So the other day I received my copy of Spectrum 16, which rounds up the best speculative art of 2008. Realms of Fantasy put in an appearance in the editorial section. Here is what was written in the introduction:

"The genre's short-fiction magazines continued to struggle with dropping circulations and rising production costs. Realms of Fantasy--the field's only magazine with color art--abruptly folded (even though their circulation had actually increased) only to be purchased by Warren Lapine with the promise of resurrection by mid-'09."

Mission accomplished. As to actual illustrations appearing in the editorial section of Spectrum, RoF had two: Dave Leri's illustration to "All Beautiful Things" by Sharon Mock, and Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon had a full page devoted to their illustration to "Fragments of a Fantasy Life" by Josh Rountree & Mikal Trimm. If you care to do a little bit of digging on the respective sites of the artists, you should be able to turn up images of the illustrations.

Congrats to the artists! And congrats to Laura Cleveland as well, who handled the art direction for RoF back in '08.

The August 2009 issue of Realms of Fantasy has been reviewed by Gardner Dozois in the October 2009 issue of Locus. I believe this is the first time Dozois has reviewed RoF since becoming a reviewer for Locus. Here is the review in its entirety:

"As one magazine dies (he is referring to Talebones here), another, already counted among the fallen and deeply mourned, returns to life, as new publisher Tir Na Nog Press, headed up Warren Lapine, brings out the first issue of their revivified Realms of Fantasy magazine, dated August 2009. The new incarnation of Realms of Fantasy is a whisker smaller than the previous version, and not quite as slickly produced, but it's still a good-looking magazine, quite handsome in fact. More importantly, it's still being edited by longtime editor Shawna McCarthy, who has edited the magazine since its very beginnings, which ought to guarantee a continuity of quality and literary tone and of types of story chosen - and so it seems to be, since there's nothing here in the new incarnation that would have been shockingly out-of-place in any issue of the old Realms. Best story in the issue is Tanith Lee's chilling "Our Lady in Scarlet," in which a young student magician trapped in a plague-ridden city and in a quarantined boarded-up inn must use off his fledgling skills to fight off a sinister deity taking shape across the hall who is trying to absorb him - with mixed success. Ian Creasey's "Digging for Paradise" is also good, a story balanced between science fiction and fantasy, with a bit of the flavor of Jack Vance's Dying Earth, a powerful wizard travels to the far-future, to the final days of Earth, to recover magical talismans he buried ages before. Dennis Danver's "Healing Benjamin" has an intriguing initial set-up, with a boy bringing his cat back from the dead, but goes off-track when the cat suddenly begins to talk, one complication too many."

I just wanted to take a moment to express my thanks to everyone who has congratulated me on my recent promotion, whether it was on this blog, via email, in a forum, or in person. It means a lot to me. Thanks.

Transmission out.

All right, I've been sitting on this one for a little while now. But it's been offered, I've accepted, the details seem to have been worked out, and I will be appearing as such in the masthead of the next issue of RoF (Feb 10). So I may as well share ...

I've been promoted to Editor at Realms of Fantasy. :)

Needless to say, I'm thrilled. I'm sure this news also raises a question or two, so let me do my best to answer them now. I will still be handling all of my old duties with the magazine. In addition, I am taking on the managing editor duties. So everything I will now be doing is getting lumped under the title of Editor. It will be my lone title appearing in the masthead.

Now, I have shared this news privately with a few people already. One of the first questions I was asked was whether this meant I was replacing Shawna. To that I say no. Emphatically no. Shawna is the heart and soul of this magazine. She had a hand in its creation and is the only person who is left from the first issue. I could never replace her. Shawna remains the Fiction Editor, which is her current listing in the masthead. She maintains complete control of the fiction department. When it comes to this department, it will be as it has for almost five years: I'm her tireless assistant editor, trying to find slush survivors for the magazine, handling queries, etc. What she says goes.

So, with all of that out of the way ...woo hoo! Big big thanks to Warren for having so much faith in me. Words can't express my appreciation. We haven't even known each other a year, but after the billions of emails we've swapped I feel like I've known you a lot longer. Thanks for saving the magazine. Thanks for bringing me back. Thanks for throwing extra duties my way early on. Thanks for the countless bits of advice and for always making yourself available. In short, thank you thank you thank you, boss!

