Deep Magic - Winter 2018

by Jeff Wheeler (Editor & Contributor), Steve DuBois, Paul R. Hardy

If you want to read gripping stories that don’t rely on sex, swearing, and graphic violence—you’ve come to the right place!

DEEP MAGIC is an electronic magazine that publishes clean short fiction in the fantasy and science fiction genres (epic, paranormal, steampunk, etc).

We're pleased to announce this new line-up of authors for our Fall 2018 issue!

- Sci-fi short story "Too Many Historians on the Western Front" by Paul R. Hardy
- Fantasy short story "The Lady of Pain" by Steve Dubois
- Fantasy short story "Nix and Jack" by Maria Morillo
- Sci-fi short story "Salvage" by Anthony Tardiff
- Fantasy novella "The Poisoner's Revenge: a Kingfountaintale" by WSJ Bestselling author Jeff Wheeler

Extended Sample Chapters of Novels:
"The Shadow of What Was Lost" by James Islington

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies

158 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 11, 2018

About the author

Wall Street Journal bestselling author Jeff Wheeler took an early retirement from his career at Intel in 2014 to write full-time. He is a husband, father of five, and a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jeff lives in the Rocky Mountains.

Learn about Jeff’s many worlds at www.jeff-wheeler.com, or participate in one of his online writing classes through Writer’s Block (www.writersblock.biz).

Reviews

[Jeff Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This issue is special to me because is includes my last Kingfountain story for a long time. It's the one I promised after writing Ankarette's last story, "The Poisoner's Enemy". I've published the follow-up in this issue of Deep Magic. The story is called "The Poisoner's Revenge". It was a lot of fun to write but I'm also wistful about leaving Ankarette again.

I also really liked "Lady of Pain" by Steve DuBois. It has a D&D feel to it, but it isn't campy and it really has a great message about the purpose of pain in our lives. The ending really caught me by surprise. It's a gem. There's also a great sci-fi story called "Salvage" here. It was submitted a long time ago to the e-zine and I personally rejected it with some feedback to the author. Since reading it, the story lingered with me and I wish I'd reached out to the author again and asked for him to make some edits and re-submit. Fortunately, he did that all on his own and re-submitted it based on the feedback. So I'm especially thrilled to publish this one. There's a funny story about World War I that set in an artificial intelligence engine. As a historian myself, it brought many chuckles. And last but not least, "Nix and Jack" by Maria Morillo. I thought it was great.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe I'm biased because I have a novelette in this issue, but I highly recommend for all of you fans of fantasy and sci-fi, as a lover of both short stories and both genres, this one is so good!

[Greg Garguilo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Proof one can write dark fantasy and science fiction while remaining a clean read

First, a Disclosure. As you can see by opening the cover, I'm one of a handful of First Readers who pour over hundreds of submissions each issue to ensure only the best candidates make it to the Deep Magic Board, where they winnow our selections further until only the very best clean short stories of science fiction and fantasy remain for publication.

In this case, I had a hand in picking Paul R Hardy's "Too Many Historians on the Western Front", a clever time travel /history with rare perspective and good pacing.

Anthony Tardiff's "Salvage" also made the issue - one of his darker pieces and part of a breakthrough in recognition for this promising new author. Its another work of science fiction that sits in that "sweet spot" for me between 11k and 16k words. The world has space to breath, and for tension to build throughout.

Steve DuBois provides "The Lady of Pain" - Proof that its possible to write dark, character driven, thoughtful fantasy and still be a clean read. I didn't have the fortune of being the First Reader who sifted this gem from among many hundreds of other submissions for this issue (that credit goes to fellow Reader Jeanna Mason Stay), but I did have the joy of reading it before it reached the Board, and the pleasure of reading it a second time, post edits, in this edition of Deep Magic, where it is stronger still. It's my favorite story of the issue, with a nod to Jeff Wheeler's Kingfountain short story, filling in a key piece of Ankarette's life as close second.

Finally, Venezuelan author Maria J Morillo provides "Nix and Jack", a story I won't spoil by revealing details of the plot. Fantasy with a hopeful ending, if a bit bittersweet, and characters who are familiar - told from a new perspective.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you read or checked out Deep Magic e-zine yet? You definitely should go check it out! I can't recommend this enough.

It has introduced me to a lot of wonderful and amazing authors who all write clean reads. If you are wanting or looking for more clean reads and intriguing stories without all the sex, profanity and violence that you are trying to avoid, you need to go try out Deep Magic!

Any and all of them are great but this last one for Winter 2018 was pretty amazing or go get the Deep Magic Anthology which is out in paperback now too!!!

Go get and read them now!!!

[Cherie Carraro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the creativity

[Michele Hermansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories. Love in the Time of Holodecks was mind blowing. Read the e-zine.

[Bruce Dinsman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah the stories

I thoroughly enjoy this magazine format and the entire series. The book excerpt at the end was familiar Wheeler but was still good to read again.