Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Another lit mag my money will soon be going to, thank you very much, internets

The Emerging Writers Network clues in the unclued (namely, me) about an online lit mag that's about to go paper (and yes, I, too, thought things were supposed to happen in the other direction, these days), OpiumMagazine. In the publication's now four-ish years of online activity, they've published quite a few stories that seem to all be right there, clicks away, for free, and while I haven't read them yet, I do think I'll be digging through the stacks. (Admittedly probably in some part to see if there's any chance anything I write might be attractive to them--looks like they're looking for stories about "tripping over things"; I wonder, do they take sordid autobiography?) OpiumMagazine.print launches in a bit over three weeks, which gives me just enough time to steal enough lunch money from the other kids on the block for the cover price--a price that will result in the delivery of over one-quarter of a thousand pages of lit lit lit wackiness to my doorstep. Seriously! Seems there's going to be a release party in New York City, too, but they don't list a Cleveland-to-NYC subway, so I guess they'll have to get along without me.

The mag stuck out for me because Grant Bailie, whose novel Cloud 8 I recently read and liked, is a contributor to the print publication. Along with 52 other people, some of whose work I'll probably also take a fancy to. And in fact, if you've been thinking to yourself, "I'd sure like to check out that Grant Bailie novel, but isn't there some way I could get a little taste of the guy's work, first?" I'm here to tell you that you can, in fact, get that taste. He has a short-short story called "The Dead" posted at OpiumMagazine's web site. ("The Dead", incidentally, was a title I was just a few hours ago briefly considering for a story I'm working on right now, but I kind of figured maybe someone had already beat me to it. Drats.) Also, if you are into reviews, Grant Bailie offers a review of March 13th. Yeah, I know what he means about sequels. Yep. Sure do. (Sigh.)

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