Out doing some short story reading and found a couple of good ones. I posted this same info over at the FantasyBookSpot forums; there may be additional discussions over there.

Here’s a list of some stories I’ve reviewed in short story magazines:

In Abyss and Apex: Dimished Capacity by Andrew Zimmerman Jones is a very good read. It’s starts out pretty weird and I was thinking, “uh-oh, this could be horror.” But it was intriguing so I kept reading. The story isn’t light, but it isn’t really horror either. The thing I liked about it best was that it was long enough to build the characters–I wanted to know what was going to happen to them and how they got themselves into such a mess. There’s an underlying current of fear about the story–it’s just easier to kill those people that are scary or lock them up rather than get to the bottom of things. I thought it was very good.

In Coyote Wild (this is the first time I’ve read this online magazine. For some reason I thought their first issue wasn’t out until Jan 2008) there were some interesting stories. Anyway, it’s speculative and it’s free. There’s a weird short story–My Brother is a Scarecrow–someone will have to explain that one to me.

I liked The Cat Lady by Jeremy Schneider (no relation to me) isn’t a deep read, but it’s fun. It’s one of those cute tales that has a good ending. It’s told well and has good characterization and you can just see Ms. Dempsey, because you’ve see little old ladies like this before and you hope they exist and are as interesting as the woman in this story.

The Rescue by C. Montgomery Stuart. It starts off with flowery language and it twists and turns, taking you along…it’s a weird one, but a very cleverly told story.

<a href=”http://www.spacesuitsandsixguns.com/”>www.spacesuitsandsixguns.com</a>  This free to read e-zine has a lot of potential.  The first issue was very good with an absolute stunner of a story by Lon Prater, Kids Cost More.  The second issue was also decent with very readable stories.

Baen’s October 2007 Issue
 Woohoo, this issue of Jim Baen’s Universe is a doozy and of course I’m not finished with it yet. There was one article in particular that was so good, I decided to post the partial review of stories now.

From the Badlands by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett — A very interesting adventure piece, my kind of story. It’s an “old west” type setting where everyone rides around on pigs instead of horses. There’s other little humorous things like this throughout the story; it’s main theme is reintroducing technology to people that have been without it for a while—the inevitable suspicions about “demons” and the various expected plays for power. One man has to make the decision about whether or not to share what he has learned with the rest of the world he inhabits. It’s a good story; there was one scene-shift where I had to backtrack because it jumped where I didn’t expect it to go. The authors cover a lot of ground in the story.

Tweak by Jack McDevitt is a fun little tale. It moves along, good characters, interesting stuff going on and then…it ends. I didn’t get it. I know there is a point, and I think it’s kind of a cosmic joke, an irony type of thing…but I just didn’t get it. Someone please read this story and tell me the answer. I have a guess, but even thinking about it and rereading—that’s all it is—a guess.

Soul Searching by Laird Long is a fantasy/detective story—but wait—it isn’t an elf. It’s a dead guy—but wait—it isn’t a vamp either. It’s just a ghost. He has to remain a ghost until he works off what he owes the IRS. The story is full of bad puns and silly clichés, but it’s a good story. The punch is okay, but I prefer stories where the clues are littered about and I actually have a chance of solving the crime. It’s not that the author is trying to be tricky—it’s just a linear story where you find out things at the same time as the detective so there are no real surprises or conclusions to be drawn. I liked the ghost angle a lot; he was a good, not-so-solid, character (See, I can do puns too…). The other characterizations were quite good. Quick, entertaining read.

Non-Fiction
Why Carol Won’t Sit Next To Me At Science Fiction Movies – Mike Resnick. A great little piece where Resnick tears into the flaws of various sci-fi movies (usually the logic). It’s quite funny. Worth reading even just the free part, which is about half the article.

*****Starred Review (I’m not sure exactly what a starred review is supposed to contain, but I always wanted to do one, and this article by Eric Flint is really good.)

Eric Flint continues his thesis on giving away work to make sales (The Economics of Writing). He gets pretty long-winded at the beginning of this article, digressing rather far using analogies, but his point is eventually as well-made as you would expect. He covers some absolutely fascinating info in this article—his own sales numbers for a couple of his books, as well as typical percentages that go to writers for hardback, trade, and mass market (these percentages are available other places, but this article lays it out quite nicely.) This is just an amazing article to read and should be mandatory for any writer-want-to be. Advice and real numbers such as this from an experienced author—all I can say is Thanks Eric. Worth the price of admission. Again.

For Elizabeth Bear fans, she has some short fiction in here too, which I’ll be getting to shortly. I’ve had mixed luck with her stuff; she’s a good writer, but sometimes I like the story and sometimes I’m ambivalent.

If you subscribe or happen to buy issue 12 of BlackGate, you MUST READ the story by Todd McAulty. It is Superb!!! (Issue 12 was also offered as a free PDF download–it may still be availabe at the website–check to see!)

