Category Archives: Beyond the Mist

One more day left of the Sci Phi Journal Half Price Sale!

Posted on by
Reply

The half-price deal on ebook versions of the first four issues of Sci Phi Journal is into it’s last day, so take advantage of that while you still can.

In other news, I have rearranged the kindle version of Selected Verse: Faith and Family so that the Amazon ‘Look Inside’ feature is now much more informative. If you ‘look inside’ and select the ‘kindle book’ tab, it will show you the first five poems, plus part of the sixth. If you select the ‘print book’ tab, it tells you the complete list of contents, so you know which of the poems from this blog are to be found inside.

I hope that this will enable prospective readers to make a more informed decision on whether to buy a copy of the collection for themselves.

Sci Phi Journal Issue 6 on sale!

Posted on by
Reply
Sci Phi Journal Issue cover art

Look  whose name got put in a separate cage – rawr!

The Kindle ebook version of Sci Phi Journal Issue 6, featuring Beyond the Mist chapters 10 and 11, and the Beyond the Mist Naming Contest, is now on sale:

UPDATE: The paperback version is also now available from amazon:

or direct from createspace:

https://www.createspace.com/5581465/?tag=theologyweb-20

The first four issues of the rest of the journal are still on sale for another few days, so this is your last chance to get caught up with the action for less. Enjoy your read, feed your mind and good luck in the contest!

Sci Phi Journal Issue 6 Artwork Sneak Peek

Posted on by
Reply

Sci Phi Journal Issue 6, featuring Beyond the Mist chapters 10 and 11, (plus of course the Beyond the Mist Naming Contest), is about to enter the final proofreading stage. Here to whet your appetite is a look at some of the artwork in the issue by the irrepressible Cat Leonard. First of all the cover imagesciphi6teaser Then artwork for each of the issue’s stories. Let your imagination run wild!frank on-the-bottle-copystunted there-is-an-app-copy the-story-is-a-lie-copy TN-3960 whispers

Book View Café mentions the Naming Contest (as something they would never do)

Posted on by
Reply

Brenda W. Clough over at Book View Café makes mention of the Beyond the Mist naming contest (although she links to the announcement at SuperversiveSF rather than here), and has this to say about it:

I would never in a thousand years do this. A contest to name the protagonist? A character with whom I am going to be spending the next year of my mental life, whose every dream, digestive upset, sexual encounter and trauma from birth to grave I am going to invent out of whole cloth? I would never hand over such power to anyone; I shall reign like Alexander, and I shall reign alone.

You can’t pick the name for your hero off a list.

She is right, of course. I would never normally surrender control of such a pivotal character-molding parameter and guard my creations with absolute care. So what has happened to my sanity in this case? My response:

Before anyone asks, nobody else suggested to me that I do this, I have been planning it for more than six months and first suggested the idea to the editor of the journal three months ago. He gave the go-ahead, and here we are.

It is a risk, and I wouldn’t do it for any other venue, but I have faith in the intelligence of Sci Phi Journal‘s readership (a journal dedicated to philosophy and science fiction is going to attract intelligent readers). My faith seems to be justified- I had a placeholder name in mind, but the very first (and currently winning) entry suggested a name that I would happily use instead.

I expect most of the entries will come in after Issue 6 is out, and if someone can come up with something better, great.

I look forward to reading what else Sci Phi Journal’s fine readership can come up with. Don’t disappoint me!

Name the Main Character in Beyond the Mist!

Posted on by
5

SciPhi2

How many times have you been offered the chance to name a character in a published work? And how many times has that been for the main character of a work where a substantial portion has already been published?

As those of you who have been following Beyond the Mist know*, the main character has no memory of who he was, would like to recover his old name, but has the option of choosing a new one for himself. The instalment in Issue 6 has been tweaked so that it will end just as he is about to choose a new name, and I am inviting Sci Phi Journal’s readers to choose what that will be.

This will be done in the form of a contest; the winning entry will determine his legal name in the story world from that point forward, (and will remain so even if he later discovers what his old name was). This name will reflect what he has discovered about himself so far, as well as what kind of man he intends to become in the future.

The format of the contest is as follows:

  1. Choose a first name and family name, and write a short justification for choosing those names.
  1. Email your entry to editor@sciphijournal.com with ‘Beyond the Mist Contest’ in the subject line (important, if you don’t do that, your entry will not get to me.)
  1. The closing date for entries is 11.59pm GMT on the 14th of July (approximately two weeks after Issue 6 is published, so that people can adjust their suggestions according to what they learn about the main character in chapters 10 and 11). This will give me enough time to decide on the winner and incorporate it into the next instalment.
  1. The winner (chosen by me) will be announced publicly in Issue 7, will receive a free printed copy of that issue as well as signed copies of Nobility Among Us and Selected Verse: Faith and Family. The printed copy of the journal may take a number of weeks to arrive, depending on the winner’s location in the world.

The contest is now open, good luck and spread the word as widely as you can, please!

*and if you haven’t been following the story, now is your chance to catch up, since chapter 1 can be read for free here, and the ebook versions of issues 1-4 of Sci Phi Journal are now half price for the whole of this month.

Sci Phi Journal on Sale!

Posted on by
Reply

To celebrate the editor’s 40th birthday, he has decided to reduce the price of the first four issues of Sci Phi Journal to only $1.99 at amazon and Castalia House for the next month.

So if you haven’t grabbed copies of this fine periodical yet (and got yourself thoroughly hooked on Beyond the Mist), now’s your chance to begin a series of literary and philosophical journeys you won’t regret

http://superversivesf.com/2015/05/30/sci-phi-journal-on-sale-now/

A special Beyond the Mist event will be announced soon…

More Praise for Beyond the Mist!

Posted on by
Reply

More people have positive things to say about Beyond the Mist,

Patrick S. Baker’s 5-star review of Sci Phi Journal Issue 5 at amazon:

Could not be better! The stories are very good, of course. The excellent Beyond the Mist by Ben Zwycky continues. HMS Mangled Treasure by L. Jagi Lamplighter is also an excellent combo of tough broad straight from a film noir, whimsy and Peter Pan: “a whole can of whup on your sorry ass” might be my new signature block.

And Kevin Stuart Lee over at John C. Wright’s blog had this to say:

“Beyond the Mist” was one of the few stories out of Issue 2 I thoroughly enjoyed, and I’ve been enjoying it more as it goes along. At first blush I thought it was a cut-and-dry hell/purgatory/heaven allegory, but as the narrative goes deeper and the adventure keeps unfolding, I find myself having no actual clue what’s going on, and I love it! It’s guaranteed fun and mystery, and I look forward to each new installment.

It’s also the first serial I’ve ever had the pleasure to read in serial form, so thank you for making my first experience a most pleasant one.

Go to the Beyond the Mist page, follow the links and grab yourself a copy (or 4) of Sci Phi Journal to see for yourself.