Announcements

Well, things are changing for how the magazine is going to work. Originally I was going to publish the thing from my home, using a printer and making little “booklet” style things. Then I found out that was going to be really hard without having to buy a bunch of things to make it work (such as a new printer just to make the printing process not take fourteen days to do).So, I came up with several other options on how to do things.I brought up the idea of doing a PDF with a print anthology at the end of the year: the members of YWO shot that down pretty quick (and I don’t blame them).Then I brought up the second idea. Since Lulu is a great source for printing books, I figured we could use that service as a source for printing, and the members seemed to like that idea.With that in mind, we’ve decided to use Lulu to print SBS as a sort of anthology/magazine. We’re shooting for biannual, perhaps quarterly if enough submissions come in. And that’s how it’s going to work (and it’ll work well I think). It’s not “technically” self-publishing, since Lulu is only the printer, not the actual publisher.For those of you who don’t know what SBS Magazine is (or Survival By Storytelling), it’s the magazine I’m editing along with my girlfriend for my website Young Writers Online (YWO). It’s going to feature a lot of young writing talent for fiction and poetry. If you’re interested in being involved, feel free to check out the website and the magazine guidelines here. Those guidelines will likely change a little to reflect the adjustment in how the magazine is being printed, but for the most part it’s correct. We’ve already accepted two short stories and a poem and hope to take in a lot of stuff over the next couple months (we’ll see). I also have an idea to make the magazine better, but I’m not sure how to approach it. I’ve thought of trying to get published authors involved in this, particularly folks who write short stories. It’d be interesting to have a featured author for each issue, someone who has been published before and would be willing to write a story for the magazine (for payment too, and that could be worked out). Anyone out there interested? It’s a magazine featuring young writers, if that’s any help. Anyway, I think that’s enough from me on this subject. Tell all your kids and teenagers!

I am a judge for the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards! What does this mean? Well, I get to read and take part in deciding who wins and who gets on the shortlist. This will be my first time doing so and I’m really excited to be a part of this. For those that don’t know what the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards are, they are awards for various categories (novels, shorts, etc.) that acknowledge works with issues or themes of interest to the LGBT community (i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender). For those that might think these awards are just silly nonsense, you should look into who has been nominated this year and in previous years: folks like Elizabeth Bear, Stephen Baxter, Jo Walton, T. A. Pratt, Hal Duncan, Christopher Barzak, etc. Big names and lesser-known-names have been nominated for this as well as novels from all across the board of speculative fiction (from fantasy to science fiction to cross genre, etc.).So, I’m really excited about this! It’s a huge list for this year and narrowing it down will be difficult, but it should be incredibly entertaining. Anywho! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

Alright, so the poll went mostly okay. I learned a lesson: don’t put too many titles in the same poll. So, I won’t do that for the next one. I also found out that some folks (such as those that us IE) can’t see the polls. I apologize for this, folks. I will try to use another polling system to see if it works better until Blogger updates their polling system. The winner, by one vote, is Sly Mongoose by Tobias S. Buckell. I’m happy about that choice (although I’d likely say that for any choice you all made), because I love Buckell’s work and have been looking forward to this book for a while. So after I finish the book I’m on, I’m going to that book. Now, to a new poll to choose the next book I read after Sly Mongoose. I used a new poll program for the poll. If you cannot see the poll, please leave a comment here. Edit: The direct link to the poll is here. Thanks and good luck voting. (Edit: Sorry, for some reason this didn’t get posting, but it is now.)(Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

Just found out from Locus and Ellen Datlow that SF writer and critich Thomas M. Disch committed suicide on the 4th. This is depressing. I’ve been meaning to buy one of his books that the Slugstore (i.e. the college bookstore) carries. He will be missed… (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

News from BoingBoing: all the stolen laptops have essentially been replaced. Enough money was earned thanks to the community. Good news indeed. That was darn fast too. Good work people. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

I just heard about this here and I am thoroughly ticked off. I’ll just post the whole message for you to read: This morning someone came into the Clarion West house where we’re staying and stole four laptops, some bags, clothing, and possibly other items. Of course, these are our lives, especially right now. We are all okay, and the house is secure, even more so now, but I would like to ask the SFF community for help. Those who lost their laptops will not be able to replace these without detriment to their financial situation. These are essential for our writing, particularly over the next four weeks. If you would like to help donate laptops or funds to those students who had their laptops stolen, please contact Leslie or Neile at infoATclarionwestDOTorg. More donation information may be forthcoming. Thank you. Please feel free to repost this and to link to this. Just in case anyone sees them: One black Dell Inspiron 1520.One Silver colored Sager with a 17″ screen.One Silver/red Dell XPSm1710.One Sony Vaio Sz780. Please, if any of you have a few bucks to spare or an extra laptop or something, consider donating it to these folks. This is completely screwed up and unfair. I hope who ever stole the items gets locked up soon. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)