F/SF Vol. I Anthology

"Toril and Cort" excerpt

2005-11-04T18:27:07Z

From Barbara Davies' sword-and-sorcery-flavored tale, "Toril and Cort", available in F/SF, Vol. 1

They reached the treasury roof without too much difficulty - if you
discounted the fact that Cort was terrified of heights. Toril rolled
her eyes and wondered if The Trickster was influencing events. This was
just the kind of joke the subversive god would enjoy.

"Why don't you climb the rope, do the breaking and entering, then come
down and open the front door for me?" asked Cort brightly.

"Freya's tits! I don't have time for this." Before the little picklock
could react, Toril had hoisted him over her shoulder and swarmed up the
rope. She dumped him unceremoniously on the roof.

"You're not the usual type of girl, are you?" he muttered when he had
got his breath back.

Toril recoiled the rope and considered their next move. According to
the plans, there should be a trapdoor. Ah! "Depends what you mean by
'usual'."

"Polite, gentle, good at housework --"

She grabbed his collar with one hand. "Stop talking, get moving. That's
your first job." She pointed to the padlock on the trapdoor.

"All right, all right!" He set to work.

Featured Author: Barbara Davies

2005-10-12T20:05:42Z

Our next featured author is Barbara Davies. Her story in F/SF, Vol. I is the high fantasy tale "Toril and Cort."

Watch for an excerpt to be posted shortly!

Here, for now, is Davies' bio:

Barbara Davies lives in the English Cotswolds and reviews fantasy
fiction for Starburst. Her website can be found at:
http://www.barbardavies.co.uk
Her first short story was published in 1994. Since then her fiction has
appeared in more than 30 magazines, ezines, chapbooks, and anthologies,
including Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, F/SF Vol. 1,
Neo-opsis, Khimairal Ink, Crossings, Ideomancer Unbound, nanobison,
Neometropolis, and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. She also has
stories upcoming in: Here & Now, Farthing, Midnight Street, and comic
fantasy anthology Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy.

M. T. Reiten

2005-09-18T15:20:13Z

The following is an excerpt from featured author M. T. Reiten's story in F/SF, "The Thinking Part Is Me." See directly below for Reiten's bio.

Our next featured author will be Barbara Davies.

-------

"Mark, I'm warning you. Don’t take my head off!" Flynn observed the plastic
and metal tele-awareness unit that contained Mark's thought pattern. Flynn
found himself stuck disembodied on the inside—the wrong side—of the ship's aft
engineering controls.

Mark should have been two sections down inspecting the main drive plates, but
instead he stood in the access tunnel, Teflon white and brushed titanium, arms
fully extended and hands gripping the cranial housing on Flynn's unoccupied
tele-awareness unit. The large main optics gave both disc-shaped heads a
surprised look. With the agonizing precision of an archbishop at mass, Mark
lifted the sensor-studded head from the torso that Flynn had occupied only
moments before. The monitor cameras in the access tunnel fed Flynn's awareness,
giving him the instant horror of watching his own decapitation. "Put my head
back on!"

Mark tucked the detached head under his arm like a football. "No. You'll just
try to stop me."

He stomped out the entry hatch in his hard metal body, heading forward.

M.T. Reiten bio

2005-09-12T17:11:36Z

Since having "The Thinking Part is Me" (his second-ever acceptance) picked up for F/SF, M.T. Reiten deployed to Afghanistan and his publishing career picked up.

While in Central Asia, he won a Phobos Award and was selected a Writers of the Future winner.

His story "An Oaken Memory" was published in PanGaia Magazine Nov03/Feb 04.

He's excited to have stories coming out in International House of Bubbas from Yard Dog Press
and Fantastical Visions IV early next year.

Back in the states and a civilian again, he's not so excited about his return to graduate studies in electrical engineering ("Lasers") at Oklahoma State University, since academic advisors tend to frown on too much fiction in PhD dissertations.

----

Check back tomorrow for more on Reiten and an excerpt from his F/SF tale.

M. T. Reiten to be next featured author

2005-09-11T19:46:07Z

Check back tomorrow when our featured author will be M. T. Reiten, the author of "The Thinking Part Is Me" in the F/SF anthology.

F/SF: new home and name

2005-09-05T15:43:07Z

Future volumes of the F/SF series will be switching to Rage Machine Books.

G.W. Thomas and I are looking into changing the name of the series for its Rage Machine incarnation.

