Posts Tagged ‘Kickstarter’
Apex Magazine is back, baby!
Posted on: July 29, 2020
What’s coming back in January, 2021? Apex Magazine, that’s what! The Magazine went on hiatus last year, and now funding their 2021 year through a Kickstarter Campaign. The Kickstarter ask, for $7500 to fund two issues out of six, was reached in less than 24 hours. Stretch goals include funding the whole year, higher pay for writers, more fiction published, and more.
Any of these award winning authors or groundbreaking story titles ring a bell?
“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse
“A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies” by Alix E. Harrow
“Candy Girl” by Chikodili Emelumadu
“Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon
“Turning the Leaves” by Amal El-Mohtar
“If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” by Rachel Swirsky
Yep, they all appeared in Apex Magazine.
As of the writing of this blog post, the Kickstarter has raised over $17 thousand dollars, enough to fund four out of a planned six issues. There’s 20 days to go, and at $22,500 the entire year will be funded. I know times are tough, but if you’d like to throw $10 or $20 (or more!) towards this project, I sure would be appreciative. I’d love to see this baby funded for the whole year, and for 500+ backers to get all sorts of cool stuff.
What’s in it for you? well, beyond cool swag like bookmarks, stickers, enamel pins, and postcards, you’ll be helping a short fiction magazine stay alive, to continue to offer groundbreaking fiction, podcasts, interviews, amazing cover art, and more. It’s hard out there for small mags, my friends!
and hey, even if you don’t throw anything towards the Kickstarter, Apex typically puts all their fiction on their website for free, so you can enjoy it anyway! But if you’ve ever been involved with a magazine, a newsletter, a webzine, a fanzine, or anything that has content and deadlines, you know how much work goes into putting an issue of a magazine together. Apex Magazine did that for 10 years solid. I can’t wait for them to do it again.
Y’all know Apex Magazine is close to my heart. I’ve been interviewing authors at Apex since 2014, it’s where I learned to be a better interviewer.
Huh. $22,500 to produce a magazine for a whole year. That would cover paying the writers, paying the cover artist, paying the editors and the podcast producer, paying someone to keep the website all shiny and making sure everything works. I figured all that would cost a lot more than that. What’s so fascinating about some of the magazine Kickstarters, is that it really shows you the costs behind magazines whose fiction we tend to read for free on their websites.
To put things in perspective, I think we paid around 22K for our brand new Honda.
Invisible Threads Kickstarter!
Posted on: February 24, 2020
My friends at Apex Publications are at it again! On the heels of their wildly successful Do Not Go Quietly comes their newest Kickstarter project, Invisible Threads: Cutting the Binds that Hold us Back.
You guys, the authors are already in this anthology, this list is unbelievable! I am too lazy to type everyone’s names, so I’m copy/pasting the image from the Kickstarter site.
We each face barriers in our life, some more easily overcome than others. Some seemingly impossible to overcome. What if society’s response is “there’s nothing to be done, you might as well learn to live with it”? What if society’s response is “What are you talking about? I don’t see any barrier. It must be in your head”. ? At least that’s what I think of when I hear the term “Invisible Threads”.
And all these amazing authors, who have totally different life experiences than mine? I want to know what they came up with.
Now that I’ve got a little more of your attention, here is a link to the Kickstarter site.
Backer rewards include print copies of Invisible Threads, other Apex Titles such as Do Not Go Quietly, Irredeemable, Upside Down, and War Stories, stickers, tuckerizations, professional critique services, free stuff from the Apex store, Apex surprise boxes, and more! Seriously tho, there are some hella cool backer rewards.
Jason and Lesley let me pick their brains about the new anthology, the joys (and terrors) of Kickstarter, 4am emails, the secret stuff that editors do, their pet peeves, and more. They’ve done so many Kickstarters by now, it’s gotta be easy by this point. . . right?
