Archive for the ‘Announcement’ Category

Niteblade is Closing

smalllogoThere’s no point in dancing around the subject, you can see it right there as the title of this post.

Niteblade is closing.

This hasn’t been an easy choice, I promise you. Niteblade has been a big part of my life for over seven years and means the world to me so I struggled to make this decision. Now that I have, however, it feels right. It makes me sad on some levels, but it feels right.

I’m not at the same place I was when I started Niteblade and it’s becoming more and more difficult to find the spoons to give it the time and attention it deserves. I love it, I’m super proud of it, and I want to have it end while that is true. I don’t want to watch it decline or become a burden or a job to me rather than something I enjoy and love. And I don’t want it to have an abrupt closure–something planned and deliberate feels much more its style.

When I first met the man who is now my husband I asked him how old he was and, by way of offering me a hint he said, “It’s a magic number.”

He was 33.

Ever since then I have thought of 33 as a magic number, and that is why I’ve decided to make Niteblade’s 33rd issue her final one.

Our remaining issues look like this:

  • December 2014 – Unthemed / FULL
  • March 2015 – Dark Fairy Tales / Open
  • June 2015 – Unthemed / Open
  • September 2015 – Theme TBA / Open

The final theme is going to be somewhat eclectic, Alexa and I are both going to toss some images & ideas out and invite people to use any of them to help frame their contributions. For my part you can expect those themes to be things like bridges, magic numbers and doorways. I’m not sure what Alexa has in mind, but we’ll definitely post a blog / email an announcement once we finalize all that.

We want to go out with a bang, not a whimper, so in addition to having four more complete issues which are sure to be amazing  we’ll be hosting a small series of guest blogs from contributors, staff members and readers. Nothing too masturbatory, but I really want to focus on celebrating Niteblade’s existence rather than mourning its passing.

All great things may have to come to an end, but we’re going to make this particular ending spectacular.

Save the Chimps (2014)

Rufus-cert-edit

Each contributor to Niteblade is offered a choice of being paid via Paypal or donating their payment to Save the Chimps. Once we’ve reached $150 in donations, my husband and I match that and Niteblade “adopts” a chimpanzee.

Well, we’ve done it again 🙂

With last month’s issue we reached the tipping point for donations and now it’s time to choose which chimpanzee we will adopt.

Please follow this link:

Adopt a Chimp

and read the profiles of the chimps who are available for “adoption”.

Then, choose which chimpanzee you’d like us to adopt and leave your vote as a comment to this post. We’ll be open to votes until mid-November and then we’ll tally them up and adopt whichever chimp gets the most votes.

Last year Rufus won by a landslide and we adopted him. Will he take it again this year? It’s totally up to you 🙂

 

~*~

On a related note, starting with issue #30 (December’s issue) we will be switching our charitable donations to support Fauna Foundation. They are also a chimpanzee sanctuary, but they are Canadian (like me) and their chimp adoption rates are lower than Save the Chimps new ones ($55 vs $300). This will enable us to make more frequent donations, and to an organization which is just as deserving as Save the Chimps.

 

10 Things To Know About The Clockwork Dagger

Beth Cato -- photo by Corey Ralston PhotographyFrequent Niteblade contributor Beth Cato‘s novel launched today and in order to help her celebrate we’re pleased to share this guest post —

10 Things to Know About The Clockwork Dagger

 

#1: It’s not on Earth, but it’s still historical fiction.
The technology, fashion, and grimness are based on post-World War I Europe. This influences everything from the steam cabriolets on the street to the suspicion that the meat at lunch isn’t beef, but horse.

#2: Medicians use healing magic.
My heroine, Octavia Leander, is trained as a healing magi and as a traditional doctor. She uses blessed herbs to draw on the power of the Lady’s Tree.

#3: The Lady is a world tree.
Most people in Octavia’s society regard the Lady as a figure of mythology. They scoff at the idea of a gigantic tree whose roots moor the world and whose omnipresence touches all life on the continent. Octavia fervently believes, but then, her connection to the Lady is quite unusual.

#4: It’s a colorful world.
Caskentia and the surrounding kingdoms and city-states are populated by various skin colors and cultures.