Also, I would be remiss without thanking Shawna. She was the one who hired me as Assistant Editor back on May 10th, 2005. Over the years she has encouraged me, taught me, recommended me, and demonstrated to me her many levels of awesome. Warren would not have been able to offer me this position if she hadn't taken me on to begin with. So big thank you thank thank yous to Shawna as well.

And to finish ...um, wow.

So a little while back Warren posted the cover to the forthcoming February 2010 issue of RoF, which features an interior illustration by Gallegos to "The Unknown God" by Ann Leckie. For those who are interested, Gallegos has a rather interesting post up, discussing his process in illustrating this piece. There are a number of thumbnails up there, along with the initial sketch he submitted to me, and he also discusses our exchanges as artist and art director. Also of interest is that if you follow this link, you can see what the illustration will look like inside the magazine, i.e. without the RoF logo and and such.

This is your final reminder that subscriptions on the website are scheduled to go up, as of tomorrow. If you'd like to buy a subscription to Realms of Fantasy or extend your subscription at the old rate, make a point to do it today. Again, subscriptions can be purchased online here.

Here is my extremely late con report. I wanted to post it sooner, but ever since WFC I've been trying to get caught up. Anyway, I can't tell you this was the BEST con I've ever been to. I don't know which one is. But it's right up there. I would put this one right up there with this summer's Readercon (when RoF returned) and WFC in Saratoga two years ago.

I met a number of people I've known online for years, but had never spoken to in person. There were some familiar faces too, of course, but this con had a different vibe. I live on the east coast and had never been to the west coast for a con before. As Karen Haber put it--one of the people I was thrilled to meet in person, since she's a columnist for RoF--it's like meeting your extended family.

Indeed.

I confess to spending more time watching sports at this con than I ever have before. I know, I know. But the Yankees were in the World Series. Sacrifices had to be made. I also managed to sneak in a little bit of Sunday football due to some betting interests (turned out well!) But all of this and one sick roommate aside, I am happy to report that I managed to spend a lot of time geeking out in proper fashion.

One thing that filled with a sort of editorial pride was when I realized there were five different slush survivors of mine (three published, two pending) at this con. Way to represent guys! One of the pending slushees was Christopher Kastensmidt. Chris lives down in Brazil, so thank goodness he likes to go conning, or lord only knows when we'd meet! (though I do have a standing invitation to visit him). The best meal of the weekend might have been when Chris kindly took me to a Brazilian steakhouse and stuffed me absolutely silly. The second best meal might have been with slush survivor Sharon Mock and Zak Jarvis and friends, when we went to this awesome Mexican restaurant (and wow, west coast Mexican food is WAYYYYY better than east coast!) I also met pending slush publishee Shweta Narayan. Unfortunately, we only had a chance to talk for a little bit, though she seemed as nice as she is online. Rounding out the slush survivors I ran into this weekend were the esteemed Ken Scholes and the equally esteemed Vylar Kaftan. I've now managed to meet roughly a third of my slush survivors in person. Hopefully I'll meet them all down the road.

I also ran into a number of other RoF authors as well, including fellow sports addict Brad Beaulieu, the always fun M.K. Hobson, the prolific one himself, Jay Lake, displaced New Yorker Bill Shunn (man, do I miss running into him randomly on the streets of NYC!), the always friendly David Levine, and not to be forgotten is Jim Van Pelt. Jim might be the best example of someone I've known online for years but have never met. I've been swapping emails with him since back in 2005, when I first joined RoF. I swear, it felt like I had met him already! I think this covers all of the RoF authors I ran into. Please accept my apologies if Ive missed you.

I also had my first chance to meet a number of artists in the speculative community for the first time. I've been to one other con since I became art director, which was Readercon over the summer. I didn't have a chance to meet any artists there, though I don't think nearly as many people from the art crowd attend this con. Regardless, it was great these folks at WFC. I found a few people who are interested in working with RoF and who I in turn would love to work with. To be safe, I'll decline on passing out names here until they actually accept some assignments. And just as importantly, the artists I spoke to demonstrated to me that they are just as passionate and knowledgeable about the field as the writers out there. This comes as no surprise, of course, but it was nice to have my beliefs confirmed.

It was really interesting wearing different hats during the course of the weekend, sometimes talking to people as art director, sometimes as nonfiction editor, and sometimes as assistant editor of fiction. Sometimes I was switching back and forth in the same conversation!

