Now that my power is back on after the "Great Midwestern Hurricane of 2008," I can officially launch the great Interzone promotion of 2008.
For those who don't know, Interzone is a bi-monthly British science fiction magazine often counted as one of the most influential genre publications of the last 25 years. Among the writers who got their start in their pages are Stephen Baxter, Greg Egan, Kim Newman, Alastair Reynolds and Charles Stross (per the magazine's Wikipedia entry). With a stable of authors like that, the 1980s and early 90s were truly glory times for Interzone.
A few years ago I heard whispers that the magazine--now under a new editorial team run by publisher Andy Cox--was once again making the SF world sit up and take notice. Intrigued, I tracked down a sample issue. Impressed by what I saw, I subscribed. Not only is Interzone again at the top of its game, publishing top-notch fiction and nonfiction, they also have the best design of any genre magazine. Finally, they have also been kind enough to accept two of my stories, for which I can't even begin to thank them.
To celebrate the publication of my story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain" in Interzone, and to pay the magazine back for the support they've shown my writing, I'm giving away a one-year subscription to the magazine. Here's the deal: Any blogger in the United States is eligible to take part. Simply drop me an e-mail at lapthai (at sign) yahoo (dot) com with your blog's url and a few words to the effect that you want to take part in the contest. In order to showcase what Interzone has to offer, I'll e-mail you a PDF of my recently published Interzone story (thanks to Andy Cox for letting me do this; here are a few of the reviews my story has received). Don't worry. You don't have to review the story, although I won't protest if you do. I simply want to give people a taste of what Interzone publishes.
If you like the story, post information on your blog about both this contest and Interzone, including a link to Interzone's main page. If you don't like the story, I hope you'll still post info about Interzone on your blog. Either way, once you've done a blog entry about Interzone you're entered in the contest. My hope is that these blog posting about Interzone will raise the magazine's profile in the United States.
This promotion will run for three weeks. After that time I'll take all the names of the blogger participants and throw them into a random number generator. The person whose number comes up wins the free one-year, six-issue subscription.
Before anyone asks, I'm limiting this promotion to the United States because my understanding is that Interzone gets really good distribution outside these shores. If the promo works, I'll consider doing it again one day, only this time offering a free subscription to anywhere in the world.
PS: Anyone can enter this contest, but do realize that if you win you'll need a snail mail address to receive the subscription. This may go without saying, but I guess it can't hurt to state the obvious.