Apex Magazine: Issue 45

By Lynne M. Thomas

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.

*2012 Hugo Award nominee for Best Semiprozine*

Issue 45 features the following content.

Table of Contents
Fiction
"The Face of Heaven So Fine" by Kat Howard
"Zebulon Vance Sings the Alphabets Songs of Love" by Merrie Haskell
"Mad Hamlet's Mother" by Patricia Wrede
"My Voice is in My Sword" by Kate Elliott

Nonfiction
"Editorial: Blood on Vellum" by Lynne M. Thomas
"Welcome to the Reformation, Bitches" by Sarah Monette
"Interview with Kate Elliott" by Maggie Slater

Cover art by Ransom & Mitchell.

Apex Magazine is edited by multi-Hugo Award-winning editor Lynne M. Thomas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Apex Book Company
• Release date: Feb 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301760756

Book preview

APEX MAGAZINE

ISSUE 45, February 2012

EDITED BY LYNNE M. THOMAS

Smashwords Edition

Copyrights and Acknowledgments

Blood on Vellum: Notes from the Editor–in–Chief Copyright © 2013 by Lynne M. Thomas

The Face of Heaven So Fine Copyright © 2013 by Kat Howard

Zebulon Vance Sings the Alphabet Songs of Love Copyright © 2013 by Merrie Haskell

Mad Hamlet’s Mother Copyright © 2013 by Patricia C. WredeMy Voice is in My Sword Copyright © 1994 by Kate Elliott (Originally appeared in Weird Tales from Shakespeare. Ed. Katharine Kerr and Martin H. Greenberg. NY: DAW Books, 1994)

Welcome to the Reformation, Bitches Copyright © 2013 by Sarah Monette

Interview with Kate Elliott Copyright © 2013 by Maggie Slater

Publisher—Jason Sizemore

Editor–in–Chief—Lynne M. Thomas

Senior Editor—Gill Ainsworth

Managing Editor—Damian Taylor

Slush Editors—Sigrid Ellis, Deanna Knippling, Kelly Lagor, Eileen Maksym, Michael Matheson, Maggie Slater, Fran Wilde, Jei D. Marcade

Graphic Designer—Justin Stewart

ISSN: 2157–1406

Apex Publications

PO Box 24323

Lexington, KY 40524

Please visit our website at http://www.apex–magazine.com.

Each new issue of Apex Magazine is released the first Tuesday of the month. Single issues are available for $2.99. Subscriptions are available for twelve months and cost $19.95.

About Our Cover Artists

Director-photographer Jason Mitchell and set designer-photo illustrator Stacey Ransom create highly-detailed and visually-lush photographic portraits & scenarios. Their work is narrative in nature and draws upon the darker undercurrent that exists within all aspects of society. They aim to create worlds that cannot exist, through a unique combination of cinematic lighting, theatrically designed sets and an illustrative approach that is inspired by the Italian and Dutch Master painters. You can see more of their excellent work at http://ransommitchell.com.

Table of Contents

Editorial

Blood on Vellum: Notes from the Editor–in–Chief

Lynne Thomas

Fiction

The Face of Heaven So Fine

Kat Howard

Zebulon Vance Sings the Alphabet Songs of Love

Merrie Haskell

Mad Hamlet’s Mother

Patricia C. Wrede

My Voice is in My Sword

Kate Elliott

Nonfiction

Welcome to the Reformation, Bitches

Sarah Monette

An Interview with Kate Elliott

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 45 of Apex Magazine.

This month, we draw our inspiration from well–known surreal tales of ghosts and folly, blood and love, showing our hopes and fears beyond the worlds we know so well.

All the world’s a stage, and this month’s writers are providing their own scripts.

Ophelia seeks the truth of work onstage, for Merrie Haskell’s robot tale of love. Kat Howard stakes the wherefores as, in loss, her Juliet finds a sage new way to be. Patricia Wrede shows a mother’s grief: her ghostly son in madness taken; she, bereft. The Scottish Play on worlds apart becomes more tragic in Kate Elliot’s tale retold. And Sarah Monette demonstrates that all we know of Hamlet may not hold with truth.

These ghosts and tales together form a theme both bold and true. My hope is that this silly verse gives Apex fans a subtle clue.

I hope that you enjoy this themed issue of Apex Magazine. I promise never to attempt to commit this sort of editorial silliness again. I want to especially thank Delia Sherman for her helpful advice, which made this editorial possible in all of its metric glory.

Lynne M. Thomas

Editor–in–Chief

The Face of Heaven So Fine

Kat Howard

There is an entire history in the stars. Light takes time to travel, to get from wherever the star is to wherever we can see it, here, on Earth. So when you think about it, when we see the stars, we are looking back in time. Everything those stars actually shone on has already happened. But just because a story already happened, that doesn’t mean it’s finished.

* * * *

Juliet was the bleeding heart of a story, made flesh and made gorgeous. She was all eyeliner and fishnets, the kind of girl who looked like she’d carve designs on her own skin, not because she was trying to hurt herself, but just for the beauty of it, you know?

It wasn’t ever herself that Juliet cut, though. It was her lovers. All of them. That was the deal. A fuck, and then a perfect star, cut out of their skin.

The scars were like a badge of honor. Proof you’d been with her. People would ask her to put them some place visible, those little stars she cut out of people, but Juliet chose. Juliet always chose.

I fell in love with Juliet the first time I met her, which doesn’t make me any different from anyone else. I know that. That’s just how it was with Juliet. If you fell in love with her, it was an instant, headlong crash.

I don’t think she fell in love back. It didn’t