Fusion Fragment Monthly - May 2023
The Latest from Fusion Fragment HQ
FF#16 Released: A new issue arrived last month, on April 17th! If you haven't read it yet, you can get your copy for free right here.
May Reading Period: The next reading period is less than a week away! There will be a two-day submission window next weekend, on May 13th and 14th. If you're planning on sending in a story, you might want to have a read of the "rejection threads" I've put together on Twitter, that provide more details on reasons why certain stories don't make the cut at FF. See the January thread (which focuses on 1st round rejections) and the April thread (which focuses on later round rejections).
FFer Book Deal!: Congrats to FFer (and FF submissions reader) Michelle Kulwicki on the sale of her YA fantasy novel At the End of the River Styx to Page Street Kids!
April Published Works by FFers
So much great work by FFers was released in April!
At the start of the month, Marisca Pichette's debut poetry collection Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair was released by Android Press!
Andrew Najberg's debut, The Mobius Door, a small-town supernatural horror novel, was released by Wicked House Publishing!
Avra Margariti guest-edited the April edition of the SFPA's Eye to the Telescope, which included poems by a trio of FFers: Marisca Pichette's "Hyphal knot", Tiffany Morris's "Shadow Work", and Priya Chand's "Mycorrhizal".
The Spring 2023 edition of the always-fantastic Kaleidotrope dropped in April and contained work by five (!) FFers:
-"How to Prepare a Mermaid's Voice for Serving" by Hayley Stone
-"I'm Basically Helen of Troy" by Annika Barranti Klein
-"Stickmen" by Edward Ashton
-"The Goblin Queene" by Marisca Pichette
-"Water, Word and Flesh" by JL George
And that's not all--check out all these other great pieces that were released in April by FFers!
"A Catalog of Gifts from a Crow" by Jo Miles in Apparition Lit
"A Precious Gift That We Must Not Destroy" by Mary G. Thompson in The Quiet Ones
"Are you Shivering?" by John WM Thompson in Aurealis
"Duckie's Revenge" by Mar Vincent in HyphenPunk
"Fiona and the Fairy Queen" by A.P. Golub in The Colored Lens
"Grease Spatter" by Jason P. Burnham in The Dread Machine
"Happiness" by Octavia Cade in Clarkesworld
"If My Body Is a Temple, Raze It to the Ground" by Lauren Ring in Escape Pod
"New Start" by M. Ian Bell in The Science Fiction Tarot
"Rocket Man" by Louis Evans in The Science Fiction Tarot
"The Silver Lake" by Jason P. Burnham in Stupefying Stories
"The Time Traveller's Cookbook" by Angela Liu in Cast of Wonders
"There are the Art-Makers, Dreamers of Dreams, and There are AIs" by Andrea Kriz in Clarkesworld
"You Forever" by Maxine Sophia Wolff in Seize the Press
Recommendations from FF HQ
I read Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's story collection Friday Black last month and, wow. Stories about racism, working retail, theme parks, and the most mind-blowingly good time loop story I've ever read. These stories hit like a ton of bricks.
Max Porter's Lanny is a strange one--part missing child suspense thriller, part supernatural creature horror, part village life drama, all bound together in a unique structure. I loved it.
Giveaway Time
There are 16 book recommendations in FF#16, two by each contributor, and now's your chance to win your choice of one of those recommended books! All you have to do is email editor@fusionfragment.com and answer this FF#16-related trivia question: In Shih-Li Kow's "Silica Dust, Silica Sky", the main character's apartment used to be a chain store. Which one was it? The first person to email me the correct answer wins!
Obligatory Photo of Associate Editor Henry
"Do not perceive me!"
Signoff Video
