The Deeper the Magic ...

The 'Nest did a poll recently about whether Adobe PDF magazines were the wave of the future for SF&F zines in terms of your reading habits.

Quite a few readers then wrote in saying 'PDF mags, what stinking science fiction and fantasy PDF magazines'?

Oh, poor uneducated fans. Do thee not surf in your spare time? Well, here's one for a start ... a free PDF-formated sword and sorcery mag that may just be good enough to have Reams of Fantasy quaking in their glossy old-world, print-model, pay-to-view boots.

The site in question is Deep Magic, and it has to be said (and I hope this it taken as a compliment), if the 'Nest were to do a downloadable fantasy magazine, there's not a lot we'd do differently from how Deep Magic is structured.

When we visited Deep Magic, their October '03 issue was available as a PDF to grab, and a cornucopia of goodies it proved too.

For starters, they're serializing a couple of novels, which in this instance encompassed the continuation of The Rise by Sarah Dobbs and the beginning of Procyx Book 3 by O.R. Savage.

Short fiction included: Into Pohjola by Scott Clements, A Winter Stew by M. Thomas, Autumn Equinox by Amy R. Butler, Sanctuary by Michael Jarrell, and Plucking Spectres by Brendon Taylor.

Articles included Drakhauouls, Dragons and Dracula by Sarah Ash, as well as an interview with said Ms Ash, a number of book reviews and a great piece designed to help aspiring authors sift through the legal tangles of contracts.

Even the lack of venues for SFF artists was addressed, with a mighty fine looking cover by illustrator Rob Katkowski.

Given the glossy print markets' headlong stampede away from breaking new writers and, these days, running any interior art at all, venues like Deep Magic are becoming increasingly important as a market for new authors and artists to cut their teeth and build both experience & publishing credits.

You can visit Deep Magic over at:

http://www.deep-magic.net/

Stephen Hunt