The Best of Electric Velocipede (49 page)

BOOK: The Best of Electric Velocipede
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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Gavin Grant and Kelly Link for inspiring me to start
Electric Velocipede
; this book wouldn’t exist without them. Huge thanks to Patrick Swenson and Fairwood Press for getting behind the project and publishing this book. Thanks to Jim Minz for being a long-time supporter of
Electric Velocipede
and a huge advocate to others of its merits.

Along the way a number of people worked on the magazine with me including Damien Angelica Walters, Adam Israel, Jamie Lackey, and Patrick Ward. We had a great group of submission readers including Grant Stone, Christina Vasilevski, KE Bergdoll, Jessica Meddows, Richard Larson, Juliet Ulman, Rachel Swirsky, Selene O’Rourke, and Torin Murphy. Adam Morgan did a phenomenal proofreading job on the anthology. But most importantly, I want to thank Anne Zanoni who worked as our managing editor/advertising supervisor/copyeditor/savior for keeping the magazine and my spirit afloat for many years. She was indispensable to our success.

I did the first eight covers myself and had a handful of wonderful covers from people like Lisa Snellings-Clark, Carlos Araujo, Jeremy Zerfoss, and Steven Wilson, but it was Thom Davidsohn who set the
Electric Velocipede
aesthetic. His covers gave people a direct insight to the wonder that would be inside each issue. I’ll miss working with Thom and hope I get a chance to do so in the future (and couldn’t be happier that he did the cover for this book!).

I can’t begin to thank the contributors individually, and I don’t think I should single any writer out as they all were part of what made this magazine amazing. You can look at the table of contents of this book to get an idea of what we published over the years. If you like what you read in this book, go and seek out older issues to get what we couldn’t fit in here.

Thanks to my wife Shai, my kiddos Aubrey and Easton, and the rest of my family and friends who supported and put up with me spending WAY too much time working on this magazine (I’m typing this up while they’re waiting for me so we can leave on a family trip!). Your support meant the world to me.

And finally, thanks to you, the reader. If you weren’t here we wouldn’t be either. I entered this field as a reader and I’m so proud I got to give something to other readers.

Thank you.

—John Klima,
July 26, 2014

About the Contributors

KJ Bishop
is a writer and artist.
The Etched City
, her first novel, won the William L. Crawford Award and has been translated into 10 languages. Most of her short fiction and poetry can be found in the Aurealis Award-winning collection
That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote
.

Richard Bowes
’ most recent novel,
Dust Devil on a Quiet Street
, was a Lambda finalist and is a World Fantasy Award nominee. Recent reprint and original stories appear in
Tor.com
,
The Time Traveller’s Almanac
,
Handsome Devil
,
Gaslit Romance
,
The Revelator
,
Best Gay Stories 2014
,
The Book of Dolls,
and
XIII
.

Darin Bradley
is the author of three novels:
Noise
,
Chimpanzee
, and
Totem
. He holds a PhD in English literature and theory and has served in a variety of editorial roles with a number of independent presses and journals.

Jay Caselberg
is an Australian author currently based in Germany. His work has appeared in short form in multiple venues worldwide and in several languages. His latest novel,
Empties
, a novel of brutal psychological horror is due out any day now. More can be found at http://www.jaycaselberg.com

Brendan Connell
was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1970. He has had a number of books published including
Lives of Notorious Cooks
(Chomu Press, 2012),
Miss Homicide Plays the Flute
(Eibonvale, 2013), and
The Metanatural Adventures of Dr. Black
(PS Publishing, 2014).

Dennis Danvers
has published seven novels, including NYT Notables
Circuit of Heaven
and
The Watch
, and Locus and Bram Stoker nominee
Wilderness
. Short fiction has appeared in
Strange Horizons
,
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
,
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
,
Realms of Fantasy
,
Lightspeed Magazine
,
Tor.com
; and the anthologies
Tails of Wonder
and
Nightmare Carnival
.

Thom Davisohn
makes pictures, if pressed. He used to have a website, but now he doesn’t. If for some reason you’d like to contact him, try [email protected].

Aliette de Bodard
lives and works in Paris, where she has a day job as a System Engineer and a night one as award-winning writer of speculative fiction.

Alan DeNiro
is the author of the short story collections
Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead
and
Tyrannia
(both from Small Beer Press) and the novel
Total Oblivion, More or Less
(Ballantine/Spectra). He lives outside St. Paul, Minnesota.

