Issue 3

NewMyths.com

A quarterly ezine by a community of writers, poets and artists.

Issue 3, June 1, 2008

Dear Readers,

With so much pessimism about – a sure sign of an election year – I’d like to share my views about fantasy and sci-fi.

This is, I truly believe, a great time for these two genres. As recently as the 1980s, authors sitting around sipping high tea (Starbucks not having left Seattle until 1990) speculated that it was more difficult to publish short fiction than novels. Sure, the great print magazines were still in existence: Asimov’s, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, Omni…but television had already given them a resounding wallop. Of small press little existed. Costs were simply too high and distribution too difficult. The days when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made six hundred thousand dollars from a single Sherlock Homes tale were long gone and pulp glory was only a twinkle in older writers’ eyes. I remember a 70-something Wallace McFarlane telling me how he made a living selling just a few short stories a year in the 1950s when the great editor John W. Campbell of Astounding Science Fiction paid 2 cents a word. Inflation adjusted that would equal $17.22 per word. If you calculate the rate Conan Doyle made it would make J.K. Rowling cringe.

Today the most prestigious magazine in the field pays – you guessed it – 6 cents a word. New Myths is somewhere below that.

So what is there to be optimistic about?

The internet, of course. Anyone can throw up a magazine for a modest investment and a few thousand dollars can produce a truly classy one. They come and go like mayflies but at least readers can find any sort of story they desire and writers can find their readers. True, online magazines will never have the prestige of print, but what an expanded venue. There are magazines specializing in dark tales, happy tales, Christian tales and everything in between. Ebook publishers are willing to take on experimental fiction which the New York publishers won’t touch.

I predict that some ebook publishers will begin to make a name for themselves. How? First ebooks need to become a lot more popular. Nothing breeds respectability like success. Inventions like Amazon’s Kindle will help. Second, ebook publishers need to be more discriminating about what they publish. Some are too eager to accept anything “edgy.”

Of course, when an ebook publisher becomes as discriminating as the New York houses the expanded market suddenly looks small again. But with zero distribution costs the choice to focus on commercial rather than art is just that – a choice.

Print editors really have only one: sell 10,000+ copies or die.

And the market grows.

It’s all about choice, my friends, and I think at New Myths we are offering lots of great choices for you this issue: humor in Galactic Saviors; horror in It’s the Most Wonderful Time; great essays on Witches Lore and Sky Lore; poetry and more. If you enjoy something be sure to read the author’s (or artist’s) biography. They have all answered a few questions and some of their answers are as surprising as their prose.

Hope I didn’t keep you from the stories too long. See you next time.

Enjoy,

Scott T. Barnes, Editor

Table of Contents

Short Fiction

The Bramble Wolf and the Hunter by Daniel Ausema

Galactic Saviors by David Bridgette

It’s a Most Wonderful Time by R. Michael Burns

The Journey of Life by K.S. Dearsley

The Yeast of Your Worries by Frederick Obermeyer

Status Quo by Edward M. Turner

The Thief of Laughter by Liane Whittier