Jason Sizemore
About Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner:
Raised in the Appalachian hills of southeast Kentucky, Jason Sizemore is a three-time Hugo Award-nominated editor, writer, and publisher who operates the genre press Apex Publications. He is the author of a collection of dark science fiction and horror shorts titled Irredeemable, and the tell-all creative nonfiction For Exposure: The Life and Times of a Small Press Publisher. Jason co-edited the successful Do Not Go Quietly anthology with Lesley Conner. He currently lives in Lexington, KY. For more information visit www.jason-sizemore.com or you can find him on Twitter @apexjason.
Lesley Conner is a writer/editor, managing editor of Apex Book Company, and a Girl Scout leader. When she isn’t handling her editorial or Girl Scout leader responsibilities, she’s researching fascinating historical figures, rare demons, and new ways to dispose of bodies, interweaving the three into strange and horrifying tales. Her short fiction can be found in Mountain Dead, Dark Tales of Terror, A Hacked-Up Holiday Massacre, as well as other places. Her first novel, The Weight of Chains, was published by Sinister Grin Press in September, 2015. She is the co-editor of two anthologies: Best of Apex Magazine: Volume 1 and Do Not Go Quietly, both of which she edited with Jason Sizemore. She lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters, and is currently working on a new novel. To find out all her secrets, you can follow her on Twitter at @LesleyConner.
Lesley Conner
And here’s our conversation!
Andrea: When I first heard the title, I thought “oh, this must be about threads that tie us together, and we don’t even realize it!”, and that’s not the theme of the anthology, at all. The theme is more along the lines of “these are the things that are holding us back”, things like societal expectations, stereotypes, and preconceived notions. Why did you decide to do an anthology on this theme?
Jason: Lesley and I are both from poor coal mine communities in Appalachia (she’s West Virginia, I’m Kentucky). We share a common bond in that we escaped the poverty trap and all that entails to work and thrive in publishing. Because we know our story of pulling free of societal threads is not unique, we wanted to hear the stories of how others overcame.
While Invisible Threads is not intended to be a political book (unlike our last anthology, Do Not Go Quietly), I do think our political environment influenced our decision to run with the theme. Classism is running rampant across the world. Hate-filled people are pushing back against social gains. The ruling classes are becoming more draconian. Now, more than ever, we need a reminder that it is important to break free of these threads because we need smart, sensible people fighting back who remember what it is like to be in the trenches.
Andrea: You’ve already invited authors to bring their stories to your table of contents. When you approached these authors, what guidance did you give them (if any) about what you were looking for?
Lesley: To be honest, we didn’t give them a whole lot of guidance. The theme and deadlines when we’d need things back to us, and that was about it. But I think with this kind of anthology, that’s what was needed. The societal pressures that each person deals with are highly individualized based on your own background and experiences. The entire point of the book is that without those experiences, you may not see the struggles your neighbors are going through because they are invisible. We tried to invite a diverse group of authors who will hopefully be able to give us a wide range of stories of people struggling against the invisible threads in their lives.
And the answer is “not yet”
Posted on: February 2, 2019
As you all know by now, my Kickstarter for The Best of Little Red Reviewer did not fund. Of the $5000 I was asking for, I was at less than $2000 when the campaign ended.
Those first 24 hours of the kickstarter were amazing! I was a “project we love” on Kickstarter. Amazing people (you know who you are!) put in $50 or $100 right out of the gate to give me a good start. At work that day, I refreshed my phone incessantly, and didn’t know if I was going to happy cry or puke. The last time I was this excited/happy/nervous for something was the day I got married.
My kickstarter didn’t fund, but I had an amazing experience, and more importantly I have the best, kindest, most supportive friends in the world. All day on February 1st, my phone was blowing up with text messages, e-mails, twitter DMs, and phone calls from my friends saying how sorry they were that the KS didn’t fund. Those messages? That support? People saying how much they cared about me and my project, and saying they hope I try it again? Those messages are worth more than $5000 could ever be worth.
My KS did not fund, and I am not devastated. The KS failed, but I did not.
Let me say that again: I do not equate a kickstarter failure with a personal failure. There were a lot of things I feel I did right, a lot of things I missed, and about a million things that I learned. I accomplished more than I expected. I have always viewed blogging as a journey, not a destination. The kickstarter was the most interesting, most intense, most emotional rollercoaster place I’ve ever been! Just doing it was an accomplishment I’m proud of.
