A reminder that now until December 31 is your last chance to subscribe to Kaleidotrope at the current rate of $16 ($25 int'l). That's four issues of stories, poems and other various bits delivered straight to your mailbox twice a year. A terrific holiday gift for anyone eager to support an independent zine and its terrific writers!

Rates will be going up in 2009 ($18 US, $28 int'l), so subscribe now and save!

Richard Horton summarizes Kaleidotrope 2008:

Stories I particularly liked were, from #4, Ashley Arnold's clever and surrealistic short-shorts "Word Count: Negative 1", and Adam Lowe's moving treatment of the rights of synthetic humans, "Paradise". From #5, I enjoyed "The Wroeth's Grinding Bowl", by Bill Ward, a fable about the exploitation of the title creature and the title object, which can create anything you imagine -- including, alas, various ills; and Therese Arkenberg's sweet short piece about a potential love affair with an alien, "Fortune Cookie". Other nice stories came from
Michael Obilade, Flavian Mark Luminetti, Mark Rich, Brendan Connell, Eric Del Carlo, and Daniel Braum.

The percentage of women in each issue goes up considerably when you factor in the poetry -- which sadly most reviewers fail to do -- but I would love to see more stories by women overall.

A couple of new collections from Kaleidotrope contributors to announce.

First, Jennifer Crow (Two poems, April '07) has a poetry collection called Signs and Wonders, now available at Genre Mall

Signs & Wonders by Jennifer Crow {Sam's Dot Publishing} Come hear tales of angels and monsters, witches and sorcerers, and kings who fell. Listen close to the memories of abandoned gods and the tragedies of old ghosts. Discover poems of magic and myth, of lovers and death, and future legends yet to be told. Come quest over the seas, across the lands and in the skies, for hidden stories both dazzling and bleak. No tale truly ends, and no deed is without consequence. What is forgotten is never lost, and the greatest tales are bound in the questions never asked. Come find the answers; they are here, if you know where to look, scattered all around, in Signs and Wonders.

And Mark Rich -- whose stories and poems have appeared in the last three issues, as well as in the upcoming 6th issue in April -- has two new collections. The first is Edge of Our Lives, available now from Redjack Books

This collection of new and previously published short stories spans the width of Mark's considerable range of voices and themes. From the deeply poetic to the wryly humorous to the just plain bizarre, the stories take the reader to the edges (and depths) of the human (and inhuman) experience. ($10.00 US. 272pp, 4.75 x 6.5" ISBN 978-1-892619-11-2). Release date: November 1, 2008.

And the second is Across the Sky, available for pre-order now from Fairwood Press. The book comes out in January.

In nineteen ventures into the future, Mark Rich moves from a moving moment during human-alien contact, in "Across the Sky" ... to madcap conflict between Human and Vegetable, in the antic "Foggery" ... to a vision of life in Venusian orbit, in "The Apples of Venus" — the story SF giant Robert Silverberg called "science fiction in the classic mode, a contemporary version of the sort of work that makes old-timers speak with warm nostalgia of John W. Campbell's famous magazine Astounding Science Fiction of fifty years ago."

They're both terrific writers, so be sure to check these new collections out!

Sam Tomaino reviews the 5th issue of Kaleidotrope in this month's SFRevu:

The new issue of Kaleidotrope, #5, is here with its usual mix of distinctly different stories, all of them worth reading....Kaleidotrope remains a wonderful magazine of varied and interesting stories.

He goes on to discuss each of the stories (though not the poems) in full.

Now if I could just get The Fix to review an issue, too...

Cross-posted to Occasional Fish

Hey neat! In their summation of 2007 fantasy, in the terrific-looking Year's Best Fantasy & Horror (newly available from St. Martin's Press), Kelly Link and Gavin Grant mention Kaleidotrope by name:

Kaleidotrope, edited by Fred Coppersmith, is a new zine of similar ilk [to Electric Velocipede]. Two issues came out in 2007 and we hope to see it going along the same steadily rising path of EV, Flytrap, etc.

I can hardly blame Ellen Datlow for not mentioning the zine, as Kaleidotrope hasn't featured much, if any, real horror. (Although that's something I'd genuinely like to change going forward.)

In all, it's not quite as nice as seeing a story from Kaleidotrope in the book's table of contents, or even in the honorable mentions -- where a few past contributors do get singled out for quality work elsewhere -- but it's still pretty keen. The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror is essential reading every year, and it's a thrill to see Kaleidotrope acknowledged, however briefly, in its pages.

