Phase 3 of Global Domination is now in effect

By now you're all familiar with the Global Domination plan. You know it's about more than coffee mugs and shot glasses and the occasional recruitment of minions to the cause.

It's about stories. Dark science fiction. That's why we're here.

You all know Phase 1: Create a quality science fiction magazine that attracts talented authors and seeps into the public through major retail stores.

You're aware of Phase 2: Develop a book line that almost immediately gathers a Bram Stoker Award nomination and continues to attract and promote talented, award-winning authors with unique voices.

Now it's time to unveil Phase 3. Buckle up, kiddies, we've gone pro.

Deena Warner, our talented not-so-secret weapon, has been busily renovating Apex Online. This is where Apex Digest lives now. In print, we've managed to grow steadily...but very slowly...into semi-pro rates. I've done a lot of looking around, a lot of thinking, and a lot of talking to people who know some stuff. Pro rates matter. Easy to access content matters. It's all about the stories. That's why we're here, and why "here" is now online.

I know I spoke of this move before from an emotional standpoint. I received some support from the people on this blog, and I appreciate that. Frankly, I didn't want to let go of the print version. But I've moved from going with my gut to going with sound business practice, and that lead directly to Phase 3. What is the Internet for, if not free fiction? Free science fiction.

This step means more money for authors, more time for some of the staff, and the magazine is free to the readers. Yes, it also means less money for the USPS, and I'm happy about that, too. We'll still bring you quality stories. Our selection and editing process is the same. Our guidelines have been updated to reflect new pay rates and word count. A letter will be sent out to our subscribers shortly so they know what their options are. We will still be bringing you books in print on a regular basis; our next set of releases comes out this fall, beginning with Michael Burstein's I Remember the Future. Phase 3 is still just the beginning of Apex Global Domination.

I want to thank you all for joining us for the first two phases. Welcome to Phase 3. Your world is in our hands.

Publisher,

Jason B. Sizemore

4:01 PM - 7 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

20% discount storewide sale!

We're having a storewide sale to celebrate four excellent events:

1) The release of Orgy of Souls by Wrath James White & Maurice Broaddus

2) The release of Beauty & Dynamite by Alethea Kontis

3) The release of Mama's Boy and Other Dark Tales by Fran Friel

4) THE COMPLETION OF OUR WEBHOST MIGRATION!

Just enter the code NEWHOST on checkout to receive your discount.

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Cool interview with Wrath James White

I get the sense that many Apex readers aren't familiar with the works of Wrath James White and of the "writer" Wrath James White outside of the fact that he co-wrote Orgy of Souls with Maurice Broaddus.

Here's some random facts about Wrath:

1 - He just signed a book deal with Leisure (a horror arm of Dorchester Publishing).
2 - He's a mixed-martial arts kick boxing champion.
3 - He's built like an Adonis statue. And is approximately 6'5" tall.
4 - Writes gory, scary as hell fiction that would make Jack Ketchum blush.
5 - Is an atheist, adding an interesting dynamic to his collaboration with Maurice (who is a devout Christian)
6 - Despite the bad-ass, physical presence, despite the creepy-scary fiction, I know first-hand (I met him at WHC 06) that's he is one of the nicest guys in the business. Working with him and Maurice has been a fantastic experience.

Despite my throwaway comment in yesterday's Mo*Con report that we only sold six copies of Orgy Of Souls, the book has been doing extremely well for us. (Remember, people, those six copies of sex, violence, sacrilege and were sold from INSIDE A CHURCH.) So far my first nervous foray into the "collectible" side of book publishing has been a solid success.

Fearzone.com recently conducted a very professional interview with Wrath. Read it here.

Our website is in the final stages of being updated, so for now I'll point you to the Apex Amazon Store and to Horror-Mall if you'd like to pick up copies of Orgy of Souls.

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Mo*Con III - No Convention For Old Men

Due to being his publisher, Maurice Broaddus was obligated to invite me to his convention. In fact, upon my arrival Friday night I was expecting to be placed on a sedan chair and toted around The Dwelling Place meeting Maurice's grateful fans.

Turns out, the only lifting I experienced was from Nick Mamatas. It seems that Nick was celebrating Festivus on Sunday and went about performing "feats of strength."

The weekend got off to an inauspicious start Friday morning. Both of my kids were ill. The little one literally had a case of the croup. The big one had an ear infection. Half the day was spent at the doctor's office. The other half was spent helping my wife with the kids. Fortunately, both are back to being healthy little maniacs, so all is well in the Sizemore house. Still, it wore me out, and by the time I got to Indy Friday night, I was tired.

All the same, good times were to be had.

The place was thick with Apex authors. Maurice was there, of course. Debbie Kuhn, Michael West, Alethea Kontis, Douglas F. Warrick, and Gary A. Braunbeck. Scary Nick Mamatas was there, who turned out not to be so scary (except when he flipped up his hoodie). Chesya Burke. Bob Freeman. Lucy A. Snyder. Mark Rainey.

