Spooky season is here and we are READY. We just wrapped up a subscription drive with a gain of 200 subscribers - thank you to everyone who supports us! If you're not a subscriber, it's never too late to join us. You can subscribe on our website or Patreon. Now grab hold of your nearest ghost or cryptid because this month is a wild ride!
Issue 140
Issue 140 continues to be released. Cover art by Aaron Nakahara, original fiction by Lyndsie Manusos, Zohair, Lucy Zhang, Victor Forna, Sarah Hollowell, and Rich Larson, flash by Chelsea Sutton and Elisabeth Ring, essays by Dana Cameron and Mariano Villarreal, and reprints from Eugen Bacon and Tonya Liburd. And some exciting news! This is a quieter issue, with introspective pieces that we hope make you think and feel deeply.
Map of Lost Places Launching October 10th
Editors Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner are looking for stories about places where weird things happen. The Map of Lost Places Kickstarter will launch on October 10 - click here to be notified as soon as it happens! Join us for a tour of places that have strange histories, their own traditions and customs, their own dangers. These can be based on real folk tales or old wives tales - think the Mothman in Point Pleasant, WV - or ones that you come up with all on your own. But your story should tell of someone going to one of these places - either intentionally or they just stumble across it - and what happens when they encounter the frightening/strange thing that is in or occurs in that location.
Depending on the Map of Lost Places Kickstarter funding level, we expect to fill the anthology with eight to twelve original stories selected from an open reading period. The open call for stories will begin December 1, 2023.
Snap Judgment with Richard Thomas
Apex Magazine is excited to present SNAP JUDGMENT Episode 8 (Halloween special!) of our rapid-fire, live-streaming critique series.
Every quarter, industry professionals Lesley Conner, Rebecca E Treasure, and a special guest offer live feedback on the first page (up to 250 words) of genre short stories or novels. These first pages are read aloud by our talented host and narrator, Aly Grauer.
We are pleased to announce that our special guest editor for this event is author and editor Richard Thomas!
Submissions are open to supporters (subscribers, patrons, Kickstarter backers, and Reach Your Apex students) from Monday Sep 11 – Sep 17, and to the general public from Sep 18 – midnight Oct 09.
Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of nine books: four novels—Incarnate (Podium), Breaker and Disintegration (Penguin Random House Alibi), and Transubstantiate; four short story collections—Spontaneous Human Combustion (Turner Publishing—Bram Stoker finalist), Tribulations (Cemetery Dance), Staring Into the Abyss, and Herniated Roots; as well as one novella of The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books). His over 175 stories in print include The Best Horror of the Year (Volume Eleven), Cemetery Dance (twice), Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders (Bram Stoker Award winner), The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors (Shirley Jackson Award winner), Lightspeed, PANK, storySouth, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Midwestern Gothic, Shallow Creek, The Seven Deadliest, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Qualia Nous, Chiral Mad (numbers 2-4), PRISMS, Pantheon, and Shivers VI.
He was also the editor of four anthologies: The New Black and Exigencies (Dark House Press), The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press) and Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker (twice), Shirley Jackson, Thriller, and Audie awards. In his spare time he is a columnist at Lit Reactor. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Gamut and also ran Dark House Press. For more information visit www.whatdoesnotkillme.com or contact Paula Munier at Talcott Notch.
Snap Judgment #8 will be livestreamed on Tuesday Oct 24 at 11 a.m. ET (8 am PT / 10 p.m. CT / 3 p.m. UTC).
Robotic Ambitions Preorders
Whether striving to protect the family they’ve chosen, searching for meaning amid the chaos of the world, or questioning what it is that makes one alive, robotic ambition can mean many different things. Robotic Ambitions: Tales of Mechanical Sentience explores the nuance of sentience manufactured and evolved within mechanical beings. It peels back the metal exterior and takes a hard look at what is inside.
Within these pages you will discover stories of robots defying their coding for a chance at love, resisting societal norms so that they may experience art and pleasure, and searching for their place in a world that was not made for them, but rather was made to use them. These are stories about striking out on your own, building something new amid destruction, and doing whatever it takes to make sure you survive. Robots and AI are more than tools for humanity. They have their own goals, dreams, and aspirations.
This anthology includes stories by Lavie Tidhar, Premee Muhamed, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Jason Sanford, and many more.
Watch for preorders on October 10th or get your copy through the Map of Lost Places Kickstarter. Robotic Ambitions will be released November 14th!
Writing Classes with Apex
The Reach Your Apex initiative is our way of making the knowledge and skills of publishing professionals available to those individuals who are seeking to improve their literary craft. While a majority of our offerings target the craft of writing, we will intersperse our curriculum with workshops/webinars covering various topics about the art of editing and the business side of publishing. We just launched a website dedicated to our classes and workshops, including on-demand recordings!
You can find our current list of classes here. Classes in October include Cosmic Horror with Mary Sangiovanni and The Horror Hero's Journey with Tim Waggoner. Coming up, we've got Revising Your Novel with Premee Mohamed, Getting Into Character with Arley Sorg, and Dressing the Skeleton with Ai Jiang! We also have a multi-session course on Jeff VanderMeer's The Wonderbook with Darian Bianco.
Apex Flash Fiction
The Flash Fiction Contest for September 7-31—themed Necromancy—will close on September 30. The theme for October 7-31 will be announced and will open to the public on October 7th for flash fiction submissions. Themes are chosen by Patrons at the end of the month and announced to Patrons on the 1st of each month. Submissions will be open to the public on the 7th of each month. Submissions close on the last day of the month at midnight (US Central Time).
The winner will be paid $0.08/word or $10, whichever is more. The winning story will appear on our Patreon as an exclusive and will be included in a forthcoming issue of Apex Magazine.
Discord Happenings
As always, we have fun and community on our Discord, including critique swaps, co-writing opportunities, and general community support for writers. (Rejectomancy, anyone?)
Patreon Exclusives
On our Patreon, we have an exciting lineup of exclusives for our Patrons from the Authors of Issue 140. We'll have interviews, a critique opportunity, and story insights. Keep an eye on our Patreon!
Not a Patron? Join us for as little as $3/month to get access to these exclusives and the magazine in your inbox!
To add the Apex Events Calendar to your google calendar, follow this link: https://tinyurl.com/4c74rext