Feel free to e-mail suggestions to cyberbain at hotmail dot com. This isn't a contest, so the only prize will be recognition of the fact that you came up with the name.

New C.A. Gardner poem

2005-08-29T17:08:08Z

F/SF Vol. I contributor C.A. Gardner reports she has a poem, "Bone," in the new issue of Poe Little Thing--No. 3, Summer 2005, published by Naked Snake Press.

While it is difficult to keep up with all his appearances in the world of print, we can confirm Bruce Boston also has work in that issue...

New chapbook by Barbara Davies

2005-08-23T15:17:46Z

F/SF contributor Barbara Davies reports that she has a new illustrated chapbook, The Lavender Knight, newly available from Scrybe Press:
http://www.scrybepress.com/thelavenderknight.html

Rewriting the Future

2005-08-10T23:10:49Z

So now Cyber-Pulp has cancelled all forthcoming anthologies.

I'll leave the commentary to others. It will surely be plentiful. I'll focus instead on my own intentions and the fact that I'll do my damndest to follow through on my obligations and all projects I've put into motion.

Forbidden Texts and Dark Highways contributors were recently updated on the status of those projects.

Now, I also plan to look for a new publisher (and possibly new format, new name, etc.) for the F/SF series. I'll be keeping contributors informed. Volume I remains available through Cyber-Pulp for the time being.

Contributors:

I'll be sending this info out as an e-mail to contributors soon, but I'll also post it here.

Regarding F/SF II: My hope is that everyone sticks with this project and believes in it as I do. Given the current state of affairs, however, I can understand if individual contributors might want to bow out. Please send me an e-mail should you choose to do so. Please note that it's been my intention to have the series be very open to reprints, so if you'd like to keep the story with me but also try sending it other places, feel free, just keep me informed.

Regarding Monstrous and ModernMages,AncientMagic: My plan is to roll stories previously accepted for these projects into what is currently known as the F/SF series. Other than that, everything stated above concerning F/SF II goes here as well.

More info, as it comes, will be posted both here and at The F/SF Anthology Blog.

In the interest of the contributors, the people who make the stories possible, this blog will also continue posting excerpts from Vol. I as well as updates on contributor news.

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror honorable mentions

2005-08-06T22:42:35Z

Congrtulations to the several F/SF, Vol I contributors who received honorable mentions in the just released Year's Best Fantasy and Horror XVIII.

They include (w/ F/SF I story or poem title in parenthesis):

Charles Gramlich - "Thief of Eyes" in The Parasitorium [Your editor has a story, "That Enveloping Darkness," in the same collection.] ("I Can Spend You")

Kevin Anderson - "Ink Spot" in Lone Star Stories ("The Calling")

Bruce Boston - 8 honorable mentions total - "The Changing of the Flesh" in Star*Line; "Crow People" and "Rat People" in Feralfiction I; "Curse of the Siren's Suitors" in Weird Tales; and "The Death of Statues," "Like a Bunch of Animals Pawing," and "Noir Slash" in Dreams and Nightmares; "In the Key of Shadow" in Flesh and Blood. ("The Wordmonger's Tale")

Leah Bobet - "Sonnets Made of Wood" in Realms of Fantasy ("Playing the Dozens")

*******

Many contributors to F/SF II were also honored. More information on that volume forthcoming....

Dorr excerpt

2005-08-01T13:19:44Z

Here, as promised, is an excerpt from James S. Dorr's "The Rose" his entry in F/SF, Vol. I, a tale from his Tombs series.

---

There was no moon this night, nor on the next when, nearer and under a clearer sky, we recognized what it was we were approaching: The brightly lit towers and spires of the New City!

We spent little time on sleep, traveling even by day, trusting to our engine's roof to protect from the sun's worst rays. As even inside the heat grew as an oven's heat, even with all our side-hatches open to catch such breeze as we could.

Thus we continued, the moon now waxing first to a sliver, then to a half-coin, before we saw, this side of the river, the place of even more legends than the purple and orange and scarlet and yellow that winked before us, distorted by heat-winds, the shimmering lights from arabesque pinnacles — these at times outshining even the moon. But this new thing I spotted first, not knowing yet what I saw.

"Look," I called, just as I had once at our caravan-serai called for the Master. "These are new lights I see, lower and nearer. Not nearly so bright. And colored as green as the streaks of your day-clothes."

It was the white-headed one who answered. "It is the Tombs," she said.

