Readers
Rich Horton's Market Summaries:
Summary: Some Veteran Small Press Magazines, 2004
Here are quick descriptions of five small press magazines of which I saw one issue each in 2004. I call them "veterans" in that each magazine here has published at least 25 issues. Though I only saw one issue each, that doesn't mean there were not additional issues (in the case of Cemetery Dance, I know there was at least one more issue).
1. Brutarian
This is a magazine I had heard of before, but never seen. I saw #41, dated Spring 2004. The editor is Dom Salemi. The magazine underwent some apparent turmoil this summer, but Salemi announced that it is still a going concern, and that the Summer issue would be combined with the Fall issue. (I haven't seen this issue, but that doesn't mean much.)
The Spring issue featured five short stories, in the neighborhood of 20,000 words total, as well as reviews of books, movies, and music, a couple of "profiles", a couple of interviews, and more. The stories were not on the whole to my taste -- best perhaps were pieces by John Rosenman and Nina Kiriki Hoffman.
2. Fantastic
Fantastic, subtitled Stories of the Imagination, is one of the DNA Publishing stable of magazines. The editor is Ed McFadden. Only one issue appeared this year, dated Summer 2004, whole number 25. Six stories, two of them novelettes, for a total of over 43,000 words of fiction. Best was probably Richard Parks's "The Great Big Out", about Storm Riding via "pods" (which appear to be small aircraft), and the rivalry between and old (28) rider and a foolhardy young hotshot.
3. Cemetery Dance
Cemetery Dance is a well-respected horror magazine. I saw issue #49, and I believe #50 has since come out. It's not entirely to my taste, being horror, but editor Richard Chizmar does a good job. #49 included six stories, one a novelette, one a short story, for some 30,000 words of fiction. Tony Richards's "Misdirection" is legitimately scary horror, about a particularly grisly form of performance art. Sherry Decker's novelette, "Hook House", is a nice entry in the "house with a dark history" subgenre.
4. Scheherezade
This is a UK publication, edited by Elizabeth Counihan. The subtitle is "Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Gothic Romance". I saw issue #27. Seven short stories, one a short-short, for a bit over 20,000 words of fiction. A very strong list of contributors to this issue: Counihan herself, Alexander Glass, Daniel Kaysen, David Redd, etc. Glass's "Mr Winter's Hounds" is my pick of the issue, about a security guard at a dog pound and some unusual dogs (and their owner).
5. Space and Time
Space and Time has been around for an incredible 98 numbers, since the late 60s. The Editor-in-Chief is Gordon Linzner, the Fiction Editor is Gerard Houarner. #98, dated Spring 2004, included nine stories, one of them a novelette, just under 40,000 words total. The novelette, Harley Stroh's "The Devil's Last Dance", struck me as an intriguing near miss. Of the short stories, I liked Paul E. Martens's "In His Footsteps", about Keith the Son of God; M. Christian's "The Rich Man's Ghost" -- cyberspace described using Japanese imagery; and Douglas Empringham's "A Catamount Inside the Paling", about a witch enchanting an old nobleman.
