Into the Ruins

[ecosophia]

The latest issue of Into the Ruins has just been released by Figuration Press. For those of my readers who aren't familiar with Into the Ruins, it's a magazine of science fiction stories about the future we're actually going to get -- as in, wave goodbye to the hackneyed, done-to-death mandatory orthodox interstellar future of mainstream SF, say hello to futures here on earth as people deal with the aftermath of the Industrial Age and the emergence of new cultures in the far future. I think of Into the Ruins as the ongoing quarterly successor to my four volumes of postpetroleum SF, the After Oil series, and it features some of the most thought-provoking science fiction being published today. Pick up a copy here, or better still, subscribe. 

Since this journal seems to have attracted a lot of people who are interested in writing, it's probably also worth mentioning that editor Joel Caris is always, as in always, looking for new stories suited to Into the Ruins. You can find the submission guidellines here -- and remember the tried and true advice from the old days of SF pulp magazines: always read an issue of a magazine before you submit a story to it. 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

And as an additional note, for those who subscribe, do so by check if you can. Joel and the mag get to keep more of the money that way!

--David, by the lake

[joelcaris]

Thanks, David. Yes, I'm always happy to take subscriptions, renewals, orders and so on by check when it works for people, and certainly don't mind avoiding the PayPal fees (though no worries if credit card is necessary). There's also something a little extra concrete and delightful about a check dropping in through the mail slot than a notification by email--though both quite please me! ;)

Submissions

[joelcaris]

Thanks for the link, JMG, and yes--I'm always looking for new submissions that fit the guidelines. I get a decent number, but many of them just don't fall in line with the philosophy. Finding those that do, and that are a well-written and enjoyable story to boot, can be tricky. So to all you writers out there: let's see it!

Also, my Editor's Introduction in this issue talks a bit about some of the tropes of deindustrial science fiction and some of the limitations that writers still often put on themselves when writing these sort of stories. It might be an interesting read for authors and potential authors. There are still a lot of places deindustrial science fiction is yet to go, and I'm excited to see how it evolves as writers continue to throw off some of the traditional genre confines and strike out into imagined futures that don't toe industrial civilization's line.

Re: Submissions

[ecosophia]

Glad to hear it. The thing that I wish I could get across to more people is that we've got an absurdly narrow notion of what the future can be. Most people will only let themselves imagine, on the one hand, what I call the "Mandatory Orthodox Interstellar Future" -- the future that dominates contemporary SF -- and on the other, the Hollywood Apocalypse where everybody dies but a plucky band of survivors blah blah blah. Both of those have been done not only to death but straight through the afterlife into the next incarnation! The future can be more interesting than that.

[(Anonymous)]

I am very excited that my copy just arrived in the mail. Going to go binge on it.

Ray Wharton