I did not believe this. Rather, I did, yet still I did not. The Tombs were a myth, I had always thought — a tale of those who traveled from the north, possibly told to them by others, a no-place where corpses were brought from the whole world, those wealthy enough to afford the journey.

But now I had seen it, mutely glowing, the green gleam of grave-lights reflected in my own eyes.

New Kewin story

2005-07-26T20:59:52Z

I promise the Dorr excerpt is quickly forthcoming, but the F/SF contributor news just keeps rolling in.

Check out Simon Kewin's latest story at Abyss and Apex.

His F/SF, Vol. I contribution is the wonderful short-short "Algorhythyms".

Speaking of Mr. Dorr...

2005-07-25T20:24:52Z

Speaking of James S. Dorr, one short thing before we get on with the excerpt from his story from F/SF, Vol. I.

Both your editor here (David Bain) and Mr. Dorr have stories in the just-released Kopfhalter Magazine #2.

Mine is called "The Trunk", Dorr's is called "And I Will Harden Pharaoh’s Heart". It is a groovy magazine. Slick cover. Not for the weak. Other content by Mike Arnzen, Ken Goldman, Aurelio Rico Lopez III. You will enjoy.

Featured F/SF author: James S. Dorr

2005-07-20T17:29:14Z

Our second featured author is James S. Dorr. (See below for our first, Charles Gramlich.)

Below is the latest up-to-date bio on Mr. Dorr.

Check back in a few days when we'll post an excerpt from Dorr's F/SF Vol. I entry "The Rose", a tale from his "Tombs" series.

        James Dorr's new book, DARKER LOVES: TALES
        OF MYSTERY AND REGRET, is due in Fall 2005
        from Dark Regions Press (www.darkregions.com)
        as a companion to his current collection,
        STRANGE MISTRESSES: TALES OF WONDER AND
        ROMANCE (Dark Regions, 2001), while other
        work has appeared in such venues as ALFRED
        HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, NEW MYSTERY,
        FANTASTIC STORIES, SHORT STORY DIGEST,
        SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW, TERMINAL FRIGHT,
        LENOX AVENUE, GOTHIC.NET, CHI-ZINE, MARSDUST,
        SHADOWS OF SATURN, ENIGMATIC TALES (UK),
        FAERIES (France), REDSINE (Australia), and
        numerous anthologies. Dorr is an active
        member of SFWA and HWA, an Anthony (mystery)
        and Darrell (fiction set in the US Mid-South)
        finalist, winner of Best of the Web 1998, a
        Pushcart Prize nominee, keeper of a large,
        hyperactive gray and black cat named
        Wednesday (after Wednesday Addams of THE
        ADDAMS FAMILY and whose favorite toy is a
        plastic fake spider), a sometime semi-
        professional musician, and has had work
        listed in THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR
        eleven of the past thirteen years.

F/SF in the U.K.!

2005-07-17T21:37:03Z

The UK Amazon is now listing F/SF#1 here:

<http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/asin/1897084048/qid=1121206450/sr=1->

They are charging £17.99 (though they list some used copies at £10.01) and say it is 'usually dispatched within 1 to 2 weeks'.

F/SF recv'd!

2005-07-10T19:49:40Z

Okay, I've officially received a shipment of F/SF, Vol. I. The book is a thing of beauty, even if the editor does say so himself! It's also being ordered by my local library and we're going to be making a fairly big deal of it. More info on that later!

B&N responds

2005-07-06T05:37:11Z

Someone's working holidays at B&N. They responded to a contributor's query about F/SF Vol I's availability on their site:

Thank you for your e-mail.

Unfortunately, we do not have this book available for sale
at this time on our site. However, we expect our site to be updated
shortly showing the availability of the book.

We apologize for the confusion.

New Barbara Davies story!

2005-07-05T00:51:49Z

Barbara Davies, who has a sword and sorcery tale, "Toril & Cort", in F/SF, Vol. I, writes that her science fiction story 'False Identity' is in the premiere issue of the ezine Khimairal Ink.

It can be found here:
http://www.bedazzledink.com/khimairal-ink/7-5issue/7-5false.html

F/SF Availability Weirdness

2005-07-03T17:19:00Z

The weirdness continues. F/SF is now listed at Barnes & Nobles, but only as a used or out-of-print item.

Meanwhile, there are apparently used copies available via Amazon.com for higher than Amazon's price.

F/SF Vol. I now at Amazon!

2005-06-27T13:24:57Z

F/SF, Volume I is now available via Amazon.com!

