I’ve been writing for a little over ten years now, five of those in almost complete isolation (no interactions with other writers, no feedback or critiques). I didn’t get any formal lessons until I attended Orson Scott Card’s Literary Bootcamp in 2006; and it was a few more years before I worked out how those lessons applied in my case. Looking back, here are five things I wish I’d known earlier–and how I apply them in my everyday writing. Read the rest of this entry »

Writing is a tough gig- there are deadlines to keep, plotlines to hash out, continuity to maintain, characters to develop, worlds to build, a wife to murder and Guilder to blame for it, and often a day job to boot!

 And then I had to go and get pregnant.

Pregnancy is a life-changing event not to be undertaken lightly. My parents took seven years of trying to conceive me and my mother admonished to get a move on just in case things worked that way for me too. So on the second try, of course, we succeed. Read the rest of this entry »

Two of our longtime submission editors, Maggie Jamison and Jennifer Brozek, have stepped down from slush duty. Both will be staying with the Apex Publications team, but in other capacities. I would like to thank both of these dedicated, smart ladies for all their help in bringing Apex Magazine to where it is today.

Also, longtime slush wrangler, Chris Einhaus, has left the team to pursue his own writing and spend more time with the family. Both are noble pursuits, but he will be missed. Thank you, Chris, for all your time and hard work!

Two new slush readers did recently join the team: Patrick Tomlinson and George Galuschak. Welcome!

And yet, we need more slush minions!

If you’d like to become an Apex submissions editor, drop me an email (jason at apexbookcompany dot com). Please answer these five questions in your email:

1) What are your all-time favorite Apex Magazine stories and explain why.

2) What is your least favorite Apex Magazine story and explain why.

3) Do you have any prior pertinent experience?

You’ll be expected to evaluate at least 20 stories a week.

I have to admit, Silent Hill scares the crap out of me.

Which is kind of a strange thing, when I think about it. I’m a big fan of the game, in fact, the whole Silent Hill series remains one of my favorite survival-horror games of all time.

So why does the movie, a 2hr, linear horror experience, freak me out much worse than a 40 hour monster fest? In fact, one might argue that the horror movie experience is somewhat “safer” simply because it is not as interactive an experience, that there is an element of passivity, that elements in the film are not directly within my control, therefore, I should just be able to go along for the ride.

Read the rest of this entry »

Apex Publications is proud to announce the release of Stoker Award-nominated editor Gill Ainsworth’s latest anthology, The Blackness Within: Stories of the Pagan God Moccus.

From Africa to Australasia, from Europe to the US, take a terrifying journey led by world-renowned and up-and-coming authors of horror. See how Moccus, the Celtic God of fecundity, brings His barbaric brutality to the twenty-first century. Experience the nightmare of an apostle unable to live up to His teachings in “Dreaming” and, in “Without Mercy,” witness the torment of those who can. But it doesn’t stop there. Even hundreds of years after Mocuss’s death, His savage reign continues for those who dare to question, as you will discover in “For They Are As Beasts” and “Abattoir Blues.”

Thirteen stories–some menacingly dark, others violent and rapacious–will show you a future where death is a blessing.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The New God, The New Order—Gill Ainsworth
“Secrets of Fatima”—Steven L. Shrewsbury
“Without Mercy”—Lucas Pederson
“The Messiah of Mincemeat”—S. Clayton Rhodes
“Dreaming”—Brenton Tomlinson
“Daughter of God”—Maxwell Peterson
“The Free Poor”—Mark Grundy
“Bad Meat”—Michael Keyton
“Chain of Hearts”—Eric Gregory
“Big Game”—Conrad Zero
“Dance of the Psychopomps”—Joshua McCune
“Song-Ji and the Wolf”—Paul Williams
“For They Are as Beasts”–Camille Alexa
“Abattoir Blues”—Geoffrey W. Cole
“The Holy Meal”—Moccus Meats hlc

For the next seven days, use the coupon code BLACKNESS20 on checkout to receive 20% off your order.

The Blackness Within is shipping now! Order today!

**Digital editions to be released over the next two weeks.

Reading through a recently published fantasy and science fiction anthology (Clockwork Phoenix 3, to be precise, edited by Mike Allen), I was struck by the number of stories featuring fantastically high skyscrapers—the sort people can get lost in, or live their whole lives in. I found myself asking, “Is this a thing in science fiction? What do these super-high buildings mean?” Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, I polled some of my regular blog readers, asking what makes them give up on a story without finishing it or has them wishing they’d not seen it through to the bitter end. According to the poll, the worst offender is ‘Boring/unrealistic dialogue’ (if you’d like to see the full results, you can find them here). With that in mind, I thought I’d post my own tips for improving a story’s dialogue.  

1: First, take out the narrative.

Make a copy of your story and cut out ALL the narrative (except for identifying speech tags ie: “Mary yelled” or “Mary whispered seductively” becomes “Mary said”), then read the dialogue out loud as if it were a radio play. Read the rest of this entry »

Our regularly scheduled blogger took her turn earlier in the month to discuss the SFF scene in Singapore. You also didn’t hear from me on the first Tuesday of the month. It turns out to be a fair trade that I can fill in now.

I man the @apexbookcompany Twitter account. I would love for you to follow and retweet when you can. I try to check in daily. One of my favorite things to ask is about your current or upcoming meal. That is me being silly. I also love asking our followers to tell me about themselves. It might be about their work in progress be it art or writing. I might get them to tell me about a story they read as a kid or even recently that touched them. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve been frequenting any number of horror message boards over the past few weeks you’ve seen something big begin to happen in the Horror Biz. This month Dorchester Publishing announced a fundamental shift in their publishing schedule and format. The news spread like wild fire across the various horror message boards I frequent. There were a lot of rumors floating around as to what this really meant. Why is this important? Because if you didn’t realize it, Leisure (mainly it’s horror line of mass-market paperbacks) would be affected. I had been privately hearing rumblings about some problems brewing at Leisure since January. There was a mutual feeling that something was wrong at the publisher, but we weren’t sure exactly what.

From the announcement it was apparent that many of Leisure’s authors were taken by surprise. I wasn’t worried about the format change as much as I concerned about my friends and how it would affect them and their livelihood. According to Dorchester’s official statement on their website they are changing format to remain viable and discontinuing their mass-market paperback line and transitioning to trade paperback format and eBooks. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone has an opinion on what evil is. For some, it’s an ex-spouse. For others, it’s Hitler. But does pure evil actually exist?

In an attempt to answer this question, I turned to literature in search of truly evil characters. There is no shortage of them. Captain Hook from Peter Pan, the gentleman with the thistle-down hair from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Button-mama from Coraline, the Crooked Man from The Book of Lost Things, The White Witch from the Narnia books, Trunchbull from Matilda, Aunties Sponge and Spiker from James and the Giant Peach, Sandor Clegane (the Hound) and Gregor Clegane from Song of Ice and Fire, Iago from Othello, Henry Evans from The Good Son, Voldemort from Harry Potter, Sauron from LOTR.

But how many of these are actually pure evil? Read the rest of this entry »