Because Business is Personal: Why I Like Niteblade.

 

Sure Nightblade Fantasy and Horror Magazine is full of quality dark fiction. Sure they published one of my stories recently. Sure I’m a nice guy. But I’ve a far better reason to contribute to the Niteblade Blog Train.

 

Niteblade is edited by a wonderful human being who demonstrates respect for her readers and her writers.

 

As my working persona has travelled through the twisted turns of its bizarre career path, I’ve rubbed shoulders with a lot of “business people”, church people, business owners, managers, entrepreneurs, solo-operators…you name it. People out to blaze a trail, make a fortune, make their mark, (some of them) change the world. The ones who stick in my mind are the ones who (and you can tell) genuinely care about their customers and their colleagues (or staff). These are the people you want to deal with, the people you want to help if they ever need it, the ones to whom you are grateful for them colouring the world in bright shades and adding value to your life (even if it’s only for a moment.) Niteblade’s esteemed founder and editor Rhonda is one such person. (Do I sound like I’m writing her a job reference?? Sorry about that, chief.)

 

When some scifi/horror/fantasy writer-editors are genuinely too busy to interact and others have the people skills of Sheldon Cooper on a bad day, it means the world to short fiction authors like moi to interact with someone who’s not only passionate about fiction, but treats you like a fellow human being. Rhonda even dropped the price of the March edition because she’d inconvenienced a few people with a glitch of some sort. I didn’t think it was necessary; Rhonda cared about her customers enough to think it was.

 

Somehow (and  I don’t think this is a coincidence), Rhonda continues to attract what I think is highly polished and innovative fiction which could easily be snapped up by other “markets” (ie., magazines/websites).

 

And so I hope fervently that Niteblade’s name and popularity continues to grow. So that writers like us can continue to ply our wares to readers of dark fiction. So that it can continue to provide an affordable vehicle for quality fiction. And so that a bright soul can continue to gift the world with her generosity and passion.

 

Anyone else think it’s ironic that I’m speaking about light and brightness in the context of dark fiction? 🙂

 

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Please take a look at John Clewarth’s blog (his is the carriage before mine in this blogtrain) and tomorrow don’t forget to change carriages to Amber Stults’ carriage (the one hitched after mine).

 

Also, go spend a few bucks at Niteblade. Issue #19 for example is a mere 99 cents! (What’s that? It’s the issue Pete Aldin’s story is in? Fancy that).