Welcome back to all our fans and friends.

I have to admit, this latest collection has overwhelmed me this month. There’s so much in here! Edition 19 has a bit of everything for everyone, from steampunk to science fiction, parents to teenagers. We’ve got Story Quest finalists, a returning author, an invited author and other great pieces we know you’re going to enjoy. Tais Teng is back as our graphic artist and the creator of this incredible cover; you might recognise his style from the beautiful piece on the cover of Edition 9, whose whimsical form is one of my favourites.

For the first time in quite a while, we’ve also got quite a spread of representation. Antipodean authors on either side of the Tasman, a representative of Europe and some also from the Americas. It’s so great to have interest from far-flung corners of the globe.

This edition begins with an author who is most well known for horror, but brings us a gritty paranormal mystery. It’s been lovely to work with Jason Nahrung, and if you haven’t read his work before, we hope Night Blooming is the beginning of a new era of reading for you.

The three finalists from 2014’s Story Quest competition are also featured. J.B. Rockwell is a familiar name to us, and there was just something in the bizarreness of Rainbows and Death Machines that tickled the judges’ fancy. Final Journey, by Stephen C. Ormsby is a melancholic story of an entity no longer being considered useful that touched a chord with the judges. We welcome Stephen from one Australian publishing professional to another. Andrew Knighton wrote us some delectable robots in Riding a Runaway, with an added splash of a good carriage fight scene.

Edition 19 includes other great fiction that we were lucky enough to have submitted to us. Sean Monaghan’s Number Man charts the difficulties of life after prison, especially when your family got you put in there in the first place. Arrest by Hall Jameson starts off-kilter, and drawing you further in, doesn’t abate. One of the best humorous pieces we’ve read in a while is coming to you, courtesy of Richard Zwicker. Trial by Fire delves into an old story of the gods, with a bit of cheeky new world flavour. All the Answers is Peter Medeiros’ excruciating science-fiction twist on the pressure to succeed at school, and the troubling lack of empathy, but surprising ingenuity of teenagers. The Meet conjures you to dark and smoky bars, the romantic gloss of the early part of the century; finally, Geoffrey Collins brings you the quiet lull before the battle against the worst of human nature to the table.

Our regular reviewers return with some interesting new works for you to consider. Damien Smith reviews The Ark by Annabel Smith (no relation), an interactive novel that includes a website where fans are encouraged to add to the world.  Mysti Parker returns to Gail Carriger’s steampunk worlds in her latest novel, Waistcoats and Weaponry.

On an administrative note, we’re still working through our submissions backlog, so thank you everyone for your patience. Before you query, please check our forum (find the readings section here), which I am trying to update with each round sent out. We’re a few months behind our target, but closing in on it. As soon as this edition is out there, we’ll be back at what is probably the most time-intensive part of this job: reading shorts from hopeful submitters. I also can’t say enough about our readers who take my endlessly recurring emails with good grace and look for the constructive in pieces that we don’t accept. It’s also good to see some submissions coming in from other places; Demark, Canada (which I love, as I’m living there currently), Italy, the Philippines. We believe a good story crosses the cultural boundaries and we love to see our publication doing that.

May’s special edition is rapidly closing upon us. There’s one month left to write and submit a great tale, with the objective to be published alongside amazing names like Angela Slatter, Kirsty McDermott and Gary McMahon. From the submissions we’ve been getting, it looks like the competition will be fierce, and we are excited by the story descriptions coming through.

I’d like to extend a special thanks to Louise Zedda-Sampson, the newest editor at IFWG Publishing Australia and also one of our submissions readers. Her help this week with this edition has been invaluable.

As always, we’d love your support, both sharing and donating, so if you have the time and a few spare dollars, please think about sending them our way using the donate button.

Sophie
Editor, SQ Mag