What else? As always, WFC featured a ton of parties. The Nightshade party even had some homemade ales with labels marketing their various novels. Points for originality. Lots of drinking resulted from all of these parties, though I'm happy to report there were no hangovers and no drunken scandals. :) I think I went to two panels all weekend, one on the history of F&SF and another one exploring whether the dark grittiness inhabiting so many fantasy stories these days is a new phenomenon (the consensus answer, which I agreed with, was no). Both panels were great, so you might wonder why I didn't attend more of them. I used to go to a lot more panels, but these days it's become more about meeting and talking to all of the the interesting people, and maybe doing a little business as well if such opportunities present themselves. Speaking of business, I did receive a very juicy bit of news over the weekend, and even juicier bit of news after I returned home. I hope to share both of these things with you soon.

I was at the con from Wednesday night to Monday night, but everything really passed in a blur. I should mention that coincidentally enough there was a Star Trek exhibit across the street, so a few of us went to that on Monday. It was way better than I expected.

Anyway, I know I'm leaving out a million people that I ran into. It's not because you're any less important or that it was less fun seeing the rest of you. Far from it! But I needed some way to limit the list or this post would continue until Doomsday. So I chose to go with the RoF approach, i.e. just mentioning the RoF folks.

Bottom line is that WFC is and consistently remains one of the best cons year in and year out. Hopefully I can manage to attend next year as well.

Over on his blog, Rich Horton has posted his yearly summary of Realms of Fantasy.

He cites the following stories as his favorites:

--"Sails Above Greesea" by Adam Corbin Fusco

--"Digging for Paradise" by Ian Creasy

--"Narrative of a Beast's Life" by Cat Rambo

--"Joy is the Serious Business of Heaven" by David Levine

--"The River of Three Crossings" by Richard Parks

--"Name Day" by Garth Upshaw

He also mentions the following authors for having produced good stories: Tanith Lee, Ben Francisco, Jay Lake, William R. Eakin, Dirk Strasser, and Richard Parks again.  Congrats to all of the authors!

Tidbit 1: The latest issue of RoF (December 2009) has been reviewed by Lois Tilton over at the Internet Review of Science Fiction.  Now, long ago I stopped commenting on the reviews of various reviewers (and after this past summer I've also given up responding online to folks with strong opinions about me and/or RoF--just not worth it!)  However, I would like to issue one factual statement.  In regards to "In Time of Great Despair and Darkness" by Ken Scholes, Ms. Tilton finishes with the following sentence: "It's not entirely clear that the ending wasn't cut off in the printing process, as the last line seems odd and is not followed by the usual end sign."  She's right that the usual end sign is not there.  That is unfortunate.  However, I would like to assure readers that the last sentence on the page is in fact the last sentence in the story.  I have confirmed this twice over, once in communicating with Ken, and twice by checking this against the original document he forwarded us after the story was accepted.  No disrespect is intended to Ms. Tilton or her review with this statement.  I merely wish to assure any concerned readers that the story in RoF is in fact complete.

Tidbit 2: Yesterday I received a low-res .pdf from Warren for the February 2010 issue.  I always receive the .pdf shortly before the magazine goes to press.  If all goes as planned, that should happen today.

Tidbit 3: I received an email from Shawna today asking if I had any input.  About what?  She had received an email from the good folks at Locus, inviting her to nominate three stories for their final Recommended Reading List of 2009.  And she asked if I had any thoughts on the matter.  That's pretty cool.  She certainly didn't have to do that.  I'm not sure if I could ask for better working relationships than those I have with Shawna and Warren.  Anyway, much as I'd like to share the names of these recommended stories and their authors, I don't want to steal any thunder from Locus.  So you'll just have to wait until they're ready to share. 
 

So as I've mentioned before, the price to purchase an RoF subscription through the website will soon be going up.  In fact, it's scheduled to go up on one week.  So consider this your penultimate reminder that you still have time to subscribe or extend your subscription at the old rates.

So as some of you may be aware, long after Sovereign Media took down their website for Realms of Fantasy, the old message board remained up and running.  To be honest, it was mostly a ghost town near the end, but some of the regulars still stopped by from time to time.  But earlier this week the message board was taken down.  In case anyone is curious, Warren had nothing to do with this.  The old message board was still owned by Sovereign Media.  As to why it remained up and running for so long after they sold the magazine, who can say?  Perhaps the site was already paid for until this point.  Maybe it was such a negligible expense they didn't even know they were still paying for it until now.