One of the things the magazine BlackGate allows is longer stories. The Soldiers of Serenity by McAulty read like a novel. In so many short stories, the payoff is quick, sometimes dirty. Just as you “get” the characters, the story is over. Not So Here. McAulty took his time. He introduced characters. He ran down corridors. He twisted a bit…he teased. It’s all ordinary, right? But you knew every character held a key, every detail mattered. I kept wanting to check to see how much story was left because I just KNEW the pay-off was a few pages away! I couldn’t read fast enough! WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, DAMMIT?????

I can’t even tell you what kind of story this is, because it would ruin one of the surprises–that’s part of the key. You’re reading along, wondering, “So what is this story? Where’s the speculative element?” Then you think you know…

Even if you don’t like short stories (and there are ever so many that I don’t–the short story isn’t my favorite form!) But anyway–this story was entertaining, smart, twisted.

An excellent read.

Update: 8/10/08
The story Knives Under Spring Moon by Ed Carmien is also very good. The first part is a little slow, but the payoff comes very nicely with the later action and mysterious buildup of certain characters and concludes very satisfactorily.

While I was running the book giveaway, I took the week off from posting so that the giveaway stayed at the top…but now I find I have a few news items running behind!

Why is it that cute socks wear out much faster than ugly work-out socks?

Okay, that wasn’t a news item…it was a stray thought. Up first…we’ve lost another short story magazine. Baen’s Universe will continue through about half of 2010 and then it’s all over. Yup. Not enough subscribers to support professional pay for the writers and artists. I enjoyed the magazine and I enjoyed submitting to it, even though the submission process was one of the toughest in the industry (You submitted to a critique board, received comments about your work, made edits and resubmitted. Writers must enter the forum with only words as weapons while the readers are equipped with daggers, swords, torpedoes…and some sort of gut-ripping tool that I never saw coming…)

In the short story arena, I have on hand the August issue of Realms of Fantasy. The cover itself seems to have drawn more attention this issue than any of the stories. Mostly it seems controversial because there’s a naked lady on the front. I didn’t notice that so much as the fact that the cover is ugly. It looks like someone sprayed gold paint on a lady and put the FTD flower delivery on her head. The artwork did not make me think of wonderful stories full of castles, mysteries, adventures, dragons, elves…thieves, human heroes…basically it didn’t call to mind any of the reasons I read fantasy.

So far I’ve read the editorial and a note from the new owner of the magazine. There are a lot of ads (many for books and I enjoyed looking at the various book covers displayed in the ads). There’s some artwork inside that is more read-the-story-inspiring and a couple of still shots from the Harry Potter movie (I haven’t seen the movies, but did the characters actually do *anything* besides sit around and talk????)

Stay tuned. More updates coming.

A couple of years ago, my sister-in-law sent us a subscription to Cook’s Illustrated for Christmas.  I was happy to have another cooking book to inform my cooking aspirations.  Another friend gave me a subscription to another cooking magazine so I had two magazines on the subject of food.   You’d think they knew I liked to cook or something.  Anyway, as with anything around the house, I browsed through a couple of issues.  I have to tell you that Cook’s Illustrated blows away any cooking magazine (or cookbook) that I’ve used before.

The issues aren’t large, but they are detailed.  Instead of just a bunch of recipes, it describes about four or five different ways the cook tried to make the dish.  This includes the failures, which as any cook knows, is just as critical as the one that works.  I tweak recipes all the time.  It’s a boon to hear what another cook tried and how the recipe turned out.   Did a different flour make it sticky?  Why tapioca starch instead of corn starch?   Is cold brew tea better than hot brewed tea that is then iced?

There’s also a section that compares products.   This month’s issue, for example, compares chocolate chips from various makers.  Now, you can’t write an article that interest me much more than that!!!  I bought a bunch of chocolate chips years ago and compared them for myself–but this article informs me that I am sadly behind the times.  There are NEW very accessible brands out in the stores now.  I had kind of noticed, but when I did the comparison last time, I found the more expensive ones tended to be hard (didn’t melt well) had a funny flavor I didn’t like or were just overpriced for the same thing I was already buying.

Woo-hoo, guess what I’ll be doing in the near future???  Yup, I’ll be embarking on another taste test of a few of their recommendations!  Move aside diet, here I come!

Sometimes the section that compares products is on cooking utensils, which is also interesting.  They always have a section called “Equipment Corner” that teaches how to use certain tools, where to get them, why one might want one brand over another and things like that.  I like the brand comparison stuff because a lot of the times, they list the prices–and very often, the high priced equipment doesn’t win out over the mid-range or cheaper stuff.

I keep all my copies.  One of the most used is the one that finally explained to me how to make a good pizza dough.  The secret was that they made the dough with various ratios of water until they got it where they liked it.  I’ve made it about three times (once unsuccessfully) and I love the recipe.

This issue has a beef teriyaki recipe.  I’ve made teriyaki before and it turns out okay–but generally too sweet.  Well!  Good news.  They explored no-sugar, marinated versus not marinated, how to cut the meat so it stayed tender, how big to have the chunks of meat before grilling…we will be trying this recipe very soon.

