Any day now we'll have brought Fantastique Unfettered to it's first birthday and fourth issue. Contained in issues one through four are dozens of stories, poems, nonfiction editorials & reviews, and some pretty nifty artwork.
This is the sort of project that, stepping back and looking at it fully-formed, I'd believe I could never accomplish. And I'd be right: this has been (continues to be) a group effort. Having Christopher Fletcher, Alexandra Seidel, M.S. Corley, Jaym & William (see the press kit for proper introductions) and everyone else who has kicked in support of one kind or another has transformed an interesting experiment into a great small press magazine.
Adjusted to fit better into the rest of my life during 2012, I believe we'll have the time and resources to take Fantastique Unfettered to a whole new level. I'd count it, blemishes and all, among my best work.
I don't dare call myself an artist, AND I'm quite proud of those title pages. All our stories get a dedicated illustration. Most poems do as well. And while I've been fortunate to get help with these from contributing artists, typically it is me, Gimp, a collection of free-use images, and some Johnny Walker for inspiration. Learning Scribus has been an experience too. The improvements on that front continue: it can be a beast at times. Next mountain to conquer: ebooks. If anyone has info about the Page Perfect Nook Color/Table program, let me know: that looks like the way to go for an ebook version of FU.
I had only three publications in 2011:
- Plastic Trees, Eschatology
- Things We Are Not, (reprint) The Lovecraft eZine
- Elegant Threat, The M-Brane Double, M-Brane Press
Flash fiction is hard (for me) to write. Good stories have so many components that need to chug along _just so_ and I find it difficult to get the emotion I want in such a short space. Hence, the flash fiction I've written tends to come from a dark place. Plastic Trees is a story I wrote while in a degrading job and I thought it was just about that experience. Fast forward to 'post TCATHR', and I see this little story, humbly, as a perfect expression of the most dire claims Ligotti makes of existence. Not that I agree with him, but I grok that feeling that maybe I'm much less than I've believed. It is a fruitful well for this sort of tale. I just notices that a Google search for "Plastic Trees" ranks the story on the first page: not bad considering a certain song of a similar name.
Things We Are Not... If you are familiar with Lovecraft, Poe, and Stephen King this is a story you will enjoy. If not, I worry it is hard to understand. It is self-referential and a story that demands more from readers than I typically allow. Meta-Lovcraftian Mythos SF. The rats uplifted by a nanotech plague have read Lovecraft and think they've found, in Cthulhu, a God that can be theirs. There's a crow who would give them their wish, for the farce of it. Mix in a few last humans, a selection of civilization-destroying plagues, and lies, lies, lies... and the fun begins. It was originally published as the title story in the GLBTQ anthology from M-Brane Press.
Elegant Threat composes a rough third of my composite novel/future history. The core narrative functions as a stand-alone novel, but my hope is to see the whole published. Right now I have the title in mind, A History of the Family in Space. But maybe that's too unwieldy.
Anyway, Elegant Threat, the novella, is the ass-end of the M-Brane Double... so at the link above you will see Alex Jeffer's superlative fiction, The New People. Mine is in there too! I promise.
Elegant Threat imagines an ocean world--in the Alphas Centauri system--with mountain-like high tides and the fauna to match. The story follows the remnants of the crew fleeing into high tide to rescue their fellows stuck on the titular vessel. I like a certain kind of SF adventure, and if you share those tastes, Elegant Threat is great fun. Here, and here, and here, are posts intended to entice.
Anyway, Elegant Threat, the novella, is the ass-end of the M-Brane Double... so at the link above you will see Alex Jeffer's superlative fiction, The New People. Mine is in there too! I promise.
Elegant Threat imagines an ocean world--in the Alphas Centauri system--with mountain-like high tides and the fauna to match. The story follows the remnants of the crew fleeing into high tide to rescue their fellows stuck on the titular vessel. I like a certain kind of SF adventure, and if you share those tastes, Elegant Threat is great fun. Here, and here, and here, are posts intended to entice.
I wrote two editorials for FU in 2011:
- Hail Caesar: Creative Commons and the Small Press
- This Inscrutable Light: A Response to Thomas Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
The first is available online at Question Copyright and a few other blogs, under the CC-BY-SA license we use at FU. You too are able to post it under the same license and with attribution. It is a nice, short, and snappy explanation of what could be dry and boring.
And while I'm thinking about it:
And while I'm thinking about it:
Hey, Hollywood. When you need the next great idea, we've been working on your behalf. When the superhero shtick grows old, we'll be waiting. ;)
The Ligotti article is in the soon-to-release issue 4. I hope it proves a worthwhile treatment of and response to Ligotti's nonfiction book. This is the sort of non-review that I would like to see more of in FU.
We gave each issue of FU a subtitle (like so). (Kalpa), (Unless), (Prolefeed), (Ralewing).
After that first issue (Kalpa means something close to 'eon') we fell into a naming convention that referenced some significant work of fantastic fiction. Doctor Seuss, George Orwell, William Browning Spencer, (and in 2012) Ursula LeGuin, and Shakespeare. At times I've cringed at the earnest tone of the introductions that elucidate these subtitles. In each case those intros were written hours before sending the completed issue off to our publishers. So: whatever else might be said, we've spoke from the heart.
We gave each issue of FU a subtitle (like so). (Kalpa), (Unless), (Prolefeed), (Ralewing).
After that first issue (Kalpa means something close to 'eon') we fell into a naming convention that referenced some significant work of fantastic fiction. Doctor Seuss, George Orwell, William Browning Spencer, (and in 2012) Ursula LeGuin, and Shakespeare. At times I've cringed at the earnest tone of the introductions that elucidate these subtitles. In each case those intros were written hours before sending the completed issue off to our publishers. So: whatever else might be said, we've spoke from the heart.
In 2012:
FU #5 (Shifgrethor)
FU #6 (Shakespeare Unfettered)
The Aether Age eZine --We've copylefted an entire universe/ shared world. Steampunk fans will find much to like, but there is so much more going on here. Streamlined guidelines, inexpensive Nook & Kindle versions of the anthology, and a focus on flash fiction & poetry lower the barriers to entry. I hope you'll check it out.
And hoping to see a slightly larger smattering of stories published. Atlas Bled. Nilay, Among Mermen. Steerpike's Folly. A Child's Image of Her Father. Human Rain.
Completion of the novel.
That would be a good 2012. Here goes. :)
BB
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