It’s pretty much run rampant around the net for the past day or two that Realms of Fantasy is abruptly and unexpectedly closing. Yet another victim of our tanking economy. ROF published some great stuff, from high fantasy to magic realism, with a lovely design and gorgeous illustrations. It will be missed!
On a personal note, I’d sold a story, “Tio Gilberto and the Twenty-Seven Ghosts,” to ROF several months ago. For a little while I thought it might still make it into the final issue (which comes out within a week or so), but now I’ve confirmed that I wasn’t among those lucky few. I’m waiting to hear about final details, but it seems likely that Gilberto will be searching for a new home some time soon. I was pretty bummed about this earlier today – I’d been looking forward to seeing the story in Realms, and now that feeling of expectation seems to have abruptly turned into disappointment. And with this being just the latest in a string of bad news from the publishing world, it feels like a rough time to be a relative newcomer. And as a reader I’ll miss having that good stuff arrive regularly in my mailbox.
All the best wishes to Shawna, Laura, Doug, and the rest of the ROF team for all the hard work they put into making a great magazine.
Bread & Magic 