I always love the beginning of the month that we release SQ Mag. It’s full of enthusiasm and excitement. Always keen to find out which stories you loved and what you thought.

It’s been a busy month for SQ Mag. We’ve released our 2012 anthology, Star Quake 1, learning a lot in the process. Thank you to all our selected authors for your patience—we know it’s hard when the prospect of your name in print looms. Thank you Jeffery Doherty, for you work on making our cover “just right” and for the elegant and spooky graphic that you gave us originally.

Please support the e-zine by grabbing this great anthology as a gift, or for your own bookshelf. We can keep running only with your patronage and donations.

Be in the running to win a copy of the anthology: we will have 3 to give away. How do you win? Details are on the forum here, or check out our Facebook page.

What can we say about the stunning cover that Steve Santiago provided us with, except how wonderful it is and how great it is to have such a vivid and striking science fiction image for our cover. Steve is over on Facebook or you can see more of his stunning graphics at his website.

So what we have in store for you in Edition 11 is a line up of a decidedly dark and dismal nature. We start with Arley Sorg’s Rabble, a fast-paced exploration of the use of hardened criminals as soldiers in battle against an invading alien race. For Julia August’s The Poet and the Lily, you have to be paying attention. It just creeps up on you. Requiem in Diamond by David D’Amico is an end of days science fiction, a look at human arrogance and fallibility when it comes to restoring the health of the planet, but with a real human look at what the certainty of the end brings. I am not entirely sure how to describe Jim Lee’s Flagman. The story is a look at the pressure we put our children under to be like us, and what that can do, but he keeps you guessing right up to the ending. Our final story for this edition is Finders Keepers by John Dennehy, a horror with some old-fashioned bad guys, ghosts and the black power of greed.

We are on the final edition of the great Intangible serial by A.A. Garrison that has run over this year. This last instalment wraps up all the loose ends that Garrison has had us chasing through Hack’s subtle manipulations of both Jeannie Tuttle and Marcy Dillsmore. We hope you’ve enjoyed it, and check out more of A.A. Garrison’s work.

Our reviews this edition are very fantasy-oriented for a change. Mysti Parker reviewed Black Bottle Man by Canadian Craig Russell, a dark and well-researched mythological story. This time Damien Smith reviewed Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, a debut novel that was a Hugo nominee. It sounds like a delightful tale with a deliciously Arabian Nights feel. We hope you’ll come on over to the forum and tell us what you thought of either of these novels.

For this edition, I am doing something a little different for the e-zine. The last week of the month, I attended and volunteered at the Vancouver Writer’s Fest, British Columbia’s largest literary festival. So I wanted to talk about the experience and why it’s important that we support literary festivals, both as writers and readers (and in my case, publishing professional too). I hope you enjoy it, and I would also love to hear about your experience with literary events and festivals.

Many thanks to you, our reader, for supporting us this year, either by sharing with friends or over at Facebook and Twitter. We do this because of you.

Come back to see us January 1, for edition 12. We have quite the stellar line-up for you, beginning for 2014.

Sophie Yorkston
Editor, SQ Mag