As of this writing, they don't have the cover art up and the book is also listed as not yet available. Hopefully the listing will be corrected soon, as the book does indeed have a cover and is indeed available.

The good news is, even as a pre-order, you can save about five bucks off the cover price by ordering through Amazon.

Dorr info

2005-06-26T18:15:23Z

Those who enjoy James Dorr's "The Rose" -- the second story in F/SF, Volume I -- might be interested in checking out new pro webzine SHADOWS OF SATURN (www.shadowsofsaturn.com -- then click on "Archives" down at the bottom) for a story set in the same "Tombs" universe, "City On Fire," that appeared in their premiere issue.

Three other Tombs stories (one original to the volume) will also be in his new book, DARKER LOVES: TALES OF MYSTERY AND REGRET, hopefully to be out later this year from Dark Regions Press.

Gramlich 'graph

2005-06-22T22:16:17Z

Here, as promised, is the first full paragraph of Charles Gramlich's contribution to F/SF, Volume I, "I Can Spend You."

They all looked up at the sound, the clink-clank-clunk of heavily
laden saddlebags striking the doorframe as the prospector stepped into the
eatery. Their eyes registered both the prospector and his bags, but it was on
those worn leather satchels that their gazes lingered, that of the bartender
and the cook who had come out of the kitchen to talk, that of the waitress
with her thin, angular body and her attractively regular features, that of the
few customers: a father and his little one, a couple who were courting, an
orbit-trucker who sat humped over his table with a cup of steaming black in
front of him. It was a negative ion sort of night, and business was slow at
Memory's Place.

Next up will be a couple updates and news items from a few contributors, followed by more excerpts!

Charles Gramlich bio

2005-06-20T16:24:40Z

Here, as promised, is a bio of our first featured author:

Charles Gramlich grew up on a farm in Arkansas near the Ozark Mountains where -his most recent novel, Cold in the Light-, is set. On a long walk one afternoon he stumbled upon a tiny valley in the mountains where the trees gathered around like dark and menacing angels, and where the sunlight chilled his skin. He never went back to that place, but he was never quite the same either.

Charles lives in New Orleans now. He's in his 40s, with a teenage son named Joshua. He teaches psychology at a local university, and has sold quite a few stories and essays in various strange fields. At times, though, he is seen cruising the back roads of Louisiana on his motorcycle as if he's...looking for something.

May he never find it.

See below for a brief excerpt from Gramlich's contribution to F/SF I, "I Can Spend You". And watch for a longer excerpt in the next few days!

Charles Gramlich - "I Can Spend You" - Excerpt I

2005-06-16T02:12:09Z

It was a negative ion sort of night, and business was slow at Memory's Place.

Sometimes all it takes is a single sentence to snatch your attention and throw you headlong, utterly captivated, into a story.

The above sentence from Charles Gramlich's "I Can Spend You", the opening tale in F/SF, Vol. I, did it for me. It's from the first paragraph.

(In a few days, you'll be able to read that entire paragraph here.)

Also, watch this space for more about Mr. Gramlich.

fsfanthology @ 2005-06-14T11:16:00

2005-06-14T18:40:07Z

I was sitting here thinking about future editions of F/SF. Volume II, which is probably still some time away, mixes a much more modern, even experimental feel -- see Michael Andre-Driussi's 15,000-word novella "Fenris Unfettered on Mars" when Vol. II comes out -- with very traditional stories. (For instance, "Genesis and the Tome of Kashaigra" by Rob Byer is the most fun I've had reading unabashed straight genre sword and sorcery in ages.)

So the series will be evolving and changing. Vol. I was my first editorial effort and I wanted very much to achieve a certain goal with it.

Hm, that sounds a bit like I'm apologizing for the collection or something. Hardly. In fact, it's exactly what I want it to be. Which is to say it's a collection of stories in the fantastic vein without regard to theme or subgenre. There's sword and sorcery, hard SF, at least one horror story and imagination galore. I'd say the work has a "Golden Age" feel to it, a sense of being able to go anywhere with the next story -- or even the next line. It's the stuff you read with a flashlight under your covers at night as a kid.

I think each volume will have its own personality, so to speak. And while this will be goverened by the work submitted, it will also be intentional. There's infinite space to be explored here. And I hope F/SF's readers -- and especially its writers -- wouldn't have it any other way!

Next on this blog, I plan to be contacting an author for the first of lots of story excerpts.