Did I want it to fund? Yes. Was I a little intimidated of what funding would mean, in reality? Absolutely. Am I a little relieved that the stress is ending now, instead of months from now? Yeah, actually.
Do I still think this is a good idea? Oh hell yes. Do I have a ton of work to do before I’m ready to go at it again? Oh hell yes. I’m happy I did the kickstarter, I had an incredible experience. This was quite literally an experience of “what have I got to lose by trying this?” and the answer was nothing, so why not give it a try?
I have a very long list of things I’m proud of accomplishing, and a rather shorter list of things that I will do differently next time, and a list of things I need to accomplish (some very easy, some more complicated) before I’m ready to go at this again. I won’t bore you with the lists, because they are very long. and boring.
One thing I will share with you about what I won’t do next time: I won’t run a Kickstarter in January, during a polar vortex. Having a social media presence was made even harder when my daily commute was doubled from crappy driving conditions. What the hell possessed me to do this in freakin’ January??
Alright my friends, I have a lot of e-mails and message to return. I love you all, the public support you’ve given me these last few months means more to me than you can ever know. I had described this kickstarter as a viability test: are book reviews viable outside the internet? Are pixels on a screen worth becoming ink on a page? And the answer I got was “not yet”. Which means one day, the answer will be yes.
Until then, it’s back to book blogging!
Obligatory Promo Post
Posted on: January 18, 2019
Hello! I am at ConFusion Science Fiction Convention this weekend, mingling with my nerdfamily, making new friends, and wearing a sticker on my shirt that says “Ask Me About My Kickstarter!”.
if you are visiting Little Red Reviewer for the first time because we just met at ConFusion, Welcome! This website is eight years of what I’ve read, what I’ve enjoyed, what I didn’t enjoy, and more. To meet the Andrea from eight years ago, use the archive thingy on the right side of the screen (I have no idea what that will look like on mobile, by the way) to travel back to 2011 or 2010. To meet today’s Andrea, just keep scrolling down, or hit up the Review Index in the menu.
Obligatory Promo Post
I am Kickstarting The Best of Little Red Reviewer, a print book of my best book reviews. I am super excited about this project, can’t wait to hit my funding goal! Backer reward start at $5, you can get the print book for a pledge of only $15 (plus shipping), and there are some really cool backer rewards starting at $35. The cool stuff is going really fast, btw.
Here is a link to the Kickstarter page. I am super cute and dorky in the video. #justsaying
Click here for more info that you ever wanted about the project, and links to all the guest posts and interviews I have done about it.
Thank you for stopping by!
Remember those tweets about a sooper seekrit project I was working on? Did you get a “you may be right, I may be crazy” e-mail from me?
Well, I can finally talk about it, and you can too!
In January of 2019, I’ll be running a Kickstarter for a print book of The Best of Little Red Reviewer. This volume will contain my best reviews of the last eight years. I’m excited and kind of terrified!
Currently, my reviews exist only on this website. When the internet evolves into something new, when blogging is no longer a thing, my work will cease to exist. But will it cease to have value? This kickstarter is a viability project to see not only if my reviews have value outside the internet, but if the products of the blogosphere have value outside the internet.
The Best of Little Red Reviewer started out as a crazy 3am idea, and when I told a few people about it, they didn’t think it was crazy at all. So I figured, why not?
The Best of Little Red Reviewer will contain the work I’m most proud of. It will be a reflection of who I am as a reviewer. Can you find all that same stuff on my blog? Of course you can. Have you scrolled through my review index lately? Good luck figuring which reviews are worth reading.
I will be asking for $5000 to cover the costs of copy editing, interior book layout & design, cover art, printing, and shipping supplies. There might even be a few hundred bucks in there for a snazzy Kickstarter video.
a pledge of $15 gets you the print book.
pledges of $35 will get you things like a customized book, or writing the introduction to your favorite review.
Until the end of January I’ll be all over the internet talking about this project and asking you to pledge your $15 or your $35 or your whatever to help make The Best of Little Red Reviewer a thing that exists!
