Issue #2 of Sci Phi Journal is now available for preorder on Amazon.
Get yours here.
The issue features John C. Wright and other mighty fine writers. Your Obedient Servant had the honour to contribute an article, ‘The Making of the Fellowship: Concepts of Good in The Lord of the Rings’.
You will note that Yr. Obt. Svt.’s name appears first in the list of contributors on the cover. This is not because I am a Very Important Pundit, but for a much more valid and compelling reason: aesthetics. The contributors’ names are stacked to form a neat pyramid on the page, and mine, being shortest, gets to perch on top.
They called me mad at the Academy. Even the other madmen called me mad: they said I was doing it wrong. ‘Tom Simon is no name for a mad scientist,’ they said, and they pointed and laughed. Yet my name comes above that bounder Ben Zwycky, for my name is one letter shorter than his! After all those years of suffering at the end of alphabetical lists, he plotted to come first in this; but I have foiled him! Revenge! Muah-hah-hah!
*twirls moustache*
Curses! Foiled again! If only I had spelled my name Zwicky, I would have been victorious!
Seriously though, I am honoured to be in such illustrious company for my first paid commission, and for the cover to be based on my contribution is almost bizarre. Your essay is worth the entry price alone, I can only hope that my efforts will be as well received as yours.
Well, it’s my first paid commission too, and I salute you on snagging the cover. Alas, I haven’t got round to reading any of the fiction yet, or I am sure I would have more specific salutes to offer you. (I’m still in over my head with this serial, you see, and teaching myself to type whilst breathing through a straw.)
Jason has taken a chance on a lot of us, there are a number of first-time authors in the Journal, all of them doing a fine job so far. He has created a welcome release channel for a lot of pent-up high-quality creativity, we can only hope that it becomes financially successful enough to become self-sustainable and continue to grow (and also reward Jason handsomely for putting his own savings on the line towards this worthy venture). If it continues to take off, we may be seeing the beginning of a lot of writing careers.
I can empathise with feeling in over your head, writing my serial is the biggest creative challenge I’ve ever faced, especially when it’s going to appear alongside all this other high-quality work. I hope and pray that your health soon improves.