March issue of Ideomancer live!

After a lot of learning the ropes, back-and-forthing, heroic efforts on Production Editor tanaise's part, and serious excitement, the March issue of Ideomancer is live.

Our first issue of the year explores human--or nonhuman--connection.

Our first story this month, J.D. Brames's "Borborygmi," is a grimly hilarious portrait of disconnection in a late-night convenience store. Michaela Kahn's "Blight, Under the Microscope," explores the lines between individual and force of nature, social and personal responsibility, while Steven Mohan, Jr.'s "The Promise of Touch" shows a very different and very personal end of the world.

Our poets this month are J.C. Runolfson, Mike Allen, and Amal El-Mohtar, with their respective poems, "Lifestory," "Cosmic Secrets," and "The Night Sisters," which explore the idea of connection in archetypical, astronomical, and sometimes violent ways.

This is my first issue at the helm, so you'll understand if I have an extra helping of chuffed on my plate today. :)

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This being said, we're also playing with the support model for Ideomancer: trying to see if we can take the magazine to a mixed-funding model, including donations. Reader donations have always been something we've gratefully received, if sporadically. So if you really enjoy the March issue, please consider dropping five or ten bucks our way? The magazine -- like so many other semipro markets -- is a labour of love; whatever's in our bank account goes to paying our contributing authors and poets, whom we hope to someday be able to pay better than we currently do.

Our budget needs are modest: Ideomancer runs on approximately $600 a year. So if you're inclined to throw a bit of support our way, be assured that it will count. Our donations page is located in the main sidebar, under "Donate."

Thanks very much, and we hope you enjoy the issue!

Her heart a mirror blinding all the greedy as they go.

March 1, 2009 Progress Notes:

Above

Pages today: 15.
Pages total: 91/371.

91 / 371 (24.5%)

Reason for stopping: Chapter 3 is down.

Munchies: Chili with sour cream, and my new best thing, water + wild rose petal syrup + blackberries. Really, try it. Best thing.
Books in progress: Robert Graves, The Long Week-end; Sean Stewart, The Night Watch.
The glamour: Mostly getting the issue up and dealing with whatever kinks needed to be worked out around that. Also, housecleaning, a grocery top-up, and making said chili.

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(Well, and I also revised the first two scenes of "Sugar" today, but I'll hold off on making a formal metrics for that until tomorrow.)

I imagine this will be a great week of revising. I will revise Above some more, and I will revise "Sugar", and I will revise random things on the street that may be in need of revision. Perhaps there are street signs out there that are too long or need better grounding detail or something.

I used to really, really dislike revising. But I've been doing it on this book for so long, comparatively, that it's just old hat now. This is the way a writer gains their toolset: attrition! :p

Oh right. Two more reviews that showed up this weekend of Previously Published Fiction You May Have Known:

The Fix is not so keen on "Miles to Isengard":

Sometimes I read a story that I just don’t like and I feel guilty about it, because I feel as though I should. That pretty much sums up my attitude to Leah Bobet’s “Miles to Isengard.” I feel that Bobet is trying very hard to say something interesting and to address some important point; the story has a portentous edge-of-the-apocalypse setting, the characters seem to be stretching for some sort of archetypal stature (the innocent child, the conflicted hero, and the serpent-like talking weapon), and her characters’ mission—to destroy an atomic bomb—seems as though it should feel powerfully worthy. But the more I read “Miles to Isengard,” the less I like it.

And SFSite does like "Bell, Book, and Candle":

Leah Bobet spins the story of several unusual people in "Bell, Book, and Candle." The titular trio are called every so often to perform arcane religious ceremonies, but at no little cost to themselves. How they relate to one another and their functions, and what it takes out of them, is told in this lyrical narrative that seems to be part truth and part dream. It's intriguing, and occasionally ambiguous.

So that, folks, is about even for the day.