Interzone 210

Friends and neighbors, Interzone no. 210 is at the printer, and should start hitting the newsstands in Europe in early May, with the U.S. to follow a few weeks thereafter. Why the sudden interest? Why, because this issue contains my story "Being an Account of the Final Voyage of La Riaza: A Circumstance in Eight Parts."

Issue #210, 8 pages longer than the usual at 72, features fiction from Jayme Lynn Blaschke, Rachel Swirsky, Stephen Francis Murphy, David Ira Cleary, Tim Lees and Tim Akers.

Non Fiction in this issue includes a guest editorial from author Geoff Ryman, '25 IZ' - which continues the celebrations of Interzone's 25 years, with contributions from Bruce Sterling, Dominic Green, Ken MacLeod, Brian Stableford, Terry Pratchett, Paul McAuley, Adam Roberts, Edward Morris, Ellen Datlow, Sarah Ash, Mercurio D. Rivera (current readers' poll
winner) and Douglas Sirois - '25 Film', continuing the series looking at the last 25 years of other media, this time with IZ film reviewer Nick Lowe choosing his top ten SF and fantasy films.

There are two feature interviews: with Steph Swainston and Stephen Baxter, as well as book reviews, including John Clute's regular 'Scores' column, a new series - Podzone, with Rev-Up Review podcaster Paul S. Jenkins on short stories for your iPOD, SF & F podcasts - Nick Lowe's regular 'Mutant Popcorn' film review column and David Langford's 'Ansible Link' news and gossip column.

Cover art and fiction illustrations in this issue are by Douglas Sirois, who is also profiled and interviewed (with more artworks from his portfolio). Doug also writes a brief introduction to each story detailing his thought and work processes, how he approached that particular assignment.

And finally, the main feature in this issue is 'Abiding With Sturgeon: Mistral in the Bijou', Harlan Ellison's, 10,000-word, revealing, funny and deeply moving tribute to Theodore Sturgeon, in which Ellison writes of his friendship with Sturgeon and their time together.

The Harlan Ellison essay is a neat bit of synchronicity, since H.E. was the first author I ever interviewed for Interzone way back when, an event that put me on track to interview a heck of a lot more professionals than I'd ever anticipated, with a book deal coming out of it as well. But "La Riaza" is what I'm most excited about. I have no idea if the title survives intact or is truncated in the magazine, but we all know what the real title is, don't we? This was actually one of the first speculative fiction short stories (and when I say short, that's relative, okay?) I ever wrote--I was still in college, IIRC, so that back dates it considerably. The plot, major events and characters are pretty much the same as written circa 1992. Everything else--such as narrative, dialog and generally anything having to do with words on the page--stunk to high heaven. I didn't do heavy edits on this story, but rather started over from scratch and wrote an entirely new piece using everything I liked from the earlier one, and the result is something I'm quite proud of. So much so, in fact, that I used the setting, some throwaway lines and at least one minor character as the basis of "The Whale Below," the pirate story forthcoming in Jeff and Ann VanderMeer's Fast Ships, Black Sails anthology. You don't have to read the first to understand the second, but there are a few Easter Eggs in there for loyal fans. I'm a big believer in continuity.

So, if you're in the U.S., how can you get your own copy of Interzone? Unlike in the olden days when I first broke into that market, various chains carry that magazine now. Hastings, for one has it, and I've seen Interzone on the racks in San Marcos and New Braunfels. But it is my understanding that Borders and Barnes & Noble stock it as well. So mark your calendars to run out on June 1 and buy up one or two dozen copies for me to sign at Apollocon or NASFiC this year. You'll make me very happy by doing so.

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