leaves one looking forward to more of his story.”
– Camille Alexa, Endeavor Award-nominated author of Push of the Sky

Here’s a sneak peek at the cover!

Table of Contents:
“La Gorda and the City of Silver” by Sabrina Vourvoulias
“The Tradeoff” by Lauren Teffeau
“Cartography, and the Death of Shoes” by AJ Fitzwater
“Survivor” by Josh Roseman
“The Right Stuffed” by Brian Jungwiwattanaporn
“Tangwystl the Unwanted” by Katharine Elmer
“Flesh of My Flesh” by Bonnie Ferrante
“How Do You Want To Die?” by Rick Silva
“Nemesis” by Nicole Prestin
“Davy” by Anna Dickinson
“Sharks & Seals” by Jennifer Brozek
“Marilee and the SOB” by Barbara Krasnoff
“Blueprints” by Anna Caro
“Lift” by Pete ‘Patch’ Alberti

It’s less than a month until Crossed Genres releases our anthology Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm!

We thought we’d share some of the authors’ personal experiences with subversion. First in the series is Barbara Krasnoff, whose story “The Red Dybbuk” appears in Subversion. In the following video she tells three stories from her own life: “:”Magazine Ethics”, “College Interview” and “School Days”.

Subversion Will be released on Monday, December 5! More videos of authors’ subversive stories will be released each week until then!

Jezebel’s Blouse by Timothy T. Murphy

Jason’s Shoes by Richard Bist

The Execution of Zacharius Grubb by Bethan Claire Price

Chasing Persephone by Natalie Stachowski

Worse Than a Devil by Sarina Dorie

Please read, enjoy, and let the authors know what you think with a comment!

For the big, close-out issue (#36), CG wants work exploring what it means to be DIFFERENT – who and what decides or defines our differences, and why; what sets us apart and how can differences bring us together?

For this issue, we are open to all types of media. Previously we haven’t accepted poetry, or podcasts, or photography; now we are. We’ll even consider longer or shorter pieces of writing. (maximum 10,000 words though!) This will make the final issue – well, different from anything we’ve published before.

And we’re looking for as diverse a body of submissions as possible to choose from! We want submissions with characters of color, quiltbag characters, disabled characters, elderly or child M/C’s. We want underrepresented perspectives!

If you’re a writer, an artist, a photographer – if you have something you think will help us portray Different – please consider sending it in. Help us to make the final issue of Crossed Genres Magazine something truly special – help us close it out with a BANG!

Sabrina Vourvoulias is a Latina newspaper editor, blogger and writer. She grew up in Guatemala, moved to the United States when she was 15, and studied writing at Sarah Lawrence College with Allan Gurganus.

In addition to numerous articles and editorial columns in newspapers in Pennsylvania and New York state, her work has been published in Dappled Things, Graham House Review, La Bloga’s Floricanto, Poets Responding to SB 1070, Scheherezade’s Bequest at Cabinet des Fees, We’Moon, Crossed Genres #24, the anthology Crossed Genres Year Two, and is slated to appear in upcoming issues of Bull Spec and GUD magazine, as well as Crossed Genres’ Fat Girl in a Strange Land anthology.

Her blog Following the Lede is nominated for a Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) award for “Best Inspirational Latin@ Blogger”.

She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter. Follow her antics on Twitter @followthelede.

INK will be published in print and ebook formats in the third quarter of 2012.

“La Gorda and the City of Silver” by Sabrina Vourvoulias
“The Tradeoff” by Lauren Teffeau
“Cartography, and the Death of Shoes” by Amanda Fitzwater
“Survivor” by Josh Roseman
“The Right Stuffed” by Brian Jungwiwattanaporn
“Tangwystl the Unwanted” by Katharine Elmer
“Flesh of My Flesh” by Bonnie Ferrante
“How Do You Want To Die?” by Rick Silva
“Nemesis” by Nicole Prestin
“Davy” by Anna Dickinson
“Sharks & Seals” by Jennifer Brozek
“Marilee and the SOB” by Barbara Krasnoff
“Blueprints” by Anna Caro
“Lift” by Pete ‘Patch’ Alberti

Cover art by Lili Ibrahim.

Fat Girl in a Strange Land will be released on Friday, February 17, 2012 at Boskone.

Hi to all CGP fans!

In September, we passed the three year mark since Crossed Genres was formed. Back then it was only a magazine, with few resources and almost no visibility. But since then, that little zine has grown into Crossed Genres Publications, a small press publishing not just the zine, but also anthologies, collections and novels. We also spun off the Science in My Fiction blog, ran a big SiMF short story contest, ran two successful Kickstarter campaigns, and consistently reach thousands of people each month.

As we approached our three-year mark, we talked a lot in Crossed Genres HQ about CG’s future, our successes and failures, and the direction we want to take. Ultimately we concluded that our focus was shifting pretty clearly towards our novel and anthology publications: With two novels and an anthology published in the past 10 months, two more anthologies arriving by February, and more books in the works, it’s fairly obvious to us. Even the zine was moved from monthly print/ebook/online publications to only being online monthly, with the print and ebook editions collected into Quarterlies (each easily the length of a full anthology).

We also talked about how our attention always seemed to be spread thin across many different projects and responsibilities. While we delegated some of our tasks to our wonderful volunteer staff, we felt that we weren’t able to give each project all the attention it deserved.

After a much consideration, a lot of analysis and a fair bit of hemming and hawing, we’ve decided that we need to make some changes to Crossed Genres Publications. We want to narrow CGP’s focus and dedicate ourselves wholly to the areas we maintain and promote.

Because of that decision, it’s with a great deal of sadness that we announce that Crossed Genres Magazine will be closing after the conclusion of its third year. Issue 36 (Submissions in October, publication in December) will be the final issue; Quarterly 4 (Publication in January 2012) will be the final quarterly.

We’ve been thinking about the potential of closing the magazine for a long time (over a year). Interest in the zine has declined some, and while there’s still a core of followers, readership has been shrinking, not growing. That, combined with the time and resources necessary to keep it running, means that it simply doesn’t make sense to keep the zine any longer.

It makes us sad – the zine is what started CG and we still love it. But just so we’re clear: We do NOT see the closure of the zine as a bad thing. We’re not doing it because of financial problems, or the lack of desire to run another fundraiser, or because we’ve grown sick of it. We’re doing it because we truly believe that CG magazine has run its course and has reached the point where it’s ready to be retired. We don’t believe it should go out on a sour note, but with a round of cheers for the unquestionable success it had. The zine put us in the position where we can make this transition and keep our publishing company going, albeit in a new direction.

With this in mind, we want the zine’s send-off to be exceptional. We’re currently accepting submissions for the final issue (submissions close on October 31). As with previous years, the final issue of the year will be an extra-large issue. The theme for the issue is DIFFERENT – what it means to be different; who and what decides or defines our differences, and why; what sets us apart and how can differences bring us together?

For this issue, we are open to all types of media. Previously we haven’t accepted poetry, or podcasts, or photography; now we are. We’ll even consider longer or shorter pieces of writing. (maximum 10,000 words though!) This will make the final issue – well, different from anything we’ve published before.

And we’re looking for as diverse a body of submissions as possible to choose from! We want submissions with characters of color, quiltbag characters, disabled characters, elderly or child M/C’s. We want underrepresented perspectives!

If you’re a writer, an artist, a photographer – if you have something you think will help us portray Different – please consider sending it in. Help us to make the final issue of Crossed Genres Magazine something truly special – help us close it out with a BANG!

Thank you so much to everyone who’s supported Crossed Genres with such dedication over the past three years. We hope that you’ll stick with us as we publish new things, and we promise to put all our energy and passion into making those new publications as exciting and impressive as you’ve come to expect from us.

