Yesterday I received great news about my magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies. storySouth recently named BCS as the runner-up for their Million Writers Award for Best New Online Magazine of 2008, saying that BCS was “already a top online SF/F market.”

In addition, two stories from BCS were named among their Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2008: “The Crystal Stair” by Charles Coleman Finlay & Rae Carson Finlay and “Architectural Constants” by Yoon Ha Lee. These stories and the other hundred or so semi-finalists will be culled down to ten by May 15; then the public will vote top winners.

storySouth is an online literary magazine founded by writer and editor Jason Sanford. They tirelessly champion online literary fiction of all genres, including SF/F. Over fifty magazines were represented in the finalists for Notable Stories, so it’s a great honor to have BCS and these stories recognized among such great venues and work!

My contributor’s copies of Space and Time #107 recently arrived, the issue that includes my short story “Ebb.”

They look gorgeous. As always, the typeface and printing is crisp and clean, and the paper is nice, thick white stock–much better many other print magazines. There’s a neat B&W illustration for “Ebb” by an artist named David Grilla, which is pretty cool. It doesn’t fit the setting exactly, but that’s no problem; it’s a weird setting.

I’m very happy to see this story in print. It’s probably the most extreme of my “literary traditional fantasy” stories in that the narrative veers well into literary territory, but the story also has one of my most meticulous, almost SF, scondary-world settings. It also has an ending that editors at several top-level magazines completely missed, so I’m delighted that the folks at Space and Time enjoyed it.

If you’re interested in checking it out, Space and Time now offers a PDF subscription at half-price. You won’t get the thick white stock, but you will get all the crisp print!

In a move that could affect the majority of SF/F short fiction magazines currently operating, there is a motion up for vote at this year’s WorldCon to abolish the Hugo Award category for Semipro Zine.

This Semipro Zine category covers many of the most vibrant magazines publishing today, including Clarkesworld Magazine, Weird Tales (which published my story “Excision” in #347), and Fantasy Magazine. My own magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies also fits this category.

Many great stories have appeared in Semipro Zines since the category was established in the 1980s. These magazines publish far more new writers and experimental fiction than the “pro” zines do. Clarkesworld Magazine and Weird Tales were both nominated for this Hugo this year. I think it would be a shame if we lost this Hugo category as a way to recognize accomplishments made at this vital level of short fiction publishing.

Editor Neil Clarke has started a website to Save the Semipro Zine Hugo. It features listings of Semipro Zines and awards they and their fiction have won. It also explains the WorldCon voting process and how attendees can participate.If you are as concerned about this as I am, please visit his site and learn what you can do to help.

A very complimentary overall review of my online fantasy magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies in a blog post by fantasy novelist Marie Brennan.

Of course, Ms. Brennan also has an interest in BCS because we’ve published several of her stories (the second of which is due out in Issue #14 in a few days). But I think it’s even higher praise to hear that the magazine is impressing people as readers.

I started BCS because no fantasy magazine was consistently publishing the type of fantasy stories that I love to read–set in a secondary world (invented or historical) and focused on strong and interesting characters.

It sounds like that type of fantasy is also what Ms. Brennan likes to read. So I’m delighted not only that she’s enjoyed specific stories in BCS, but even moreso that she’s enjoying the overall flavor of fantasy that BCS specializes in.

If you do too–if you like fantasy with strong, driven characters that’s set in awe-inspiring worlds–definitely check us out.