Well, we made it to Flurb #10, the Fall-Winter, 2010 issue!
Flurb is a free online Webzine of Astonishing Tales, edited and published by Rudy twice a year. The previous issue, of Spring-Summer, 2010, has garnerned seventy-two thousand unique visits so far.
I’m in awe of the writers who keep helping to make Flurb happen. This huge new issue—with seventeen stories—makes me think of classic anthos like Dangerous Visions, Mirrorshades, or Semiotext(e) SF.
Dig in! Click on the cover below, look at the contents, read the editorial, check out some stories, and return here to comment.
If you’re interested in seeing all the previous Flurb announcement posts, with their comment threads, check out the Flurb archive on Rudy’s Blog.
August 31st, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Hurray!
August 31st, 2010 at 4:28 pm
(drinks a quart of coffee to ensure a complete reading by dawn)
August 31st, 2010 at 10:40 pm
“Honey, what are you doing?”
“Reading”
“Don’t you have an interview in the morning?”
“Ya”…
“Well it’s near midnight, and…”
“But it is the new issue of Flurb, and who wants to work in a bakery anyway.”
The lights go out and the left side of the bed gets noticeable colder.
September 1st, 2010 at 5:09 am
Rudy,
I love Flurb. I love that you do a webzine, but as with those classic anthologies mentioned above, maybe you could pitch the idea to your agent to bring out these Flurbs in a massive print omnibus…. I for one would buy a copy…
Justin
September 1st, 2010 at 9:38 am
For those who are curious, I wrote this post about the inspiration for my story.
I’ve also been reading the stories in this issue, and I’m so proud to have my work positioned alongside them. They’ve all been outstanding so far. Thanks, Rudy.
September 1st, 2010 at 10:55 am
Another fabulous Flurb; awesome issue, Rudy!
OK Laidlaw, you can’t leave us hanging like that; finish the damn novel.
Les
September 1st, 2010 at 11:00 am
I really enjoy the Flurb webzines but I prefer to read books on my Kindle 1. This entails my printing each story to a PDF file, then converting them to MOBI files. The PDF formatting doesn’t work well in the MOBI format and the latest, Flurb #10, results in huge PDF and MOBI files due to the graphic left border. Would you please consider making each issue available in a ebook readable format like PRC? Either the issue as a whole or the individual stories would be acceptable.
Thanks for some great reading.
September 1st, 2010 at 11:38 am
Ned, thanks for your interest. I appreciate your problem, but my agreement with my writers is such that, at present, I only have the rights to post their stories in the webzine version of FLURB.
Creating what would essentially be an ebook version of the webzine opens up a host of (time-consuming) technical and contractual issues that I don’t have the resources for at this time.
But it may be that, further down the road, we’ll put together some book/ebook compilations from FLURB, as Justin was hinting at as well.
September 1st, 2010 at 5:32 pm
beautiful ish! i dig the side bar art! just read laidlaw’s tale. haaaalp – deepscreen! okay, now on to yours.
September 1st, 2010 at 7:56 pm
RE: “Six Days on the Road and I’m Gonna Make It Home Tonight”
Great story! Beautifully played, Parsons and Hillman. And it might be the first SF story with the Louvin Brothers in it — a first worth noting, even if they never quite get onstage.
My compliments to the author.
Eileen
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:37 am
Rudy, I understand the problems so I just keep on reading and converting while awaiting an ebook version. Thanks for the explanation.
September 3rd, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Madeline Ashby- phenomenal story. it’s only the third story I’ve read in flurb and I’m completely hook. thanks to everybody who participates.
peace,
-B-
September 5th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Issue #1-10 have just consistently blown my doors off. Rudy, you’re as brilliant at collecting this kind of stuff as you are at writing it. You and all the contributors made my week a lot brighter and more interesting. Thank you.
September 6th, 2010 at 7:10 am
That is so wrong. To be taken by the truth from behind. Maybe its not all wrong. No, wait…i see it now. All hail the centipede god/Ernest Hogan! I’m off to something really important, not sure what…but I will think of something. Wait, does this mean Moonwatcher was an early acolyte?
September 8th, 2010 at 8:11 am
I had been wondering when Jon was going to write a new book, I enjoyed read Grey and had been hoping for something else. I think part of this is because of the odd places he comes from it much like your work is a nice change of pace.
September 9th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19429-laws-of-physics-may-change-across-the-universe.html
September 14th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Ned, I also prefer to read short stories on my Kindle, so what I usually do is download the HTML files, arrange them into an EPUB file using the “sigil” software, and upload it to the Kindle using “calibre”. All of these are free software, and it usually takes around 10 minutes to produce a very readable, high-quality version of the Flurb webzine (Hint: you get chapter breaks for each story if you make the story name in each file a “Headline 1”).
Note that I’m not offering to give my copies away. As Rudy mentions, the copyright situation is twisted, and we really don’t need to screw over the awesome people who agreed to have their works published in this excellent magazine.
September 14th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Lois Tilton at Locus on-line reviewed Flurb #10 and the individual stories, more or less favorably. Link here.
September 16th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Love Carter’s piece. I was there looking down the day
Eva died.
September 20th, 2010 at 2:27 am
Do illustratons every inspire stories?
September 21st, 2010 at 9:31 pm
really enjoyed “The Skug”. spices, centipede venom, hash resin, semen – quite a concoction. still not clear exactly clear how the Driss slug came to them in the form of the Pratt-skug, but i appreciate the morphology of it all. fun story.
September 22nd, 2010 at 11:31 am
Wonderful field guide to a reality curious about its own workings. Much appreciated.
Great issue, as have all the others been!
September 29th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Doctora Xilbalba’s Datura Enema: Excellent!
October 1st, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Such a beautiful teamwork.
Started strong and better every time. LOVE the ray gun so much I made it the backgroud as soon as I saw it. See you at Eaton just before the next issue!
December 22nd, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Very cool, indeed!
JWP.
December 23rd, 2010 at 8:51 am
Rudy – thanks for pimpin’ the FLURB ! Just read J.Shirley’s story – – awesome -! – headed towards the rest. Happy Holidays to the entire FLURB colony~!
December 25th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Interesting little tale. I’m sure Burroughs would chuckle as he slowly choked on his green, syrupy methadone. Nice piece of writing. Makes you want to go to an otherworld auction and bid for a TARDIS. x
January 29th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Wow. You had me Googling Andrea Dupuis, Schenzen, and seeing if I had somehow missed the decline of the fastest growing city in China! That is before I realized it was a work of fiction.
Well done, great story.
Ed
March 12th, 2011 at 10:21 am
So… the British take on the next development in US History?
January 7th, 2012 at 5:53 am
A very nice story!
March 16th, 2012 at 8:12 pm
An excellent story by Calloway – mindblowing.