Best,

Bart & Kay
Publishers, Crossed Genres Publications

The Fire by Timothy T. Murphy

Inhuman Resources by William Gerke

Waiting in the Light in the Hungry Months by Megan Engelhardt

Skin and Scales by Rachel Bender

Monsters Monsters Everywhere by Carrie Cuinn

Please read, enjoy, and let the authors know what you think with a comment!

Tomorrow is also the last day that we’re taking submissions for issue 35 of Crossed Genres Magazine: DARK COMEDY. Give your sense of humor teeth – and let them bite something in the ass. More on the Current Genre page.

Goodreads Giveaway for ARC copies of SUBVERSION ends!
Our upcoming anthology Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm will be released on Monday, December 5, but you could get an advance reading copy almost 2 months early! 3 copies are available – sign up on Goodreads for your chance to win. The Giveaway ends Friday!

Last day to submit to Fat Girl in a Strange Land!
We’re seeking science fiction and fantasy short stories with positive fat female protagonists going places they’ve never been before, for our upcoming anthology Fat Girl in a Strange Land! 2000-6000 words. More details on the submission page. (Expected publication February 2012.) Submissions CLOSE on Friday!

Last day to submit to CG Magazine issue 35: Dark Comedy!
We’re also taking submissions for issue 35 of Crossed Genres Magazine: DARK COMEDY. Give your sense of humor teeth – and let them bite something in the ass. More on the Current Genre page. Submissions CLOSE on Friday!

Crossed Genres Quarterly 3 release!
Saturday is the release of CG Magazine’s Quarterly 3! Each month of Crossed Genres Magazine combines Science Fiction & Fantasy with a new theme. Quarterly 2 contains Issues 31 (Heroes & Heroines), 32 (Sidekicks & Minions) and 33 (Villains), plus exclusive new content! Q3 will be available in print and various ebook formats.

Crossed Genres Issue 34: Monsters release!
Also releasing on Saturday the 1st is the latest issue of Crossed Genres: the MONSTERS issue! Featuring 5 creepy, disturbing and touching stories from authors Timothy T. Murphy (“The Fire”), William Gerke (“Inhuman Resources”), Megan Engelhardt (“Waiting in the Light in the Hungry Months”), Rachel Bender (“Skin and Scales”) and Carrie Cuinn (“Monsters, Monsters, Everywhere”).

Crossed Genres Magazine double-sized issue 36: DIFFERENT open to submissions!
Saturday marks the opening of our submissions period for our oversized 36th issue to end the 3rd year of Crossed Genres Magazine. This month, we want stories about people, places & things that are DIFFERENT. Show us how being different makes a difference. Explore what it means to be different: who and what decides or defines our differences, and why? What sets us apart and how can differences bring us together? This is a big, exciting issue and we want it to be our most special ever. Please flood us with submissions! Subs close on Halloween! (10/31)

Phew! So many new things to read, and to write for! Please help us spread the word about these Giveaways, Deadlines & Releases – they’re almost here!

To enter, visit the GoodReads page and click Enter to Win! The Giveaway is open through Friday the 30th, so don’t wait!

Q3 will be released on October 1, but here is a quick peek at the Q3 cover:

Cover art: “The End of a Legend” by J. Edwin Stevens

More about Quarterly 3 here!

The Fire in Your Sky by Ibi Zoboi

Baba Yaga Knows All, Sees All by Sarah A. Drew

Just Lucky, I Guess by Tom Dillon

Sing For Me by Ben O’Neill

Just Passing Through by Stoney M. Setzer

Please read, enjoy, and let the authors know what you think with a comment!

Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm is an anthology of stories about striking back at the status quo – whatever that might be. The Authority can be real or perceived; the act of subversion subtle or overt; and the consequences minute yet significant, or immense and world-shaking.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Jennifer Brozek – Foreword
Jessica Reisman – “A Thousand Wings of Luck”
Camille Alexa – “And All Its Truths”
Melissa S. Green – “Pushaway”
Daniel José Older – “Phantom Overload”
Kelly Jennings – “Cold Against the Bone”
Barbara Krasnoff – “The Red Dybbuk”
Natania Barron – “Pushing Paper in Hartleigh”
Kay T. Holt – “Parent Hack”
Jean Johnson – “The Hero Industry”
Cat Rambo – “Flicka”
Shanna Germain – “Seed”
RJ Astruc & Deirdre M. Murphy – “Scrapheap Angel”
C.A. Young – “The Dragon’s Bargain”
Wendy N. Wagner – “A Tiny Grayness in the Dark”
Timothy T. Murphy – “Received Without Content”
Caleb Jordan Schulz – “To Sleep With Pachamama”

Cover art: “New Generation of Leaders” by Brittany Jackson

Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm will be published on Monday, December 5, 2011. More publication information is available on the Subversion title page.

Review copies of Subversion are now available. To request a review copy or for more information, please contact Bart R. Leib at publicity@crossedgenres.com.

La Rosa Still in Bloom by Beth Cato

The Only Friend You Ever Need by M. Shaw

Sidewinder by H. J. Hill

The Arrangement by Ross Willard

Fealty by Stoney M. Setzer

Please read, enjoy, and let the authors know what you think with a comment!

Taken from his family’s merchant ship at the age of fourteen, Martin Eduardo endured years in the brutal contract labor system on the planet Julian. Now a contract rebellion brews.

The precarious – and emotionally costly – safety Martin had found with his seventh contract holder is put at risk by another holder, Jeno Lord Harper, who seeks to use Martin for his own aims. Years in the system have demonstrated what happens to contracts who fight back; Martin knows resistance will prove dangerous.

As the contract labor uprising gains momentum, and as he grows more acquainted with those involved in the rebellion, Martin begins to suspect that, although the consequences of disobedience are grim – even fatal – the consequences of obedience might be worse.

Endeavor Award-nominated author Cat Rambo calls Broken Slate “…tense and compelling. I couldn’t put it down till I hit the last page.”

BROKEN SLATE releases on Friday, July 15 in print and ebook. CGP is hosting a release party at ReaderCon in Burlington, MA from 7pm to 9:30pm in the Boston Marriott Burlington. There will be food and drink, and authors published by Crossed Genres will have readings of their works. All are welcome!

For Release Day, Crossed Genres Publications is making a big push to get Broken Slate improved visibility on Amazon & other online sites. Please consider helping CGP bring this incredible novel to a wider audience, and purchase a copy on release day!

FOR MORE INFO OR TO MAKE A PURCHASE PLEASE VISIT THE BROKEN SLATE WEBSITE.

The party will now also feature readings! CGP alums Camille Alexa, Barbara Krasnoff and Don Pizarro will all read from stories CGP has published. There may be more writers depending on timing and availability.

The price of admission is still the low low cost of a tweet (or blog post, or Facebook update) about Broken Slate. All are welcome!

The hair will be donated to Wigs For Kids. Go read the post & let him know if you’ll buy a copy of Broken Slate this Friday to turn him bald!

And in honor of the release, we’re having a release party! Two very generous ReaderCon attendees have agreed to let us use their hotel room at the Marriott to host the party. (HUGE thanks to John Stevens & roommate!)

The party will be from 7pm to 9:30pm on Friday night. Come for part or all, mooch the free food, meet us and hear more about Broken Slate & CGP. There may also be a reading, & more fun stuff. Price of admission: a tweet (or blog post, or Facebook update) about Broken Slate. Simple!

All are welcome!

Life Line by Sandra M. Odell

Trapped Inside of Good by Adam King

Kinetica by Rachel Bender

Yerushalom by S. Ali

The Foolish Samurai by M. Shaw

Please read, enjoy, and let the authors know what you think with a comment!

