May 07, 2009

Interview with Michael Shanks–co-star of Stargate: SG-1
by Sara M. Harvey

Interview with SF icon Michael Shanks.

May 05, 2009

SHORT FICTION: “Hideki and the Gnomes” by Mark Lee Pearson
by Mark Lee Pearson

There were twelve moons in the night sky: one from this dimension, the others reflections of the eleven dimensions. One switched off like a computer monitor. On the blank screen, Hideki watched the Space Shuttle, Confronter, hurtling to Earth, out of control.

SHORT FICTION: “Clockwork, Patchwork and Ravens” by Peter M. Ball
by Peter M. Ball

“I know.” My heart beat, tick-tock, tick-tock, as I watched Jackson blink back tears. His face set, trying to hold back a shiver of fear. The Corvidae were bad news; both of us knew that. He put his hand on my shoulder, fingers wrapping across the scars. “But I’m going to take care of her,” Jackson said. “She didn’t deserve this, Randal.”

SHORT FICTION: “When Thorns Are the Tips of Trees” by Jason Sanford
by Jason Sandford

For a moment I opened my eyes and glanced at the living room window where Brad’s father sat drinking a beer. As I shifted, the needle in my finger broke. I pulled the tip out of my skin and found another needle to impale myself on. “You’re really brittle,” I said.

PERMUTED PRESS PRESENTS: “Gone Fishin’” by John R. Platt
by John R. Platt

Dam them. Dam them all to hell.

CONFESSIONS OF A BOOK JUNKIE: Anthologies Like Predators, Closing In
by Lavie Tidhar

I used to think editing an anthology merely meant choosing some stories you liked, banging them together into a book and – voila! – you had an anthology, easier than frying two eggs and altogether less messy.

BEAUTY & DYNAMITE: “The Still & the Storm” by Alethea Kontis
by Alethea Kontis

My mother believes everything happens for a reason. She also believes in guardian angels. So it follows that sometimes things happen because of guardian angels. It has a certain supernatural logic. If you grew up Greek, it makes perfect sense.

APEX INTERROGATION: Fran Friel
by Jason Sizemore

Interview with horror mistress Fran Friel.

APEX INTERROGATION: T.M. Wright
by Scott Colbert

When Stephen King calls you a rare and blazing talent, you know you’ve done something right. In a career that spans almost fifty years, T.M. Wright has proven to be one of the most enduring writers of speculative fiction. His work truly defies any easy categorization, yet it’s all easily identifiable as a T.M. Wright novel.

April 07, 2009

INTERVIEW: Ekaterina Sedia
by Paul Jessup

Open Your Eyes author Paul Jessup interviews Ekaterina Sedia.

CONFESSIONS OF A BOOK JUNKIE: The End of the Golden Age, or, The Opposite Problem of Appropriation
by Lavie Tidhar

Those of us who work outside the English-language world or parallel to it – that is, those writers who either work in their native languages or choose to use English for fiction despite it not being their first language – are committing an act of cultural appropriation.

INTERVIEW: Paul Jessup
by Jason Sizemore

Jason Sizemore interviews Open Your Eyes author Paul Jessup.

SHORT FICTION: “Waiting for Jakie” by Barbara Krasnoff
by Barbara Krasnoff

I don’t think he sees me, Jakie, when he sits in Samuel’s chair. If I thought that, I’d die. Me with my bloated body and thin hair and God! I used to be so beautiful.

SHORT FICTION: “Hindsight, in Neon” by Jamie Todd Rubin
by Jamie Todd Rubin

The last science fiction writer sits in an all-night diner beneath the sizzling haze of a neon “Live Nudes” sign. His agent, a vaporous figure of a man, sits across from him sipping at coffee, blurred by the rising steam.

SHORT FICTION: “Love, Dad” by Jeffrey D. Kooistra

PERMUTED PRESS PRESENTS: “Savage” by E. Anderson
by E. Anderson

He was a monster. And five decades ago, when they crashed into his kingdom, the tyranny of his existence constructed their perpetual imprisonment. No doubt, what soiled his maw were her dead comrades. An expedition party had vanished a week ago, marking the most recent attempt to contact passing spacecrafts as yet another failure.

POETRY: “Message in a Bottle” by Michael Ceraolo
by Michael Ceraolo

POETRY: “Fallen Gardens” by Elizabeth Barrette
by Elizabeth Barrette

EDITORIAL DISPOSITIONS: Special Guest Editor Michael A. Burstein
by Michael A. Burstein

As we mentioned when we announced the special issue earlier this year, the theme of the issue is memory or, more specifically, the slipperiness of history and the dangers of forgetting the past.

March 03, 2009

Get Apex Magazine in eBook formats

For only two dollars, you can get a portable digital copy of Apex Magazine AND you’ll be supporting a professional short fiction market.

SHORT FICTION: “The Mind of a Pig” by Ekaterina Sedia
by Jason Sizemore

He twitched his snout, discomfited, and the creature in the mirror did the same. A real snout with a flat fleshy circle surrounding his nostrils. Joel surveyed slack ears, nothing at all like Cassie’s, the small eyes hiding in the folds of fat, a long corpulent body supported by four stubby hoofed legs, and a comma of a tail. Joel had seen enough picture books to recognize the image. A pig.

SHORT FICTION: “The Puma” by Theodora Goss
by Theodora Goss

We are divided beings. One half of me had known that it could not logically be she. The other half had known that no one else in the wide world could claim to be my wife. That other half had been right. I could not mistake her voice, almost too deep for a woman, with a resonance to it, as though she were speaking from the depth of her throat. Like a viol.

SHORT FICTION: “Head Music” by Lon Prater
by Lon Prater

At 1:02 AM, Diego’s eyes snapped open. The haunting, tuneless music was in his head again, louder than ever. Mournful tones rose and fell, reverberating between his temples. Throughout his eighteen years he had heard them: occasional, faint and inviting whispers tugging at his innards. Now the deep, echoing hornsong was louder, more insistent; it had control of his body.