Friends

(I can’t listen to christmas music unless it’s been originally subversive, or subverted from the classic stuff. Dr. Demento saves me during this time of year.)

A quick note to start: This is the last month to read or purchase our Dystopian issue! Issue 2, originally published on January 1, 2009, is going away forever after December 31! Please go read it before it’s gone, and if you like it, consider picking up a copy before it’s too late (only $5!).

Progress is progressing. We’re in the final stretch with the anthology; barring some horrible disaster *KNOCKS WOOD* we should still be on target time-wise. It’s come together very nicely.

Issue 14 is also shaping up well. The proof arrived an amazing 2 days after we ordered it. Even better, it needs no changes. The cover art turned out to look even better when darkened! Brilliant! I’m still working on the various other editions but they’re coming along.

Submissions to Issue 15 are reaching absurd levels. We are literally 4 submissions shy of matching our highest total ever (during the LGBTQ issue). on the 22nd! I’m sure there’ll be a lull starting anytime now and continuing through the 26th or so, but I expect we’ll get a mini-rush in the last few days. Crazy. The slush readers have done a pretty good job of staying on top of it, but considering the sheer volume of submissions and basic percentages, Kay and I have a LOT of reading to do.

To people submitting to issue 15, the Any Previous Genre issue: Science Fiction is not a previous genre, nor is Fantasy! We’ve received a large number of submissions from people who seem to think that “Any Previous” means “Anything with SF or F in it.” Our first issue had a theme of Science Fiction AND Fantasy – that is, BOTH had to be present in the submissions. We have never accepted submissions for only one or the other (unless they were combined with that month’s genre). Submissions with only SF or F, that don’t also match one of the other previous genres, will be automatically rejected.

We’ve got plenty more in the works, as always – we’re very excited that in just about 3 more weeks, we begin serializing RJ Astruc’s novel A Festival of Skeletons! It’s a wonderful story and we can’t wait to share it! Remember, it’s only in the Subscribers Area, so if you haven’t, now’s a good time to subscribe so you’ll be able to read it!

The next few days will probably see very little in the way of updates as we’ll be preoccupied with other things. Have safe and happy holidays everyone!

Title quote from “Nuttin’ For Christmas” by S. Tepper, R. Bennett (c) 1955, performed by Stan Freberg

Originally published at Crossed Genres. You can comment here or there.

This blog has become severely neglected recently. I’m very sorry for that – this season does create chaos. I’ll be so glad when it’s over. But I would anticipate updates staying sporadic until January.

A few bullet points to summarize what’s been going on:

• The proof for Issue 14 has been shipped and is on the way. It’s looking pretty nice – I think the cover art is going to be very sharp. Interestingly, Issue 14 became (through necessity) our first ever issue with nothing but fiction: our planned article fell through. But that’s okay, because we received a TON of submissions and were able to pick out 6 very good stories to include. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t see a bit more in the way of Eastern Folklore represented, but otherwise we were very pleased.
• Speaking of submissions, this month is off the charts. The last few days have slowed down a bit, but even at our current pace we’ll eclipse even the LGBTQ month (which was an outlier) by 17%.
• The anthology hit a snag when the cover art we received simply wasn’t right for us. We considered it but ultimately had to turn it down; the artist is talented but the piece he created was just wrong for the anthology. Fortunately we had a contingency plan which seems to be working out (*KNOCK WOOD*) We should still be on target for our release date of Feb. 1, although we may end up shipping out the preorders a week or so later than we’d planned (still within January).
• The announcement of The Little Death of Crossed Genres has been small but positive. The “small” probably comes from us not promoting it after the first day, due to other responsibilities. But Little Death has no set time frame, so we’re in no hurry. We have started to receive submissions, which is awesome.
• Remember that this month is the FINAL MONTH to read and/or purchase Issue 2! as of January 1 it’ll be removed from the site and that’s the last it’ll ever be made available!

At this point you can pretty much always assume that we have stuff going on that we’re just not ready to announce yet. This may very well be our perpetual state of being; by the time we’re ready to announce something we’ve started another something that we have to wait to talk about, rinse lather repeat. I’ll do my best not to tease you too much (but I make no promises).

Originally published at Crossed Genres. You can comment here or there.