In addition to finishing his Ph.D. in toxicology, Casey is the editor of Port Iris Magazine. He is also an amateur web developer and operates multiple websites, including ISFPA.com and his department’s website at his university.

Casey will be handling ebook creation for the various titles produced by CGP and Science in My Fiction. Welcome aboard, Casey!

Go here to watch the video and ask a question!

To take advantage of this deal, go to Createspace and add Quarterly 1 and Quarterly 2 to your cart. Then enter the code 48XQ2TCF in the Discount Code field. As simple as that! Save almost $10 off the regular price!

This deal is only good through the end of Friday June 3, so act now!

Crossed Genres Quarterly 2 contains issues 28 (Superhero), 29 (Mystery) and 30 (Luck). It also has exclusive new fiction:

“Return to Impact” by Billy Wong
“The Tower” by Gray Rinehart
“Fluke” by Paul Dixon

…plus original cover art, “Cat on the Road” by Rodolfo Reyes.

CG-Q2 is available in print and ebook. Please visit the website to find out where/how to get it, and please consider purchasing a copy!

~ Fat Girl in a Strange Land ~

In line with our mission to publish progressive speculative fiction, we’re opening for submissions to our Fat Girl in a Strange Land anthology. For it, we’re seeking science fiction and fantasy short stories with fat female protagonists going places they’ve never been before.

Fat can’t just be a passing detail of the main character’s physical description. It should have an impact on the plot and character development. Just like in real life, fat should be an asset or a liability, or even more realistically, both over time.

Fat shouldn’t be the only thing the main character has going on. She has a life, responsibilities, and plans. Strange Land could be part of that, or it could interfere with that (or both), but either way, the consequences will affect her life globally.

Because Strange Land stories are adventures, there should be risk involved. The stakes should be high for her, just like they are for all adventurers. Also, the Strange Land may or may not be a physical location. It could take the form of a major shift in perspective, or some other dramatic alteration of her existing landscape.

Although speculative fiction is all about navigating uncharted territory, fat remains a relatively unexplored frontier. With Fat Girl in a Strange Land, we’re taking fat places it’s never been before.

DEADLINE

The deadline for submissions is Friday, September 30, 2011.

GUIDELINES

• 2,000-6,000 words
• Science fiction and/or fantasy
• The main character must be an overweight (by the standards of the story’s world) girl or woman (any age).
• The main character must encounter or in some way experience a realm that’s unfamiliar to her.
• Single-spaced, extra line between paragraphs. Use italics for italics, bold for bold, etc. Please use a standard font like Times New Roman or Arial. (no Courier please!)
• No simultaneous submissions. No reprints. Multiple submissions are okay.
• Submit stories via the submission form.

COMPENSATION & RIGHTS

Accepted stories will receive a flat $10 payment via Paypal. We take exclusive world ebook and print rights for 1 year, then non-exclusive rights for 1 additional year.

1. CROSSED GENRES #30: LUCK RELEASED
2. CG MAGAZINE RE-OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS
3. CGP TITLES NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH EBOOK RETAILERS
4. SCIENCE IN MY FICTION CONTEST 2011: OFFWORLD
5. READERCON

CROSSED GENRES #30: LUCK RELEASED

CG Magazine’s 30th issue is out! There are 5 remarkable stories of LUCK to read for free on the website:

How the Goddess Came to Spring Flowering Valley by Andrew Penn Romine
Little Magic by Tom Howard
Luck Be a Lady by Amy Sundberg
Paid by DeAnna Knippling
I Can’t Imagine by Sandra Wickham

Please read, enjoy, and let the authors know what you think with a comment!

CG MAGAZINE RE-OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS

We are once again open to submissions to the monthly magazine!

The May theme is Heroes & Heroines! Please read the submission guidelines here.

CGP TITLES NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH EBOOK RETAILERS

Titles from Crossed Genres Publications from now on will be available via all the major online ebook retailers!

Our 4 current major titles:

• A Festival of Skeletons by RJ Astruc
• Crossed Genres Quarterly 1
• Crossed Genres Year One
• Crossed Genres Year Two

…are now all available from Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble PubIt and Apple iBookstore, and will soon be available from Sony, Kobo and more!

All future titles, including Crossed Genres Quarterly 2 (Release: 6/1/11) and Kelly Jennings’ Broken Slate (Release: 7/15/11), will be available through the same channels.

For more information about our titles & distribution please visit our catalog.

SCIENCE IN MY FICTION CONTEST 2011: OFFWORLD

The Science in My Fiction blog has officially announced the 2nd annual short story contest! Short stories between 2,000-6,000 words will be considered by our judges panel:

• Tobias Buckell – Author (NYT Bestselling novel Halo: The Cole Protocol)
• Liz Gorinsky – Hugo-nominated editor, Tor Books & Tor.com
• Cameron McClure – Agent, Donald Maass Literary Agency
• Joan Slonczewski – Campbell Award-winning author; Professor of Biology
• Lavie Tidhar – Author (The Bookman, Camera Obscura)

The winning story will be paid professional rates (5 cents per word) for the story to be published in the 2011 Science in My Fiction anthology! Prizes for 2nd and 3rd places too!

This year there’s an additional twist: All stories must be set off Earth! Please read the submission guidelines for more details. Submissions will be accepted from June 1 through August 31.

READERCON

Speaking of Crossed Genres Quarterly 2 and Broken Slate: Both will be available at ReaderCon, where CGP will have a table in the Bookshop! ReaderCon will see the official release of Broken Slate in print and ebook!

We have so much more coming over the next several months, but we’re not quite ready to announce any of it! Expect more excitement in the near future!

How the Goddess Came to Spring Flowering Valley by Andrew Penn Romine

Little Magic by Tom Howard

Luck Be a Lady by Amy Sundberg

Paid by DeAnna Knippling

I Can’t Imagine by Sandra Wickham

Please read, enjoy, and let the authors know what you think with a comment!

(Also of note: CG has now reopened for submissions. Current genre: Heroes/Heroines.)

Despite this, yesterday we received a short story submission. It was sent through the form, which means the author either completely missed the obvious message or ignored it. At any rate, this morning we sent back a short reply:

As it states clearly above the submission form, Crossed Genres Magazine is closed to submissions during the month of April.

And about one hour later, the author sent back this reply:

As my actions state in with far more clarity, I don’t give a fuck.

We were under the impression that when someone sends us a story, they hope to get it published. Clearly in this instance that’s not the case, since this author is obviously trying to guarantee that we’ll never publish them.

We received the following email in response to this post (reprinted with no changes):

Bart,

I looked at your page again to see how i missed such a clearly stated fact, that appears as you put it, “above the submission form”. Maybe the problem is that you don’t know the difference between ABOVE and BELOW.

You should have gotten snotty with whoever placed that notification BELOW the submission form, not me. In case you’re unaware, most website pages are read from the top down. Look at your submissions page, genius. First comes all the info you need, then there’s the submission form, and after you’ve pressed that button and you’re going through the trouble to submit something to a snotty fuck like yourself, the notice you claim sits above everything still waits on the bottom of the last page visited. It’s in the wrong place, dickface…

To be clearly stated, a statement must appear in the right place. A street-sign laying in the bushes might read perfectly well, bit it is not clearly marking any street, is it?

So eat a dick as punishment for that snotty letter. That’s your penance.

We’re looking for completed speculative fiction manuscripts of 50,000-100,000 words. Advances and royalties for accepted titles, to be published in print and ebook formats.

Please visit the novel submissions page for more details. Send us your best, brightest and most challenging novels! (We especially want to see novels with under-represented groups as MCs.)

In the House of the Brelsh
by Barbara Krasnoff

Soul of the City
by Jamie Mason

The Body and the Bomb
by John P. Murphy

Down There
by Aaron Polson

The Peculiar People
by Erik T. Johnson

Enjoy, and please leave a comment or two telling the authors what you thought of their work!