The guest list was impressive. Kudos to Maurice.


The highlight of Friday night was the Celtic rock band Mother Grove. The set list could have been streamlined, but they're a fun, talented rock band that had the crowd rocking.

Saturday was the big day of activities. I participated on an editor's panel with Nick Mamatas, Mark Rainey, Frank Creed, Chesya Burke, and Matt Cardin. The panel turned into an impromptu roast of Maurice. Good times.

Saturday night was the party of Maurice's domicile. Maurice held court on his deck in the backyard where I mostly listened to him pontificate on various genre topics of interest.

Sunday was church service at The Dwelling Place. It opened with a touching audio/video tribute to the victims of the recent Midwest floods. The minister did a nice job tying in the theme of writing with the parables of Jesus and produced an effective, if a bit long, service. Afterwards were yummy french toast and bacon from Maurice's wonderful sister 'Ro.

After Nick's feats of strength, I decided I'd had enough and went home.

I debuted Orgy of Souls at Mo*Con. Sold a disappointing six copies. Who'd thought that sex, violence, and sacrilege wouldn't sell in a church?

So...that's the high-level rundown of the weekend. Here are a few things that might have...or might not have happened at Mo*Con III.

1) I took a double shot of wine during Communion.
2) I tried to kick Nick Mamatas out of my truck in the middle of Scary, Indiana and leave him for the evil monsters hiding in the woods.
3) Alethea Kontis almost got thrown in jail walking the street.
4) I shed tears when the bagpipe player of Mother Grove played "Amazing Grace."
5) Brian J. Hatcher tried to get me naked. At least by proxy.
6) Lucy Snyder tried to install Linux on me.
7) All the writers tried to burn me and Nick at the stake out in front of the church. Fortunately, our skin is like leather and is impervious to harm from any writer-inflicted injuries.

Thanks for the great convention, Maurice! Hope you do it next year.

4:05 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Apex Editors - Gill Ainsworth

The most important thing to know about Gill Ainsworth is not to call her "Gillian." I'm not sure why she hates the name. Something to do with her mother using it as a call to punishment as a child? I've explained to Gill how sexy "Gillian" is to geeks across the land due to Gillian Anderson. Doesn't matter. Don't call me "Gillian," she says.

Secondary to know Gill is to recognize that she is a Brit. She hates being called a tart. Thinks the verb "vacuuming" is wrong and should be "hoovering." Z is zed. Trucks are lorries. Who taught these Brits how to speak?

Despite being a Brit, she doesn't drink tea so much as coffee.

Without Gill, there's no Apex Digest.

In the early days, I received an average of 25 submissions a month. That wasn't so bad. One a day I could handle. Issue 1 came out, it was well-received, and suddenly that number doubled. I was swamped.

One evening, I reject a perfectly written story that didn't quite fit the magazine. I share my enthusiasm about the story with the author. We email each other a few times, and the author has me fully charmed. Her British wit made me chuckle, and I came to discover that she was an amazing editor. Soon after, I asked Gill to join me on Apex and to my amazement, she agreed.

Poor lass never knew what hit her.

Sometime in mid-2006, Gill and I decided to publish our first anthology together. We invited 12 authors we respected and gave them a theme and thus the Stoker nominated Aegri Somnia was born. In fact, it was at the 2007 WHC in Toronto that I finally met Gill after two years of online contact. I discovered that she's as wonderful in person as she is online.

In 2007, we co-edited a second anthology, Gratia Placenti.

Today Gill is the senior editor of Apex Digest. She's helped convince me to publish numerous stories that have gone on to be some of our most popular. None of the fiction in the magazine gets published without her approval. As senior editor, she does most of the line edits. Lately, she's been active in our book division doing work as a line editor.

Tips to Writers: What Gill Likes
1) She comes from a medical writing background, so she has a heightened interest in cautionary SF stories dealing with medical technology.
2) Of the Apex editors, she is the most thorough and pickiest when it comes to making sure you've gotten your science facts straight in your fiction. She harbors little patience for poorly researched work.
3) She tends to like the classical style SF stories a bit more than the other editors.

Facts about Gill
1) She is my personal first-reader for anything I write. For this, I pity her.
2) Ask her about Cyprus island-boys sometime.
3) The woman can drink any man under the table. I'm not saying she's an alcoholic. I'm saying that she has the liver the size of a basketball.
4) She lives near the birthplace of H.G. Wells
5) She knows how to concoct 93 different fatal poisons out of common household chemicals.

4:03 AM - 4 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Apex Editors - Justin Stewart

Being the public figurehead of the company, when people think of Apex, they likely think of a stocky, surly red-haired guy with a thick Appalachian accent.

That person being me, Jason Sizemore.

Yep, I'm the madman behind the alien head. The creepy wizard behind the curtain. I have the big fat money clip with the rolls of Washingtons that I hand out to writers and artists.

