Mail troubles.

Due to ongoing issues receiving e-mail directed @bullspec.com addresses (including missed submissions without any failure message to the recipient!), I've changed to a new mail host. There will likely be some transition period while different DNS servers update, and I apologize to folks who have been impacted by this. Hopefully it will be sorted out for the better as soon as possible.

There will be snacks!

As I mentioned over on BULL SPEC's Facebook page there will be a serious array of desserts at the launch party, thanks to the lovely and talented (and infinitely patient) Mrs. BULL SPEC. She saw a blog post on Will Gwaltny's Writing for Sanity which hoped "wishfully" that there would be food, and decided to make it so, to the tune of: brownies, lemon bars, rice krispy treats, cupcakes, sugar cookies, and, for the health-conscious among such a prodigious proliferation of pastries, a fruit salad.

So don't miss it! Along with, of course, readings, hands-on with the printing proof copies and the cover art, ...

Some photos!

Over a hastily constructed and eaten sandwich for lunch, some photos posted onto the Bull Spec Facebook photo page:

Going from proofing the first issue:

To receiving the first shipment:

Available at a store near you: and getting nearer!

By Monday, Durham (The Regulator Bookshop, Sci-Fi Genre Comics & Games) and Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill Comics, Internationalist Books) had their first stack of copies in stock. Tuesday saw Raleigh get some BULL SPEC #1 love at Quail Ridge Books & Music.

If that wasn't close enough for your tastes, today, two more stores joined the BULL SPEC fold! Foundation's Edge on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh and Storytellers Book Store in Wake Forest both took their first shipment as well.

All pre-orders have been mailed out (and I've already heard from two folks that they've received them already!) and all but one local delivery has been couriered.

See everybody in just under a week at the launch party at The Regulator!

Shipping. Blurbage. Submissions status. Or: "It's compressive, intelligent, and enlightening." And open!

Well, I've printed a holiday greeting cards list number of shipping labels... but no UPS truck in sight. So a quick update on two topics.

Blurbage! From Tim Deal of Shroud Publishing, on my interview of D. Harlan Wilson:

"It's compressive, intelligent, and enlightening."

 That's fun stuff right there. So, on to point number two:

Submissions status! I've been unofficially open since early February, and might as well just call it official. While the guidelines are a touch out of date (now that I'm printing physical magazines as well) they suffice for the most part, with perhaps a touch of extra guidance and hintery as to what I am looking for:

• Local (somewhere around Durham, NC, US) short fiction, both original and reprint.
• Poetry, both original and reprint.
• For non-local short fiction, it needs to be on the shorter side, 1000-3000 words or so. I've committed to a great non-local story per issue through 2010, so if you want to know before late 2010 if I can pick up your story of 4000+ words, I'm probably not a great place to submit for that right now. That said... I'll read pretty much anything you care to send.
• Reviews and interviews and articles. Query on this, I have some things in mind I'd like to include reviews of, so if you're open to suggestions, go ahead and ask. (editors at bullspec dot com)
• Art and photography, both original and reprinted, and both stand alone and to accompany stories. For the latter, query with some sample art and we can talk.
• Cover Art for Issue #2 is pretty high up on my list.
• Looking way, way ahead: some pitches for 2011's serialized graphic short story.

Whew. Still no UPS truck. Totally unfair. I have nearly every page for issue #2 accounted (or at least planned) for, but I'm going to let #1 have the spotlight a little longer. I do nearly desperately need a local fiction piece for issue #2, so if you're local, say hello!

BULL SPEC #1 Launch Party: Tuesday 23 March at 7 PM at The Regulator Bookshop

You are (well, everybody is!) cordially/enthusiastically invited to the BULL SPEC #1 launch party on Tuesday the 23rd of March at 7 PM! The host will be Durham's The Regulator Bookshop on 9th Street. (720 Ninth Street to be exact.) So come in, come downstairs, meet and greet some of the authors and other folks involved with not just the first issue but the rest of Bull Spec -- translators, narrators, editors, helpers, etc.

No cost to attend (of course! that would be weird...) though, also of course, there will be copies of BULL SPEC #1 on hand. I'm hoping to have at least one of the local authors read from their story, along with a few other surprises. (We're working on a giveaway item or two, nothing finalized yet so no promises.)

So: please! Please come and say hello, talk about writing, talk about editing and publishing, talk about reading, and help celebrate the end result of a few months of pretty darned hard work.

And if you are on Facebook, there's an event page there, too.

The presses are rolling!

Well, it has been quite a learning process. But, finally, the proof corrections are in, re-proofed, agonized over, and, *gulp*, paid for. But the presses are finally rolling on BULL SPEC #1!

Final content for issue #1 (72 pages, 16 in full color):

SHORT FICTION:

• C. S. Fuqua: "Rise Up" (with cover illustration by Mike Gallagher)
• Peter Wood: "Almost a Good Day to Go Outside"
• Natania Barron: "Doctor Adderson's Lens" (with photo by Tennille Heinonen)

NOVEL EXCERPT:

• Michael Jasper: "A Gathering of Doorways"

GRAPHIC SHORT FICTION:

• Michael Gallagher: "Closed System" (part 1 of 4)

POETRY:

• Kaolin Fire: "Inspired by Windmills"
• Ralan Conley: "Ratang"

ESSAY:

• Josh Whiton: "There Are No Orcs" (translated into Spanish by Itzel Leaf and into French by Andrew Matte)

ART:

• Jamie Keys: "Environments Exercise Part 1"
• Christopher Woods: "The Clairvoyants' Hotel"

INTERVIEWS:

• D. Harlan Wilson
• Lee Hammock
• Sci-Fi Genre

REVIEWS:

• Technologized Desire: Selfhood & the Body in Postcapitalist Science Fiction (by D. Harlan Wilson)
• Peckinpah: An Ultraviolent Romance (by D. Harlan Wilson) (reviewed by J. David Osborne)
• The Windup Girl (by Paolo Bacigalupi) (reviewed by Blue Tyson)
• Panverse One (edited by Dario Ciriello) (reviewed by Charles Tan)

Real, physical copies in real stores and in the mail late this week!

[Update: After the break, the final cover as well as page 2 of Bull Spec #1 which is the "contents" page...]