We’ve decided to make a small adjustment to Crossed Genres Magazine’s schedule. Crossed Genres is closed for submissions for the month of April. Submissions will re-open on May 1. Genres for the rest of the year are now posted on the Current Genre page. The next 3 upcoming genres will be: Heroes/Heroines, Sidekicks/Minions, and Villains.

This is something we’ve been thinking about for some time. CGM’s publishing year has always been one month off from the calendar year, with the final issue of a year of the zine being published in November. This adjustment will shift that year’s final issue to December, aligning CGM’s schedule with the calendar year.

This will also serve to give us our first break from submissions in over 2 1/2 years! And give our slush readers a well-deserved respite.

Issue #29 (Mystery) will be released within the next couple of days, and Issue #30 (Luck) will be released on May 1. There will be no issue released in June (*gasp!*), but the second Quarterly will be released June 1! Then our releases will resume their regular monthly schedule on July 1.

We apologize for the abruptness of this change – it took us by surprise too, in all honesty. But it’s a welcome alteration that will help us run CG more smoothly. Thanks for being patient!

However, since we switched to the quarterly format for our print editions, things are a bit different. And after crunching some numbers we’ve found that, if there’s enough initial interest, we may finally be able to offer print subscriptions!

We would need a fair number of people to sign up at the beginning, so we’d like to hear if this is something you’d jump on:

1 year of Crossed Genres Magazine: 4 quarterly print editions, mailed to you. Each quarterly contains all the online content, plus exclusive content only available in the quarterly print & ebook releases. You would get a full year of CGM, and then some.

We’re looking at a price point around $30, shipping included. This is US-only – unfortunately we’ve yet to figure out a way to do international shipping for a reasonable price. We’ll keep working on international options!

So please tell us, in the comments, on Twitter or via email, if you’d buy a subscription like the one described above. If enough people express interest, we’ll make it happen!

UPDATE 10:30am, 3/25/11: There’s been some decent interest so far – we’d still like to hear from you! There’s also been some interest expressed in an ebook subscription, so let us know what you think of:

1 Year of Crossed Genres Magazine: 4 quarterly ebook editions. The exact same material as the print editions described above, but as ebooks. Each issue would come in 7 different ebook formats (EPUB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PDF and PRC) covering pretty much every ebook reader, tablet, mobile, and computer. Each quarter we would email you a Dropbox link that would let you download the new Quarterly. This would be at a price point of about $10 for the whole year.

Obviously the ebook subscription would be a good alternative for international readers. Interested? Let us know!

It had been an ice storm, followed by a thaw and a freeze. Deja set him to clear the gutters, miserable, useless work, since he had to pry ice off grime and stone, and since the weather link said another thaw was due the next day. Martin didn’t mind. It kept him out of the house, away from Deja and his temper. Also, apart from the cold and the wet, it was far from the worst job he had been handed that month. It was late afternoon and he had reached the gutters behind the house, in the alley, when the day abruptly got worse.

He heard the gate open. He was digging at a stubborn chunk of ice and didn’t look up at once. Someone was coming toward him, though. He straightened off the spade. Deja, and another man. Martin wasn’t certain if this was a holder at first. He wore cheap clothing – not contract clothing, but cheap – and his hair was badly cut. He studied Martin with contempt. “Doesn’t look like much.”

Deja laughed. “Did I say he was?”

Martin felt a trickle of fear go through his belly. He gave Deja a quick glance. Deja had been waiting for it, he saw. Martin looked at the ground. Fuck, he thought.

“Come on, you,” the other man said. “Martin?”

“Martin,” Deja agreed cheerily. “He’s stubborn and stupid. You’re going to need to use the stick if you want him to listen.”

“Move, you,” the man said.

Martin put the shovel against the alley wall and followed him. No time to speak to Pia. No time to get a message to Harper. No time for anything.

Chapter 16 and the epilogue of Kelly Jennings’ novel Broken Slate is now on the website! The dramatic conclusion is finally here!

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind. Broken Slate has now been serialized in its entirety online for free.

Crossed Genres Publications will be publishing Broken Slate in print and ebook in July 2011.

Go here to read the conclusion! Or you can start at the beginning.

Read a short story about Martin Eduardo, published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres: Lunch Money.

["Drag Queen Astronaut" is] a wonderful exploration (and ultimately an affirmation) of a gender presentation that tends to be ignored or ridiculed.

The winner was Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic. The announcement & Honor List are both posted on the Tiptree website.

Congratulations to Sandra, and to the winner and all the Honor List authors!

“These are excellent and entertaining stories. All are well-written and could even be a guide for aspiring authors who are wondering what sort of stories could help get them published in contemporary speculative magazines. The folks at Crossed Genres tend to focus on powerful writing. Often, the mood takes over the story itself and is driven home by the prose.”

Griffiths touches briefly on each story in the anthology. It’s a good review! Go here to read the entire review.

(And for those interested, the ebook of Crossed Genres Year Two is half its original price now: only $1.99!)

All ebooks sold through the CGP website are still bundles with 7 DRM-free formats: EPUB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PDF and PRC.

Please visit the CGP store to see the new pricing. And please support CGP by picking up a (now less expensive but still just as awesome) ebook!

Deja took them back to Durbin, putting Martin in the below-stairs dorm there and giving him the worst work in the house, to impress upon him and everyone else how low Martin had sunk. He didn’t speak to Martin otherwise, except when he came around to tell him about the bids he had gotten on Martin’s contract he wasn’t planning to accept. By the evening of the third day, Martin had it clear: Deja wasn’t selling his contract anywhere decent, or to anyone sane.

The afternoon of the fifth day, he was shoveling compost when Deja came from the house and walked off toward the university. Martin watched him leave. Then he stowed the shovel and cleaned up best he could at the garden pump – as the weather was just above freezing, this wasn’t well. He did what he could. Then he went out the back gate.

He walked quickly along the gravel lane between the garden walls, his hands pushed into the pockets of his overshirt — standard contract clothing, which Deja had him wearing now, didn’t run to coats. But he had been working hard, so he was warm enough, though likely a bit smelly. That wouldn’t help his case.

After walking a good distance, he came to the gate, pushed up the latch, and went inside. This garden was nicer than Deja’s: apple and plum trees, moss over rocks. He liked the rocks, and slowed to look at them. The house was also bigger than the one Deja had been assigned, and in better shape. He wiped his boots on the straw mat by the steps, climbed up onto the porch, and knocked at the scullery door.

The kitchen girl who answered did not like his looks. When he told her who he wanted to see, she was even less pleased. But he was firm in his tone, and he used holder grammar; he told her what to do it, and she did it. He wasn’t the only cot who had been taught to obey.

Harper sat in his study, in a big armchair before the fire, handheld against his knee. His shrewd gaze ran over the bruises on Martin’s face. “I heard you’d had trouble with Strauss. Been a nasty kitten?”

Chapter 15 of Kelly Jennings’ novel Broken Slate is now on the website! This is the penultimate chapter of the novel! The final chapter and Epilogue will be posted on March 22!

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind. Broken Slate is being serialized online for free. It updates every other Tuesday.

Go here to read the new chapter! Or you can start at the beginning.

Read a short story about Martin Eduardo, published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres: Lunch Money.

I met Patrick Rothfuss at Daisho Con last November. He was very approachable; while some of the other guests were happy to do their panels and return to their rooms, Pat lingered. When my friend Chris asked him to join our group for dinner at Perkin’s, he accepted. Later, he and I sat in the Ramada’s lobby and shot the breeze for a couple hours.

