Science Fiction Sale Closes Out Month of March; Strange Mistresses Link in Center Column Changed

March 31, 2014 in Book, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Short Fiction
Tags: Dark Fantasy, Fantastic Stories, Horror, Science Fiction, Strange Mistresses, Warren Lapine

The word came first from Cynthia Ward:  “Editor Warren Lapine is seeking *reprint* SF/F/speculative fiction (1,000-10,000 words) for a couple of new print/electronic anthologies. . . .”  Then it continued in Warren’s words to the effect that he was starting a new webzine to be called FANTASTIC STORIES, but first would be “putting together a couple of anthologies in advance so there will be some product available when the first issue of the zine goes up.  I’m looking to licensee reprint rights to stories for both a print and e-pub anthology.  Each anthology will have about 800 pages of stories with a mix of classic and newer fiction. . . .”  Warren and I go back a long ways, to when I had a story in the first issue of what became ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE, back when it was titled HARSH MISTRESS SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES (funny story about that name, incidentally – remind me to tell it to you sometime), so of course I’d submit.  In fact the story I sent went back to that time frame, first published in the Summer 1991 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW and one of my first professional sales, called “No Place to Hide.”  This was back when I was writing a lot of science fiction, though, presciently, with a bit of a nasty twist at the end (assuming, that is, that a tale about interstellar spaceship combat isn’t nasty enough in the first place).

So then, in less than two weeks, Warren replied, “I like it.  I’ll send a contract out next week.”  And that is that.  I don’t know the actual name of the anthology yet, but when I find out I’ll pass that on, as well as other information as it comes to me.  But as perhaps a preview of what kind of story Warren has liked, I mentioned above that I’d sold one to him for HARSH MISTRESS, published, as it happens, in Spring-Summer 1993.  This was a novelette called “Peds” which has since been reprinted by Untreed Reads as a stand-alone electronic chapbook.  And for more information about that, one can click on its picture in the center column.

Then speaking of pictures in the center column, if anyone has recently clicked the one for STRANGE MISTRESSES:  TALES OF WONDER AND ROMANCE, the link to publisher Dark Regions Press has indicated that it’s sold out.  In fact both it and its companion volume DARKER LOVES:  TALES OF MYSTERY AND REGRET are officially out of print, at least for the moment (I have been in contact with Dark Regions but also am open to bringing them back under a different publisher’s imprint), and so I’ve changed the link for STRANGE MISTRESSES to take readers to its Amazon page where both used and new copies are available.  In the case of DARKER LOVES, however, while it’s listed on Amazon too (and cheaper in some cases than from the publisher), some copies are still being sold by Dark Regions not only as a trade paperback, but also in a special, autographed, leather-bound and otherwise very nice collectors’ edition which, to my knowledge, is not available anywhere else.