Lightspeed: Edited by John Joseph Adams

Slide 1: in a fun, witchy font: Magic & Mystery, Amazon Original Stories; Slide 2-5: Fantasy Authors Turn to Crime, Curated by John Joseph Adams: Lists authors Travis Baldree, Sarah Beth Durst, Heather Fawcett, Scott Lynch, Tananarive Due, J.M. Miro, and Robert Jackson Bennet. Slide 6: Small renderings of all seven book covers; Slide 7: a magical cat face with paw prints to the left and right, with the words "The Game is Afoot / July 28".

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Editorial

Editorial: September 2022

by John Joseph Adams

Published in Sep. 2022 (Issue 148) | 240 words

Welcome to Lightspeed’s 148th issue!

Our first SF story of the month might be one of our most timely. From writer MKRNYILGLD comes “The CRISPR Cookbook: A guide to biohacking your own abortion in a post-Roe world,” and the title does a great job describing it. Be sure not to miss it. Our flash SF this month, “Civilian Assumptions,” comes from Dominique Dickey, while our second piece of full-length SF is a wildly delightful story of bounty hunters, space travel, and strawberry lip gloss. Yes: lip gloss. Please enjoy R J Theodore’s “The Application of Strawberry Lip Gloss in a Low-Gravity Environment.” Our SF reprint this month is “Eminence,” by Karl Schroeder.

Jenny Rae Rappaport returns with “The Inheritance of Dust and Leather,” a flash fantasy story that’s a tale as old as time (or at least libraries). Kristina Ten’s story of seals and bad marriages, “The Queen of the Earless Seals of Lake Baikal,” will touch your heart, as will Martin Cahill’s magical “Her Five Farewells.” Our fantasy reprint is “The Sister City,” by Cody Goodfellow.

Our review teams have been busy reading great new books, and our author spotlight interviewer has put together fascinating questions for our writers. If you’re one of our ebook readers, you’ll enjoy an excerpt from Desert Creatures, a new novel by Kay Chronister.

It’s another terrific month, so thanks for reading!

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John Joseph Adams

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John Joseph Adams is the editor and publisher of the Hugo Award-winning Lightspeed and publisher of its sibling magazine, Nightmare. He’s also the editor of more than fifty anthologies, including the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy series, Wastelands, A People’s Future of the United States, and the New York Times bestselling Out There Screaming (with Jordan Peele). John is a winner of the Hugo, Stoker, Locus, and British Fantasy awards, and is a ten-time World Fantasy Award finalist. In addition to his short fiction work, he’s the co-creator of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, and for five years he ran a novel imprint for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Lately, he’s also been working as an editor and game designer on TTRPG projects for Kobold Press, Paizo, and Monte Cook Games. Learn more at johnjosephadams.com.