Spontaneous Derivation

An update to the glorious trainwreck that is William Sanders and Helix SF Magazine.

Over at Rachel Swirsky’s That which deranges the senses, the writers whom Sanders has either called “pantiwadulous”, or denied their requests to remove stories from his archive, have banded together. The result is Transcriptase, a mirror of Helix—without the racist lunatic at the wheel, of course.

And yes, this effort is entirely legal—the Helix contract doesn’t disallow stories being placed in other web archives.

So visit Transcriptase and take a peek at the wonderful stories there—and all packaged in a far better website, too.

Goodbye, Sanders. Thanks for playing.

Is it worth it to submit to some place or other in the mere hopes of publication?

As the worms turned up from Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly’s recent wankery show, sometimes it is decidedly not.

Come with me as we explore a trail of

• racism, bigotry, and rejection letters;
• the acts of nonprofessional spewage from an editor of a Hugo-nominated semi-prozine;
• what happens when your contract with your publisher is not well-examined;
• and how to deal with the blatant wankery.

Continue reading “Summary of a Train Wreck: Helix Speculative Fiction Magazine’s Sordid Bigotry and Blunders”

Science fiction zines have always been the bread and butter of SF aficionados, because as geeks we all love to read about the stuff we’re reading and watching, and talk bout the stuff we’re reading and watching. The readership can be very meta at times.

This entry covers both the semiprozine and the fanzine Hugo nominees. A fanzine is what it sounds like—a non-professional regular publication. The semiprozine bridges the gap between the fanzine and the professional magazine. A more complete definition of “semiprozine” is available on Wikipedia.

Note: Helix entry updated on 7/11. And again on 7/14. And once more on 7/15. The Helix train wreck just does not stop.

Continue reading “2008 Hugo Awards Countdown: Best Semiprozine and Best Fanzine”