Mr. Rothfuss leads a busy life, especially so over the last few months – as his blog will attest. He has been very busy with writing, a charity project (all proceeds going to Heifer International), preparing for a signing tour, and caring for his family. In the midst of all this, he found a little time to let me impose on his schedule just to hang out and chat over tea.

In one of our early conversations, Pat mused on writing high fantasy. Without quoting directly, the effect of what he said was this: high fantasy is two or three generations down from Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings, which set a standard that has been imitated ever since. One of Rothfuss’s goals in writing The Kingkiller Chronicles was to deviate from that, and one of the key areas was how money is dealt with in the story. Tolkien never mentions money because, as a member of the upper class, discussing money was tacky. In The Name of The Wind, money is a huge factor in the story, and has critical effects on the plot.

With attention to detail like this, how could I not want to pick this man’s brain?

On my last visit, I mentioned my lovely CG editor had asked if he’d be willing to do a short interview.

Pat agreed.

Here are the results.

1) In any series, each book has a certain ‘feel’ to its story — either a shift in theme for each book, or a shift in focus for that arc of the story. How would you describe the difference in feel between The Name of The Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear?

The first book was the story of a young boy. The second book is the story of a young man. There’s a big difference between the two. In Name of the Wind, Kvothe was mostly trying to survive. In The Wise Man’s Fear, he’s more in control of his life, that means the story can focus more on exploration and discovery.

Another big difference is in the scope of the story. You see more of the world. You experience more of the culture. There’s more action. More sex. More violence.

2) In which ways have the events of your life shaped The Kingkiller Chronicles?

Care to narrow that down a bit? That’s sort of like saying, “So, you’re a man. How has that influenced your life?”

2a) Are there specific experiences in your life which are reflected in the story of The Kingkiller Chronicles?

Specific experiences? No. I’ve read books that do that sort of thing, and they’re usually awful. Stories where the author is obviously working out some of their personal issues rarely turn out well in my opinion.

Now the truth is, writing is a great way to deal with a lot of difficult emotional issues. It can be very therapeutic, but that’s best done in your journal, or on your blog if you’re an exhibitionist. Trying to put a bunch of *specific* stuff from your personal life into your story usually just isn’t appropriate unless you’re writing a memoir or a personal essay or something of the sort.

But do I use *general* experiences from my own life? Of course. That’s what being a writer is all about. It’s easier to write about heartbreak after you’ve had your heart broken. You have more material to draw from, you can extrapolate from your own experiences and make reasonable assumptions about how your characters would feel and act.

The key here is the extrapolation. If a girl named Jenny broke your heart and slept with your best friend, you shouldn’t try to map that experience directly into your story. You don’t want your main character to meet a girl named Genny who sleeps with his best friend. Odds are, you’re too emotionally tied up in that experience to do a good job integrating it into the story. Eight times of ten it will end up feeling maudlin and self-pitying. Or worse, the author will turn it into a revenge fantasy. Neither of those is good for the story.

Instead, you want to take what you know about the emotions involved, and use that to enrich your story. You want to incorporate the general experiences in your life, because those are appealing to a wide audience. Everyone knows about heartbreak. But the specific experiences you have are generally only appealing to you.

Again. I’m talking about fiction here. Not memoir.

3) When you sit down to write something new, do you have a method for dealing with a Blank Page?

I just had to come to grips with this two days ago when I sat down to write the introduction for the new Penny Arcade book. They wanted something between 1500-2000 words. That’s nothing to me. I can write that much before breakfast. I thought it would be easy…

But it wasn’t. I’m new to writing introductions, so I really didn’t know where to start. I put it off for a while. But that’s not a coping mechanism. That’s avoidance.

Eventually I went in and flailed around. I made a total mess of it. I wrote one beginning that didn’t work. Abandoned it. Then I wrote another beginning and it worked okay. It opened the door for me and I wrote a pretty good 1300 words.

The next day I went back in, deleted some stuff, fixed a few problems, and put a whole different beginning on the piece.

The secret is this. You don’t have to get it right the first time. Odds are you won’t get it right the first time. But that doesn’t matter. What you need to do is start writing so you can get your fuck-ups out of the way and get on to the good writing.

4) You have mentioned at con panels that writers block is a myth. Where does the myth stem from, and how does it surface in your own writing habits?

The myth stems from the belief that writing is some mystical process. That it’s magical. That it abides by its own set of rules different from all other forms of work, art, or play.

But that’s bullshit. Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block. Teachers don’t get teacher’s block. Soccer players don’t get soccer block. What makes writing different?

Nothing. The only difference is that writers feel they have a free pass to give up when writing is hard.

As for the second part of your question, asking how it surfaces in my writing habits is like saying. “So, you’ve said that Bigfoot doesn’t exist…. When’s the last time you saw him?”

When writing is hard, I grit my teeth and I do it anyway. Because it’s my job.

Or sometimes I don’t. Sometimes its hard and I quit and go home and play video games.

But let’s be clear. When that happens, it’s not because I’ve lost some mystical connection with my muse. It’s because I’m being a slacker. There’s nothing magical about that.

5) What are some examples of things you’ve put into (or left out of) The Kingkiller Chronicles to set it apart from the rest of the high fantasy genre?

Before I started writing, I made a list of all the things that I was really tired of seeing in fantasy novels. I wish I still had that list.

Let me see if I can remember what was on it…

Long bouts of tedious description/narration.

An evil wizard who is trying to enslave everyone or destroy the world.

Gods who are obviously just versions of Greek/Egyptian gods with their names changed.

The hero who is chosen by destiny to fulfill the prophecy because he is the one with the destiny foretold by prophecy.

The revenge-driven hero.

The reluctant hero.

Any character endlessly agonizing over some event in their past.

A villain who is supposed to be threatening, but who just flails ineffectually at the hero.

A villain who just taunts the hero endlessly but never does anything.

Elf with a bow. Dwarf with an axe.

Goblin Army.

“Good” and “Evil”

The list goes on and on….

6) You begin a signing tour in March to promote The Wise Man’s Fear.  What are you most looking forward to about this adventure?

I always enjoy meeting my readers. For me, that’s one of the best parts of being a writer. So much of the writing process is solitary, it’s almost isolationist. I spend months, years even, alone in a quiet room trying to get everything in the book just perfect. Some days I might not speak more than a couple sentences to another human being. That’s hard if you’re a social person.

When I do readings and signings it’s a different experience entirely. I get to talk with people, answer their questions, and generally just hang out and have a good time. At that point, I’ve done all the hard work, and I’m doing the equivalent of showing off my baby to people.

That said, I know some authors who aren’t comfortable in that setting. But I have a strong social element in my personality, and I enjoy public speaking. I was a teacher for a long time. I did improv comedy back in the day. That makes these public appearances a lot of fun for me. I think they’re fun for the fans, too.

7) Do you have any writing advice for aspiring authors?

The best advice is the simplest: Write.

The more you write, the more you’ll develop your craft. Nothing teaches more than experience.

Everyone gives that advice though. I’d like to add something to it: Think.

Just writing, just putting words down one after another…. It isn’t enough. You need to actually think about what you’re doing. You need to analyze your process. You need to look hard at the books you love and figure out why they work. How they work.

If you think your stuff is always brilliant, that’s a big problem. If you think your stuff always sucks, that’s no good either. You need achieve critical objectivity when evaluating your work. You need to be able to point at a part of your story and say, “This isn’t working right” then you need to try and figure out why….

Oh, and if I were you, I’d pick up one of those uninterruptible power supplies for your computer. Nothing sucks more than having an amazing six-hour writing jag, then having the power in your neighborhood flicker and your computer crashes.

You can get one for 80 bucks at Best Buy. Totally worth it.

