Dark and wonderful times a-coming. Normally this would be on the specific Occult Detective Quarterly pages, but today we’re going to share the full Table of Contents for Issue One and lots of other exciting stuff. Not only was the Kickstarter for ODQ a success, but you may have noticed that we met both of our Stretch Goals. We even went over those targets. It’s a good feeling, and we’re enormously grateful to everyone who pledged, and those who spread the word. This is the time to knuckle down and get the beast into shape – we have an issue to produce, and we’d better talk about that.

The contents of the first issue are pretty much settled, except for the simple question of whether or not we can fit them all in. That may sound odd, but we have page limits which are reflected in print and shipping costs, so any Table of Contents at this stage is subject to the possibility of something having to flow into Issue Two. Things look different when they’re actually put into the final layout and the correct format.

Firstly, a reminder that the ODQ ‘we’ involves no lurchers or other sundry greydogtales personnel. The team is currently:

EDITORS

Sam Gafford and John Linwood Grant

PRINT, PRODUCTION & PUBLISHING CHIEF

Travis Neisler

CONSULTING EDITOR

Dave Brzeski

Dave Brzeski from the UK, who has extensive experience in editing and reviewing (amongst other things), is a welcome addition to the team, with a particular role in assessing submissions. We also have a small number of readers who assist us, and who have been invaluable.

So here’s what you can expect from us, along with the allocation of artists to writers…

Issue One Contents

Cover illustration by Terry Pavlet; logo by Bob Freeman

DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU – Fiction by Adrian Cole

WHEN SOFT VOICES DIE – Fiction by Amanda DeWees; iIllustrated by Bob Freeman

MONOCHROME – Fiction (novelette) by Ted E Grau; illustrated by Dave Felton

GOT MY MOJO RISING – Fiction by Willie Meikle & David T Wilbanks; illustrated by M Wayne Miller

ORBIS TERTIUS – Fiction by Joshua M Reynolds; illustrated by Mutartis Boswell

THE BARON OF BOURBON STREET – Fiction by Aaron Vlek

THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLACK DOG – Fiction by Oscar Dowson

Plus these special features, exclusive to ODQ:

The Occult Legion Part 1 – Fiction by multiple authors (to be revealed)
Dr Spector, and An Interview with Don Glut – Articles by Charles R Rutledge
How to be a Victorian Ghost Hunter – Article by Tim Prasil
Reviews by Dave Brzeski & James Bojaciuk

All the above, nearly one hundred pages perfect bound for the print edition: that’s a fantastic line-up, and we couldn’t be more pleased with what we’re putting together. That so many talented people would want to play in the ODQ yard gives us confidence that, hey, this wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Submission News

Our delay with the long-list is due to the experimental nature of launching a new magazine (although we still apologise for not being quicker). It boils down to a number of questions which faced us during September and October, including:

How much interest would there be in the Kickstarter, and how much would it raise?
How much fiction could we fit in Issue One and still afford to ship, given postal rates?
How much artwork were we going to include?
How firm did we want to make the ToCs for Issues Two and Three? Did we want to leave a number of slots for new submissions?

Some of the above have been answered. So we can now scour long and short lists again to firm up longer term plans. By the start of the new year, everyone should be either given a final, sad ‘Sorry, not this time’, or placed on the list for the forthcoming issues.

For those who submitted after the August deadline, which occurred mostly because some secondary sites kindly spread the word but did not include the deadline, all stories are being held for the next round (see Where Next below).

It can’t escape you that we have some stellar art in Issue One. Let’s be honest, we wanted to make a splash. Other artists who contacted us expressing interest, or sharing portfolios, are still on the list for possible inclusion in later issues, and have not been forgotten.

To answer a separate question while we’re here, it is still unlikely that we will accept poetry. We would have to come across an exceptional – and particularly relevant – piece to break that rule.

Issue One in Your Hand

Kickstarter funds will be released some time in the next week or so, which is the usual procedure, and the artists will be hard at work throughout November. Negotiations with our preferred printer and distributor are almost complete. Given the need to edit and layout the accepted fiction and articles (as in the ToC above), and to give the artists time to work their magic, we have to be realistic and expect shipping in December, rather than late November. We’ll be doing our very best to make sure that we ship as soon as possible whilst delivering a high quality product.

After you’ve received Issue One, you should also receive any extra rewards involved. Some, such as signed print copies of books from authors, and titles from the lovely Alchemy Press, may ship separately.

Ebooks will be sent directly from the publishers who so generously supported us – April Moon, Dark Regions, Crystal Lake and 18thWall Productions.

You should also receive a voucher/code entitling you to choose a free ebook from those generous folk at 18thWall Productions, an offer we hadn’t expected when we started, so that’s very cool.

Where next?

We should be re-opening for another submissions round after Issue One has shipped (Update: Opening 1st to 28th February 2017). Other questions remain, more to do with the self-sustaining nature of this sort of enterprise, such as:

It would be nice to make ODQ available on Amazon issue by issue, and give it more exposure. Is this worth it, given the extra work involved and the cut Amazon take? We’re pondering.
Most of our subscribers are in North America, but we know there’s a lot of interest in the UK. Can we find a way to keep shipping costs down, or distribute directly from the UK?
How do we get the word out beyond the current audience and encourage general readers, such as those who like a good mystery, to give ODQ a go?
How do we grapple with our goal of exploring the boundaries of our core theme and standing out in the crowd? Experimental fiction, genre-breaking stories, subversion of the themes and tropes? It’s all open for debate.

What you can do

OK, we’re the ones who have the heavy handling ahead of us. But you can help. You can:

Shiver with excited anticipation;
Buy the journal when it comes out, if you didn’t take part in the Kickstarter;
Participate in the dedicated Facebook Group, discuss occult detectives, psychic investigators and their ilk, raise ideas and ask questions;
Spread the word to friends that terrific fiction and art are on their way, and
Review the journal on goodreads, blogs and other websites when you get it.

Between us, we are ODQ. Thank you.