I'm afraid I got a little behind on the slush, but I sent a wave of responses today, everything older than June 11. Please query if you didn't get a response.
I have a couple of resubmits that are older than that, but I'm trying to get through the new subs first.
I could say many things about Patricia Court's stories, but "they lack complex characters" will never be one of them. This heartbreaking piece is, I think, a magnificent character piece, and it makes me long for the never-published anthology it was written for.
A great many people dismiss origin stories, but secondary-world stories about how something came about truly highlight the differences between that world and ours, which makes us reconsider our own. Whether they're connected to a franchise or standalone, I love them when done well. And this one is.
The rate of submissions to Hell Itself has picked up significantly in the past couple of weeks, and I'm trying desperately to read the entire Hugo packet. Response times may be a little slower than usual.
Once again, @reggiekwok.bsky.social delivers a captivating story that no one else would publish.
One of the things we're supposed to try to do with our magazines is define what we publish, and this is a story that is very hard to classify. Silly, dark, adult, accessible, weird… I can't define it.
Awesome.
I was taken with the elegant simplicity of this piece. Couple that with my intense hatred of daylight savings time, and it seemed an obvious choice for the magazine.