October 2026

Back from Capclave! Our bookselling adventure wasn't as successful as we had hoped, but our table looked nice.

(Table runner designed by our graphic designer Anne Horn and printed by Vistaprint.)

We only sold one book, which definitely isn't enough to be worth driving down to Maryland for. And Kristin had to go on her own, as Donald had a work commitment he couldn't get out of. All the vendors reported having an unusually slow year, but Kristin did have the opportunity to talk with some of them about where they're finding customers who want to buy books (and where they're not). Book fairs and book festivals seem promising, though some independent authors say that their experience with them has been mixed.

Kristin also had an interesting conversation with Neil Clarke, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Clarkesworld Magazine, about recent trends in publishing. He agreed with what we only started hearing in the last year: print books are having a resurgence in popularity compared to digital, and most teenagers and twentysomethings who read fiction seem to prefer print. A few years ago, everyone seemed convinced that the reading public was going to switch entirely to e-books; but apparently only old people like them. (This is, of course, an exaggeration; but it turns out that people whose entire school and professional life has always been on screens might want to look at something else when it's time to relax.)

Neil also said that, for creative people trying to do crowdfunding, his research suggests that Patreon might be a better platform and model than Kickstarter, especially for longer-term projects. Publishers who use Kickstarter for one project after another tend to see a decrease in support with each successive campaign, while those on Patreon are more likely to see a consistent increase in subscriber numbers over time.

The booth next to ours was occupied by The Crowded Shelf, a traveling bookstore run by an indie author cooperative. Similar to our new initiative of selling our authors' indie or small press books alongside our own--but much farther along--they share the work of taking one another's books to SF conventions and other events.

It was great to meet some new authors, and to catch up with several long-time "convention friends"; but most of the people Kristin reconnected with are also going to be at Boskone in February, so it wasn't really necessary to drive all the way down to the DC area to see them.

On Sunday afternoon, after the convention was over, Kristin went for a short hike in nearby Rock Creek Regional Park (which is apparently entirely different from Rock Creek National Park).

Seems bad!

Deer!

SUBMISSIONS UPDATE

As of Saturday afternoon, we had 135 unread submissions (out of 317 received), 4 that had been read by one author but not the other, and 7 that had advanced to our short list.

Our Patreon funding is down significantly, so we'll only be able to accept 7 stories this time around, and we'll be going back to our old 9000-word limit for submissions when we reopen in January. (We will still consider all stories between 9000 and 10,000 words that were submitted in July.)

Please consider subscribing to our Patreon if you enjoy reading Mysterion, especially if you'd like to see us publish more and longer stories! For $3/month, you get early access to all the stories we publish, and for $10/month, they're available in e-book format. And, even for only $1/month, we offer additional non-fiction content and the opportunity to participate in monthly Discord chats with the editors and some of our authors.

COMING SOON

We sometimes coordinate publication with major holidays, and although our October story isn't really about spooky season, we do think it's a wonderful fit for All Saints' Day! In "Fourteenth Century Metalwork Techniques for Breaking Your Own Heart", Cara Masten DiGirolamo explores what happens after the children magically transported to another era return home, through the eyes of the 14th century girl who came back with them.

We'll have two stories for November. First up, "A Prayer to the Lord of Everlasting Chains", by Kevin Singer, is another of the "true science fiction" stories we've been publishing more of this year. This one shows us a surprisingly hopeful picture of a post-apocalyptic world, with survivors of a worldwide nuclear war working together to rebuild. Then, later in the month, we have a story from Nigerian author Miller Ed Frank. "Tech Pastors" blends near-future science fiction and supernatural elements, as small-town pastors are tempted to use either traditional or high-tech sources of knowledge to build competing congregations.

Thank you for stopping by, and be sure to keep Mysterion in mind for the book lovers on your Christmas list! Mysterion, Mysterion 2, and Mysterion 3 are all available on Amazon, and just might be the perfect gift for someone who loves fantasy and science fiction.

Have a wonderful fall--or spring, for readers in the southern hemisphere--and be sure to come back to read our October and November stories!

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