#5: The geography is inspired by eastern Washington.
Familiarity makes for a more realistic world. I lived north of Seattle for several years while my husband was in the Navy, and I miss the area. The topography within the book is similar to that of Mount Vernon on down toward Portland, with additional cameos by Mount Rainier and dry eastern Washington.

#6: There’s a touch of romance.
The chemistry is there, but it’s not the focus of the book. Octavia’s real priority is to stay alive and keep others alive, too.

#7: Old school RPGs play a role, too.
Final Fantasy IV, VI and Secret of Mana were my obsessions as a teenager and their influence has never left me. The Lady is directly inspired by Secret of Mana. Old school gamers will recognize tiny homages hidden within the book.

#8: The Hindenburg helped me out.
I wanted to create a realistic airship for the action in The Clockwork Dagger. The Hindenburg is both tragic and infamous, and there’s extensive resource material to draw from. My airship the Argus uses the Hindenburg’s floor plan cut in half, but many of the room details are almost exact. One significant modification: the boost of aether magic to keep it afloat.

#9: Gremlins FTW.
When I created my own sort of gremlins, I had no idea that the ugly-cute green-skinned critters would become one of the main appeals of the book.

#10: Agatha Christie contributed to the plot.
My mom raised me on Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries. My initial idea for The Clockwork Dagger was “Murder on the Orient Express, on an airship.” Everything else built from there.

ClockworkDagger_PB_cover500x332

The Clockwork Dagger is available today at all the usual suspects:

~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Powell’s ~ Books-A-Million ~

About the Author:

Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a lair west of Phoenix, Arizona. She shares the household with a hockey-loving husband, a numbers-obsessed son, and a cat the size of a canned ham.

Beth’s short fiction can be found in Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and many other magazines. The Clockwork Dagger is her first novel. The sequel, The Clockwork Crown, will be released in 2015.

Follow her at www.BethCato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato.

Niteblade #29: Porcelain Doll

Cover_Sept2014_noissnI am incredibly proud to announce the release of the September 2014 issue of Niteblade — Porcelain Doll.

This issue (which is #29 for those of you keeping track at home), contains:

St. Winifred Medical Center, Abandoned by Joshua Gage
Shelba’s Brood by M.E. Garber
The Gate of Horn by Megan Arkenberg
Dancing with the Departed by Anna Zumbro
Porcelain Doll by J.A. Grier
There She Stands by Nathaniel W. Phillips
Awakened by Sandi Leibowitz
Lena’s Confession by Kristi Brooks
Valediction for the Dungeon Master by Mark Jones
The Crew by Doug Blakeslee

It’s a great selection. It’s interesting to watch how themes emerge from the slush pile and I feel like this issue has strong flavours of hauntings and love… and sometimes the both together.

You can preview all the stories and poems at our website — Niteblade #29: Porcelain Doll and if that intrigues you, pick up a downloadable copy at the Niteblade Store (which means we don’t have to pay anyone commissions) or, if you prefer, at the following third party websites:

Porcelain Doll at Smashwords
Porcelain Doll at Amazon
Porcelain Doll at Kobo

Dark Fairy Tales

smalllogoIssue #31 is going to be a special theme issue — Dark Fairy Tales.

For this special issue Niteblade is looking for fairy tales, and not just any kind of fairy tales, we want them dark — Grimms’ grimmest. Surprise us with the shadows of “happily ever after.” What price did the princess pay for her royal marriage? What beauty might be born from curses? What if the witches and evil fairies had the right idea all along? As always we’ll be looking for stories and poems that offer us something new and unusual so even though we’ll accept retellings we preference will be given to original fairy tales.

Submissions are open now and we’ll be responding to them as they come in (not asking you to wait until after the deadline has passed). Please read and follow the submission guidelines found here.

2014 Fundraiser = Success!

fundraiser1Yay!

Thanks to you our 2014 fundraiser was a success! We raised $510 which will all go directly to paying our writers and artist. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Over the next couple weeks I will be busy getting in touch with each donor about their perks and sorting out all that fun stuff, and then we’ll dive right into producing the June issue of Niteblade (which is going to be awesome!).

Thank you again for all your support, you are amazing!