[cross-posted to Occasional Fish]

Issue #5 is available now!

I've updated the Kaleidotrope website, with revised submission guidelines, subscription details, reviews, and the upcoming October issue's table of contents -- all on a brand new domain! All the old links should redirect automatically. Any thoughts?

I'd also like to note, while I'm at it, that subscription costs will be changing slightly in 2009. To reflect the rising cost of postage and printing -- as well as the increased number of pages in each issue -- a single copy will cost $5 instead of the current $4. (Copies mailed anywhere outside of North America will cost $8 instead of the current $6.50.) However, a 2-year subscription of four issues (currently priced at $16 and $25) will only cost $18 (or $28 international) -- a 10% discount off the combined price!

This will not affect current subscribers or anyone who subscribes to the zine between now and December 31, 2008. And it won't affect the current prices of earlier issues -- of which I still have several back issues, if you're interested in picking up a copy of your own.

I'll post reminders about the price changes again as we get closer to the end of the year. The thing to remember is this: you'll save money if you subscribe to the zine, and you'll save even more if you subscribe before the new prices take effect.

[cross-posted to Occasional Fish]

How can I increase my subscription base for Kaleidotrope? Where can I send copies of the zine for review (with at least some small chance of success)? Don’t assume I’m already doing something or that your idea won’t work. Any thoughts?

[cross-posted to Occasional Fish]

Over at SF Site, there's a mixed but generally favorable review from Rich Horton of the last issue of Kaleidotrope -- which he calls "a varied and interesting publication" with "plenty of worthy work, stories and poems that deserve an audience."

[cross-posted to Occasional Fish]

Back when I first heard about Pixish -- "a place where people who want images and people who make images can easily find each other and collaborate on creative projects together" -- I set up an account and posted an assignment. I've been very lucky to feature some great artists over the past four issues of Kaleidotrope -- from the covers by Remi Treuer and Jim Cleaveland, to interior artwork by a long list of talented people -- but I'm always on the lookout for work that I think will complement the stories and poems in each issue.

Still, I posted my assignment pretty much as a lark. So much of a lark that I promptly forgot all about it. I certainly wasn't expecting anyone to take it seriously.

And yet I find, upon visiting the website again, that there are now close to 50 submissions. If you'd like, I think you can go in and vote on them -- although I'm not sure how much, if at all, that will play into my decision-making. Some of the submissions are very good, although obviously even some of those will not work well with the realities of Kaleidotrope's printing (black and white, photocopied). I'm going to need to take a closer look at all of them.

Officially, the assignment closes on August 1, but I think I may try posting another one as soon as that's done.

This time, I just need to remember it.

[cross-posted to Occasional Fish]

I'm afraid I won't be at Readercon after all this year, due to back problems. I'm not out for the count or anything, but the prospect of the long drive and weekend of sitting at panels just doesn't seem like what the doctor ordered right now.

Maybe next year!

Hmm. Another Kaleidotrope?

The Sound of Young America and Jordan, Jesse, GO! are two of my very favorite podcasts, and if you've never listened -- and, more importantly, if you have, but you've never supported the shows -- now is the time to do so. There are lots of thank-you gifts going out to supporters, including several issues of Kaleidotrope, and you get the satisfaction of helping to keep some really talented and funny people podcasting and on the radio.

Stop by, give a listen, and consider supporting them however you can.

Sam Tomaino of SFRevu takes a quick look at the stories in Kaleidotrope #4, writing that, "If you like quirky little tales from out of the mainstream, then Kaleidotrope is for you. Check it out!"

Anyone interested in reviewing books for Kaleidotrope? Obviously we'd have to discuss the specifics, and I'd likely have some specific books in mind, but any interest?

This is very cool. Small Beer Press has announced that what was easily one of my favorite short story collections of recent years, Maureen F. McHugh's Mothers & Other Monsters, is now available for free online under a Creative Commons license. So if you've never read any of McHugh's stories -- Ursula K. Le Guin rightly calls her "one of our best and bravest imaginative writers" -- now is your chance. As SBP notes, "The paper edition is much nicer, although not free."

They have also made available Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link's wonderful first collection and John Kessel's The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories, which I regret I've not yet read.

