September 2026

Happy Labor Day, everyone! (Or Labour Day, for our Canadian friends.) We're reading the July submissions and getting ready for our trip to Capclave in October. Of the 317 stories we received, 244 are waiting to be read, and 10 have been read by one editor but not the other.

At Capclave, we've signed up for a table in the dealers' room, and will have copies of the three Mysterion anthologies, plus small press and independently-published books from several of our authors (Katherine Briggs, Andy Dibble, Karen Eisenbrey, Mike Ekunno, Grace F. Hopkins, S.E. Reid, Kenneth Schneyer, and K.A. Wiggins). By expanding into bookselling, we're hoping to increase visibility for our authors by getting more of their work in front of readers who might not otherwise know about it. We're also hoping that it will make our table more interesting, if we have more than just three books in the same anthology series for passers-by to look at.

We were too rushed trying to get the August update post up before the start of September to include a report on Readercon, which Kristin attended in mid-July. Readercon is one of our local science fiction conventions. For several years, it was in the suburbs south of Boston; about a 10-minute drive from our house, in fact. But now it's in the suburbs north of Boston, a 45- to 75-minute drive from our house, depending on traffic. (No one can afford to run a non-profit convention in the city of Boston in the summer, when normal people actually want to visit. That's why Arisia and Boskone are in January and February.)

Kristin didn't attend any panels, readings, or award ceremonies, but she did wander through the dealers' room to get ideas on how to set up our own table, and spent time catching up with friends and meeting new people (i.e., networking). She was also interviewed on the Nerd Count Podcast, which you can listen to here, or here on YouTube. Nerd Count is a production of Matthew Kressel and Mercurio D. Rivera (Matt also created the Moksha submission management platform that we and many other science fiction publishers use). 

It was especially helpful to chat with the publishers of Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Reckoning about the business of short fiction publishing, discussing issues around paying international authors and the growing problem of "authors" submitting AI-written stories and poems as their own work. (Authors should keep in mind that many of us know each other.)

PARKS AND RECREATION

Kristin went hiking with a friend in east-central Massachusetts recently. It took longer than expected, as the trails weren't all well marked and they got lost. Kristin had to break out her compass, and the two adventurers then had to tramp through several patches of poison ivy that were colonizing the undergrowth. Fortunately, the plants were still small enough that no one got tagged.

Look at all the poison ivy behind that bench!

COMING SOON

We have two stories scheduled for September and one for October.

First up, appearing on September 14th, we have a new story from Tao Yuan, whose short fiction debut, "Sonata", we published back in April. In "Haloman", the protagonist's father, a criminal defence barrister (in Britain), is deeply annoyed when a literal halo starts growing out of the top of his head. How is he supposed to be taken seriously in court, in church, or anywhere else; and what does it all mean?

Next, on September 28th, Michael A. Reed's "Between Static and Heaven" has an unusual science fantasy take on the future, heaven, and the afterlife, with radios that the living can use to communicate with their deceased loved ones in heaven. Unfortunately, there isn't much those in heaven can do to help the still living with their very real problems here on earth.

While our October story by Cara Masten DiGirolamo isn't really a Halloween story, we do think it's perfect for the week leading up to All Saints' Day. "Fourteenth Century Metalwork Techniques for Breaking Your Own Heart" explores what happens after the children magically transported to another time return home and grow up.

And don't forget that you can already read both September stories now by becoming a $3/month subscriber to our Patreon; or download an e-book of all three stories at the $10/month tier!

It's a great time to sign up for our Patreon, as we're very close to the $450/month threshold that will enable us to publish an additional two stories every year. Only another $10/month, and we'll be able to accept nine stories from the July submission period instead of eight!

If you want to support us financially but don't want to commit to a monthly subscription, another option is to make a one-time donation via PayPal. (We hope to add a donation button to this website soon, but it requires the technical expertise of the editor with the day job, so it's still on the to do list.)

Of course, you can always support us by purchasing our anthologies (1, 2, and 3) and individual magazine issues! Everything is available on Amazon, and some things are available from other sites too.

Thank you for reading, and we hope you'll be back next week to read Tao Yuan's new story!

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