Black Marker by Clyde Haley
The Missing Red Book by Sarah Gunn
In the Hours Before Dawn by Alexandra Fresch
Dragons of Fire by Alexis Hunter
The Surrogate by Mark Rigney
Carnivoyeur by Rebecca Hodgkins
Castle Lanes by Lisa M. Bradley
for two by Dan Campbell
Red Eye by Lisa M. Bradley
Silent Energy by J.A. Grier

Looking forward to it? Me too! Mark it on your calendar and start spreading the word

Together we raised $108.78!

I would like to thank everyone who helped make this possible. The people who donated prizes, everyone who helped spread the word, and especially the following supporters who donated cold hard cash toward our cause:

BD Wilson
Beth Cato
Suzanne Sykora
Amber Stults
Michael Haynes
Anonymous
Paul Walther
Anonymous
Christopher Hivner

Thank you, everyone. You’re awesome!

Congrats Keith, on some well-deserved recognition!

But, uh… no pressure…

~*~

*sang Batman-style* Na na na na na na na na na Niteblade! Niteblade!

I freaking love Niteblade. Love it. I have a fierce pride and an overwhelming affection for the publication and everyone who helps make it happen that I could do a whole Blogging from A to Z challenge with ‘Niteblade’ as my theme and still have blog topics left over at the end of the month. Truly. In fact, maybe I’ll do that next year. For this year, however, I only have one blog day to dedicate to it in this challenge. Today.

Niteblade, for anyone who is new to my blog and my life, is a fantasy and horror magazine I founded nearly five years ago (that’s like a billion years in internet time!). Since that day when it was me doing everything but the .pdf layout (which has always been Jo’s responsibility) Niteblade has grown to have several great people working behind the scenes.

We publish high-quality fiction and poetry and our pages are illustrated by original art.

Put simply, Niteblade rocks.

Unfortunately, it also costs money, and money is short these days. I’ve always hated asking anyone for help, for, um, anything, but Niteblade is something that means enough to me I decided I was willing to break that pattern and have a fundraiser. It was with more than a little trepidation that I put the call out ‘Niteblade could use your support, can you help?’ but the response I received was fabulous.

People donated loads of awesome stuff to our first (hopefully annual) fundraiser. Lots of stuff. Amazing stuff. I’m talking about critiques, handicrafts, signed books, food, art… the list goes on and on. People who couldn’t afford to donate *things* donated links. They donated time. They told their friends, and their friends told friends.

Our fundraiser starts today, April 16th and will be running through until the end of the day on April 20th. Check it out, we really do need your support:

Niteblade 2012 Fundraiser

This fundraiser will be the biggest single factor when it comes to determining our budget for next year. That means it directly effects how many stories and poems we can include in each issue and potentitally how many issues we put out. Every dollar makes a difference. Every one. Seriously. And if you can’t afford to donate cash, you can show your support by sharing the news of our fundraiser. The more people who know about it the better and we’re giving away a great collection of goodies to one lucky person just for telling people about our fundraiser. It could be you.

And thank you. Thank you so much.

~*~

As I mentioned above, I’m not the only person who has been blogging about this fundraiser, check out what the following (super awesome) people have to say about it:

~ Damien Walters Grintalis ~ Brenda Stokes Barron ~ James Dorr ~ TJ Tranchell ~ Amber Stults ~

On Thursday we surpassed our goal for sales and donations and released the web-based version of Issue #19 to the interwebs so now everyone can read it online for free. Know what the best part is? The donations haven’t stopped.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

It’s fantastic to see that people appreciate what Niteblade has to offer enough to show their support by donating money and telling their friends to stop by.

Thank you.

So very excited to start this new chapter of Niteblade on such a positive note.

~ Issue #19: Lycanthropist ~

Who likes snail mail?

I recently re-discovered a whole whack of Niteblade postcards. I made them up to take with me when I went to the World Horror Convention in 2009, so they have the cover from our March 2009 issue, The Sentry on them, and a download link on the back to pick up a copy of that issue. Because WHC 2009 had so few participants I ended up bringing most of my postcards back home with me.

They aren’t doing any good sitting around here.

Would you like a postcard and the free .pdf download that comes with it? Shoot me your mailing address and I’ll send one out to you. I will be deleting your address immediately after addressing your postcard so you will never receive anything else from me (without your permission and you providing the address to me again).

You can send me your addy via a DM on Twitter (to the @NitebladeZine account), as a comment here (which wouldn’t be my first choice as comments aren’t screened) or via email to rhonda@niteblade.com.

If you are going to a convention anytime in the near future and are feeling super generous let me know and I’ll send you a whack of postcards and maybe you could put some on the freebie table?

I look forward to mailing some of you

Know what else is exciting? We’re 20% of the way to the sales/donations goal we set for the March issue. That means we’re 20% of the way to releasing the web-based version of the site. Do you want to help? If you’ve got a couple dollars to spare consider picking up a copy of the March issue, or any of our back-issues at the Niteblade Store, or you can make a straight-up donation. If you haven’t got any change kicking around and you really want to read the March issue online for free (and you should) the best way is for you to tell your friends about Niteblade. The more people who come by the more sales we make* and the sooner you’ll be able to read this amazing issue for free.

~*~ Niteblade Store ~*~ Lycanthropist (sneak peek) ~*~ Link To Niteblade ~*~

*It also increases our advertising revenue, but that money gets put into the pool for the June issue.

You know how every issue I say is the best one yet? Well, guess what? This one is the best issue yet! Fer realz. We have epic fantasy featuring two children trying to escape poverty and the horrors that come with it, a wedding with a ghostly groom, a fungus that takes over people’s brains, a story about stolen love, gambling, a group of musicians that may seem familliar… at first, and SO much more.

This was the first issue with Alexanda Seidel as poetry editor and she chose to publish poems by Dan Campbell, Patrice Wilson, Sonya Taaffe, Stephanie Smith and J.S. Watts. It was also the unveiling of a whack of changes BD made to the website. Many of them are behind-the-scenes but I’m sure you’ll agree that the site looks phenomenal.

Niteblade Issue #19: Lycanthropist

Is Niteblade free?
Yes and no. Our super awesome .pdf versions are not free, but they are gorgeous and well worth investing in. What’s more they don’t have any advertising and can be read on any device that can read .pdfs. When things get a little complicated is when we start talking about the web-based versions of Niteblade. The archived web versions are completely free. You can check them out from the Archives page and enjoy all the amazing fiction and poems we’ve published over the years, however, as of the March 2012 issue we are implementing a major change.

After March 2012 the web version of each issue is initially going to offer only a teaser of the full version for free. In order for us to release the issue in its entirety we will have to reach a set sales goal. That goal will be fluid at first, while we test to see what the market will bear. Every sale, donation and all advertising revenue generated each quarter will count against the goal. Once we reach it the web-version will be released to everyone for free. If you need to get your fix before then you can purhcase a .pdf right away, and know that in doing so you are contributing toward making the issue available to everyone.

Here’s the thing, that explanation makes it sound more complicated than it really is. The web version of each issue will be teasers only until enough people have donated, bought copies or advertising to reach the goal, and then everyone can read it for free. We’ll track the goal on one of the Niteblade pages and will try to find a balance between not getting paid for the fantastic work we publish and not being able to share that work in its entirety because the website isn’t free.

I’m excited, I hope you are too.

The Wake of March by Dan Campbell

The Woman in the World by Patrice Wilson

A Hellbound Tragicomedy by Stephanie Smith

Lycanthropist by J.S. Watts

The Coast Guard by Sonya Taaffe

Looking forward to this yet? Good. Spread the word.