Entry tags:
New Maps: Deindustrial Fiction

Joel Caris' fine quarterly Into the Ruins offered a venue for deindustrial SF for several years, but Joel has decided to go in new directions now. Fortunately, other hands are ready to pick up the work.
Thus I'm pleased to announce the impending birth of a new quarterly magazine, New Maps, which will publish stories of deindustrial science fiction. You can find its website here. Editor Nathanael Bonnell is eagerly seeking stories -- you can read his submissions requirements here -- and is also looking for cover art for the upcoming issues. This is a real opportunity for aspiring authors and artists -- and of course for anyone who likes to read science fiction rather than spaceship-themed fairy tales. Check it out.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2020-11-07 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
no subject
(Anonymous) 2020-11-07 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)I think Into the Ruins featured some pretty good tales of long voyages and well-developed cultures and trading networks, maybe more so in some of its later issues (I'm thinking of some of Jeanne Labonte's stories, and one called "Sea Jackals of Dubai" whose author I don't recall off the top of my head). But of course it's all down to what kind of submissions come in.
If you do feel like a writer, I'd definitely love to see some fiction of the type you're talking about. The more different visions, the better. The way of dissensus, as our host has said.
—Nathanael Bonnell
no subject
"Too small a world" (not knowing who lives 20 miles away, for instance) was indeed on that list. That can be hard to avoid in a short story format. A Sherlock Holmes short story can be set in London without including a street by street description of the place, but an unfamiliar world of comparable realism is harder to convey. I set my story in an isolated new planned settlement, but with clear spatial and political connections to its surroundings (that didn't significantly figure in the plot itself). That itself would become a tiresome device in fairly short order if over-used, which underscores how world-building remains a challenge for deindustrial short-story authors.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2020-11-08 01:56 am (UTC)(link)—Lady Cutekitten
no subject
(Anonymous) 2020-11-07 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
no subject
(Anonymous) 2020-11-07 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
no subject
(Anonymous) 2020-11-09 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)Hello there—editor here...
In general I'd say I'm in favor of a broad variety of different political opinions being expressed in the stories in New Maps. I'm not out to publish things that are deliberately and uselessly inflammatory, but beyond that, I can work with a lot of different viewpoints; I have friends and family across the spectrum from far-woke protest frequent-fliers to those sick of identity politics and other liberal tics, and plenty not served well by that spectrum at all. Which is to say, iconoclasts welcome.
New Maps
(Anonymous) 2020-11-07 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)Oilman2
Re: New Maps
no subject
(Anonymous) 2020-11-07 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)On account of at that rate a writer better sell 40 10,000 word stories a week just to beat working retail! No wonder there's not much short fiction published.
I'm a musician: I know how big the government's cut of freelancers income is.
BoysMom
no subject
no subject
(Anonymous) 2020-11-08 02:53 am (UTC)(link)BoysMom
no subject
(Anonymous) 2020-11-08 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)—Lady Cutekitten
no subject
Supporting the Deindustrial Ecosystem
One of the other great things and reasons to support a publication like this -through getting a subscription, giving a subscription to a friend, writing letters to the editor, sending in your stories, etc.- is the way it can help add to and build a healthy ecosystem of publications and publishers with a focus in this genre. Having the publishers is of course also healthy for the writers, and is food for the imagination of the readers. I wish New Maps a great success.
I hope to see some of the people from Ecosophia over in its pages -in the letters and in the stories. I'd like to add that the letters to the editor section is a great way to practice exchanging comments with people in a resilient and low-tech way.
Justin Patrick Moore
Re: Supporting the Deindustrial Ecosystem
(Anonymous) 2020-11-09 09:45 pm (UTC)(link)And I got your postcard—I hope you got mine!
Thanks for those words. One of the big reasons I wanted to take this up was exactly because I thought there was a great community coming together in the pages of Into the Ruins, and I wanted it to keep flourishing, both in letters and in publishing opportunities. Some of the folks from Ecosophia and ItR (including some I know from both places) have already made their way to New Maps, and I'm excited to see them.