I can’t believe it’s July already. Here we are more than half way through the year. Most of the major awards for our genres have announced their best of 2014, and we’d like to congratulate all of the nominees and the winners.

We’ve currently closed to new submissions as we work on updating the way we process the stories we receive. It’s a work in progress and as soon as there’s a straightforward option, we’ll let you know.

Very soon we’ll also be organising our annual ‘Best of’ anthology (Star Quake 3), so keep an eye out for news on that front.

Coming to the stories now… This edition had no particular aim or theme. Somehow when I was planning it out, I managed to pick up a good several of our stories that were first person. This is not the favoured point of view in our industry; it is hard to tell a first person story well sometimes in a smaller word count and if you lump world-building on to that…

However, we’ve found some examples of intriguing stories from this perspective, so we hope you enjoy them.

We begin this edition with a new part of the world for our submissions: Serbia! M.B. Vujačić brings us a tale of the disappointments in life that get under our skin in Florist. In Ron Riekki’s Stairwell, we journey to China, and get lost in the cultural bewilderment of a Westerner in a world he doesn’t understand, in a bizarre situation he can’t comprehend. We welcome back Shadows-nominee, Michelle Jager, with a Home Delivery of the sins that haunt us in the form of winged messengers. Inner Dragon is James Aquilone’s take on the self-help phenomena, and one writer’s struggle with success and his imperfect humanity. In a little snippet of future worlds, Iulian Ionescu takes medicine to a whole new low with Bot Malfunction.

In this edition, we’re representing several continents, media types and publishing methods with our reports. Damien Smith reviews the upcoming and latest of the SNAFU military science fiction anthologies, SNAFU: Survival of the Fittest, from Australian publisher, Cohesion Press. (Incidentally, IFWG Publishing Australia shared a table with Geoff Brown and Amanda J. Spedding at recent Australian cons, so it’s nice for us to be able to review their latest, unreleased offering). I’m reviewing a self-published paranormal romance novel from New Zealander Darian Smith, Currents of Change. And Mysti Parker has taken our reviews to a new place this edition by assessing the audiobook of The Doll Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow.

For the first time in a while, this edition is bite-sized. Perfect for a snatched moment on public transport, at lunchtime, or if you’re lazing around in the sun on a beach somewhere in the northern hemisphere or tropics, in between sips of delicious beverages or dips in the water.

We run on the smell of an oily rag and donations. We’d like to dedicate a special hat-tip this edition to Michelle Jager, who donated her author’s payment to helping us continue to publish great authors and those starting out. Thank you to everyone who donates. If you like what you’re reading, please consider donating even a dollar or two to help us do even more.

Please share our ezine far and wide. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and now, Pinterest for our beautiful covers! Subscribe—it’s free and comes directly to your inbox if you prefer to read on an e-reader. And we love reviews too, whatever you think.

Thanks to everyone who is helping us grow by spreading the word, donating and submitting. We’re very grateful for your patronage and support.

Until next time, friends.

Sophie
Editor, SQ Mag

Update: After this went live, I realised that I had been incredibly remiss in not mentioning the incredible cover work from Laura Givens that fronts it. We asked Laura for space opera and we truly love the result of her hard work. Cover art is a very important part of each of our ezines, and I recognise that artists and illustrators are often under-recognised for their artistry. If you adore this cover as much as we do, pop over to Laura’s website to check out some of her other work.