Patrick’s Books can be found at Powell’s Books or at Amazon

The next morning, he couldn’t get up. Every muscle had seized, locked stiff with pain, and he burned with fever. He knew the fever was partly from the ‘tropes, which ran him on overdrive when they kicked into repair mode. He knew it meant he was healing. That knowledge didn’t make the pain any easier to bear.

Kistur, dressing, came to stand over his bunk. Martin shut his eyes. “Ought get up,” Kistur advised.

Martin didn’t answer. He felt awful. Kistur grunted and went upstairs.

Later in the morning, Pia fetched him some beef tea, which Martin was too queasy to eat, despite the furious hunger the nanotropes were rousing in him. When Pia tried to argue, Martin swore at him until he went away.

Shortly after that Kistur came down again. “Get up.”

Martin was lying as still as he could. “Fuck off.”

Kistur said, “You need to move.” Martin opened his eyes. “Once you start, ain’t be bad.”

“What are you, high?”

Kistur ignored this, ignored his whining, dragged him to his feet and into the scrub, where he stripped off Martin’s clothes and got him in a warm shower. He soaped up a cloth and scrubbed him down, all as professionally as though Martin had been a sorrel yearling, and not someone’s boy. Which Martin wished he was, by that point.

Chapter 14 of Kelly Jennings’ novel Broken Slate is now on the website! We’re fast approaching the conclusion, which should be posted on March 22!

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind. Broken Slate is being serialized online for free. It updates every other Tuesday.

Go here to read the new chapter! Or you can start at the beginning.

Read a short story about Martin Eduardo, published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres: Lunch Money.

Our overall experience was a good one; while we didn’t make much money, we did okay, met and re-met some great people, and had fun.

There’s one thing in particular that we thought was worth noting about our experience, and that’s that CG had one thing in the dealer’s room no one else had: Ebooks.

Now, several of the other publishers at the con do sell ebook editions of their publications. But apparently, none of them thought to bring that format to a convention. Crossed Genres was the ONLY dealer in the entire Hucksters Room that was prepared to sell ebooks to customers, on the spot, so they could start reading immediately on their smartphone, tablet or laptop. It was easy to set up: we just pre-arranged some emails with attachments, emailed them to ourselves, and whenever someone bought one, we forwarded it to them. Simple, right? We were the only ones doing it.

We also were offering a deal at the convention: Every ebook we had available for $20. That’s 9 monthly issues, the new Quarterly #1, CG Year One, CG Year Two, and RJ Astruc’s novel A Festival of Skeletons – over 450,000 words bundled together. It’s a good deal, over 35% off the books’ regular ebook prices.

The quasi-prominent marketing of our ebooks, plus the special deal we were offering, resulted in something we hadn’t really expected: 45% of the total revenue we took in at Boskone was from ebooks.

That is, frankly, astounding to us – that’s a significantly higher percentage than our usual ebook sales (though the special probably accounts for that difference). But the fact that we were able to sell such a significant percentage of ebooks, in person at a convention, tells me that there’s a big opening for this – just as with non-direct book sales, there is room for ebook sales alongside the traditional print sales even at conventions. In fact, a few of the other dealers there commented that they’d noticed how well our ebooks had sold and gotten attention, and admitted that they were thinking about following our lead at future conventions. One or two even asked for details of how we’d arranged the sales, which we were happy to provide.

So if you’re an avid ebook fan, keep your eyes open for ebook deals at conventions. And if your favorite publishers don’t have ebooks ready-to-sell at their table… ask them why!

The first Quarterly issue of Crossed Genres released on Friday. Officially, it released at Boskone, under the tender care of its publishers, Kay Holt and Bart Leib. Sadly, I’m told that no rockets, ballistae, rubber bands or other implements of actual high-rate acceleration were employed. Worry not, I’ve already made some calls about next time.

While Natania Barron and I have actually released three issues (with a fourth just around the corner), this marks the transition to a new way of business.

As with any project, there have been challenges. Handing over something as complicated as a magazine without even a single break in the schedule is no easy task. Add to that format changes, new contracts and the usual knots and snarls of re-aligning the stars for more auspicious results, and yes, we’ve stumbled a few times. That just makes me all the more proud of what we’ve got here.

They say that China is cultured, but not civilized, and America is just the opposite. -Ken Liu and Shelly Li, Saving Face

I couldn’t be more proud of the stories in this issue. There’s a depth here that I never expected to find. That’s the joy of a magazine like this. We’re not limited to just horror or fantasy or elves riding unicorns to fight the Dark One ™. We get to play with all the cool toys. A dragon in London. A meeting of prejudice and pride between two cultures with similar goals, betrayal and sacrifice. Sword and Sorcery, modern horror, Bizarro, alternative pasts leading to terrible futures.

Besides the fiction that’s been posted online in the monthly issues, there are three new stories in here, exclusive to the Quarterly. There’s also an interview with Maurice Broaddus, and a short, brutal nonfiction piece from Gabrijel Savic Ra, about a very real tragedy. The quotes in this blog post are from stories found in the Quarterly.

 “Well…” Hethen shrugged. “How’s a messenger’s name going to last more than two generations, anyway? No one remembers messengers. Only the message.” -Therese Arkenberg, The Halcyon in Flight

I’m a firm believer in lines and edges and borders. As we’ve stated many a time, we want fiction that goes beyond that circle of light in the center of the room. Beyond the ring of shadows. Beyond the encroaching darkness. We want fiction that dangles its feet over the edge of the world and asks ‘but what’s down there?’

Hopefully we’ve succeeded.

-Jaym Gates
Crossed Genres Editor

Authors featured: Jacob Edwards, Arthur Carey, Jaymee Goh, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Christie Yant, Zen Cho, Angela Rega, Andrew S. Fuller, Lindsey Duncan, Shelly Li, Ken Liu, Molly Tanzer, Richard Larsen, Michelle Muenzler, Corinne Duyvis, Therese Arkenberg, Ada Milenkovic Brown, Calvin D. Jim and Gabrijel Savic Ra.
Interview with Maurice Broaddus
Cover Art by Lisa Grabenstetter

The Quarterly is available from Amazon.

Kistur did stay. He slept below stairs, spending his days in the stable, coming in only for meals. He didn’t speak to Martin; just dealt with the horses, and helped Pia manage the boiler, which, as it developed, took some managing. “He says he stayed because you gave him shit about taking care of the horses,” Pia told Martin.

“I gave him shit. Not about the horses. Not half what he gave me.”

Pia was making berry cobbler. Martin was watching him and eating stray scraps of dough. He was drinking cider with the scraps, having found a great stone jug of cider on the floor of the pantry that morning which he had been working his steady way through since.

“Some of these North Country contracts have issues,” Pia confided comfortably, tamping down the edges of the cobbler crust.

“He can suck me,” Martin said. Pia glanced at him, and at the cider. Martin finished what was in the cup and poured more. It wasn’t the cider. He wished.

Chapter 13 of Kelly Jennings’ novel Broken Slate is now on the website! We’re fast approaching the conclusion, which should be posted on March 22!

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind. Broken Slate is being serialized online for free. It updates every other Tuesday.

Go here to read it! Or you can start at the beginning.

Read a short story about Martin Eduardo, published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres: Lunch Money.

He and Deja had been back to Strauss Estate a half a dozen times over the years since they had gone up to Durbin, but they hadn’t stayed at the Estate House – when they came, it was to camp in the mountains, or to stay at the lodge at the lake. Deja’s rooms had been kept just as they had been left. Martin moved through the suite, unpacking their baggage, uncovering things he had forgotten he knew: a small yellow pillow filled with hulled rice Deja had liked, a painted bowl on the stand by the bed, the smooth honey-colored wood of the combs in Deja’s bath. The contract that had lived in these rooms seemed impossibly young to him.

After he unpacked, he braced himself and went downstairs.

