Year Two launch date: July 8!

Well the title kind of gives the next sentence away, doesn’t it? But, keeping in mind that the gods laugh when you make plans, we have a launch date for Year Two: July 8!

*throws flaming confetti*

We are so excited. We have 36 great stories to share with you over the next year, along with Chuck’s serial. I have the first couple episodes of that. It’s good. REALLY good.

The new website is shaping up really nicely. I can’t say much more about it than that, but I think we are building something really cool.

The majority of the non-magazine rewards have been shipped, with the exception of individual postcards and the pony. Oh god. The pony.

We’re working on getting the postcards out this week. The pony? *shudders*

Also, I wanted to signal boost a few things:

If you need to scratch a short story itch right now while you wait for Fireside, here are two ebook collections by friends that I have been reading and enjoying:

3024AD by DES Richard
Shiva’s Mother by Andrea Phillips

If you want to read some Chuck Wendig right now, I just finished The Blue Blazes last night. Gangster urban fantasy in New York. I love love loved it. (Get it at Amazon | B&N | Indiebound.)

And, finally, Year Two writer Karina Cooper is running an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign for The Fantastical Mr. Flip’s Carnival of Wonders & Curiosities, a steampunk fair in Washington state. Already sounds cool, right? It’s a local thing, but it raises money for a scholarship fund in memory of Caleb “Flip” Kors, a 10-year-old steampunk circus performer who died in an accident last year. The scholarship goes to “providing underprivileged children with ambitions of performing the help to achieve that dream.” Supporting young artists? Yes please!