Regardless, the old message board is gone and another cord has been snipped from the Sovereign Media days.  To those who might be upset, we're very sorry.  I don't have much to do with the new website's design/construction, but I am told that plans for this are still in place and proceeding.  Hopefully we'll have more than a placeholder site for you to visit soon.  So keep your eyes peeled.  And I'm sure it comes as no surprise that when the new site is unveiled, I will of course post about and link to it from here. 

So another round of assignments went out to some artists the other day, and now that I have a moment to breathe, allow me to share their names:

--Alan M. Clark

--Carol Heyer

--Jill Bauman

I've worked with all three of these artists before and was very pleased with the pieces they handed in.  Alan's work appears in the current issue with his illustration to "Narrative of a Beast's Life" by Cat Rambo.  Carol's work is also in the current issue, with her illustration to "Stories of the Sand" by Dirk Strasser, which also ended up as our cover (please note: this cover image was tweaked before going to press, though the art remains the same).  Jill's work hasn't appeared in the magazine yet, and alas, I have no "Sneak Peek" to link to, but she handed in her finished piece quite recently and it is made of good fun and much awesomeness.

So I'm still very early into being the art director at RoF, but it's definitely fair to say that when an artist hands in something I like I'm very happy to work with them again when the right story comes along.  A look back at the early issues of RoF seems to reveal a similar pattern, as a number of the same names popped up quite often (including Carol).

I will hasten to add that I'm still very much interested in working with artists I haven't worked with before.  Like the fiction department, I would love there to be artists you might consider regulars in the magazine, while also introducing folks who are new to our pages.  In fact, there is another artist I haven't worked with before that I'll probably be announcing here soon.  But there are still a couple of details to hammer out before everything is official, so for the time being I think it's best not to post his name. 

Warren has posted the updated cover for the February 2010 issue of RoF.  The artwork to this one is by Gallegos.  It represents another interior illustration we're also running on the cover, and it is for "The Unknown God" by Ann Leckie.  Ann's story is also one of my slush survivors, so this just adds to the overall coolness factor. :)

Here is the complete TOC (no order):

"How Interesting: A Tiny Man" by Harlan Ellison, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon
"The Unknown God" by Ann Leckie, illustrated by Gallegos
"Melanie" by Aliette de Bodard, illustrated by Frank Wu
"Mister Oak" by Leah Bobet, illustrated by Gary Lippincott
"The Demon of Hochgarten" by Euan Harvey, illustrated by Dave Leri

This issue's artist gallery features Charles Vess.

As always seems to be the case, there is some stuff worth noting.  Let's start with the fiction.  Harlan has appeared in the magazine before--both in the fiction and nonfiction departments-but this is the first time he's publishing original fiction with us.  Leah & Euan have also appeared in the magazine before.  Ann & Aliette are both appearing in the magazine for the first time.

In the art department, there are several things I'd like to note.  First, by special arrangement with Realms of Fantasy and its art department, Harlan Ellison handled the art direction on his story.  The artists to this piece were selected by him and he worked with them.  I gave the stamp of approval on the artist selections and it was up to me concerning whether to accept the final piece that was turned in, but this was Harlan's baby. 

With the cover/interior illustration by Gallegos, I should note that I learned about this artist through the general submissions pile.  I almost always have to hunt down the right artists through research, either by flipping through back issues of RoF or the latest edition of Spectrum, or poking around on various online artist sites and/or galleries.  So it was kind of cool to skip the research portion for a change and have this artist presented to me on a silver platter.  Gallegos is not an unknown, but he does mark the first artist I learned about through the general art submissions.  Carol Heyer & Stephanie Pui-Mun Law have both submitted portfolios and I've since worked with them both, but I was aware of their work already and had planned to work with them anyway.  Not so with Gallegos.  I was actually still looking for the right artist to "The Unknown God" when I made my weekly trip to the art p.o. box.  Inside was a portfolio from Gallegos, and as I looked through his samples, the proverbial light-bulb went off and I decided to pair him up with Ann's story.  So to any artists who might believe it is a waste of time to snail-mail your portfolios to the general art submissions, I say thee nay!

To any who like to keep track of this sort of stuff, I'd also like to note that Dave Leri's illustration is a piece from the Sovereign Media era.  I've actually worked with Dave already, and the result was published in our last issue, with his illustration to "Felicity's Engine" by Sharon Mock.  But coincidentally enough, his piece for Sovereign Media is being published in the very next issue. Anyway, with the publication of this piece, we're now down to three pieces of art remaining from the Sovereign Media era.