The house was fancied up for Winter Holiday, with lead crystals on every light source, crystal beads spilling from the planters, elaborate lace hangings on the walls, and foil cutaways on every surface that might take them, not to mention sweetwood burning in fireplaces. The floors gleamed with polish, metal and glass shone bright. Even the contracts had new clothing. Wasn’t everything jolly.

Chapter 12 of Kelly Jennings’ novel Broken Slate is now on the website!

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind. Broken Slate is being serialized online for free. It updates every other Tuesday.

Go here to read it! Or you can start at the beginning.

Read a short story about Martin Eduardo, published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres: Lunch Money.

Here’s the official announcement.

“A Deafened Plea For Peace” was one of six pieces selected from the long-list of nominations (Partial long-list here). Also on the long-list for Best Art was Tânia Sousa Ribeiro’s piece Our Hell, which was the cover of Crossed Genres issue 17 (Antihero). RJ Astruc’s novel A Festival of Skeletons was on the long-list for Best Novel. Congrats to Tânia and RJ as well!

The winners will be announced the evening of Saturday, April 23rd, at a ceremony hosted at Eastercon. If you know any BSFA members, put in a good word for Ben!

Harper was working on a post for the Republic Society of Science page. The editors wanted revisions, which work had Harper in a furious, delighted, evil mood. And meanwhile, he had Martin doing most of his work.

Oh, he gave his lectures. But Martin built his boards, found his captures, took all his labs and tutorials; Martin evaluated student reports, fetched meals and took notes at meetings Harper couldn’t make; Martin traveled up the railway line to Paris or down to White Thorn, to some archive for a hardcopy Harper just had to have. It stretched Martin’s usual day up to fourteen hours, especially if he had work to finish.

This afternoon, he had taken the geology lab on deformation and cleavage in metamorphic rock. The students were hopeless. They spent the lab whispering to each other and peeking at Martin. He went from station to station, bringing up captures to show them how the links in their texts matched the rocks before them. None had done the reading beforehand; and their lab reports, which he spent the evening evaluating, had been abysmal. But this might have been because none of them could construct a simple sentence. Less time on the slam ball court, more time reading texts, that’s what Martin would advise. Shit, he had written better than this at ten, and he’d spent his childhood scrubbing loading docks.

Chapter 11 of Kelly Jennings’ novel Broken Slate is now on the website! (A bit late – sorry about that!)

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind. Broken Slate is being serialized online for free. It updates every other Tuesday.

Go here to read it! Or you can start at the beginning.

Read a short story about Martin Eduardo, published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres: Lunch Money.

The reviewer seems particularly impressed with Sabrina Vourvoulias’ “Flying With the Dead” from our Characters of Color issue:

I can’t begin to summarize in a way that does it justice, but it’s filled with the hope and bitterness and fear tied in the issue of illegal immigration, the common and not-so-common humanity of the people involved, and wrapped in a wonderful, winged ending. It doesn’t make the world any better, obviously, but it’s warmth in an otherwise cold place. It’s quite possibly the best place to end the anthology: with ghosts whispering promises.

The editors have clearly had a successful year.

Overall it’s an extremely positive review and we’re very, very pleased with it. So pleased, we spontaneously decided to offer Crossed Genres Year Two for 25% off as a “Thank you”!

• Purchase the print edition from Createspace & add the code ARAHAUJH for 25% off: just $7.50!
• The ebook bundle* is 25% off in our store right now: only $2.99!

The sale will last through Saturday, January 8. Thanks to all our supporters, and to The Portal for the review!

* Zipped bundle contains 7 DRM-free formats: EPUB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PDF and PRC.

The noise of the sea wind was enormous, like the roar of shuttle engines battering his ears. Sun burned the rock beneath him, burned his bare shoulders and back. It felt good. He felt good. For the first time in a long while, he felt safe, his knees against his chest, the stone beneath him, the day open before him. He had knocked a fragment of rock loose and was rubbing its edge with his thumb, squinting at it in the bright light, when Tsilla poked his ribs. “Yow, you’re skinnier than ever. Can’t you make him feed you?”

Martin jumped. He didn’t drop the rock, though. He looked around for his shirt and undershirt, spotted them in a heap on the rocks where he had left them and went to put them on. He rolled down the legs of his trousers while he was at it, and did up their laces. Tsilla scuffed at the sand drifting across the slab of pillow lava.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he told her without rancor, buttoning his shirt. It’s not like Tsilla ever was where she was supposed to be, these days.

Chapter 10 of Kelly Jennings’ novel Broken Slate is now on the website!

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind. Broken Slate is being serialized online for free. It updates every other Tuesday.

Go here to read it! Or you can start at the beginning.

Read a short story about Martin Eduardo, published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres: Lunch Money.

Congratulations, Franklin Bonds! Your Fidelity Systems account has been updated! Please have your password ready and log into your page to verify the additions.

Franklin clicked on the link and entered his password on the splash page. He accessed his personal database, and when the page came up he quickly exhaled.

Instead of the expected list of his seven past lovers and the coinciding dates, times, location, and blank Excuse? boxes, he had thirteen. Six new additions, all within minutes of each other from the night before. He knew that his evening hadn’t included sex with six different men and women — he’d be in a lot worse shape if he had. At least, he hoped it hadn’t. Not now that he was engaged, anyway. Before, well, maybe. He would try anything once, but…

Science in My Fiction has posted its free fiction for December: “The Trouble With Chips” by C.B. Calsing. Calsing’s story “Mars-side” appeared in Crossed Genres issue 7 (“Urban”).

Enjoy this free fic!

Over on the gazebo, the university orchestra screeched through some elaborate arrangement. Everyone said holder music was awful. Which it didn’t matter to Martin: holder or cot, all music made him ill. Shoulders hunched, he got out of range of the racket as quickly as possible.

Above, clouds puffed into immense blossoms in the bright spring air; here below, ribbons and new flags popped on every pinion and from every window. The green and blue flag of the Republic with its triple superimposed worlds snapped on the flagpole just above the green flag of Julian and the ornate silver and blue flag of the West Country. Martin never could sort out the symbols of the holders’ flags: ancient weapons and tools, various animals, strips of this color over bars of that, who knew what all it meant. Well, Deja – Deja knew what each bit meant, and would tell anyone fool enough to ask.

Down on the lower commons, Martin slipped past a crowd of holder children and their nannies laughing at a crew doing the one about the bears and the dogs, and headed over the footbridge toward the market booths. It was cakes cooking somewhere. He snuffed hungrily.

Chapter 9 of Kelly Jennings’ novel Broken Slate is now on the website!

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind. Broken Slate is being serialized online for free. It updates every other Tuesday.

Go here to read it! Or you can start at the beginning.

Read a short story about Martin Eduardo, published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres: Lunch Money.

A labor conflict on a distant asteroid;
An environmental catastrophe unlike any other;
A most unusual dinner guest;
The irony of Luck.

Crossed Genres Year Two: Twelve stories selected from the 2nd year of Crossed Genres: the magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy with a twist!

• Lunch Money by Kelly Jennings (Issue Thirteen: Action/Adventure)
• The Vanishing Sea by Caleb Jordan Schulz (Issue Fourteen: Folklore)
• The Seder Guest by Barbara Krasnoff (Issue Fifteen: Any Previous Genre)
• Whirligig Fingers & Globular Thumbs by Polenth Blake (Issue Sixteen: Steampunk)
• High School 3000 by Timothy Miller (Issue Seventeen: Antihero)
• The Last Rickshaw by Stephanie Lai (Issue Eighteen: Eastern)
• Conflicts by Timothy T. Murphy (Issue Nineteen: Gadgets & Artifacts)
• Yelloween by Sam Cash (Issue Twenty: Lies)
• Centzon Totochin by Cat Rambo (Issue Twenty One: Invasion)
• Luck of the Harvest by Tom Barlow (Issue Twenty Two: Bildungsroman (Coming of Age))
• The Mongrel Scholar by Ursula Wood (Issue Twenty Three: Dreams & Nightmares)
• Flying With the Dead by Sabrina Vourvoulias (Issue Twenty Four: Characters of Color)

The cover art has been provided by the talented Brittany Jackson. Crossed Genres Year Two was edited by Kay T. Holt, Kelly Jennings and Bart R. Leib. Published by Crossed Genres.

