Welcome to issue 141. As 2023 winds down, we all should be slowing a bit, settling in for a cozy holiday season, reflecting on the year that is nearly passed and planning for the new year to come, but if you’re like me, slowing and settling are not on your to-do list, and you’re racing to the end, completing and tackling as many tasks as possible before the year comes to a close.
This issue is full of stories that refuse to settle. They are loud and weird and dare to take you to places you didn’t know existed, let alone that you wanted to go.
J.S. Breukelaar opens the issue with a fantastic story titled “Hole World.” The story takes place after the world as we know it ends. The human race is under new management, and any humans that have survived this long have been assigned jobs to keep the new managers fed and happy. Between Performance Reviews, tentacle shackles, and comparisons to 1984, this story is weird and wonderful from beginning to end.
There’s something really special about being an author’s first publication. Apex gets to be part of this monumental step forward in their career. And when the story is as fresh and original as “Nightglow Pizza” by A.M. Lomuscio, I just know it’s a career that won’t be stopping anytime soon. This story explores the lengths one entrepreneur will go to ensure the success of her bakery. Exploring uninhabited worlds to find new ingredients? Check. Testing those ingredients on herself? Check. Continuing to sell said baked goods even when some weird side-effects pop up? Check! What could go wrong?
Take a home renovation show, an isolated house with a mysterious past, and the 2020 Covid lockdown and you have a good idea of what “Homewrecker” by E. Catherine Tobler is about. This is one of those stories that left me squealing with delight. It is just so good. Told through transcripts of a home renovation show called “Homewrecker” this story is a slow slide into the weird and unexplained. The way it builds tension is exquisite. Tobler is a masterful storyteller and that really shines through in this piece.
In “All the Good You Did Not Do,” Jolie Toomajan delves into what would happen if the zombie apocalypse almost happened but is stopped. What happens if one person doesn’t hesitate, takes the shot, ends the end of the world before it can begin? As someone who loves zombie fiction, this is a fascinating concept, but Toomajan takes it further. This story grapples with what happens when you’re an instant celebrity, when everyone is taking what you did and twisting the story to fit their own needs, when you become a commodity that has an expiration date. There are many layers within this story and so many questions raised that should make us all step back and think about how we see and treat people suddenly thrown into the limelight.
“Papas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Slug Monsters” by Erica Satifka is a fantastic sci fi story that deals with generational shifts in thinking, embracing who you feel you truly are, and the struggles of raising a teenager. Satifka takes what on the surface seems to be a ridiculous idea—a teenager choosing to present themselves as a six-foot tall, bright yellow slug with barely visible eyes or arms—and gives us a story about a father who loves his daughter unconditionally but doesn’t understand her or the choices that she makes. He is clinging to Earth and its ideals even though he and his wife left that planet twenty years before. His daughter and her generation are adapting to the inhospitable world they were born on. This shift between generations is one that feels very alien, but at the same time so relatable. Excellent story by a wonderful author!
“Twenty Pieces of Documentation Presented to the Emergency Committee on the Study and Understanding of the M3D1154 Contagion” by Damien Angelica Walters is a wonderful story told through text messages, security video footage, clips from morning shows, and more. The story slowly unfolds as Walters reveals what is going on through these brief clips. The result is a story that makes me want to cheer and aching for more.
The flash this issue is full of potent emotions. "Wet, Dry, Bitter" by Leah Ning, for the theme of THE AFTERMATH, explores shame, guilt, and the things we do to rid ourselves of them. Just as powerful, but in sharp contrast to Ning's story, and written for the OPTOPHOBIA theme, Liv Strom brings us a bittersweet love story in "Woman Embracing Woman, On Loan from Private Collection."
Our classic fiction this issue is by R.J. Joseph and Zin E. Rocklyn. Nonfiction is by Sarah Pinsker and Leanna Renee Hieber. Marissa van Uden sat down with J.S. Breukelaar and Jolie Toomajan to delve deeper into their stories, writing processes, and more in our author interviews. Bradley Powers chatted with cover artist Peter Mohrbacher. Finally, we are happy to announce that A.C. Wise’s short fiction review column “Words for Thought” has returned to the pages of Apex Magazine.
As I’m finishing up this editorial, we are at the beginning of the Kickstarter for The Map of Lost Places, a horror anthology that I’m editing with Sheree Renée Thomas. We have a stellar lineup of solicited authors including Brian Keene, Victor LaValle, Samit Basu, Celeste Rita Baker, and Ai Jiang, and are planning to hold an open submissions period during the month of December. The anthology will explore spooky locations where bizarre things happen. If you would like to help make this anthology a reality, head over to Kickstarter and become a backer: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/apexpublications/the-map-of-lost-places-a-horror-anthology.
Until next time,
Lesley Conner
Editor-in-Chief
