OK, now that the Rapture is over and the only ones left are us, I thought this would be a good time to tell you a bit about how things are going at Weird Tales.  Our new submissions portal has been up and running for about 4 months now (thanks to Neil Clarke and Matt Kressel).  It’s very popular – we received almost 100 submissions on the first day!

And of course, once more we’re running a bit behind (currently reading stories in Mid-March) but making steady progress.  We’ve received close to 3000 stories via the portal so far and are still receiving snail mail submissions as well (about 4-5 a day).   My editorial assistants and I are happy to see so many impressive stories, but frustrated that we just don’t have the space for all of them (working on something to help rectify this – stay posted ).  So thanks to all for your patience while we work hard to get to each and every one of you.

Some news – just a small sampling of stories we’ve recently acquired that you will see later this year (please note: this is not all of them):

Stephen Graham Jones – an amazing post-apocalyptic zombie story (no, you’ve not seen one like this before). 

Annalee Newitz – monstrous weirdness in an alternate future of San Francisco

Conrad Williams – a photographer finds something strange

Tamsyn Muir – a young girl is schooled in the many ways of magic (Harry Potter this is not, trust me)

Tom Underberg – A Sin eater in search of something he must have in order to feel again

Jamieson Ridenhour – Unusual musical Deal with the Devil story in the Deep South

Leena Likitalo – Short bizarre story from this up-and-coming Finnish writer

The 85th anniversary issue of Weird Tales features our big list of “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years.” We’re breaking it down online, too: one honoree per day, in no particular order, for 85 days!

Never even mind his biggest radio hit, the classic lycanthropic dance tune “Werewolves of London” — the songwriting oeuvre of WARREN ZEVON (1947-2003) conjures a twisted universe where upwardly mobile zoo gorillas steal the lives of urban yuppies, the ghosts of murdered mercenaries stalk their old battlefields, and Earth itself fades to the entropic assault of chemical pollution while love blooms in the mall. Unsettling, surreal, and wickedly funny, Zevon died too soon, but his specter haunts rock & roll forever.

The 85th anniversary issue of Weird Tales features our big list of “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years.” We’re breaking it down online, too: one honoree per day, in no particular order, for 85 days!

Imagine if Hemingway, master explorer of the male psyche, was really a woman writing under a pseudonym. Behind the name of James Tiptree, Jr., the muscular, intellectual science fiction of ALICE BRADLEY SHELDON (1915-1987) turned gender in genre on its head in the late ’60s, exploring taboo themes fearlessly. Tiptree’s relentless and unforgiving worldview were famously considered quintessential masculine writing. When the hoax was exposed, the author carried on under the byline of Raccoona Sheldon, and the fiction was no less dazzlingly dark.

The 85th anniversary issue of Weird Tales features our big list of “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years.” We’re breaking it down online, too: one honoree per day, in no particular order, for 85 days!

Like the two genres to which so many of their films pay homage, it’s the dialogue — snappy, rapid-fire, off-kilter — that strings together the dark screwball comedy noirs of the COEN BROTHERS. From Gabriel Byrne’s smart talk in Miller’s Crossing to the yah-sure-yer-darn-tootin of Fargo, the words take center stage. Well, words and White Russians and wood chippers and hair jelly and hula hoops and extortion and blackmail and kidnapping. Always with the kidnapping.

The 85th anniversary issue of Weird Tales features our big list of “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years.” We’re breaking it down online, too: one honoree per day, in no particular order, for 85 days!

An unexpected name to see on this list? Perhaps — but here’s the thing: While ALICE WALKER (1944- ) is renowned for her realistic fictin (The Color Purple, Meridian), an examination of her career’s trajectory shows that her earthly stories set the stage and built the audience for the author to deliver her later, weirder ones. The Temple of My Familiar, which uses myth and fable to weave together the world’s dark realities; the children’s fantasia Finding the Green Stone — these works fired the imaginations of readers who’d never heard the phrase “speculative literature,” but subsequently went on to discover more of it.