I’ll be posting all over the place over the next two months to promote this project. If you like my blog, but really don’t want to hear about this project, this is your cue to mute me on twitter and unsubscribe to my blog updates.
See that fancy new “The Best of LRR Kickstarter!” tab up top? As I do guest posts and interview and other fun promotion posts, I’ll link to them on that page. Updates posted to the Kickstarter site, will also be posted to that page.
I’m excited.
I’m terrified.
What if this is a terrible idea?
What if is a brilliant idea, it funds beyond my wildest dreams, and suddenly I have 50 boxes of books being delivered to my apartment? (Dear delivery guy: I’m sorry!)
What if this starts a trend of other bloggers doing the same thing with their best work? (actually, that sounds like the best thing ever)
As of the writing of this blog post, The Apex Publications “Do Not Go Quietly” Kickstarter is just shy of 70% funded, with 15 days to go. Jason and Lesley have let me annoy them with e-mails and tweets and Q&A’s. I have to admit, I am fascinated not only by this particular kickstarter project, but by the behind the scenes of crowdfunding in general. This is the fourth (fifth? I’ve lost count) Kickstarter that Apex has done, so crowdfunding projects must be fun!
Well past the 50% funded mark, the DNGQ project is now open to unsolicited submissions, through Sept 19th. They are looking for stories of Resistance. Of Revolution. Of standing up and demanding to have your space, your say, your right to be. Even if it means pissing people off.
Looking for some inspirational music? On the DNGQ blog is a Playlist of Resistance with more suggestions and music links in the comments.
But you came here to hear what Jason and Lesley have to say about resistance, voting, this anthology, and kickstarter, right? Onward!
Andrea: You’ve got voting information on the Do Not Go Quietly Blog. Um, why?
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Jason: Lesley and I aren’t violent people. We certainly appreciate the sentiment behind punching neo-Nazis, but we don’t want to endorse any action that would see someone be harmed (particularly those who aren’t neo-Nazis). The simplest and most pain free way to resist in a democracy is to vote the assholes out. We want you to use your power to cast a ballot for those who are not racist, who does not suffer xenophobia, and discriminates against religion.
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Lesley: Jason’s right. The best way to fight back and to resist is to be knowledgeable of what is going on in politics. So many people seem to feel like their vote doesn’t matter, like they can’t make a change by going, but that isn’t true. I would encourage everyone to pay attention. Know who your representatives are and what they stand for. If they don’t represent your beliefs or are actively trying to take away the rights of people they’re supposed to be representing, VOTE THEM OUT. The fastest way to get the attention of people in power is to take that power away when they abuse it.
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Andrea: I am LOVING this cover art by Marcela Bolívar! What else can you tell us about her? Will she be creating any more artwork for this project?
Behind the Scenes of Do Not Go Quietly: An Anthology of Victory in Defiance
Posted on: August 20, 2018
- In: Apex Books | Kickstarter
- 2 Comments
You like anthologies of all original fiction, yes?
You think Kickstarter is cool, Yes?
Oh, are you going to love this!
My most excellent friends at Apex Book Company, Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner, have launched their Kickstarter for a new anthology of original fiction about resistance and revolution. Called “Do Not Go Quietly”, the anthology is already nearly 50% funded!
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This is an all or nothing deal, which means when the funding is reached, the anthology happens with a table of contents that includes Seanan McGuire, Catherynne M. Valente, Rebecca Roanhorse, Sheree Renee Thomas, A. Merc Rustad, Maurice Broaddus, Cassandra Khaw, Laird Barron, Karin Lowachee, Rich Larson, Fran Wilde, and more. For those of you keeping count, I’ve just listed authors who have won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, Prix Aurora, Mythopeoic, Andre Norton, and Shirley Jackson awards, and I’ve not even gotten through the entire Table of Contents yet.
Click here to visit the Do Not Go Quietly Kickstarter page to learn more about the project and all the amazing authors who are involved so far. Even if you have no intention of supporting this project, click on the link anyways, just to watch the kick ass video.
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Lesley and Jason were kind enough to take me behind the scenes of this project, and if I’m really lucky, they’ll let me ask them another set of questions! What questions do you have? Leave ’em in the comments, maybe you’ll see the answer posted later this month!
