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
