Apex Magazine: Issue 43
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About this ebook
Apex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month.
We are a 2012 Hugo Award nominee for Best Semiprozine!
Issue 43 features the following content:
Table of Contents
Fiction
"Blood from Stone" by Alethea Kontis
"Labyrinth" by Mari Ness
"Relic" by Jeffrey Ford
Nonfiction
"Blood on Vellum: Notes from the Editor-in-Chief" by Lynne M. Thomas
"You’re Not Supposed to Write That: Taboos in Speculative Fiction" by Vylar Kaftan
"An Interview with Alethea Kontis” by Maggie Slater
Cover art by Aunia Kahn
Edited by multi-Hugo Award-winning editor Lynne M. Thomas
Read more from Lynne M. Thomas
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Apex Magazine - Lynne M. Thomas
APEX MAGAZINE
ISSUE 43
EDITED BY LYNNE M. THOMAS
SMASHWORDS EDITION
Copyrights and Acknowledgements
Blood on Vellum: Notes from the Editor-in-Chief
Copyright © 2012 by Lynne M. Thomas
Blood from Stone
Copyright © 2012 by Alethea Kontis
Labyrinth
Copyright © 2012 by Mari Ness
Relic
Copyright © 2011 by Jeffrey Ford (Originally appeared in The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities: Exhibits, Oddities, Images, and Stories from Top Authors and Artists edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VanderMeer, Harper Voyage, 2011)
You’re Not Supposed to Write That: Taboos in Speculative Fiction
Copyright © 2012 by Vylar Kaftan
An Interview with Alethea Kontis
Copyright © 2012 by Maggie Slater
Publisher—Jason Sizemore
Editor-in-Chief—Lynne M. Thomas
Senior Editor—Gill Ainsworth
Managing Editor—Michael D. Thomas
Slush Editors—Sigrid Ellis, Deanna Knippling, Kelly Lagor, Eileen Maksym, Michael Matheson, Travis Knight, Olga Zelanova, Maggie Slater, Andy Arnold, Fran Wilde, Jei D. Marcade
Graphic Designer—Justin Stewart
ISSN: 2157-1406
Apex Publications
PO Box 24323
Lexington, KY 40524
About Our Cover Artist
Born on December 5th, 1977 in Michigan, Aunia Kahn is a self taught figurative artist who began creating art as a therapeutic response to a difficult upbringing. Kahn’s works combines many disciplines, wrapping them into a hybrid art form melding photography, painting and collage. She invariably designs, builds, and executes characters, non-existent places, dreams, illusions, fears and fables into creation, which meld elements of classical and contemporary art. Each work makes use of her own likeness in movie-like stills, dealing in varied taboo and often controversial subject matter to challenge the viewer, their understanding and preconceived notions; yet she connects through honest feeling and emotions. Aunia’s work has constantly evolved, earlier works dealt more with her past, while her more recent creations delve into present emotional conflicts and inspirations.
She is also the creator of the Silver Era Tarot deck, Inspirations for Survivors deck, Lowbrow Tarot Project, the forthcoming Tarot Under Oath, and Water Spirit Tarot, the author of Obvious Remote Chaos, Minding the Sea: Inviting the Muses Over for Tea, and a graphic/web designer. She currently resides in Illinois with her four German Shepherds and black cat in her secret closet.
Apex hopes you visit Aunia’s website at http://www.auniakahn.com/ to view more of her amazing work.
Table of Contents
Blood on Vellum: Notes from the Editor-in-Chief
Lynne M. Thomas
Blood from Stone
Alethea Kontis
Labyrinth
Mari Ness
Relic
Jeffrey Ford
You’re Not Supposed to Write That: Taboos in Speculative Fiction
Vylar Kaftan
An Interview with Alethea Kontis
Maggie Slater
Dark Faith: Invocations
Edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon
Featuring
Jeffrey Ford, Max Allan Collins, Mike Resnick, Jay Lake, Nisi Shawl, Laird Barron, Tom Piccirilli, Jennifer Pelland, and more!
Religion, science, magic, love, family—everyone believes in something, and that faith pulls us through the darkness and the light. The second coming of Dark Faith cries from the depths with 26 stories of sacrifice and redemption.
"…rises to the expectations set by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon’s first (Dark Faith) anthology, if not surpassing them."
—Dark Wolf Fantasy Reviews
ISBN: 978-1-937009-07-6
Available at ApexBookCompany.com or most major book vendors
Blood on Vellum: Notes from the Editor-in-Chief
Welcome to Issue 43 of Apex Magazine.
We have some wonderful fiction for you this month. Both Alethea Kontis’s Blood from Stone
and Mari Ness’s Labyrinth
are dark tales of sacrifice. Blood from Stone
takes an evil romantic relationship to extremes, while Labyrinth
twists motherly love into a danse macabre. Our classic revisited comes from Jeffrey Ford. Relic examines religion and faith from the point of view of an isolated celebrant with a dark past.
In nonfiction, Vylar Kaftan takes on the notion of taboo in science fiction and fantasy, and Maggie Slater interviews Alethea Kontis.
This month’s gorgeous cover art comes from Aunia Kahn.
Our 2012 subscriber drive was, once again, a success. I’d especially like to thank Lesley Conner, who coordinated the subscription drive and organized giving away the epic amounts of swag that we use to thank our subscribers. If you are a new or renewing subscriber, thank you. Your support pays our contributors! If this is your first issue, welcome! Everyone on Team Apex is glad that you’re here. (If you like what you see, be sure to tell a friend.)
Speaking of Team Apex, as we are in the last issue of the year, I’d like to take a moment to thank all of the people who make Apex Magazine possible. Our submissions editors, our copy editor, our managing editor, our publisher, and everyone else that you see on the masthead go above and beyond every single month to make Apex Magazine look good. I could not be more proud of the work that we do together. Thank you. It’s been an amazing year.
Lynne M. Thomas
Editor-in-Chief
Blood from Stone
Alethea Kontis
He had no idea that I loved him. He barely acknowledged that I existed, a maid twice over, little more than a shadow in empty hallways. Trapped in unhappy marriage and prisoner in his own castle, he did not conceive that anyone loving him was even possible. The baron was a man of war, not of love.
He was also an ass, but as Maman said, so many men are.
He’d borne arms with Jeanne d’Arc in Orléans, had witnessed firsthand the divine power she had wielded. Sorceress, they’d called her. Maman had shared a similar fate, for far less a magical offense.
The baron was so much more deserving of that power. If there existed a man with more confidence, more passion about things beyond the realms of heaven and earth, I never knew of him. Prelati was a pompous, hand-waving fool in comparison.
After testing the limits of his seemingly boundless wealth and ultimately finding it, the baron surrounded himself with books and candles and crucifixes in his barren estate, refusing to believe that divine voices could only be heard by the ears of unspoiled females. Yes, it was Prelati who suggested that he was imploring the wrong deity, but it was I who sent him the first child.
Perhaps those among the fallen might better relate to the sons of Adam.
Prelati’s silver-tongued accent echoed through the chimney from which I swept the ashes. The charlatan must have been standing directly in front