From Modern Mythcraft to Magical Surrealism

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Oct. 2011 (Issue 55)

Welcome to issue fifty-five of Fantasy Magazine! Here’s what we’ve got on tap this month … Fiction: “The Secret Beach” by Tim Pratt, “Absolute Zero” by Nadia Bulkin, “Unnatural Disaster” by Kristine Katherine Rusch, “The Invisibles” by Charles De Lint. Nonfiction: “Feature Interview: Richard K. Morgan” by Andrew Liptak, “The Downsides of Dating a God” by Genevieve Valentine, “Five Ocean-Dwelling Creatures That Look Like Aliens (But Aren’t)” by Jeremiah Tolbert, “Are You Watching Carefully?” by Christopher Priest.

Cover art by Bram Leech

In This Issue: Oct. 2011 (Issue 55)

Nonfiction

Editorial, October 2011

by John Joseph Adams

Welcome to issue fifty-five of Fantasy Magazine! Here’s what we’ve got on tap this month … Fiction: “The Secret Beach” by Tim Pratt, “Absolute Zero” by Nadia Bulkin, “Unnatural Disaster” by Kristine Katherine Rusch, “The Invisibles” by Charles De Lint. Nonfiction: “Feature Interview: Richard K. Morgan” by Andrew Liptak, “The Downsides of Dating a God” by Genevieve Valentine, “Five Ocean-Dwelling Creatures That Look Like Aliens (But Aren’t)” by Jeremiah Tolbert, “Are You Watching Carefully?” by Christopher Priest.

Nonfiction

Editorial, October 2011

by John Joseph Adams

Welcome to issue fifty-five of Fantasy Magazine! Here’s what we’ve got on tap this month … Fiction: “The Secret Beach” by Tim Pratt, “Absolute Zero” by Nadia Bulkin, “Unnatural Disaster” by Kristine Katherine Rusch, “The Invisibles” by Charles De Lint. Nonfiction: “Feature Interview: Richard K. Morgan” by Andrew Liptak, “The Downsides of Dating a God” by Genevieve Valentine, “Five Ocean-Dwelling Creatures That Look Like Aliens (But Aren’t)” by Jeremiah Tolbert, “Are You Watching Carefully?” by Christopher Priest.

Fiction

The Secret Beach

by Tim Pratt

Though I’m the kind of person who uses the self-checkout line at grocery stores just to avoid the necessity of small conversation with a human cashier, I blurted out, “Hey, where were you guys swimming?”

Nonfiction

Author Spotlight: Tim Pratt

by Jennifer Konieczny

I’m not sure why the protagonist ended up being such a miserable bastard. Perhaps because miserable bastards need magical beaches the most.

Nonfiction

Feature Interview: Richard K. Morgan

by Andrew Liptak

Morgan’s first foray into fantasy began with The Steel Remains, a contemporary and violent take on the genre where a privileged yet savage soldier, Ringil Eskiath, finds himself in exile due to his sexuality.

Fiction

Absolute Zero

by Nadia Bulkin

It sat on a tree stump the way neighborhood men sat on bar stools, surrounded by a cavalry of thin, burned trees. Max almost recognized this nightmare place as Digby Forest, a festering infection of wild land on the edge of Cripple Creek.

Nonfiction

Author Spotlight: Nadia Bulkin

by T.J. McIntyre

I think monsters serve as a means of social control, representative of both unsavory behaviors and unsavory punishments. Then there’s also the need we have for an “other” to define ourselves against.

Nonfiction

The Downsides of Dating a God

by Genevieve Valentine

Dating a deity has a certain ineffable appeal—the carefree demeanor, the kinky shapeshifting, the supernatural transportation options, the lure of immortality.

Fiction

Unnatural Disaster

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Horizontal rain, darkness, and a nearly empty beach. Jaclyn Tadero trudged through the thick wet sand, listening to the ocean’s waves crash beside her. The Coast Guard helicopter flew overhead.

Nonfiction

Author Spotlight: Kristine Kathryn Rusch

by Wendy N. Wagner

I have many friends in the FBI (that makes my old hippie self shudder) and lots and lots of friends in the legal community. So law enforcement stuff is almost as natural as breathing to me.

Nonfiction

Five Ocean-Dwelling Creatures That Look Like Aliens (But Aren’t)

by Jeremiah Tolbert

This week, we at Fantasy Magazine bring you five aquatic organisms that could easily be confused for alien or paranormal life (but are actually real).

Fiction

The Invisibles

by Charles de Lint

Here’s what you do, Jerry says. You get one of those little pipe tobacco tins and you put stuff in it. Important stuff. A fingernail. Some hair. A scab. Some dirt from a special place.

Nonfiction

Author Spotlight: Charles De Lint

by T.J. McIntyre

I’d argue that’s the basis for all good fantasy stories: Ground the reader in the familiar so that when you do bring more improbable elements on stage, they’re more readily accepted.

Nonfiction

Are You Watching Carefully?

by Christopher Priest

Whenever you see a trick performed you know from the outset that you are going to be tricked, so you set up certain mental safeguards, trying to see where and how the conjuror could possibly deceive you.