Not interested in kickstarter, but interested in some of the essays that are being published around this anthology? No problem, there is a Do Not Go Quietly Blog with everything you’re looking for, including information on voting.
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Andrea: What made you decide to create this anthology? I imagine it took a while to get this group of authors together, explain to them what you were doing. Had you already been working on this for a while before you started the Kickstarter?
Lesley: Jason and I have known that we wanted to edit another anthology together, but coming up with just the right theme took a while. After the last presidential election we saw a lot of people we care about feeling scared and unsure about the world around them. Things … have not gotten better since then. That’s where the initial inspiration for Do Not Go Quietly came from. We want to put together an anthology that will energize people, that will lift them up and encourage them to stand up for their rights and fight back against those trying to take them away.
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Coming up with the list of contributors who we would solicit stories from wasn’t as hard as you might think! Separately, Jason and I made lists of authors we felt would be a good fit – authors we know are not only amazing writers, but who we felt would have a unique voice and standpoint on the theme. Resistance, revolution. This isn’t a single-sided issue. There are a lot things going on not only here in the United States, but around the world. We aren’t looking to put together an anthology that only represents one issue or one viewpoint. Resistance is complex and nuanced, and we’re hoping that once the anthology is complete, it will be represent that complexity.
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So we started with two lists and then put them together so we had one GIGANTIC list of fantastic writers we would love to have on board. From there we had to narrow it down, try to put together a mix that was diverse in viewpoints and voice, but that would fit well together to become a cohesive whole. After that, we sent out invites, explaining the project. Not everyone we approached said yes, but I’m incredibly proud of the list of contributors we have onboard for the project.
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Andrea: What are some of the stretch goals in the kickstarter? I heard a rumor that there are . . . patches?
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Lesley: There are patches! But you don’t have to wait for the stretch goals to get one! We’re sending out “I Will Not Go Quietly” patches to every backer who backs at the $15 trade paperback level and above! I know, I’m awfully excited about patches, but I’m a Girl Scout leader! Patches go along with a lot of things that I do. So that was one of the very first things that I wanted to make sure we got when coming up with goodies to pack into the reward tiers.
Ya’ll know Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, right? Even if you’re not sure if you know who they are, I’ll bet you know their work. Editors of Apex Magazine, Chicks Dig Time Lords, Glitter and Mayhem, Queers Dig Time Lords, among others, it’s no surprise these two amazingly talented editors have a brand new project up their sleeve.
Lynne and Michael were kind enough to answer a few of my questions about their newest venture, Uncanny Magazine, which they are funding the first year of via a Kickstarter campaign.
LRR: Your newest venture is called Uncanny Magazine. Tell us all about it!
L & M: We’re a professional Science Fiction and Fantasy online magazine, dedicated to sharing the kinds of work that stays with you after you’ve read it. We think that the best Science Fiction and Fantasy literature combines strong characterization, elegant prose, and diverse voices from around the world. We love stories that make us feel.
LRR: How did you decide that now was the time to start a new speculative fiction magazine?
L & M: Well, we stepped down from Apex Magazine due to our daughter’s major surgery in January of this year. She’s completed her recovery, and we felt ready to get back into the industry that means so much to us.
LRR: You are currently doing a kickstarter to fund the first year of the magazine. When can readers expect the first issue, and will readers who missed out on the kickstarter still be able to subscribe or purchase single issues?
L & M: We plan for our first issue to go to backers and subscribers at the beginning of November. Readers who missed out on the Kickstarter after it closes August 28th will still be able to subscribe or purchase single issues, hopefully through all of the major online ebook retailers (we’re just beginning to work on that now, but we’ve already committed to working with Weightless Books (http://weightlessbooks.com/) for example.)
“Taking Flight”
Wanna hear this month’s best news? Of course you do!
