In the time being, please send your submissions to apex.submission@gmail.com. This is home account behind our submissions address. Be sure to use the @apexbookcompany.com address for all correspondence to our editors.

Sorry for any inconvenience this might cause.

Quote:
“…O’Neill’s deft, authentic prose resonates with the weight of sad reality, erasing the line between knowledge and fear.”

You can read the full review here (about 3/4ths down the page).

Gene’s book is up for pre-order until July 30th and subsequently released on August 1st. You can pre-order straight from the Apex Book Store or from our friends at Horror-Mall.com.

All pre-ordered copies come signed by Gene, cover artist Steven Gilberts, and Gavin O’Neill (who wrote the introduction).

We’re pulling Apex Magazine out of hiatus and plan on releasing a new issue on the first Monday of July (July 6th).

Why now? And why the magazine?

As I’ve said before, I’m stubborn. That’s playing a role in this decision. But I also try to be sensible when it comes to expensive business decisions. This time, I have a better plan in terms of financing the magazine.

It’s three-tier revenue stream…or three different ways our readers can help support the magazine that also provides them added value for their financial investment.

Tier One: Minion Support via sponsorship
We’ve setup three different levels of sponsorship–$50, $250, $1000.  For each level of sponsorship, you get a certain amount of stuff in return. Using this option, Apex receives all the money minus our e-commerce shop’s surcharge (3%) and the credit card surcharge (3%).

Tier Two: Support via Apex Magazine POD purchase or via donation
We’re going to experiment with the Magcloud.com magazine POD service. For each issue, we’re going to design and sell a full color print version of Apex Magazine available for purchase through Magcloud.com. This should be a great solution to those who want to read Apex in print format without waiting for the anthology. Buying the magazine should net $3-$4 in the Apex reserves.

Alternatively, we’ll work harder to earn your donations if you want to support the magazine by that route. Naturally, all donation money goes to Apex minus the previously mentioned surcharges.

Tier Three: Buy a copy of Descended From Darkness: Apex Magazine Vol. I
This is the upcoming anthology that contains all the original fiction printed digitally in Apex Magazine from January 1st, 2008 through June 30th, 2009. By buying this anthology, you’ll be directly supporting both the magazine and the book side of Apex. Descended From Darkness comes out December 1st, 2009. If you buy the book straight out of our shop, Apex will net approximately $8-$10.

Apex Magazine will be published in July and August. If the support is there from the readers, we’ll keep on publishing. We need $500 a month to finance the magazine. With a combination of these three options, we hope to meet that $500 goal each month.

And yes, Apex Magazine will be open to submissions starting July 1st.

Comments? Suggestions? Fanfare?

Want to win a signed copy of Beauty and Dynamite by Alethea Kontis?

Perhaps you’ve had your eyes on something from Michael A. Burstein?

Or you’ve seen Paul Jessup acting up on Twitter and want to read his fiction?

We have it all. The lottery ends on June 30th, so don’t delay, go and play!

http://www.apexauthorlottery.info

I’m pleased to announce the details of the fourth annual Apex Halloween Short Story Contest!

Contest rules in a nutshell:
Theme: Urban myths with an alien origin
Deadline: October 15th, 2009
Word Count: Maximum of 2,500 words
Submission Address: halloween@apexbookcompany.com

The prize this year is publication in Jennifer Brozek’s upcoming Apex anthology Close Encounters of the Urban Kind. First place gets publication and payment of 8 cents per word for their story (and a copy of the antho). Second place gets publication and payment of 5 cents per word for their story (and a copy of the antho). Jennifer’s anthology is invite only, so these will be the only open spots available to non-solicited manuscripts.

The Apex editing team will choose the ten to fifteen best stories and submit those to Jennifer. Jennifer will proceed to pick the winner and runner-up for publication. Her anthology can be described as “combining the dark allure of urban legends with the high stakes of alien encounters”.

Best of luck!

Have fun. Be cool. Play nice.

http://apexbookcompany.com/board/index.php

Own a little piece of a writer’s soul. Check out the prize packages and enter the lottery featuring your favorite author, editor, or minion of doom. Oops, sorry, we ate the minions of doom. But we have authors and editors and prizes galore. Are you a Mama’s Boy? You know you want a stack from Stoker-nominated writer Fran Friel, including a signed copy of Mama’s Boy and Other Dark Tales. Or perhaps you’ve been stalking Matt Wallace. Get your signed copy of The Next Fix plus Murky Depths back issues and some personalized verbal abuse from the man behind them all. And speaking of abuse, if you’re an aspiring writer you can enter the Jason Sizemore lottery and wind up with a brutal but insightful critique of one of your short stories, plus a stack of magazines and a signed copy of Webs of Discord.

The Apex Author Lottery is part of an effort to raise awareness of the great variety of talent available in small press science fiction and horror. Click here and be tempted.

Last Dragon made the Editors’ Top Ten Science Fiction/Fantasy Picks of 2008 at Amazon.com. The book received a review score of ‘A’ from Paul Witcover at Scifi.com.

The Kindle version of Last Dragon will be available early next week, followed shortly thereafter on Fictionwise and DriveThruFiction.

Cover art design by Mike Dominic.