Her birth was a big bang

Vanessa Jae is a writer I've admired for some time.

Her prose is spectaular, and her eye for a story is completely unmatched. With 'The Smell of Afterbirth' she's created something miraculous, marvelous, and untamed, a perfect piece of flash fiction encompassing life, death, and more besides. In a mere 800 words she's written more than most writers manage in 60,000, and I could not be more delighted to give this story a home, here, in the Cosmic Background.

Housekeeping -- Kickstarter -- Cons!

If you're one of our Kickstarter backers, I'm delighted to have sent out more rewards this week. Anyone who backed at the 'Adopt a Creature from  Background' level, I hope you're enjoying your new friend. Do not take their existence lightly -- they came from the Background, and from there they might return. They might even bring you with them. Thank you, Chelsea Sutton, my multi-talented co-editor for her hard work on setting those creatures free. 

We're gearing up for Con season, and some representation of our team will be at the Nebulas next month, along with Readercon in July, and World Fantasy in the fall. At the Nebulas we'll once again be accepting paper submissions, a practice that saw this wonderful story by A.T. Sayre published earlier this year. I'll be on a panel at the Nebs the evolving short story market, so if you've ever dreamed of selling us a story, that'd probably be a fine place to pick up some hints.

Happy Spring, to all who celebrate.
Sam