Fusion Fragment Monthly - June 2024
The Latest from Fusion Fragment HQ
FF#21 Released! Our most recent issue arrived June 9th and you can get your copy for free right here: https://www.fusionfragment.com/issue-21/
Award Winners! FFer Ai Jiang took home the Nebula Award (Best Novella) and the Stoker Award (Superior Achievement in Long Fiction) for Linghun! FFer Uchechukwu Nwaka took home the Locus Award (Best Novelette) for “The Rainbow Bank” in GigaNotoSaurus! Huge congrats to both!
Best American SFF The table of contents for The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2024 was revealed and contains “Window Boy” from Clarkesworld by FFer Thomas Ha! A number of other stories by FFers were called out as notable stories for the year: “I AM AI” by Ai Jiang, “There Are the Art-Makers, Dreamers of Dreams, and There Are AIs” and “Do the Right Thing and Ride the Bomb the Roundabout Way to Hell” by Andrea Kriz, “We, the Ones Who Raised Sam Gowers from the Dead” by Cynthia Zhang, and “Blood for a Stranger” by Timothy Mudie!
Submitter Stats Thanks to all so far who have responded to the Submitter Survey. I published a short thread on genre fit that came from those survey responses, which you can find on Twitter or Bluesky. Next up, stay tuned for a thread on ambiguous endings!
Reading Period Info We’ve received just over 450 submissions in June, higher than the 300-350 we received the past few months, so first round response time is up a little bit, usually between 4-7 days. Thanks to all who’ve sent work our way, and keep those stories coming!
May Published Works by FFers
May was, as always, another month chalk-full of exciting publications by FFers!
First, a quick word about some Words. May saw a couple of novel releases by FFers: The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller (Packed with action, humor, sex, and big gay feelings, The Z Word is the queer Zombieland you didn’t know you needed.) and The Word by Mary G. Thompson (“[A]n engrossing cult thriller!”).
And check out all these other great pieces released in some of my favourite magazines!
“About Face And” by Ben Lockwood in ergot
“Celestial Bodies” by Mar Vincent in Small Wonders
“Duckling, Swans, Stars” by Avra Margariti in Corvid Queen
“Elegy of a Forest” by Ava DeVries in Crow & Cross Keys
“Everything Burns Going Down” by Russell Nichols in Radon Journal
“Lacquer Cabinet Trick” by Eris Young in GigaNotoSaurus
“Mirror Stage” by Cavar in Mouthfeel
“Memory, Unmasked” by Pauline Barmby on Manawaker Studio’s Flash Fiction Podcast
“Star Jelly” by JL George in Mouthfeel
“The Art the Owls Can’t Swallow” by Spencer Nitkey in Apex Magazine
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha in Clarkesworld
“The Portmeirion Road” by Fiona Moore in Clarkesworld
“The Silent Sanctuary” by Jason P. Burnham in Factor Four
“The Stars That Fall” by Samantha Murray in Small Wonders
“The Vanishing” by Vivian Chou in Uncharted
“The Ysidra” by Adam McPhee in Indie Bites: Wishes & Wizards
“there are no taxis for the dead” by Angela Liu in Uncanny
“Time Traveler’s Haibun: 2024” by Samantha H. Chung in Strange Horizons
“Unbirthday Means You Wish Yourself Unborn” by Avra Margariti in Seize the Press
“Up From Out of Clay” by Eris Young in Small Wonders
“Vintage Fur” by JL George in Gwyllion
“Voices, Still and Present” by Mark W. Tiedemann in Analog
Recommendations from FF HQ
A couple of excellent (and, if the number of ratings on Goodreads is any indication) underappreciated novels I read this past month.
First up, Alaya Dawn Johnson’s Trouble the Saints. I love when a novel surprises me. In this urban fantasy set in 1940s New York admist mobsters and assassins, the narrative arc I thought I was getting wrapped up in the first 120 pages. But, like life, the loose ends are often most interesting, and I love what Johnson did in this fantastic story of love, friendship, and simmering rage.
Next, Adam O’Fallon Price’s Hotel Neversink. A generations-long family saga revolving around an Overlook-type hotel, this story makes more than a few nods towards the horror you’d associate with that setting, centering as it does around this disappearance of children at the hotel. But it’s the family connections that make this one stand out.
Obligatory Photo of Associate Editor Henry
POV: Your Associate Editor realizes that perhaps promotional modeling is a better career choice than editing.