Apex Magazine Issue 117: Apex Magazine, #117

By Jason Sizemore

Apex Magazine is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction.

EDITORIAL
Words from the Editor-in-Chief — Jason Sizemore

FICTION
The Crafter at the Web's Heart — Izzy Wasserstein
Cold Iron Comfort — Hayley Stone
Necessary and Sufficient Conditions — Wole Talabi
Hole in the World (Novel Excerpt) — Brian Keene

NONFICTION
Interview with Author Izzy Wasserstein — Andrea Johnson
Interview with Cover Artist Julia Griffin — Russell Dickerson
The Anatomy of a Transfacial Child — Woody Dismukes

• Language: English
• Publisher: Apex Publications
• Release date: May 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201887131

Jason Sizemore

Jason Sizemore is a writer and editor who lives in Lexington, KY. He owns Apex Publications, an SF, fantasy, and horror small press, and has twice been nominated for the Hugo Award for his editing work on Apex Magazine. Stay current with his latest news and ramblings via his Twitter feed handle @apexjason.

Book preview

Apex Magazine

Apex Magazine

Issue 117, February 2019

Izzy Wasserstein Hayley Stone Brian Keene Wole Talabi Woody Dismukes

Edited by

Jason Sizemore

Apex Publications

Contents

Words from the Editor-in-Chief by Jason Sizemore

The Crafter at the Web’s Heart by Izzy Wasserstein

Interview with Author Izzy Wasserstein by Andrea Johnson

Sponsor: Wrath of the Dragons

Cold Iron Comfort by Hayley Stone

The Anatomy of a Transracial Child by Woody Dismukes

Hole in the World (Excerpt) by Brian Keene

Necessary and Sufficient Conditions by Wole Talabi

Interview with Cover Artist Julia Griffin by Russell Dickerson

Apex Magazine Issue 118 Preview

Contributor Bios

Website and Newsletter Info

Subscription Info

Jason Sizemore

Words from the Editor-in-Chief by Jason Sizemore

The past couple of months have been challenging for me health wise.

One morning in late November, I started my daily ritual of coffee intake. When a sizable amount dribbled from the side of my mouth, I thought that’s not good. The entire left side of my face was immobile. I called my doctor who instructed me to seek care immediately because I might be having a stroke. The emergency room doctor initially treated me as a stroke victim. But after a battery of tests, he concluded that I had an onset of Bell’s Palsy—a rare disorder of temporary facial paralysis.

What a relief it was to hear that only half my face would be paralyzed for awhile when the alternative was a potentially life-threatening ailment!

Bell’s Palsy can be painful. It makes eating and drinking difficult. You can’t blink your eye and have to tape it shut every night. It also affects your speech, making P and B sounds especially tough to say (an aside: What cruel person named the disorder Bell’s Palsy?). Cosmetically, it gives you a droopy face and smiling is impossible. It makes your parents freak out and think you’re dying … or maybe that’s just mine, I don’t know.

One of the diagnostics for stroke the doctor ran on me at the emergency room was a CT scan. He said, Good news, I’m confident you are not having a stroke. But … some bad news, your scan shows a sizable lesion on the front of your mandible.

A week later, I’m sitting in an oral surgeon’s office after a painful biopsy cut. The doctor says I have an odontogenic keratocyst, a rare benign, but aggressive developmental cyst. Surgery would be required. A resection of a 5" part of my jaw would be required.

What a relief it was to hear that half my mouth would be cut open and in pain for a couple of months when the alternative was a potentially life-threatening ailment! Then the reality hit me that the surgeon will be cutting half my jaw out and replacing it with a leg bone. The horror!

With all this going on, I personally needed a bright spot. I decided this month will be filled with inspirational stories about protagonists overcoming challenges, taking the fight to the antagonists, being strong in difficult situations. It’s also the middle of winter for the top half of the world, so a bit of fantastical escapism is in order.

In Cold Iron Comfort by Hayley Stone, a young woman falls in love with one of the magical Fair Folk. Her former paramour turns into the stalker from hell. But Stone’s protagonist isn’t one to allow herself to be bullied back into a relationship.

We welcome Izzy Wasserstein to our pages with The Crafter at the Web’s Heart. In this dark fantasy tale, a bibliomancer hires Danae to make a special delivery that places her in a dangerous situation.

Our reprint is courtesy of Wole Talabi. In Necessary and Sufficient, we dive back into science fiction with a favorite emphasis of mine: the perils of medical technology. Well, the story is much more than that, but that’s one of many interesting themes in Talabi’s tale.

For the Brian Keene fans out there, we have a treat for you. Apex Books releases his latest, HOLE IN THE WORLD, this month, and exclusive to Apex Magazine is our 2,500 excerpt from the novel!

In The Anatomy of a Transracial Child, Woody Dismukes shares his relationship with genre fiction. Born in Brazil and adopted by American parents at a young age, he has a unique perspective that I think our readers will appreciate.

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Enjoy the issue. See you in March!

Jason

Izzy Wasserstein

The Crafter at the Web’s Heart by Izzy Wasserstein

6,100 words

When I was little, I’d lay in Ma’s arms and listen to her stories. Beneath us, the web swayed so gently, you could almost forget it was there. Now Ma’s tongue is a tangle of vines, and I’m the one telling the stories, but the web still vibrates, still speaks, if you know how to listen.

So, listen: when I arrived at Pliny’s shop, there was an orb spider spinning a gorgeous web that caught the morning light, and the spider proud as anything, black and silver and fat on her prey. A good omen, I thought. It was almost enough to make me forget, for a moment, that I hadn’t eaten in a day, didn’t have two coins to rub together, and that Ma needed spraying for aphids. I stepped inside, feeling good.

Pliny smiled when he saw me, looking rather ridiculous under his conical hat. No matter. He paid me fair, sometimes gave me scraps of bread when he didn’t have work for me, and asked about Ma once in a while. Under his hat, what had been his hair spilled out, its thin pages covered in fine, cramped handwriting. Last time I’d seen him, most of his hair had still been hair. It seemed he’d been practicing a lot of Bibliomancy of late.

Danae, Pliny called happily. Come in. I’ve got work.

I’m your girl, I said and leaned over his counter. Whatcha got? The shop smelled of dust, of well-cared-for leather, and spiced tea. It was cramped, floor to ceiling, with books of all shapes and sizes. At least a few were whispering at any given time, and a few would, if you let them, bore you until you were ready for the Drop.

Pliny grinned and set on the counter a package wrapped in butcher’s paper and bound with twine. Obviously, a tome. Package delivery, he said. But a bit farther than usual. Thirty-fourth strand, Northeast. All the fingers on his left hand and most on his right were leather, but they still moved tenderly over the paper.

I whistled. There aren’t many out that far who can even read, much less do any bibliomancy. I didn’t say, I should rutting know.

True enough, but if the pay’s right, eh? He sat a small stack of coins on the counter. Double my usual rate. More than enough to make up for the fact it would take me