Finally, with Frank Wu's illustration to "Melanie," I present to you the completed trifecta from the art brouhaha a while back.  First there was the intense interest in the mermaid cover from the August 2009 issue.  Then there was the intense interest in the mermaid story by William Eakin in the October 2009 issue.  And early on in that whole unfortunate brouhaha, there was some scrutiny regarding this illustration's nudity.  I said that it wasn't right to judge the interior illustration without reading the accompanying story.  Well, now you can read the story.  So feel free to judge away!  Thus concludes our final chapter of the art brouhaha (or so I sincerely hope).

Anyway, I know there are still some folks out there who have been waiting a while to see their stories published in the magazine.  We're getting there.  Euan's story was tied with another story for our second oldest story in inventory.  And Aliette actually has the oldest story in inventory ...just not "Melanie."  "Melanie" marks her second sale to us, but being as it's shorter we ran this one instead due to space considerations.  Call it a hunch, but I doubt Aliette is complaining. :)

And that, I believe, is all the news fit to print, except to let you know that this one should be finding its way to newsstands and subscribers in December.  Hope you like it!            
   

Hi Folks,

It appears my blog is becoming Job Central for Realms of Fantasy positions.

As some of you may know, Warren Lapine, the publisher of the magazine, has been handling its graphic design and layout.  It's something he enjoys doing, but alas, Warren is a busy man and has decided he would like to hand the reins off to someone else so he can focus on other projects.  Right now he is putting together the February 2010 issue to get it off to press.  After this, he would he like someone else to handle the layout and design.

So he's taking applications.  If you're interested, please send Warren your resume.  Include references and links to your work.  We are looking for someone that can hand in the finished layout and design in seven days from when they receive all materials.  If you're the kind of person who needs extensions or is uncertain whether you could handle this sort of deadline, don't bother applying.  Being late with the work is not an option.  Warren would like to hire someone who is willing to maintain the current look of the magazine.  Some creative tweaks are acceptable, but we are not looking for any kind of radical redesigns.  Writers are often told to read a magazine before submitting to it.  If you're interested in this position, you would be wise to purchase a copy of the latest issue and flip through it with an eye toward its layout and design.
    
If you're interested, please email Warren at warrenlapine@yahoo.com.  Be certain to include what sort of compensation you are expecting.  DO NOT SEND YOUR APPLICATIONS TO ME.  DO NOT APPLY ON THIS BLOG.

If you have questions, you can ask under comments.  I'll attempt to answer them, but I'm not sure how helpful I can be.  I'm just the messenger here.  Warren is running the show on this one, and the final decisions concerning the new designer are 100% his. 

Thanks. 

Just one purchase actually.  One poor story slipped through the cracks and remained stuck in transition hell all this time, but Shawna just accepted it for Realms of Fantasy today:

"The Sacrifice" by Michelle M. Welch

Congrats to the author, and our thanks for her extreme patience.  And with this acceptance, I will declare that we are absolutely positively 100% certain that we are caught up and that our next purchases will come from stories submitted to us during the Tir Na Nog Press era.  And if I'm wrong ...well, I do believe I've eaten my words before. :)   

I'd like to thank everyone for their interest and enthusiasm concerning RoF's new column, and an additional thanks to the many wonderful candidates who took the time to express their interest in the position.  There were a number of excellent candidates, any number of which I'm sure would have done excellent work.  They made my decision very difficult.

However, that decision has been made as of today, and I'm quite thrilled in announcing that our new columnist is Elizabeth Bear.

Elizabeth struck me as a wonderful fit for this column for a number of reasons.  First, she has review experience with some impressive venues.  And in reading her reviews, I found that she has an extremely engaging reviewer voice, something that is often hard to come by.  She also provided me some critical essays on various works of speculative literature that demonstrated an understanding of storytelling techniques that was quite impressive.  She has a number of novels to her credit, is an active member of the speculative community, and has received some of the most impressive awards in our genre for her writing.  She also has deep ties to short fiction and has even had a short story appear in RoF.  These last tidbits aren't necessary to do her job, of course, but it's good to know she cares about short fiction as well.  So basically, she was everything I was looking for in a candidate and more.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, the first edition of the urban fantasy/paranormal romance column is scheduled to appear in RoF's June 2010 issue.  Here's hoping you enjoy the direction we take this column, and that you are as excited as I am about Bear handling the reviews for this column.  I'm quite sure she's going to do us proud.