* Zipped bundle contains 7 DRM-free formats: EPUB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PDF and PRC.

When Kamphor’s west end sees a series of prostitutes murdered, its citizens are fearful that a serial killer known as the Knife has returned. But the mortician Sink, owner of Kamphor’s finest morgue, doesn’t believe that the Knife has resumed killing – and he’d prove it, if his former student and current hateful rival Damien Torvault wasn’t getting in the way.

Sink and his two apprentices, handsome-if-loony Joshua Finkle and merkind Vona Urgarth, investigate the murders on their own. Sink’s ability to tell exactly when and how a person will die just by touching them earns him no friends, but it does yield some interesting clues – as does Sink’s other gift. The one which incites him to wear women’s clothing.

The investigation is further complicated when Joshua’s time is taken up running a 15-Step program, and Vona becomes intrigued by a repugnant yet strangely irresistible cook. Even Sink’s next-door neighbor, Policewoman Arifia Fowles, seems hell-bent on not just hindering Sink but arresting him, regardless of a crime.

But Sink presses urgently on, because he senses a strangeness in the air: the magic-smell of necromancy, a magic that has long been illegal in Kamphor… for it requires human sacrifice.

• In print – Amazon: $8.99
• Kindle: $3.99
• Ebook (7-format bundle*): $3.99

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You can read the first three chapters of A Festival of Skeletons for free!

A Festival of Skeletons is now available in several formats. Please consider picking up a copy of the novel reviewers have called “…a must-read. It’s a cruel, humorous page-turner for the wicked at heart.”

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TITLE: A Festival of Skeletons
Author: RJ Astruc
Publisher: Crossed Genres
Pages: 175
ISBN-13: 978-1453757352
ISBN-10: 145375735X
Release date: December 1, 2010
Edited by Kay T. Holt
Cover Art by Jonatan Iversen-Ejve
Design & layout by Bart R. Leib

* Zipped bundle contains 7 DRM-free formats: EPUB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PDF and PRC.

If you’re still a fan of print issues, don’t fret! We’re going to be offering beautiful, quarterly versions with bonus added material.

As we get our space legs out here in the Crossed Genres universe, prepare to hear lots more from your new editors. Our next issue, Opposites, is shaping up to be quite fabulous, and we’ve got lots of delicious surprises in store in the coming year. Ooh, shiny!

Without further ado, here’s what you’ll find in the marvelous Celebration issue:

ARTWORK

“Balloons” by Margaret Hardy

FICTION
We Shall Overcome
by Nicole Givens Kurtz

The Gift
by Christie Yant

Lunar Year’s End
by Jaymee Goh

Total Security
by Arthur Carey

Desert Tango
by Jacob Edwards

The next day he was in the archives, working his way through an expense log kept by an in-system freighter that had hauled, among other things, contract miners among the asteroid mines, when he heard Fen at the gate.

Fen had no legitimate right to access. To enter the archives, you had to be trained in handling ancient documents. Fen had training in packing code and security protocols and ecological engineering, and, for all Martin knew, a dozen other exciting issues, but he had, Martin would have bet his back teeth, no training in handling archived documents, ancient or otherwise.

Nevertheless, here he came, busting through the gate, yanking off his big hairy coat as he entered the clean room, stomping straight for Martin’s table. Past him, Martin saw the curator scrambling through his own gate. Coming to his feet, Martin slipped on his static gloves and got the logbook shut and sealed in its case before Fen reached him.

The second half of Chapter 8 of Kelly Jennings’ novel Broken Slate is now on the website! (It’s such a long chapter we had to split it in two!)

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind. Broken Slate is being serialized online for free. It updates every other Tuesday.

Go here to read it! Or you can start at the beginning.

Read a short story about Martin Eduardo, published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres: Lunch Money.

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind. Broken Slate is being serialized online for free. It updates every other Tuesday.

Go here to read it! Or you can start at the beginning.

Read a short story about Martin Eduardo, published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres: Lunch Money.

Some of you may have seen my recent post calling for reviewers. I was being secretive about why, but this morning I realized that there’s really no reason to. I’m just in the habit from Crossed Genres, I guess.

So I’m pleased to announce that I will soon be launching Rise Reviews, a site dedicated to reviewing quality speculative fiction that did not receive professional pay*.

This is something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time. See, most review sites either only review fiction from professional-paying markets, or take most of what they review from those markets. I don’t hold that against them – every review site receives FAR more review requests than it could possibly accomplish, and each one has to decide for itself how to narrow down the pile.

But the result is that, more often than not, smaller presses which don’t pay pro rates are the ones that get passed over. And that’s what Rise Reviews will cover. Many of these publishers produce excellent quality publications, and I hope that Rise will be able to help bring new writers and smaller presses to the attention of readers. Rise Reviews will hopefully provide a complement to other review sites.

I’ve already got a solid core of reviewers, and the website is being developed. I’m aiming for a launch date of January 1. Rise Reviews will not be directly affiliated with Crossed Genres – the only real connection will be that I’m the owner/operator of the former and the publisher of the latter.

Right now, I could use 2 things:

• If you are a publisher, editor, author or agent who has a novel, anthology/collection or magazine that you would like reviewed (which fits the criteria**), please email reviews@crossedgenres.com. (We can’t review everything of course, but we’ll see what we can do.) Please put “Review request” in the subject line of the email. We’re open to reviewing just about any type of speculative fiction (including erotica, crossover, etc.), of pretty much any length**.

• If you have review experience and would like to contribute to Rise Reviews, also please email reviews@crossedgenres.com. Please put “Reviewing for RR” in the subject line of the email. Describe your experience, and if you can, include a link to a review you wrote. The more reviewers we have, the more fiction we can cover!

Many thanks to everyone who’s shown interest and contributed in various ways so far! I’m really looking forward to the launch!

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* “Professional rates” in this case is defined according to SFWA’s criteria: $0.05/word for short fiction, $2000 for novels.

** Rise Reviews will only review work that received some form of monetary compensation – at least a token payment, but less than professional rates. That means no self-published work and no publications which pay only in copies.

- – - - – -

- A print ARC of RJ Astruc’s novel A Festival of Skeletons
- A print copy of our second anthology, Crossed Genres Year Two
- A print copy of our first anthology, Crossed Genres Year One
- 5 postcards with the cover art for A Festival of Skeletons

What a package! All can be yours free! All you have to do is post to your site or blog about my call for genre fiction reviewers, with a link to the original post. A tweet counts, too. Both is better! (but doesn’t double your chances of winning, sorry!)

When you’ve posted and/or tweeted, email a link to your post/tweet to reviews-at-crossedgenres-dot-com. That’s it! Noon tomorrow I’ll randomly select someone for the package.

Let’s see those posts and tweets! Open to U.S. and international – all welcome!

For more info please read the original post.

This tense, invigorating novel shows the origin of Martin Eduardo, a “contract” who must battle not only societal discrimination and oppression, but also the indoctrinated restrictions within his own heart and mind. Broken Slate is being serialized online for free. It updates every other Tuesday.

Go here to read it! Or you can start at the beginning.

Read a short story about Martin Eduardo, published in issue 13 of Crossed Genres: Lunch Money