I'm starting to get some feedback on the most recent issue of Kaleidotrope, and I think contributor Bill Ward's comments might be my favorite so far:

I’ve just read through my contributor’s copy of the fourth issue of Kaleidotrope and the magazine continues to impress. There’s a healthy dose of surreal scifi and cross-genre slipstream shorts between the covers, and a variety of poetry and prose poems. But it’s the quirky humor of Fred Coppersmith that really comes through in his magazine and makes it different than a lot of other small press cross-genre ‘zines, which take themselves far too seriously. Kaleidotrope, with its eclectic stories and articles (the standout here is a history of the ‘fembot’ in popular culture) and weird little vignettes like faux horoscopes and ironic photography, is a magazine that isn’t scared to have some fun.

Bill's fun short story, "The Three Wishes of Miles Vander," appears in the issue, on sale now.

The fourth issue of Kaleidotrope is finally at the printer, and with luck copies will start flowing out within the week. So that seems like as good a time as any to finally reveal the full table of contents.

Fiction
"Molting" by Andrew Howard
"Word Count: Negative 1" by Ashley Arnold
"The Three Wishes of Miles Vander" by Bill Ward
"Premature" by Mark Rich
"Paradise" by Adam Lowe
"White Sheets" by Mike Driver
"Rome (a Metrophilia)" by Brendan Connell
"Half-Sneeze Johnny" by Kurt Kirchmeier
"My Cthulhu Story" (a comic) by G.W. Thomas
"Furrier" by Flavian Mark Lupinetti
"She’s a Hearth" by Paul Abbamondi
"The Life and Times of a Hungry World, Told Briefly" by Alex Dally MacFarlane
"The Transparency" by Michael Obilade

Poetry
"Househunting on Mars" by Bonita Kale
"Praise for What I Don’t Know" by Thomas Zimmerman
"Cracked Shells" by Beth Langford
"Spring in the Lab" by Alyce Wilson
"Farm School" by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff
"A Manual For Good Housekeeping in the Age of Global Warming" by Miranda Gaw
"Ivanikha" by Dana Koster
Two Poems by Franz K. Baskett
"Worldviews on a Desert Trail" by Jason Huskey
"Towards the Afterlife" by Aurelio Rico Lopez III

Plus!

"Who Goes There," Betty Ragan's interview with Marc Schuster and Tom Powers
"The Rise of the Fembots: A Brief Introduction to Female Android Sexuality in Film" by Eric Borer

Artwork from Remi Treuer, Rod Walker, and Lisa Willis -- and assorted other fun! I hope you'll consider picking up a copy. For just $4 ($6.50 international), it's a steal -- and all that money goes directly back to my contributors, keeping them happy and fed!

And, amazingly enough, two years of this hasn't quite deterred me yet! I'm accepting submissions for issue #5.

Congratulations to Kaleidotrope contributor Marge Simon (#1, assorted artwork) on her Stoker Award win!

Congratulations to Kaleidotrope contributor Tracie McBride ("Contact," April 2007) for her win as Best New Talent in this year's Sir Julius Vogel Awards. The awards are given out each year at the New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention. Congratulations again to Tracie!

The Science Fiction Poetry Association recently announced the nominees for the 2008 Rhysling Award. While sadly no poems directly from Kaleidotrope were nominated, I'm very happy to see a number of past contributors to the zine listed -- specifically Bruce Boston, Lyn C.A. Gardner, Marge Simon, Rachel Swirsky, Kristine Ong Muslim, Marcie Lynn Tentchoff. I'm looking forward to attending this year's Readercon, where the winners will be announced.

More congratulations are in order. Stephen Graham Jones, whose story "Pistil, Stamen, Bloom" appears in the third issue of Kaleidotrope, has sold a new short story collection, The Ones That Almost Got Away to Prime Books!

David McGillveray, whose story "The Sirens of Tinwa" appeared in the first issue of Kaleidotrope, writes to say:

[M]y first collection, "Celeraine", has just been published by Sam's Dot Publishing in trade paperback. It consists of three brand new long short stories and features dead civilisations, planetary minds, jailbreaks, out-of-control vegetation, generation ships and mind altering alien hallucinogens!

Check it out!

Meanwhile, Daniel Ausema has added his two "Living Stump" stories ("First Peeling" and "Stump Courtship," from the second and third issues, respectively) to Anthology Builder, where you can create your own personalized story collections and help support some great writers!

Any Kaleidotrope readers or contributors attending this year's Readercon?