If you’re looking for a good cooking magazine, Cooks Illustrated has a 14-day free trial online membership.  You might check it out.  I haven’t tried the online membership, but I think the cooking magazine is fabulous.

There are a lot of online magazines, some offering all or partial content for free!

Speculative Fiction

The Town Drunk free, funny, eclectic! This one is a lot of fun to read! A particularly amusing story by Rod Santos: “The Great Deeds of Payven Larum.”

Coyote Magazine - There’s some good stories out here. Well-rounded with light, short, long, weird…a little bit of everything. So far I haven’t found any of the stories I’ve read to be too dark for my tastes!

Weird Tales As of 5/30/07 there are about 4 free short stories on the sidebar. All of them were good; “For Fear of Dragons” by Carrie Vaughn and “Conversations in the Tomb of an Unknown King” by Richard Parks were Excellent.

Jim Baen’s Universe (subscription only, but this is the magazine of all magazines!) You can read the first part of the stories for free, but they will hook you so watch out! Note: This magazine will end with end production in 2010.

Aberrant Dreams This magazine has some awesome graphics at the entrance and some very good stories. After reading three or four issues, I’d have to say there is more horror than I prefer, but it does have a bit of everything speculative.

www.anthologybuilder.com – this is a great site–you can pick and choose the stories you want to read and for about 15 dollars have it printed into a book and shipped directly to your door. I found a number of new authors via this site–there are some very good stories out there.

Podcast

www.clonepod.org This is my favorite podcast site so far. I enjoyed Jim Hine’s Jig the Goblin contribution as well as The Poisoned Chalice by Brian Stableford. I’m really looking forward to listening to Alien Hunt by James Hartley. The opening lines are great!

These short story podcasts make great listening for one and two hour car trips.

http://podcastle.org This is another site that has a lot of potential. So far what I’ve listened to has been a bit eclectic, but it’s a well-run site and I’m certainly going to continue downloading stories for car trips.

Print Only Fantasy
My favorite is Blackgate, but it doesn’t always come out on schedule. There’s about two issues per year.

Non-Fiction

Discover Magazine is my favorite. Not tons of free content, but each issue does have a few free articles and a new article rotates out every so often.

For excellent online non-fiction science stories, try LiveScience.

I’m always trolling around checking out new magazines.  Lately, there seem to be a growing number of podcasts.   I’m all for new trends.  Here is a mix of some e-zines and podcasts that I’ve been checking out.  Some of them may interest you, many are free to read/listen to, some are available for a small fee for a PDF file.

E-zine:

Andromeda Spaceways – This isn’t a new magazine by any means–it’s one that I’d classify as oldie, but goodie. :>)  I like it because its focus is on fantasy/sci-fi of the humorous kind!  And you gotta love that title–Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine is the whole title–can’t you just picture it?  A space travel magazine in the pocket of the seat flap in front of you… It’s a fun magazine from Down Under (Australia) available as a PDF download for a small fee or an actual PRINT magazine if you want to hold it in your hands!

Big Pulp – This is new to me and I think pretty new.  The interesting thing about Big Pulp is that they publish all kinds of genre fiction–mystery, horror, fantasy, sci/fi, humor.  It’s a real buffet–something for everyone.  I’ve read a few of the selections and they were well-done.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies -  Check out the artwork on this e-zine.  Wow.  It’s a free read, but stays open via donations.

Podcast:

Well Told Tales – I like the looks of this one–pulp horror, sci-fi and hardboiled.  What a combo!  The website is well-done too–just the right colors and look of pulp.

SFZine.org – Waiting for this one.  Supposed to start podcasting at the end of this month.  It’s pretty much an open book–could be good, could be…smarmy!

Old Favorites:

I still love The Town Drunk – they’ve really done a great job keeping the focus on humor.  I keep trying to talk the editor into taking humor of all kinds (mystery, pithy, every-day) but haven’t convinced them!  It’s still a regular stop for me every month.

Dunesteef.com and Clonepod.org have both continued to put out reliable podcasts–I think both have improved the quality of the recordings also.

Oh–one other tidbit.  It sounds like Realms of Fantasy is trying to stay alive. From what I read, it was profitable, just not profitable enough for the current owners to keep taking a chance.  At the moment, it’s possible that there are one or more buyers interested in taking it over.  That would be good news!

This isn’t really a new magazine, but it is still in Beta. I can’t remember when I first read about Tor deciding to give an online magazine a try. It takes me a while to get over and read some stories or the blog or whatever they have on offer. The blog actually seems to cover…well, like any good blog, it seems to cover any book related topic that comes to mind, even if it isn’t a fantasy or sci/book. I read a Scalzi story and of course it was good. He is a very accessible writer. I haven’t figured out how often they post new stories, but the blog format has more than one post up per day.

Tor.com is in Beta, so I assume that means they are going to see how things go. It’s nice that there are some new ones out there. With Baen stopping production next year, Darwin’s Evolutions stopping a few months ago…and so on, I guess I’ll be needing a few different magazines to try!