Apex Magazine Issue 90

Apex Magazine #90

by Jason Sizemore (Editor), E. Catherine Tobler, Tade Thompson

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.

EDITORIAL
Words from the Editor-in-Chief – Jason Sizemore
FICTION
Every Winter – E. Catherine Tobler
When She Comes – Onu-Okpara Chiamaka
The Island in the Attic – Natalia Theodoridou
After We Walked Away – Erica L. Satifka
Shadow – Tade Thompson
Rosewater (novel excerpt) – Tade Thompson

NONFICTION
Interview with Author E. Catherine Tobler – Andrea Johnson
Interview with Cover Artist Ania Tomicka – Russell Dickerson

POETRY
Love’s Ideal Envisioned by a Satyr – Tiffany Midge
The Annual Scarecrow Festival – John Paul Davies

108 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 28, 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

[Althea Ann]

***** Every Winter - E. Catherine Tobler
Gorgeous gothic horror.
A reclusive artist rents a dilapidated French villa, as she does every winter, to find a quiet space to work. But there are secrets... and ghosts. It's a mood piece, with no interest in answering its own questions. And it's absolutely lovely (and creepy!)
Strongly reminiscent of Tanith Lee.

*** When She Comes - Onu-Okpara Chiamaka
A powerful sorcerer/'witch-doctor' thinks he has defeated Death, with his ability to change destinies. But Death comes for everyone.
Very short piece; I felt like it could've been more fully developed.