Silent Energy Creeps Into Niteblade

Image: Logo for Niteblade Fantasy and Horror Magazine

My poem "Silent Energy," which was sold to Niteblade Fantasy and Horror Magazine, has now been published in their June 2012 issue Carnivoyeur.  Niteblade is the kind of small-press magazine that reminds me of the periodicals I was reading in the 70's and 80's - the sort of mags that got me hooked on the genre in the first place, right down to the internal line art.  The issues have a bit of a retro feel, and the stories and the poems tend to more straightforward forms of storytelling.  I love reading and writing the surreal, but I still enjoy reading the kind of stuff I can actually understand from the very first sentence.  There are times you want to focus on the question "I wonder what is going to happen?" rather than "Why does nothing that is happening make any sense?"  Niteblade delivers genre entertainment that feels both authentic and enthusiastic.

I submitted my work to Niteblade for a host of reasons, one of which is that they are now on Issue #20 of a quarterly magazine.  That's practically tenure for a genre publication these days.  So many genre mags and ezines don't make it past the second year.  Twenty issues is a sign that both the creators and the readers have a long term investment and interest in the magazine.  So another reason I submitted here was that I wanted to support them.  We often think that the only way to support a publication is to buy it.  That is naturally a great way to offer support, but sending a magazine a piece that they think their readers will love is another way to make them happy. 

I also like their strategy for selling issues.  They ask a nominal ($2.49) price to download the current issue in pdf until they have reached their financial target.  From their site - "The web version of each issue initially offers only teasers of the stories and poems for free. With each issue we set a monetary amount that is a portion of the hard costs of producing that issue. Once we reach that goal through advertising, sales and donations, we will release the entire web-based version of the issue to everyone for free."  I do most of my own reading online these days, so I love a site with stories that are freely available, but of course a magazine has to find a way to get an income stream going or they won't last long.  Niteblade's financial model allows them to do both.  Best of all, their issues are completely ad-free.

Many thanks to Niteblade for buying and publishing my poem!  You can support them by downloading the issue (before financial goal if you have a couple of extra $, or after if you don't), linking, blogging, donating, and by spreading word-of-electronic-mouth.  You can support my writing by following and commenting on this blog right here, following my twitter @grierja, and of course, reading my pubs.

Pax, All