Tag Archives: Strange-Horizons

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Strange Horizons fund drive 2011

If you come to Futurismic for the science fiction side of things (which I hope, even in the temporary absence of an active fiction department, quiet a few of you still do), then you’ve probably at least heard of Strange Horizons, the free-to-air all-online pro-paying market and critical journal of genre fiction.

Better still, I hope you think Strange Horizons is awesome; I’ll say it again, they pay pro rates for quality genre fiction and poetry – some of it award-winning – that costs you nothing to read and doesn’t come accompanied by ugly ads or sponsorships. Heck, they even pay their reviewers and columnists a little bit… and as one of those reviewers, I guess that means you could say I have a horse in the race, so to speak. But I was a reader of SH long before I was a contributor, and it’s one of the venues I’m proudest to write for; if that’s bias, then consider this my full disclosure.

So, if you also think Strange Horizons is awesome – or even just pretty good – they could do with your help. There’s a few weeks left on the annual fund drive, and if you pop over and pitch in a fistful of dollars you’ll be entered into a prize draw, meaning you get a slight sense of anticipation as a side-salad to your blue-plate serving of Supporting A Good Cause.

(There are some epic prizes in there, too: did you know Alastair Reynolds was an artist as well as a writer? Because apparently he’ll draw or paint you a scene from one of his novels! Or you could snag a copy of The Universe Of Things, the latest Gwyneth Jones short fiction collection from Aqueduct Press, which I spent over 3,000 words marvelling overearlier in the year. Or signed novels by Ursula Le Guin, or Adam Roberts, or… look, there’s all sorts of good stuff you could win, go see for yourself.)

Again, to be clear: Strange Horizons has always been free to air, and is run by volunteers. All money donated goes to paying for the physical needs of the site (the specialist technical stuff and webhosting magic) and the excellent, unique and original content it publishes. Please consider sparing a few bucks to keep it that way.

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Donate to Strange Horizons – support quality free genre fiction on the web

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Hey, y’know how we publish a free piece of fiction every month? Well, Strange Horizons has been publishing a free piece of genre fiction every week. Plus poetry, and non-fiction, and reviews. All of which they pay professional rates for. None of which makes them a profit, or pays the volunteer staff and editors in anything but kudos.

And they’ve been doing it for eight years.

When I sat down to think about how to make enough money to pay for Futurismic‘s fiction, I considered but rejected the idea of having a public funding drive – the main reason being that Strange Horizons already uses that model, and I didn’t want to divert any of the spare money in the genre fiction scene away from them.

So here on Futurismic you get ads, but Strange Horizons has no ads at all. Eight years of archived professional material, completely and utterly free to read and free of distracting commercial messages. It’s a genre fiction resource to which nothing compares, which has broken many great new writers into the scene, and we’re very lucky it exists.

Which is why I suggest you may want to consider popping over to Strange Horizons and donating a few dollars, especially if you’ve ever read anything on the site. And if you’ve never read anything there, now would be a great time to start.

And if you’ve got a blog, give them a little plug, just like this one. It doesn’t cost you anything, but it’ll mean a lot to them. There are even prizes and  incentives … but personally, I’m just doing this for the love. Strange Horizons is an inspiration to web publishers everywhere; long may she sail.

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Support Strange Horizons!

I figure if you read Futurismic, you’re quite keen on the idea of quality free fiction, poetry and articles from the genre literature scene being available online. In which case, you’re probably already aware of the excellent Strange Horizons site – if not, you are now, and you should go and get acquainted. They’re near the end of their annual fundraising drive at the moment, which is all the more reason to drop over there and wire them a bit of cash so they can keep delivering quality material. It’s tax-deductible for you American types, too.

[Full disclosure: I have written reviews for Strange Horizons.]