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primeidealThrough keeping an eye on short story markets I ran across "Silence and Starsong," a new market that publishes SF/F with Christian worldviews and themes. In some ways it's similar to Mysterion, although Mysterion is more deliberate/transparent about paying (formerly) SFWA rates, and makes their stories free. One of the drawbacks to the current short fiction world is that it's unlikely people are earning a living through short fiction, and to some extent, people in fortunate socioeconomic situations like myself don't really need to be paid for their work--but, pay rates serve as an unofficial proxy for market prestige within the genre, and there doesn't seem to be a good alternative metric for that. Does that lead to ambitious/hopeful authors self-selecting towards better-paying markets, leaving markets (like S&S) that don't specify a concrete payrate to be like "sure, we'll take whatever"? I don't think that's entirely fair, but it was definitely a cognitive bias framing my reading experience.
Obligatory disclaimer that I'm not going to agree entirely with all the editors'/authors' beliefs, nor am I going to disavow all of them, if you're looking for ideological purity you should probably go elsewhere.
Some of the shorter stories didn't really rise above their premises, and required a lot of tropiness/genre-savviness to make work. "Have Ye Offered Unto Me" by Zachary Grafman is about a tired grad student whose advisor is an evil Indiana Jones/Lovecraft villain, and when the hero realizes he needs to defeat this evil (if only for the sake of saving the cute secretary), his mindset is "okay, better get my gun and a rosary." Results are predictable. "Free Lunch" by S. Kirk Pierzchala features a well-read girl who has to save her family from being trapped in the realms of the fae; she mentions "oh yeah, you can't eat someone else's food that was left over in our vacation rental, it might be cursed!" Surprise, she's right, but I didn't really feel that payoff was earned--for someone who previously had no "real" experience with fantasy realms, it felt like a leap to say "oh this must be an uncanny, supernatural experience." This might be a case of "longer would have been better," but on the other hand, there were a few scenes from her brother's POV trapped with the demonic forces that didn't really add much and could have been cut.
On the other hand, some of the longer stories were able to worldbuild at their own pace. Two stories worked well paired together as reflections on the Cold War in an era of weapons of mass destruction: "Archangel" by Frederick Gero Heimbach was a very imaginative alternate history in which the Czardom survived, and Russian Orthodoxy coexists with modern submarines. Here's the opening:
In contrast, "Hidden Empire" by T.R. Alexander requires very few changes in history--at least, the history of the public record. The story's conceit for how the Pax Americana came to be is cynical, but all-too-believable.
"The Two Godly Fishmongers: A Tale of Strange Providences" by Kevin White has a droll sense of humor. The characters are 1600s Puritans, so we get to see great names like "Preserved Fisher" and his son-in-law, "Trout Roundtree." Fisher and his BFF Dudley have fallen out, only to be terrified by forces beyond their knowing. They know Scripture well, and quote Psalm 131 and Jonah's prayer for deliverance. To some extent, I wasn't sure this would work as a pay-by-the-word story--did we really need to quote Jonah twice? But the twist at the end is clever, and partially justifies the setup.
"The Gamer" by Nathan Karnes doesn't engage a lot with traditional Christianity, but its fourth-wall self-awareness is also very clever. It's not as over-the-top as "The Adventures of Ledo and Ix," but it has a similar take on video game logic.
Bingo: Again, this is a little bit of a stretch, but the Kindle edition is estimated at 193 pages, and I think that probably counts as novel-length. I also think it's a good fit for "self/indie published," as well as "published in 2023" and "5+ short stories." (Would the horror stories taken on their own count as novel-length for the horror square? Mayyyyybe but that's really a stretch.)
Obligatory disclaimer that I'm not going to agree entirely with all the editors'/authors' beliefs, nor am I going to disavow all of them, if you're looking for ideological purity you should probably go elsewhere.