One of my favorite artists, Julie Dillon, is making an artbook! Her Kickstarter for Imagined Realms: Book 1 was fully funded during it’s first week! It contains 10 all new pieces of fantasy artwork!
ok, that’s three really good pieces of news. Also, you should totally head over to her Kickstarter page, and if you like what you see, put your money where your mouth is and get yourself a copy of her book (and one of the print packs!). If you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited about this. I’ve been seeing Julie’s artwork here and there for a few years now, and it was always her images that pulled me in, asked me to trace the outlines, to triangulate where the person would be next so I could meet them there, to find something new in the piece every time I looked at it. Her artwork is full of movement and colors that stretch the spectrum, and characters that are yearning, reaching, and guiding. An opportunity to have some of her artwork in my home? To financially support her venture to create more of these visual anthems? Shut up and take my money.
Julie was kind enough to answer a few of my questions about Imagined Realms Book 1, and that there is so much more going on here than just a kickstarter about selling some artbooks. Artwork can be and is so much more than just a cover on your book, frame on your wall, or a desktop background on your computer. Let’s get to the discussion, shall we?
“Sun Shepherdess”
LRR: As I’m writing these interview questions, your Kickstarter has crashed through it’s first stretch goal of $20,000. What made you decide to go the Kickstarter route for Imagined Realms, and do you have any advice for people looking to Kickstart a project?
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J.D.: Originally I was going to attempt to do it without the Kickstarter, and just take a chance with printing up a bunch of books and putting them up for sale. But that got progressively more cost prohibitive and risky, since I didn’t know how many books to get or how many people would want them. A kickstarter started to make more sense in terms of getting funding together. Plus, a Kickstarter campaign would let me gauge how much actual interest there was. I could print as many books as were ordered, rather than making a guess and hoping I didn’t print too many or too few. That said, setting up and running a Kickstarter has been a lot of work in itself, more than I’d even anticipated. I find myself just wishing it was done already so I could get on with things.
My main piece of advice is that you really need to have a marketing and publicity plan. In my case, I have a modest following, and friends and industry connections who were able to help me out by spreading the word. I also got lucky getting features on major websites like Tor.com, TheMarySue.com, and io9.com. Some people have even bigger followings and do exceedingly well, and others don’t have enough of a reach yet and have a hard time gaining traction. Make sure you have a product people actually want, and a way to reach people who might want to buy it.
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“Scholars’ Tower”
Something especially interesting was kicking around the twittersphere last week. Something about a new military science fiction anthology edited by the very talented Jaym Gates and Andrew Liptak, and published by Apex Publishing. you know how sometimes you catch something out of the corner of your eye, and you just have to see what it is, you just have to learn more? The War Stories Anthology is that thing. And what better way to learn about it than by chatting up the editors and the publisher?
Not sure if a military scifi anthology is for you? Chances are you’re already reading Military Science Fiction, you just don’t know it. Enjoy Ender’s Game? How about Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga? How about Max Brooks’ World War Z? Dune by Frank Herbert? John Scalzi? Ever play Mass Effect? or Halo? see? you’re already a fan!
Jaym and Andrew have already talked extensively about this project, over at Reddit, over at Fantasy Book Critic, at Toonari Post, at Book Life Now, at Dribble of Ink, and elsewhere. If the Kickstarter succeeds, an especially unique anthology will see the light of day. Military science fiction is so much more than any hokey Baen Books cover art would have you believe.
My guests today:
Jaym Gates is the editor of the zombie anthology Rigor Amortis, which was a Barnes and Noble Top 10 pick in 2011, and short fiction author (published in The Aether Age: Helios). She is the publicist for the Science Fiction Writers of America, Candlemark & Gleam and Pathfinder Books. She helped launch several Kickstarter projects, including Geek Love, the highest-funded anthology in Kickstarter’s history.
Andrew Liptak received his Master of Arts in Military History from Norwich University (the nation’s first private military academy), and has written extensively about military science fiction for io9 and SF Signal, and has written for such websites as Kirkus Reviews, Geek Exchange, Tor.com, Strange Horizons, and magazines such as Armchair General and the Norwich Record. He is currently an editorial assistant for Lightspeed Magazine.
Jason Sizemore is the owner and operator of Apex Publications, a small press publisher dedicated to producing exemplary works of science fiction, horror, fantasy and non-fiction.
The Links you need:
Let’s get to the interview!
the Little Red Reviewer 
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