Hal Duncan
is the award-winning author of
Vellum
and
Ink
. Other work includes novels, short fiction, non-fiction, poetry, musicals and collaborations with the bands Aereogramme and The Dead Man’s Waltz. Homophobic hatemail once dubbed him “THE.... Sodomite Hal Duncan!!” (sic) You can find him online at www.halduncan.com, reveling in that role.

Nashville native
Toiya Kristen Finley
is a writer, editor, game writer, narrative designer, and game designer. Her fiction has been published in
The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy
,
Nature
, and
Fantasy Magazine
. She is the founding editor and former managing/fiction editor of
Harpur Palate
. She is currently co-authoring a book on narrative design for games.

Jeffrey Ford
is the author of the novels
The Physiognomy
,
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque
,
The Girl in the Glass
, and
The Shadow Year
. His story collections are
The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant
,
The Empire of Ice Cream
,
The Drowned Life
, and
Crackpot Palace
. His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, some nearly as illustrious as
Electric Velocipede
. He lives in an ancient farm house in Ohio, amid vast fields of corn and soybeans, 15 miles from a town that boasts three tanning salons and a Beer Cave.

Since “The Dogrog Phenomenon” appeared in
Electric Velocipede
in 2007
Richard Howard
’s work has been featured in
Loki’s Journal
,
M-Brane
, and the legendary
Weird Tales
. In 2008 he won the
Weird Tales
spam fiction competition for his five-hundred-word short story “Let Yourself Look Spiny.” He also has an entry in the forthcoming
Bestiary
edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer.

Megan Kurashige
is a professional dancer and a writer. She lives in San Francisco where she and her sister, Shannon Kurashige, collaborate on wild and quixotic projects with their dance company, Sharp & Fine. She also performs with Liss Fain Dance. She attended the Clarion Writers’ Workshop at UCSD in 2008. Her fiction has appeared in
Unnatural Creatures
, an anthology edited by Neil Gaiman and Maria Dahvana Headley,
Sybil’s Garage
, and
Lightspeed Magazine
. See sharpandfine.com or visit @mkazoo on Twitter.

Shira Lipkin
’s
fiction and poetry have appeared in
Strange Horizons
,
Stone Telling
,
Clockwork Phoenix 4
, and other wonderful places, and she has won the Rhysling Award for best short poem. She co-edits
Liminality
, a magazine of speculative poetry, with Mat Joiner.

Ken Liu
(http://kenliu.name) is an author and translator of speculative fiction, as well as a lawyer and programmer. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards, he has been published in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
,
Asimov’s
,
Analog
,
Clarkesworld Magazine,
Lightspeed Magazine
, and
Strange Horizons
, among other places. He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.

A writer living in Colorado,
Heather Martin
teaches at the University of Denver and co-curates the Gypsy House Reading Series. Her work has appeared in
Baltimore Review
,
Matter
,
Cold Mountain Review
, and
DoubleRoom
.

Originally from Detroit,
Michael Constantine McConnell
proudly resides in San Marcos, Texas, where he is pursuing a doctoral degree in Developmental Education at Texas State University and singing in degenerate Scots-Irish bands after sundown. He was nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize in the essay category. Up the Irons.

Sandra McDonald
’s first collection was a Booklist Editor’s Choice, an American Library Association Over the Rainbow Book and winner of a Lambda Literary Award. She is the published author of several novels and more than seventy short stories for adults and teens, including the award-winning
Fisher Key Adventures
. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and teaches college in Florida.

Sam J. Miller
is a writer and a community organizer. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in
Lightspeed Magazine
,
Shimmer
,
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
,
Strange Horizons
,
Interzone
,
The Minnesota Review
, and
The Rumpus
, among others. He is a winner of the Shirley Jackson Award and a graduate of the Clarion Writer’s Workshop. Visit him at www.samjmiller.com.

Val Nolan
’s stories have appeared in
The Year’s Best Science Fiction
(31st edition),
Interzone
,
Cosmos
, on the ‘Futures’ page of
Nature
, and he has been shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (2014). He is a literary critic for the
Irish Examiner
and he lectures at National University of Ireland, Galway.

Patrick O’Leary
is poet, novelist, and songwriter. His novels are
Door Number Three
,
The Gift
, and
The Impossible Bird
(TOR).
Other Voices, Other Doors
(Fairwood Press) and
The Black Heart
(PS PUBLISHING) collect his shorter work. He has two Ibook poetry collections and one album:
Every Waking Hour
. https://www.tumblr.com/blog/paddybono

While finishing two nonfiction books to follow his 2010 work,
C.M. Kornbluth
(McFarland & Co.)
Mark Rich
has continued working on essays, poetry, and short fiction, some of which have appeared in
The New York Review of Science Fiction
,
Cascadia Subduction Zone
, and
Missing Links and Secret Histories
(Aqueduct Press).

