Author: Rhiannon Mills

Apex Magazine, the strange, surreal, shocking, beautiful publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror has launched their 2023 Kickstarter campaign starting July 27, 2022 with a goal aimed at $12,000. Funding from the campaign will secure the first three issues of the bi-monthly e-zine for next year, pay writers and artists, and cover the magazine’s overhead costs, which include Kickstarter fees, website and podcasting hosting, and paying editorial staff.

Through Kickstarter, backers will be able to purchase an issue, subscription, or bundle at a discounted price with a range of add-ons and rewards also available. Tiers for the campaign start low and offer rewards and add-ons such as post cards, subscriptions, bookmarks and swag packs. Also, there are signed book add-ons, subject to availability. As an additional perk, Apex has announced they will provide submission guidelines for a long sought-after eBook of strange and dark cocktail recipes once they’ve reached a goal of 200 backers. Strange Libations: Dark Cocktails by Apex Magazine will be offered free to all Kickstarter 2023 backers.

Works by authors Jordan Kurella (I Never Liked You Anyway, When I Was Lost), Suyi Davies Okungbowa (Son of the Storm, Warrior of the Wind), Christopher Rowe (Telling the Map, The Navigating Fox), Sarah Hollowell (A Dark and Starless Forest), Sara Tantlinger (The Devil’s Dreamland: Poetry Inspired by H.H. Holmes Cradleland of Parasites), And Aurelius Raines II (Dead Inside: Poetry and Essays about Zombies, Black Power: A Superhero Anthology) are noted to feature upon funding.

Headed by co-editor-in-chief Jason Sizemore and co-editor-in-chief Lesley Conner with additional editors Marissa van Uden, Rebecca Schibler, ZZ Claybourne, and Maurice Broaddus, Apex Magazine is well known for dark science fiction, fantasy, and horror, stylistic cover art, and a dive into the unknown and surreal. Past issues from Apex have won or been nominated for major industry awards, such as Hugo, Nebula, Stoker, Locust, Shirley Jackson, World Fantasy, and others.

Apex Magazine is an SFWA certified online magazine of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction. They publish a bi-monthly eBook issue, and a gradual release of an entire issue online over a two-month period. In addition to short fiction, there are interviews with authors and nonfiction essays about current issues. Additionally, they produce a monthly podcast of narrated original short fiction. Pay for accepted submissions is professional and competitive at $.08 per word with an additional $.01 per word if they choose to podcast the story.

To check out and support the Apex Magazine 2023 Kickstarter campaign for yourself, go to  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/apexpublications/ apex-magazine-2023.

For submissions information, go to Submissions – Apex Magazine (apex-magazine.com).

As the new year swiftly approaches, as does the louder than necessary battle cry, New Year, New Me. Every time I hear it, I want to swallow a cannonball and launch myself into an alternate reality where people don’t celebrate the passing of calendar pages. I hate everything about New Years resolutions and traditions and I typically sleep through the ball drop on television. I see no use in a ball cascading down a pole in a hail of glitter and sparkles, but there is a serious need in my household for an extra few hours of precious, precious sleep.

Also, there is nothing wrong with the old me. Old me is pretty great.

I have absolutely zero animosity toward anyone who enjoys the holiday and all traditions associated with it, though. Good for you people! I sometimes wish I were as motivated as you lot or that I could enjoy myself for a good New Years party and a drink or two with friends as the time passes from one calendar page to another. But, I can’t. It’s just not in my nature. I’m not alone, either. There are others like me. We, the unmotivated, can be found any day of the week hiding behind e-readers, enveloped in unnecessarily loud patterned Snuggies, and standing in line at the closest available takeout place. We usually smell like strong coffee and bourbon, too, because those are the national perfumes of the overtired writer.

Still, as I look at the date in the corner of my laptop, I am filled with anxiety as the ghosts of New Years resolutions past come out to haunt me. I used to participate and proudly claim, via status updates and group conversations, my New Year, New Me plans. Lose weight, drink more water, quit nasty habits, write more, blah blah blah. The problem always is that the ideas sound good, but most of them require a level of work and commitment I can’t stick to, either because I just don’t want to or because I am sometimes a little bit too ambitious.

That isn’t to say that a person shouldn’t be ambitious. Just, maybe come up with a better plan to follow through than I have in the past. Know your motivators, follow through, and write out a workable, flexible plan to succeed. Or don’t. It’s up to you, I guess. A healthy amount of ambition is great, but I didn’t go through with a resolution this year. Instead, I’m just going to call it what it is, a set of workable goals. The most ambitious of which is to establish at least two side hustles and follow them through until I make a decent profit on each. That’s doable and I have an older than dirt motivator.

Money. Obviously.

At some point in the stone age, early people were crawling out of their stick huts and rock caves to trade feathers and pelts, hoping to become the most deer hide adorned Neanderthals this side of the mammoth cave. Though I’m not interested in hides, I would like to be able to fund a few crafty habits. New bookshelves and robot vacuums don’t buy themselves.

I don’t plan on changing anything about myself though. I always try to chose healthier options when I cook or order food in a restaurant, but there is a nasty balance and sometimes cake just happens. More than anything, I just want this year to be more of the same. 2019 was a decent year, albeit somewhat dull. I want 2020 to be filled with good books, good (healthier) food, and more episodes of The Witcher. I want to buy a prom dress with my daughter, plant a small kitchen garden, and play dinosaurs with my two-year old nephew. Everybody’s definition of a good time is different, but that is mine. New year, same me, but with, you know, more cowbell.

Maybe, if you are as unmotivated as I am, the best approach to succeed with your new goals is to write down all of the things you want to have or want to happen in 2020. There’s probably nothing wrong with the old you, either. Maybe the old you just wants more of whatever your version of a good time is.

Happy New Year, Old You.