Apex Magazine Issue 85

The Universe of Xuya #Memorials

by Jason Sizemore (Editor), Mary Pletsch, Douglas F. Warrick

Apex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
Words from the Editor-in-Chief—Jason Sizemore

FICTION
Folk Hero — Mary Pletsch
Cuckoo Girls — Douglas F. Warrick
Memorials — Aliette de Bodard
The Kraken Sea (Novel Excerpt) — E. Catherine Tobler

NONFICTION
Interview with Author Mary Pletsch — Andrea Johnson
Interview with Joe Baden, Cover Artist — Russell Dickerson
SEEKING TANIS. Runner Available — Betsy Phillips

POETRY
Later, they found her journal — Tina Parker
Ghost Plague — Tina Jens
By Payette Lake — Cullen Groves

109 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 4, 2016

About the author

I was born the son of an unemployed coal miner in a tiny Kentucky Appalachian villa named Big Creek (population 400). It’s an isolated area with beautiful rolling hills, thick forests, and country folk. I lived in Big Creek until I went to college, spending my weekends cruising the Winn Dixie parking lot of ladies, partying in my cousin’s run-down three room trailer, and being a member of the bad-ass Clay County High School Academic Team.

College was quite a shock for me. Girls! Minorities! Strip clubs! And it didn’t help that I attended Transylvania University, a fairly snotty (but excellent) private college in Lexington, KY (on scholarship… no way my family could have sent me otherwise). I graduated in the standard four years with a degree in Computer Science.

Since 1996, I’ve worked for evil corporations (IBM), dot com dreamers (eCampus.com), The Man (both city and state government), and for The Kids (KY Dept. of Education), and assholes (lots and lots of assholes).

In 2004, I decided my life was boring, that I no longer needed disposable income, and I needed to increase my stress levels. I started Apex Publications, a small press publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. At first it was just a small print zine, then a pro-level online zine, then books, and then ebooks.

I edit anthologies, mostly for Apex (because I’m a control freak). I occasionally do copy editing (when pressed) and have done plenty of acquisition editing over the years.

I also write. I don’t really write enough to leave a mark, but it seems to go well when I do put pen to paper.

Miscellaneous facts about me: left-handed, blue eyes, super geeky, hillbilly accent, near-sighted, and typically in a goofy mood.

Also, and most importantly, I’m not the drunkard all those Facebook photos makes me out to be. It just happens that cameras are always around when I… have libations. Honest!

Reviews

[Patrick Hurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some creepy, fun stuff in this issue, including the poems and the editorials. (definitely will check out those podcasts)

[Elaysee · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent issue. I generally don't like horror, but I enjoyed Douglas Warrick's eerie horror villains a lot. I'll read almost anything in de Bodard's Vietnamese future, and this was a different vantages than the ones I'd encountered before. Pletsch's unusual future folklore and an excerpt that make me curious for me, all in all worthwhile.

[Mariano]

Read Folk Hero (the title initially lead me to expect a ghost story, since I related the word Folk to all things pagans, but it was scifi. It was good though). I also read Cuckoo Girls (enjoyed it). Didn't read Memorials (my scifi quota was already covered) and The Kraken Sea.