Enter the world of science fiction and you will soon discover it's not for the faint of heart. Far away from the land of romance reading and warm, fuzzy feelings, works of science fiction, especially dark science fiction, are filled with alien invasions, body snatchers, murder, mayhem, destruction, and demonic possession, just to name a few--and for a large majority of fiction lovers, male and female, dark sci-fi provides the perfect out-of-this-world escape.
Lexingtonian Jason Sizemore is an avid sci-fi reader and writer, and when he isn't developing computer software during his 9-to-5 gig, he's making his imprint on the local publishing scene with his sci-fi quarterly magazine, Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest.
"I found a demand for dark sci-fi," explained Sizemore, who will be celebrating his 10th issue this month since first publishing in 2005. "Even 'Spiderman III' took a turn into the dark...Truth be told, I had zero publishing experience going into the project. I knew it'd be a challenge based on my research.
"When most people think of science fiction magazines, names such as Analog, Asimov's, and Fantasy & Science Fiction magazines come to mind. While these publications do have the highest circulation of literary sci-fi magazines, they are struggling to reach the younger readers. It's these younger readers I'm targeting."
Sizemore explained that today's younger readers aren't big fans of traditional science fiction. "I believe that younger readers want their entertainment to be edgier, more visceral," explained Sizemore. "Apex prints fiction that attempts to cater to those readers. The more traditional markets stick to less risky material. Some of them even admit this in their guidelines (Analog states, for example, they prefer stories with happy endings).
Although Sizemore does write dark sci-fi stories, he said it's frowned upon to self-publish in this particular genre. "I write for a few other magazines...but I have an open submission policy. I get about 300 inquiries a month and probably publish 40 a year. I use a mixture of established writers and novices, renowned authors like Ben Bova, Kevin J. Anderson, Michael Laimo, and I try to get local writers as much as I can, too-Christoper Rowe, Mari Adkins, and Debbie Kuhn are a few of my local writers."
Apex Digest averages about 128 pages each issue, snagging local and national advertisers, plus has a current circulation of over 3,000. Sizemore and his volunteer staff of four work 15-25 hours each week, sifting through submissions and editing the final pieces to be printed. In addition to Apex Digest Sizemore also publishes sci-fi books, and is currently working on his second book, after a very rewarding first release, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker award for superior achievement editing an anthology.
"The anthology was AEGRI SOMNIA, a collection of short horror fiction based on the theme of 'a sick man's dreams' (the Latin to English translation of aegri somnia)," explained Sizemore. "This was the first book of fiction I edited and was astounded by the nomination. The really cool part of AEGRI SOMNIA and its nomination was that two of the contributing writers are from Lexington-Christopher Rowe and Mari Adkins."
Sizemore said publishing has been more difficult than he first anticipated, but his experiences so far have been rewarding. "Do you know how cool it is to correspond with such writing rock stars as Kevin J. Anderson, Ben Bova, Mary Doria Russell, Brian Keene, Orson Scott Card, Cherie Priest (I could go on and on)? It's so cool. And knowing that I'm providing an outlet for talented writers to reach an audience is good for the soul."
"I've always loved reading and writing," he added. "This isn't a hobby, it's a small business. My goal is to bring the publication up to a professional pay rate and make it bi-monthly...Ideally, someday I would run this magazine and write full time."
For more information on Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest, visit www.apexdigest.com.