 

2014 Fundraiser

fundraiser1

It’s that time again! Our third annual fundraiser for Niteblade is currently up and running on IndieGoGo! We have got some amazing perks this year too, check this out:

  • Submission feedback on your next Niteblade submission
  • Interior art from our past issues
  • Critiques by fabulous Niteblade authors and editors
    • Aaron Polson
    • Damien Angelica Walters
    • Alexandra Seidel
    • Rhonda Parrish
    • Suzanne van Rooyen
    • Pete Aldin
    • Sara Cleto
  • Survival Colony Nine by Joshua David Bellin
  • Hysteria by Stephanie M. Wytovich
  • Handmade bookmarks from Beth Cato
  • Yoga cookies from Anna Sykora
  • Cover Art
  • Bill Ratner will record your outgoing voice mail message as Flint from GI Joe
  • Pick the theme for our March 2015 issue
  • And more!
Plus, our fundraisers are the only time you can purchase subscriptions and have the next four issues arrive in your inbox upon release (and at a discounted rate)!

Check out our IndieGoGo campaign, see how you can claim some of these fantastic rewards for yourself, or help us spread the word to all your friends — whatever you can do to help support Niteblade’s efforts in the coming year we greatly appreciate it. Thank you!

 

Help Make Niteblade Free on Amazon

Issue 23Issue #23: Blodeuwedd has been free to download from our website here, and from Kobo Books for a very long time. Unfortunately it’s not free on Amazon. I’d like for you to help me change that.

I made Issue #23 free because I want people to be able to see how high quality our downloadable issues are. I want people who don’t come to our website to find Niteblade, read it, become hooked and seek us out to read more. No matter how you feel about it, Amazon is key to getting noticed in this business, key to being read. If we could get Amazon to list our issue #23 for free it could go a long way toward increasing our exposure to the world. That is good for everyone.

Please go to the Amazon listing for Issue #23: Blodeuwedd.

If you scroll down to the Product Information you will see a link which says ‘Tell us about a lower price’.

Please click that link and fill out the information. When it asks you where you saw the lower price, please tell them it was a Kobo Books –> http://store.kobobooks.com/ebook/blodeuwedd

Submit the form.

Once you’ve done that, please email me at rhonda @ niteblade.com and I will be happy to send you a downloadable copy of our most recent issue, Niteblade Issue #26: A Fixer-Upper as a way of saying thank you. Be sure and tell me, in that email, what format you prefer (.pdf, .ePub or .Mobi).

And thank you. Thank you very much.

Slush Readers Required

smalllogoNiteblade Magazine is looking for a couple new slush readers. If you’re interested here are a few things you should know:

  • This is a volunteer position. You will be paid in gratitude and an electronic copy of each issue you read for but sadly, not money
  • Our slush readers read and vote (yes, no or maybe) on all the stories which are submitted to us via the Submittable system
  • The work load isn’t huge, we ask you to read 5 to 7 stories a week
  • While you are working as a slush reader for Niteblade you will not be allowed to submit to us
  • You will need to be familiar with Niteblade Magazine and the kind of stories we publish

If you’re interested in getting a sneak peek behind the curtain here at Niteblade, the chance to help us out and read great fiction before it’s published, please email rhonda@niteblade.com. In that email please tell me a little bit about yourself and also about your favourite story Niteblade has published in the past year.

Thank you.

Niteblade’s 2013 Pushcart Prize Nominees

Pushcart Prize cover_2014I have a love/hate relationship with the Pushcart Prize. I love that I get to nominate six works every year for this extra recognition and the chance to win. I hate that I only get to nominate six works every year for this extra recognition and the chance to win. Still, rules are rules, so each year come November I re-read each of our issues and pick six works to nominate.

I dropped the package in the mail today, so it’s official. This year, on behalf of Niteblade Magazine I have nominated the following works for the Pushcart Prize:

Infectious by Lilah Wild (March 2013)
before by Lynn Hardaker (March 2013)
Compassion, During and After the Fall by Cory Cone (June 2013)
Not Too Bold by Shira Lipkin (September 2013)
Pushed Out by Jay Wilburn (December 2013)
Memory Walking by KB Lawrence (December 2013)

Congratulations to all the nominees, and good luck!