It’s no secret– I love the Intergalactic Medicine Show. I think that Scott Card‘s webzine is on the front lines of a revolution in the short-story artform– both in terms of artistry (stories that can seriously and sincerely compete with Joe American’s beer money) and distribution (non-vanity web publishing).  He and editor Edmund Schubert have created a delightful magazine that not only is consistently entertaining but is enormously diversified. Whereas Analog (for example) caters to the hard-sci fi fans, and Asimov’s and the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction cater to the sci-fi, literary fantasy crowds, and Strange Horizons to the literati of the genre class– IGMS hits them all. It also has an outrageous number of features– stories-on-audio, comics, and wonderful artwork for every story. Plus, more columns than a pillbox has pills.

In February, four previously published stories will be going online. This, I imagine, to call you good folks what haven’t tasted the beneficient concoction that Messrs. Card and Schubert have so painstakingly crafted. Words from those gentlemen in this regard:

When you have something great, you want everyone to know. So you tell people about it. You share it. You pass it along to friends everywhere. Well, that’s what we’re doing with InterGalactic Medicine Show. We want to make sure everyone has had a chance to check out what we’re doing, so we’re offering up a sampling of our stories – for free.

During the month of February we are going to make one story from each of our first four issues available at no charge. Two stories will be set free on February 1st, and two more on February 15th. Just visit www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com and explore the table of contents; the free stories will be clearly marked.

Issue one’s free story will be “Trill and The Beanstalk” by Edmund R. Schubert, issue two’s will be “Yazoo Queen” by Orson Scott Card (from his Alvin Maker series), issue three’s “Xoco’s Fire” by Oliver Dale, and issue four’s “Tabloid Reporter To The Stars” by Eric James Stone. Each story is fully illustrated by artists who were commissioned to create artwork to accompany that tale — as is every story published in IGMS.

“Tabloid Reporter To The Stars” will also be featured in the upcoming InterGalactic Medicine Show anthology from Tor, which will be out this August (we wanted you to get a sneak peek of the anthology, too). However, the other three stories aren’t available anywhere except the online version of IGMS.

It’s really quite simple. Great stories. Custom illustrations. Free. We’re pleased with and proud of the magazine we’re publishing; now we’re passing it along to our friends and telling them about it. We hope you’ll enjoy it and do the same.

And don’t forget– you can pre-order the IGMS Anthology from Amazon. The anthology will include my short-story, Eviction Notice. 🙂