I think I’ve found the next market I will submit “Relvan’s Rescue” to, barring acceptance from Black Gate. Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, an ezine that began accepting submissions back in February of this year, published their first issue at the end of June. (I just heard about it last week via Grasping for the Wind.) HFQ [...]

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I’m a voracious reader. If you watch my “Currently Reading” widget, or friend me on Goodreads, you’ll note that I cycle through a book about once a week or so. I’d probably finish quicker, but I limit myself to reading during my weekday commutes (I take a 15-20 minute ride on the light rail). Given [...]

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Awards serve two primary purposes: to stroke the ego of the award-winner and attempt to raise awareness. There are three major awards for fantasy fiction: the World Fantasy award, the Hugo, and the Nebula. Both the Hugo and the Nebula do not differentiate between science fiction and fantasy in their categories. Nominations and voting are [...]

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Is an economic recession a bad time to enter the world of writing? Alex Moore asked this great question in her comment to my reaction to a shrinking market. Intrigued, I decided to do a little research. Are books recession-proof? Conventional wisdom suggests that the entertainment-value-to-cost ratio of a book makes it an attractive buy [...]

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The news that Realms of Fantasy will cease publication with their April 2009 issue has caused me to rethink the submission strategy I employed for my fantasy fiction short stories. The professional market is rapidly shrinking. “Professional” is defined as any market that pays a minimum of $.05/word (per the current membership requirements of the [...]

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