Some of the shorter stories didn't really rise above their premises, and required a lot of tropiness/genre-savviness to make work. "Have Ye Offered Unto Me" by Zachary Grafman is about a tired grad student whose advisor is an evil Indiana Jones/Lovecraft villain, and when the hero realizes he needs to defeat this evil (if only for the sake of saving the cute secretary), his mindset is "okay, better get my gun and a rosary." Results are predictable. "Free Lunch" by S. Kirk Pierzchala features a well-read girl who has to save her family from being trapped in the realms of the fae; she mentions "oh yeah, you can't eat someone else's food that was left over in our vacation rental, it might be cursed!" Surprise, she's right, but I didn't really feel that payoff was earned--for someone who previously had no "real" experience with fantasy realms, it felt like a leap to say "oh this must be an uncanny, supernatural experience." This might be a case of "longer would have been better," but on the other hand, there were a few scenes from her brother's POV trapped with the demonic forces that didn't really add much and could have been cut.
On the other hand, some of the longer stories were able to worldbuild at their own pace. Two stories worked well paired together as reflections on the Cold War in an era of weapons of mass destruction: "Archangel" by Frederick Gero Heimbach was a very imaginative alternate history in which the Czardom survived, and Russian Orthodoxy coexists with modern submarines. Here's the opening:
Every officer in the control room snapped to attention. "Archimandrite arriving!" called the submarine's chief petty officer. Captain Karlin Igorovich Ivanov rose, all two meters of him. He watched the Right Reverend Alexei Mikhailovich Abramov descend through the sail with his feet in the top of a bow line.
As the priest's ancient face came into view, Captain Ivanov suppressed a gasp. He knew Fr. Alexei by reputation but had never laid eyes on him. The priest's skin was blue, completely blue, discolored with argyria from years of ingesting blessed colloidal silver.
Like, how many blue-skinned archimandrites have you read about recently? Bold. Captain Ivanov's tragic childhood backstory felt like a distraction/plot device, but overall I really liked the imagination of this one.As the priest's ancient face came into view, Captain Ivanov suppressed a gasp. He knew Fr. Alexei by reputation but had never laid eyes on him. The priest's skin was blue, completely blue, discolored with argyria from years of ingesting blessed colloidal silver.
In contrast, "Hidden Empire" by T.R. Alexander requires very few changes in history--at least, the history of the public record. The story's conceit for how the Pax Americana came to be is cynical, but all-too-believable.
I sat in a sterile white-washed room in CIA headquarters in Langley for over an hour. Like all respectable bureaucracies, the building had a sprawling parking lot, which was now teeming with people lately returning from lunch.
Huge federal bureaucracies: they do be like that sometimes! The first-person "I'm writing this all down so there's some copy of the truth even if I go insane or sell out" is kind of cheesy, but again, as a "why the state of the world is so messed up" story it works."The Two Godly Fishmongers: A Tale of Strange Providences" by Kevin White has a droll sense of humor. The characters are 1600s Puritans, so we get to see great names like "Preserved Fisher" and his son-in-law, "Trout Roundtree." Fisher and his BFF Dudley have fallen out, only to be terrified by forces beyond their knowing. They know Scripture well, and quote Psalm 131 and Jonah's prayer for deliverance. To some extent, I wasn't sure this would work as a pay-by-the-word story--did we really need to quote Jonah twice? But the twist at the end is clever, and partially justifies the setup.
"The Gamer" by Nathan Karnes doesn't engage a lot with traditional Christianity, but its fourth-wall self-awareness is also very clever. It's not as over-the-top as "The Adventures of Ledo and Ix," but it has a similar take on video game logic.
He avoided the pub on the street through the center of town, instead seeking out a more modest establishment on the west side of town. This one was closer to the site of the race, but more importantly it carried that marvelous blend of warmth and shadiness that he had come to appreciate. The innkeeper was round and industrious, the lamps lit the room just to the point of sufficiency, and a handful of figures ranging in appearance from friendly to downright suspicious sat around the room, mostly at corner tables. These places always seemed to be made of corner tables.
Overall, the collection leaned strongly towards historical fiction and/or horror, which is one reason that "Gamer"'s lighter fantasy tropes stood out and provided some nice variety. While not all of the stories were to my taste, I hope the market succeeds, in part for selfish reasons--maybe it's the kind of place I'd submit someday!Bingo: Again, this is a little bit of a stretch, but the Kindle edition is estimated at 193 pages, and I think that probably counts as novel-length. I also think it's a good fit for "self/indie published," as well as "published in 2023" and "5+ short stories." (Would the horror stories taken on their own count as novel-length for the horror square? Mayyyyybe but that's really a stretch.)
