Reflecting on ASIM #37

After the delight of seeing Dirk Flinthart’s "This Is Not My Story" tie for Best Short Story at the Ditmars on the weekend, I was contemplating my final issue of ASIM. I am very proud of the issue, and feel it was the best magazine I did with Andromeda Spaceways. Partly this was the benefit of experience, and of a wide circle of author and artist associates I could call on to submit for me. I worked very hard to make ASIM 37 reflect the ideals that Andromeda Spaceways started out with (Australian content, humour, giving new authors a publishing opportunity, among other things), and while slush machine breakdowns around the time I was selecting stories meant that not all the stories in the issue came from the very excellent slush-o-matic system, many did (including three of the most recognised). I’ve always thought the issue turned out pretty well, and it’s very gratifying to see my authors and their wonderful words recognised as being pretty darn good by others as well.

While I’ve not found many reviews of the issue, those that are out there have been positive. The Fix Online said very nice things about the stories and the issue as a whole, concluding with: An excellent issue, worth a thorough reading.

Dirk’s story from the issue made the ASIF! 2008 Recommended Reading List, and was frequently listed in the various Last Short Story Recommended Reading lists for 2008, including their overall Best of the Best list.

"This Is Not My Story" was also shortlisted for the Young Adult category of the Aurealis Awards and shortlisted for the Best Short Story category of the Ditmars, sharing the winning of the Ditmar with Margo Lanagan (good company!).

The novella length story "Night Heron’s Curse", by Thoraiya Dyer, was also shortlisted for both awards, in the Fantasy Short Story category of the Aurealis Awards, and the Novella category of the Ditmars.

We gained another win with Grant Stone’s "Under Waves and Over", which took out the Best Short Story at the New Zealand Sir Julius Vogel Awards last weekend. We also made the shortlist of the Australian Shadows Awards, with Jason Fischer’s "Rick Gets a Job", and the Tin Ducks, for Best WA Professional Production.

In all, I think I’ve got a right to be proud of my last effort as ASIM. It’s pretty, it’s a great read, and I’m not the only one who thinks so, so that makes me really happy. I know this issue was a hundred times better than my first issue with ASIM (#4, way back in 2002/2003), and I hope I can keep learning and getting better at what I do in my future projects. Cos I love doing it, and I love it when other people love what I bring them too.

Sir Julius Vogel Awards

A big congratulations to Grant Stone for making the shortlist of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards with his story in ASIM #37, "Under Waves and Over". Grant was a great author to work with and I’m chuffed his story made the ballot. He’s also up for Best New Talent which is great!

There’s two other ASIM stories on the ballot, and some other excellent New Zealand work to check out – well done to all shortlistees…

ETA: Oops – shortlist available here – http://sffanz.sf.org.nz/sjv/sjvNominations-2009.shtml

Some more nice words on ASIM 37

ecbatan  (Rich Horton) has favourably mentioned ASIM 37 and 36 (which I had a great deal to do with) in his round up of Andromeda Spaceways in 2008. Some pertinent extracts:

"Night Heron’s Curse", by Thoraiya Dyer, from #37, is a strong story set in Australian Aboriginal culture, about two sisters, one of whom loves the man the other is supposed to marry, and the result of their resistance to this. Ann Leckie’s "The Nalendar" (#36) is one of several stories she has published recently taking a look at the perils of dealing with gods.

Of the short stories, I quite enjoyed Dirk Flinthart’s "This is Not My Story" (#37), about a boy’s friendship with a neighbor girl, and the wild stories they made up, and the games they played set in the worlds of those stories — and the possibility that those stories were, somehow, true. Also, from #36, Rachel Swirsky’s "The Amazing Story of Dominic Lazar", a very funny sendup of a whole variety of pulp conventions; and Cat Sparks’s "Piper", a wrenching look at the effect on a couple of a technology for creating artificial memories.

Nice to see Night Heron’s Curse and This is Not My Story mentioned again – fingers crossed for the Aurealis Awards!

ASIM #37 has arrived!

Landed on my doorstep five minutes ago and it looks beautiful 🙂 Dan Skinner’s cover is stunning and the heft of this fiction packed bumper issues is wonderful!  Proper press release to follow soon…

ASIM UPDATES

 Two things:

ASIM issue 32 is at the printer – this means ASIM #31 (my last issue) is about to vanish from PDF availability – if you want it, go get it now!

ASIM is offering a two for one advertising deal for issues 33 and 34 ONLY. If you have a product or service worth advertising, why not give Andromeda Spaceways a go?

For more details, visit

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