So I'm leaving for the World Fantasy Convention tomorrow, but before I leave I wanted to provide another reminder that Realms of Fantasy's subscription rates will soon be going up.  You now have a little less than three weeks to buy or extend your subscription at the old rate.  Again, subscriptions can be purchased here.

And this will probably be my last post until I'm back from WFC.  I will provide a con report of some sort once I'm back and caught and rested up. 

In case you're curious, the response to and interest in RoF's forthcoming column has been and continues to be absolutely awesome.  I already have more good applicants than I know what to do with.  I have a very difficult decision waiting for me when I get back from the World Fantasy Convention.

But being as I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm going to let the applications roll in a little longer.  I'm getting back on the morning of November 3rd and hope to make a decision for the column soon after I'm back.  So let it be known that the last day to let me know you're interested in the gig is November 2nd.  Anything sent in after this time will not be considered.

Thanks. 

The past two weeks at Realms of Fantasy have possibly been the busiest ones I've experienced since the first two weeks after Warren bought the magazine.  First I received copies of the latest issue.  Then Shawna did her latest buying round for the magazine, which cleared out all the fiction still stuck in limbo after Warren bought RoF.  The next day we reopened to submissions.  Lots of little questions and queries understandably resulted from this.  Meanwhile, new fiction meant starting the hunt for our latest artists and before I could do that I needed to reread these stories and refresh myself.  Somewhere during this time our nonfiction columnists also handed in their latest columns, which always equals a busier time for me.  Along the way, there were the countless little things for these various departments that always seem to pop up during the week.

And oh yeah, earlier this week we decided to launch a new column.  So in addition to everything else, I've also been considering applications from  number of enthusiastic and interested parties.  

Now normally I would shrug and say no big deal, this is fun.  And it's still not really a big deal, and it is still a lot of fun.  But I've been killing myself to wrap as much as possible for the magazine before I leave this Wednesday for the World Fantasy Convention.  I won't be getting back until early the morning of November 3rd, and I wanted to avoid the work piling up while I was gone.

And here's the kicker: I've been sick since last Monday.  I'm still not completely recovered, but I'm getting better each day and I'll be going to WFC come hell or high water.  But man oh man, could I have picked a worse time to get sick?  (well yes, I guess I could have gotten sick AT WFC--that would suck!)

The good news is that while it took a tremendous amount of effort (due to the whole sickness thing) I've now wrapped up just about everything on the docket for RoF.  Just  a couple of things are left to handle, and these I can take care of when I'm back.  All the most pressing stuff has been tended to.  And now, FINALLY, I can start thinking about WFC. 

Woo hoo!

So who's going?  Who should I be looking for while I'm there?
  

So I'm happy to announce that RoF is going to be launching a new column within its pages.  If all goes as planned, starting with the June 2010 issue, RoF will be including a book column that will focus on reviewing paranormal romance, urban fantasy, romantic fantasy, and related areas of fantasy literature.  This is a large, important, and still growing area of fantasy literature, and Warren and I are in agreement that it deserves its own column.

Of course, any column is only as good as its columnist.  And being as we're launching this column, it means one good columnist is needed.  When I've needed new columnists in the past, I haven't went public like this in my search.  But in those cases the column was already in place, so it was somewhat easier to find the right columnist.  This time we're starting from scratch, so I've decided to open things up and let all interested parties know that we're seeking one paranormal romance book reviewer.

Realms of Fantasy is a bimonthly magazine, so you would be responsible for six columns a year.  The column itself will run 1000 words, and you will be asked to review a minimum of four books each column (so obviously we're seeking quick reviews of each book).  You will be paid for your work.  If you're interested, please don't respond on the blog.  Instead, please email me at slushmaster@gmail.com.  Please outline your interest in the genre and the position.  Be certain to mention any relevant experience.  Please enclose at least one review sample via attachment.  It is important that I read some of your writing, and that you demonstrate your ability to offer intelligent analysis of a work of literature in these sub-genres.

I will be going out of town on October 28th and won't be back until the early morning of November 3rd.  I don't anticipate making  a decision on the position until I get back but would like to do so soon after I do.  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask under comments.

Thanks.