Les Bonnes Fees, September 2008

The September issue of Les Bonnes Fees is now online–so settle down with a cup of hot chocolate, something to eat, a box of tissues, and get reading!

In the meantime, have a look at our new autumn site template, here, and let us know what you think. The illustration is an Ivan Bilbin, from The Beautiful Vasilisa (and I’ll post more on her later).

Before I go, a little pretty for a rainy Sunday afternoon…

Poster for Salon des Cent, Eugene Samuel Grasset, 1894

So, what’s in store for September? A bit of everything.  Fiction by new writer Laura J. Sanger (Not One of Us, Chimaera Serials, Black Ink Horror, Leading Edge Magazine) and Kentucky author Patricia Correll (Reflection’s Edge, A Thousand Faces, The Written Word, Art Times and Magazine of the Dead), to name just a couple. Want to know more? Come see us Sunday! Or look for tomorrow’s teaser post…

Now, a little bit of business stuff.

With respect to guidelines and querying: if you haven’t heard from us, we still have your submission. I know our guidelines say a 30-40 day turnaround; we’re working on it. There’s simply so much wonderful work for us to wade through that it takes us time to give everything the attention it deserves. Anyway, the upshot of all this is ff you want to query, don’t hesitate. We know it’s difficult to sit on your hands, really, again, don’t hesitate to drop us a line. And if you don’t need to query–write to us anyway! We <3 feedback.

Status: we’re working on our Cinderella issue too right now (more on that in the coming days) and farther ahead. I’ll post themes (loose themes) when we’ve all managed to stop gossiping about our contributors and our fixations on chocolate (me: dark. joe: milk. sheryl: milk. rouha: dark.) long enough to reach a decision.

Have a happy Friday, People!

I’ve been–and still am–away. I wish I could say I’m off on a fairy tale fact finding mission, but I’m not. Well, not really. I am busy talking to people, searching out literature, and generally doing things for Les Bonnes Fees at the moment. But, because I’ve been travelling, my internet access has been patchy, so I haven’t been able to post much.

A general update–our water theme has been working out rather well, though I’m still looking for non-fiction and poetry. We work with google documents mostly, too, but there have been some issues with that lately so, if you haven’t heard from us, don’t panic. We are reading submissions, and we are sending out .rtf and .pdf notes and comments. Some of these emails will be coming from others on the Fees team due to my woeful lack of regular internet access, but I do see everything that comes in.

And the next issue? There’s no real theme as yet, but I’ve been seeing a lot of Hansel and Gretel works lately, so perhaps there’ll be something in that. Maybe something not quite as specific as that, but a theme to do with eating, or manipulation, or even mother and father figures…what do you think? Comment and let us know!

I’ll be posting a bit more about Rampion in the Belltower tomorrow (Australian time), as the lovely Merrie Haskell has written a bit about how she came to write the story. ‘Til then!

Artists–we haven’t forgotten you. If we’ve contacted you about using your work, we’ll be sending out a contract &c. soon. (Joe is our contract guru, so don’t be surprised if you’re hearing from him rather than me. Don’t worry–he improves on acquaintance.)

Second issue–we’re working on it! We’re sorting through works for the second issue right now (at least, we will be as soon as I’ve posted this). Again, we’re not much on themes, but we’ve been getting a lot with water as a focus, a character, and a setting, so perhaps we’ll work with that. i.e. if you have a water-styled piece, send it in! We’re also actively building our list of non-fiction contributors (including reviewers); if you’re interested, drop us a line with a sample article or two.

Third issue–we’re working on it, too. No emergent themes as yet, but I’ll post if/when something crops up.

So, wondering about the first issue? Stay tuned–I’ll be posting a little about some of our contributors in the next few days.

Update: our pay schedule is now up on the Guidelines page.

More to come soon!