Tag: Pirates!

Download Shimmer: The Pirate Issue for Free!

Shimmer publisher Beth Wodzinski sez:

Avast, ye scurvey sea-dogs! It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day again. In honor of this most glorious holiday, Shimmer is making the electronic edition of the Pirate Issue freely available, for September 19th only.

Won’t you help us spread the word? Free pirate booty, there for the taking!

http://www.shimmerzine.com/ for all the details.
 

So go plunder! Booty free for the taking!

Loyal readers of this blog may recall that Shimmer: The Pirate Issue was my first time working as Editor on a project (rather than assistant editor). I had a lot of fun putting that issue together, and I think it turned out really well. If you haven’t read it yet, here’s your chance to find out for yourself!

Read More

Locus Reviews Pirates and Wastelands

There’s a new review of The Pirate Issue by Rich Horton in the new Locus. It’s very short, so the excerpt will be brief. He says "There were fine pieces in multiple modes," and adds that he liked the two SFnal stories best — Jeremiah Tolbert’s "Captain Blood’s B00ty" and James L. Cambias’s "The Barbary Shore."

Horton also reviews Wastelands, and says: "John Joseph Adams’s new anthology works quite nicely as a selection of such new stories of the end of the world. […] A first-rate anthology that quite convincingly represents the more recent SFnal view of the apocalypse."

Read More

Praise for Pirates

F&SF author Chris Willrich emailed me the other day to let me know that he enjoyed The Pirate Issue:

I read the Shimmer Pirate Issue over the holidays and really enjoyed it. My favorite story was Cambias’ "Barbary Shore," but I liked them all. It was especially fun to read all the "classic" pirate stories as a set. Though it left me wanting to stay away from the water!
 

Also, he pointed out that the Santa Clara County library system has six copies of Wastelands in inventory, which he knows, because he works as a librarian there.

Read More

Grasping for the Wind interview, SF Signal Mind Meld, with me, wonderful me

Yesterday, Grasping for the Wind posted a review of The Pirate Issue, and now they’ve posted an interview with me:

GFTW: You were recently invited to be a guest editor for the Pirate Issue of Shimmer Magazine. What was your approach to choosing stories for this issue?

JJA: One of the things I wanted to do with the Pirate Issue is have a broad range of pirate stories, which took some liberties interpreting the term "pirate." Of course, there are some stories in the issue that are your typical iconic Caribbean-style pirate, but it was important to me to have a certain diversity represented. So that was one factor.

Other than that, I was really just judging the stories on their own merits as I would judge any story. In fact, that was the only way I could judge them, really, because Shimmer employs a "blind" reading system, in which the names of the contributors are stripped off of their manuscripts before the editor sees them. So when I read each story, all I had was the title and the text. It was kind of a liberating feeling to read each story with absolutely no preconceptions, not even subconsciously, about what I might think about the story I was about to read. (And this was only enhanced by the fact that I read all the submissions electronically, so every submission looked exactly the same to me–there were no variations in manuscript formatting or other things like that to get in the way of me engaging with the story.)

The only other time I’ve ever read a story anonymously, as far as I know, is when I read Neil Gaiman’s "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" for F&SF. The manuscript didn’t have Gaiman’s name on it, just the title. I kind of felt like I recognized the voice, but I couldn’t put my finger on who it was. After I got to the end, I saw Neil Gaiman’s name, and so I learned who wrote it. But I was glad to have read it that way, and I enjoyed reading a whole slush pile’s worth for Shimmer that way.

 

Click to read the whole interview.

Also, SF Signal asked me to participate in their new Mind Meld feature, in which they get a bunch of knowledgeable folks and ask them to chime in on a certain issue. So click through to read my thoughts about online book reviewing, along with thoughts from folks like David Hartwell, Niall Harrison, James Patrick Kelly, and others.

Read More

Grasping for the Wind reviews The Pirate Issue

Grasping for the Wind has a nice review up of The Pirate Issue. Here’s a snippet:

These ten stories and 1 interview are well written, and were good choices for a speculative fiction magazine’s issue on pirates. The fantasy, horror and/or sci-fi elements were neatly incorporated into the pirate stories. […] John Joseph Adams and the team at Shimmer have put together an enjoyable issue with some creative takes on the topic of piracy. […]  Fulfill[s] the mission of the magazine and provide[s] entertaining reads for the speculative fiction crowd.

Read More

Pirates of the Burning Sea scheduled for open beta

You might recall a SCI FI Wire piece I wrote a while back, about a forthcoming MMORPG called Pirates of the Burning Sea. Well, the game is scheduled to begin its worldwide open beta on Friday, December 7th, "allowing naval captains, freetraders, privateers, and pirates alike to experience first-hand this highly-anticipated online game," according to a press release I received.

From the release:

North American players can sign up for access to the beta through File Planet at www.fileplanet.com. File Planet subscribers will get priority access, with beta opening to all other players within a week.

For European players interested in playing, please go to www.piratesoftheburningsea.com for localized links.

For more information on Pirates of the Burning Sea  log onto www.piratesoftheburningsea.com and for new art assets log onto www.soepress.com

Pirates of the Burning Sea is an MMORPG featuring high seas action and adventure in a bold world of pirates and plunder.  Set against the backdrop of the New World of the 18th Century, players can choose one of three nations – England, France or Spain – or choose the role of a Pirate and battle it out for glory and power.

Read More

Justine Graykin’s Fantastic Voyage

Pirate issue contributor Justine Graykin (a/k/a Mel Graykin) has a write up of the World Fantasy Convention for her local paper. Shimmer and pirates are mentioned several times, and includes mention of zombies, which is always a plus.

My other gig was the biggie, the long-awaited Shimmer magazine Pirate Party to celebrate the release of their Pirate Issue. The guest editor for the issue was none other than John Joseph Adams of Fantasy and Science Fiction (shown here with a pirate wench). Mary Kowl, the Art Director for Shimmer, served up a hearty pirate grog, which had in it rum of course, and orange juice to prevent scurvy. Beth Wodzinski, editor-in-chief, sported an elegant pirate hat and hoisted the Jolly Roger over the buffet table. There were five of us there to read excerpts of our work as featured in the magazine: Rajan Khanna, whose story “Furies” is a brilliant blow to the male cannon (ahem); J. Kathleen Cheney , with a chilling tale of heartless piracy, Marissa K. Lingen, who gave us an 8-year-old’s perspective on pirates, and Jill Snider Lum, who reveals to us the true and most appropriate fate of Edward Teach, the notorious Blackbeard. And of course, yours truly, with my tale of the “Perfect Hook”. (The Deerfield Public Library has a copy available to be checked out—you can read all these marvelous stories and more. Or better yet, go to Shimmer and subscribe, and be assured of a steady supply of extraordinary tales.)

Read More