Chris Roberson
is a New York Times Bestselling writer best known for the Eisner-nominated series
iZOMBIE
, co-created with artist Mike Allred; for multiple
Cinderella
mini-series set in the world of Bill Willingham’s
Fables
; and his creator-owned series
Edison Rex
with artist Dennis Culver, and his work on
Superman
,
Star Trek
/
Legion of Super-Heroes
, and
Elric: The Balance Lost
, among others. He has written more than a dozen novels, three dozen short stories, and numerous comic projects. Chris and his wife, Allison Baker, are the co-publishers of Monkeybrain Comics, and the couple lives with their daughter in Portland, Oregon.

William Shunn
is the author of over thirty works of short fiction, which have appeared everywhere from
Asimov’s
to
Salon
. He has been shortlisted for the Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Awards. He lives in New York City with his wife Laura Chavoen.

Cyril Simsa
is originally from London, but has lived in Prague since the 1990s. He has contributed translations and non-fiction to a wide variety of genre publications (
Foundation
,
Locus
,
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
,
Wormwood
). His stories have appeared in
Darkness Rising
,
Here & Now
,
StarShipSofa
,
Music for Another World
, and on the World SF Blog. His collection,
Lost Cartographies
, was recently published by Invocations Press in Brighton.

Cislyn Smith
likes playing pretend, playing games, and playing with words. She calls Madison, WI her home. She has been known to crochet tentacles, write stories at odd hours, and gallivant. She is occasionally dismayed by the lack of secret passages in her house.

Rachel Swirsky
holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop and graduated from Clarion West in 2005. She lives in Bakersfield with her husband and too many cats. So many cats. So, so many cats. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies including
Tor.com
and
Clarkesworld Magazine
, and been nominated for the Hugo, the Locus Award, and the World Fantasy Award, and won the Nebula Award twice. Her second collection,
How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future
, came out from Subterranean Press in 2013. She has not yet lived through an apocalypse.

Mark Teppo
is the author of
Rudolph!
,
The Potemkin Mosaic
,
Lightbreaker
,
Heartland
, and
Earth Thirst
. His latest effort at subverting genre conventions is to build his own publishing company called Resurrection House. He is a synthesist, a trouble-shooter (and -maker), a cat herder, and an idea man. His favorite Tarot card is the Moon.

Catherynne M. Valente
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of over twenty works of fiction and poetry, including
Palimpsest
, the Orphan’s Tales series,
Deathless
, and the crowdfunded phenomenon
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Own Making
. She is the winner of the Andre Norton, Tiptree, Mythopoeic, Rhysling, Lambda, Locus and Hugo awards. She has been a finalist for the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. She lives on an island off the coast of Maine with a small but growing menagerie of beasts, some of which are human.

Damien Angelica Walters
’ work has appeared or is forthcoming in various magazines and anthologies, including
Nightmare
,
Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volume One
,
Strange Horizons
,
Lightspeed Magazine
,
Shimmer
,
Apex
, and
Glitter & Mayhem
.
Sing Me Your Scars and Other Stories
, a collection of her short fiction, is forthcoming from Apex Publications.

Liz Williams
is a science fiction and fantasy writer living in Glastonbury, England, where she is co-director of a witchcraft supply business. She is currently published by Bantam Spectra (US), Tor Macmillan (UK), and Night Shade Press and appears regularly in
Realms of Fantasy
,
Asimov’s
and other magazines. She is the secretary of the Milford SF Writers’ Workshop, and also teaches creative writing and the history of Science Fiction.

Jonathan Wood
is an Englishman in New York. There’s a story in there involving falling in love and flunking out of med school, but in the end it all worked out all right, and, quite frankly, the medical community is far better off without him, so we won’t go into it here. His debut novel,
No Hero
was described by
Publisher’s Weekly
as “a funny, dark, rip-roaring adventure with a lot of heart, highly recommended for urban fantasy and light science fiction readers alike.” Barnesandnoble.com listed it has one of the 20 best paranormal fantasies of the past decade, and Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels described it as, “so funny I laughed out loud.” His short fiction has appeared in
Weird Tales
,
Chizine
, and
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
, as well as anthologies such as
The Book of Cthulhu 2
and
The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Year One
.

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