Oh, and I kept meaning…

Oh, and I kept meaning to post this all of last week, but I'm only now getting to it -- it's spring fund drive time at Strange Horizons! Celebrate the coming spring witih a donation to your favorite science fiction/fantasy magazine (and if it isn't your favorite, I really don't need to know that :-). Every year, SH moves a little closer to its long-term goal of being supported entirely by a mix of small donations from readers and the community, rather than relying on the continuing generosity of a few large donors. This drive, we're aiming to raise $2500, and we're more than halfway there already. If you can contribute $5, $25, $50, $100-- whatever, we'll be delighted. Every bit is appreciated. And tax-deductible too!

I have to say, I love that I've published books, of course, but in some ways, my proudest accomplishments are in helping to start Clean Sheets and Strange Horizons. CS has been publishing fiction, poetry, etc. since November 1998 -- every week, on time, free to the public. SH has been going since September 2000. At this point, I don't do anything for either magazine, but they still keep going, keeping growing, thanks to the dedication of two incredible sets of staffers, and the able governance of Susannah Indigo and Susan Groppi. Every year, multiple stories are chosen from CS for Susie Bright's Best American Erotica anthology, which makes me tremendously proud. And SH has Nebula nominees for fiction, Hugo nominations for Best Website, Rhysling nominations for poetry, and has helped nurture, in my opinion, a truly fine and exciting crop of new genre writers, some of which are even starting to publish novels with major houses. In my heart of hearts, I still love novels best, I admit, so that makes me particularly pleased. I always said that short-story magazines nurtured some of the best new novelists in the field -- it's very satisfying to see that proven true.

So hey, if you have a little cash to spare, do stop over to the SH site and give what you can. All the staff are volunteers, all the money goes directly to paying professional rates for fiction, poetry, art and nonfiction. And when you read a brilliant little spec lit story that brightens your day, or makes you cry, or makes you think, you'll know that you've contributed to its very existence. Without you, it wouldn't be there.

(Admittedly, it might be elsewhere -- I hear that some of our writers do occasionally write for other magazines too. But why would you go to them, when you could come to us instead? :-)

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