Despite that, I'm nothing without the hard working individuals putting their heart and soul into the business charging pennies to the dollar for their work.

The pains people will go through for fame and glory!

In honor of these wonderful, talented individuals, this will be the first in a series of post highlighting each person.



Okay, so technically Justin Stewart isn't an "editor." But he's the only person who's been with Apex since day one. He's been by my side through it all. In fact, when I had the "big idea" to start a genre magazine, Justin was the first person I called. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Dude."
Him: "Shit. What now?"
Me: "I'm going to start a magazine."
Him: "Jase, nobody wants to see photos of naked men with mullets."
Me: "No, that'll be the next magazine. This one will be for dark SF and horror."
Him: "Whores?"
Me: "No, hor-ror!"

I had the money, a small bit of editing skills, and familiarity with the genre. Justin had a graphic design background and pretty good artistic skills.

The first four issues bear Justin's cover art. I think they're all excellent works of art, but we both agreed that his more comic book traditional style didn't suite the theme of the stories we were publishing. Starting with issue five, we signed Alex McVey and got Fish Baby.

Justin did all the interior line art for the first issue and gave me tips on doing the magazine layout (as he didn't have the time to do it himself).

He's had interior work appear in nearly every issue of Apex. One of my favorites is his little Hitler piece in issue six for Ben Bova's story.

Nowadays, Justin does almost all our book/magazine cover/jacket design, creates all our ads, and helps work the Apex booth at several conventions a year.

Last year he was nominated for a Chesley Award for his design work with Apex.

When he's not slaving for Apex, he's a busy freelance color artist. He's worked with most of the major comic publishers, and many of the best independent ones. He's most proud of his work coloring a promotional can of Miller LiteColt .45.

His day job as a graphic designer is with the largest periodical in terms of circulation in Kentucky (not Apex Digest, unfortunately).

Finally, go check out his web comic "Popped Culture." It is rather funny.
He's also got this cool little chapbook available for purchase.

5 Random Facts about Justin Stewart:
1) His hatred burns hot for the Burger King
2) Was a drummer in a rock band during his college days
3) Wears a pink T-shirt with two unicorns humping
4) Has left his art in over 200 rest area bathroom stalls across the US
5) As a child he was afraid to get a haircut because he was convinced his hair would bleed.

7:25 PM - 6 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Acqusitions announcement

All contracts have been signed. We can now formally announce that we have bought a lengthy novella from author/editor George Mann titled The Huntington Legacy.

George Mann is a popular British novelist who has just signed a deal with Tor Books. His first novel from Tor comes out this Fall/Winter and The Huntington Legacy is a direct sequel to this novel.

George Mann is well-known in writing circles as a consultant editor for Solaris Books. Recently, he's earned praise for his anthology series published under Solaris.

We'll have a formal press release later this week, but for now I wanted to share the good news.

*edited to add that George has a great novelette in the next issue of Apex Digest titled "The Nature of Blood."

7:24 PM - 5 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Coming up for air

We're closing in on the home stretch of web changes for our website. All the flakiness should be fixed.

Deena Warner is on the job, people.

This coming weekend I'll be going to Mo*Con up in Indianapolis. There'll be an Apex Digest party. We'll be celebrating the release of Orgy of Souls. Lots of troublemakers will be in attendance.

In two weeks, I'll be attending Hypericon in Nashville, TN (along with Mari Adkins and Justin Stewart).

Remember, folks, the Apex store has no more copies Apex Digest issue 12. Better get your copies now from B&N, Hastings, Chapters, or BAM because they'll be taking them down from the racks soon if they already haven't. Or you can grab copies from the Horror-Mall.

7:51 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

More web work

You might notice a few oddities with the website over the next couple of days. That's because we're undergoing some "back end" changes that will ultimately be transparent to end users, but changes that will make my life way, way simpler.

So don't panic. All is under control. Mostly.

7:11 PM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Apex Online open to submissions

We're closed for submissions to Apex Digest.

However, we are open to reprint submissions for Apex Online. We plan on "relaunching" Apex Online sometime in the next few weeks, making it jazzier, snazzier, and more ingrained with our overall plans with Apex Publications.

The official guidelines:

1. We want dark speculative fiction.
2. Word DOC (.doc) or RTF (.rtf) as an attachment.
3. Maximum of 10,000 words.
4. No multiple submissions. Simultaneous submissions are okay.
5. We ask for electronic reprint rights. Exclusive for 3 months. Non-exclusive for 9 months afterwards.
6. Payment is a flat $25.00 honorarium paid via Paypal.
7. Submit stories to apexreprints@gmail.com.

We're also looking for non-fiction content in the form of interviews, essays, and feature pieces. Payment for non-fiction content is $10.00 Apex store credit. These can be non-published works. Please query for non-fiction items.

7:47 PM - 11 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment