Brian J. White's Blog, page 3

So how does this thing work?

First things first. Are you already a subscriber to the magazine? If so, skip down to Start Reading. If not, follow me. We will part you gently from your hard-earned wages and give you wonder in return.

Signing Up

Click Subscribe here or at the top of the page. Then click Sign Up. You’ll be asked to pick a username and fill in the usual info, then select if you want to purchase a single issue (right now, just Issue 4), or all of Year Two, which will include the full run of Chuck Wendig’s serial, The Forever Endeavor. Whatever you choose, you’ll be sent off to Paypal. You don’t need a Paypal account, just a credit card (though you can of course use your Paypal account if you have one). Once Paypal has slipped your coin into its pocket, you’ll be sent back to us.

Start Reading

Welcome to Fireside. There are a few ways to get at your issues. At the bottom of each page, there is a Back Issues list, and you can simply click on the issue you’d like to read online. (Issues 1-3, from 2012, are all free.)

When you are signed  in, at the top of each page there is also a link to Your Issues. Here, you can see all the issues you have access to (and add any that you are missing). This is also where you can download a DRM-free ebook version of each issue you have paid for, as either a Mobi file (Amazon) or an Epub (most other e-readers).

And, that’s it! If you have any questions, please send editor Brian White a note on our Contact page.

Year Two is a go!

After many months, and many Kickstarters, and many many stories, Year Two is here at last! We start with Issue 4, with stories from Keffy R. M. Kehrli, Krystal Claxton, Delilah S. Dawson, and Chuck Wendig.

If you don’t have a subscription from the Kickstarter, you can use the link at the top of the page. If you need a little more guidance, go here. You can try us out with Issue 4, or grab all of Year Two. We have a lot of great stories coming in the next 11 months, and this is the only place you’ll be able to follow Chuck’s serial.

AND, if you buy a full Year Two subscription in the first week, anytime up to 11:59 p.m. next Tuesday, Aug. 20, you will be automatically entered in a drawing for an e-reader of your choice: a Kindle Paperwhite, a Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, or a Kobo Glo.

If you’ve been aware of Fireside for a while, you’ll seen that it’s a brand new site, with a new name, Fireside Fiction Company. We have big plans for the future, and we wanted a name we could grow into.

If you follow us on Twitter, our handle has changed to @FiresideFiction, but if you were following @FiresideMag, you are now following the new one.

Thanks for checking us out, and please spread the word if you enjoy Issue 4!

A bit more about Fireside

If you’re new to us, welcome! Fireside started in early 2012 with the idea that we could publish a magazine that was focused not on genre, but on storytelling. As Neil Gaiman put it in the introduction to the Stories anthology he edited with  Al Sarrantonio, we look for stories that keep readers asking, “And then what happened?” We’ll publish in any genre, as long as it is a great story.

We also had the idea that we could pay writers more than the rate that is considered professional, 5 cents per word, which has largely remained the standard for many years now. At that rate, a 4,000-word story pays $200. Fireside pays 12.5 cents per word, or $500 for 4,000 words. We think that is more fair, given the amount of time that can go into writing, revising, and polishing a story. Fireside’s goal is to help creative people make a living from their work.

To do this, we turned to Kickstarter, three times in 2012. We produced three issues, in print and online. We also started to butt up against Kickstarter fatigue. So we made a big push: we would fund an entire year of monthly issues, and make them available online and as ebooks on a brand-new subscription website. A lot of people put a lot of faith in us, and we raised the money we needed to make it happen. And that is why you are reading this today. In the coming year, we have a great lineup of stories (see below), along with art from Galen Dara. And we have this beautiful website, designed and built by Pablo Defendini and Kirk Biglione.

We hope to keep growing, well beyond Year Two, and to keep promoting great storytelling and fair pay for creators.

Year Two lineup

This isn’t a month by month breakdown, but here is a list of the stories and authors we have in Year Two. Galen Dara will be creating art for each issue.

Serial fiction

The Forever Endeavor (12 parts), by Chuck Wendig

Short stories

Sun Tea by M. Bennardo

Catch a Fallen Star by Jennifer Campbell-Hicks

Four Tons Too Late by Karina Cooper

Repossession by Jonas David

Love Song of the Lizard Boy by Delilah S. Dawson

The Gangs of Gnome Jersey by A.E. Decker

A Trick of the Night by Steven J. Dines

The Brutal and the Simple by Adam P. Knave

The Journal by Ken Liu

Sell it Like Death by James McGee

Rocket Ship Nirvana by Jason Ridler

Maternal Type by Lilith Saintcrow

Flash fiction

Carver by E.C. Ambrose

Vanilla by Martin Cahill

Shrugging off the Weight of the World by Dantzel Cherry

The Filigreed Cage by Krystal Claxton

Reversal by James Darrow

The Last Good Day by John F. Gardner

Sure I am Metaphysically Sinking into a More Terrifying Universe, but We All Have Our Things to Deal With by Sam Gorenstein

Missing by Megan Grey

Mice by Keffy R. M. Kehrli

Looking for Bad Guys by Jake Kerr

No So Super by Rob McMonigal

Downstairs, Upstairs by Melissa Mead

Ask the Cats by Stefon Mears

Listening to it Rain by Sandra M. Odell

Guard Post by Paul O’Donohoe

They Sent Runners Out by Sarah Pinsker

Reborn by Katie Pugh

Ex Astris by Lauren M. Roy

A Single, Stolen Night by Memory Scarlett

Silver Hill Hotel by David Alex Shepherd

Hope for Enthos by Addison Smith

The Last Job by Andrea Speed

Just a Couple Modifications by Kelly C. Stiles

Skinned Knees by R.D. Sullivan

First, Bite Just a Finger by Johann Thorsson

Elizabeth’s Pirate Army by Caroline M. Yoachim

 

 

 

Year Two launches Wednesday!

We’re ready! And we are officially launching on Wednesday!

The table of contents for Issue 4, the first issue of Year 2:

Mice by Keffy R. M. Kehrli

The Filigreed Cage by Krystal Claxton

Love Song of the Lizard Boy by Delilah S. Dawson

The Forever Endeavor: Part One by Chuck Wendig

Plus, artwork by Galen Dara!

Click here if you want a look at one of Galen’s pieces for Issue 4, along with a series of strange messages Chuck has been sending out.

Launch date postponed

Remember I said the gods laugh when you make plans?

They are laughing now.

We’ve hit a bit of a wall with the development of the website and won’t be able to launch on July 8. The good news is we think this is a delay of just weeks, not months or anything like that. (Fingers crossed.) As soon as the website is done, we will set a new date and let everyone know.

Sorry, and thanks so much for your patience!

Fireside update

So, a bit over two months after the Kickstarter, here are where things stand:

We received just a hair under 600 submissions of flash fiction between March 15 and May 1, and we bought 25 stories. We’ll have a lineup announcement once we have all the contracts signed, etc. (If you submitted a story and did not receive a response, please email me at brian@firesidemag.com.)
Many of the Kickstarter rewards have shipped, and the rest will be going out in the next few weeks, including the postcards.
The new website is humming along. I have seen some of the stuff Pablo and Kirk have been working on, and it looks really good. We are on track to hit our goal of starting publishing by July 1.
 I still love you all.

Quick note about submission response times

We have fallen a bit behind on our goal of responding to all submissions within 30 days. I was hoping to get caught up this week, but I live in Boston and work at the newspaper here, and I have been unable to do much outside of my work at the Globe since Monday.

If you have a story that is past the 30-day mark, please wait until we have hit 45 days to query at brian@firesidemag.com. We will do our best to catch up as quickly as possible.

Thanks for your patience, and my apologies.

We are closing to submissions on May 1

We have gotten nearly 300 flash fiction stories so far and are finding good stuff in there. We are going to close the window for submissions on May 1, so if you are interested in sending us a story of less than 1,000 words in any genre, you have 20 days left!

Details about submitting can be found here.

My comic “An Honest Mistake” is in an anthology to raise money for Sandy victims

So one of my favorite folks from Twitter, Lynn Beighley, has put together OH SANDY! An Anthology of Humor for a Serious Purpose to raise funds for Hurricane Sandy victims:

We put out a call for humorous work that was about experiencing a disaster, or surviving a hurricane, or living in New Jersey. We hoped that we might be able to bring a smile to some folks by sharing similar experiences.

And when I saw that call, I immediately submitted the comic I wrote for Issue Two of Fireside, An Honest Mistake (drawn by Steve Walker and lettered by Frank Cvetkovic). Because, you know, Zombies in Jersey.

Well, Lynn accepted it, and Oh Sandy went on sale this week! It’s got stories by a few dozen great writers, and all the proceeds are going to Sandy charities. I’m really happy to be part of this. If you’d like to help, here’s where you can pick it up:

Kindle ($4.99)
Print book ($15)

Year Two launch date: July 8!

Well the title kind of gives the next sentence away, doesn’t it? But, keeping in mind that the gods laugh when you make plans, we have a launch date for Year Two: July 8!

*throws flaming confetti*

We are so excited. We have 36 great stories to share with you over the next year, along with Chuck’s serial. I have the first couple episodes of that. It’s good. REALLY good.

The new website is shaping up really nicely. I can’t say much more about it than that, but I think we are building something really cool.

The majority of the non-magazine rewards have been shipped, with the exception of individual postcards and the pony. Oh god. The pony.

We’re working on getting the postcards out this week. The pony? *shudders*

Also, I wanted to signal boost a few things:

If you need to scratch a short story itch right now while you wait for Fireside, here are two ebook collections by friends that I have been reading and enjoying:

3024AD by DES Richard
Shiva’s Mother by Andrea Phillips

If you want to read some Chuck Wendig right now, I just finished The Blue Blazes last night. Gangster urban fantasy in New York. I love love loved it. (Get it at Amazon | B&N | Indiebound.)

And, finally, Year Two writer Karina Cooper is running an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign for The Fantastical Mr. Flip’s Carnival of Wonders & Curiosities, a steampunk fair in Washington state. Already sounds cool, right? It’s a local thing, but it raises money for a scholarship fund in memory of Caleb “Flip” Kors, a 10-year-old steampunk circus performer who died in an accident last year. The scholarship goes to “providing underprivileged children with ambitions of performing the help to achieve that dream.” Supporting young artists? Yes please!

Fireside update

So, a bit over two months after the Kickstarter, here are where things stand:

We received just a hair under 600 submissions of flash fiction between March 15 and May 1, and we bought 25 stories. We’ll have a lineup announcement once we have all the contracts signed, etc. (If you submitted a story and did not receive a response, please email me at brian@firesidemag.com.)
Many of the Kickstarter rewards have shipped, and the rest will be going out in the next few weeks, including the postcards.
The new website is humming along. I have seen some of the stuff Pablo and Kirk have been working on, and it looks really good. We are on track to hit our goal of starting publishing by July 1.
 I still love you all.