Happy new years!

“The Reading Lessons” by Carole Lanham is up (right here), and I have to admit it’s one of my favorites in the issue. The prose is light and fun, and the story mixes some pitch-black moments with the child-like joy and naiveté of the main characters to create an atmosphere that’s well, just plain fun. And really creepy.

In other good news, our second issue, debuting on 2/1/06 or sometime around then, is finalized. It will consist of The Spriggan Mirror, a novel by Lawrence Watt-Evans (check out his site here), and the album One State, Two State by the Light Footwork (check out their site here). In case you didn’t realize it, I’m big fans of both. So you should be too.

The Spriggan Mirror is one of Mr. Watt-Evans’s Ethshar novels, the most famous of which is still probably The Misenchanted Sword (one of the earliest fantasy novels I remember devouring and enjoying). The Ethshar novels have turned out to not be as big sellers for Tor as other novels by Mr. Watt-Evans, so with The Spriggan Mirror he decided to do something different: He would write the draft online, releasing new material every week only if the readers really wanted it, and showed that desire by ponying up some cold hard $$. So he got to have his labor of love, and an advance all at the same time.

You can read a bit more about it here, at a page called “The Spriggan Experiment.” And come February, we’ll have it online at Son and Foe, whether you pay us or not.

The Light Footwork is a new, truly independent band with an amazing sound. The album will be bundled with the issue, and included in every purchased download. But you shouldn’t wait until then. Go to their website, and pick up a copy today. It’s seriously worth it. Seriously.

And if you want to support us, purchasing an issue at shop.sonandfoe.com is always the best, easiest way.