Playing Favorites, or Being an Opportunistic Bastard

I put these two posts up, more as a matter of principal than anything else: Aether Age: Helios & Fanstastique Unfettered #1.  Small press doesn't get a lot of attention from the awards, and when it does tenure tends to matter.  And that is as it should be.

We have good work, maybe even some great work in these two projects, and I'd be doing their authors & artists a dis-service not to sing their praises.  So, I hope you receive my words in all humility and most of all, simply as a note of my love for these stories, poems, and their accompanying art.

Beyond awards consideration, I hope this note will spur you to buy a copy of the book or magazine and check it out (Barnes & Noble still has that crazy discount on FU#1).  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell's (AeA has shown up there, FU hasn't yet, but should soon)... you can buy these works on any of these sites.

I'm going to go one step further, and play some favorites:

Please consider, for your Best Artist nomination:

M.S. Corley for his work on the Fantastique Unfettered #1 cover and The Aether Age: Helios Cover:

I hope that Fletcher, Corley (and so many others!), and I are old men someday, still working on some new project to that's gonna rock the world.  Freaking fun, and one of my best memories of the past year.

And... In considering our stories, there is one that stands out as actually having some chops as a contender.  I initially thought the story would not qualify for any sort of awards consideration, since it is a reprint.  Cheryl Morgan, on Scalzi's Whatever pimpage post explained the extension that exists for works originally published outside the US.  Rochita's story was originally published in Philippines Speculative Fiction IV in 2009, and with that publication comes twice recommended to readers now that it is available in the States via Fantastique Unfettered.

So:

Please consider for your Best Short Story nominations (under 7,500 words):

• "Breaking the Spell" by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz 

Beyond the awards stuff,  I seriously hope you will share this work outside of the groups and communities that always see it.  This is such good stuff and Rochita and Mike's works are starting points, highlights, that I hope more readers will find engaging, inspiring, and will go on to read more of this good stuff.   I could go on at length about the virtues of every one of the AeA & FU stories (exactly what this post started out as, before I realized that was too much.)

Thanks, and take care.

Brandon