I am thrilled to report that the story “Tenderness,” is now available to read in Issue #26 of On The Premises, “Straightforward”. According to the introduction to the issue: “All stories had to be told in strict chronological order, with no flashbacks (scenes that take place before previous scenes) and no flashforwards (glimpses of a future which then return the story to its present). We received 216 contest entries and chose six stories for prizes. Two of our authors have been published in OTP before. For one of the others, this issue represents a first fiction sale.”
Tenderness is a story about a couple of friends who are struggling to care for each other despite propensities towards self-destruction. The story is a good one, I think, and On the Premises is a publication that I am extremely proud to contribute to. Please have a look.
On the Premises’ editorial team:
Tarl Kudrick: The founder, co-publisher and chief editor of On The Premises. You can look him up on LinkedIn if you like. In his day job, he provides strategic human capital consulting to public and private sector clients for a big consulting firm. He was successfully self-employed as a consultant for two and a half years before deciding it’s better to join forces with other smart, capable people than to do everything by himself.
Tarl has sold fiction to a variety of paying markets, including ChiZine back when it paid professional rates for fiction. About 2/3 of the stories he’s sold aren’t “in print” anymore. Here are three that are: Hot Fudge and Whipped Cream, A Pocketful of Silence, The Ogre King and the Piemaker. Tarl’s not sure what to do with his old published fiction. An ebook? Would anyone be interested? Write him at Editors@OnThePremises.com if you think it would be worth doing.
Quite some time ago he designed an adventure add-on to a computer role playing game called Blades of Exile. His adventure, Tatterdemalion, won first prize. Google it!
Bethany Granger: Bethany is our magazine’s other co-publisher. She contributes heavily to overall story selection, story editing, and also helps critique stories. She comes up with quite a few contest premises, too. In her day job, she is a proposal manager for what is currently the world’s largest architectural and engineering consulting firm. She loves reading fiction but has never seriously attempted to write any.
Frank Dutkiewicz: Frank has been a two time finalist in the Writers of the Future contest, has appeared twice in Daily Science Fiction, and has a bunch of other works of speculative fiction published in a dozen other places. He reviews currently for Diabolical Plots, and serves as an assistant editor for the annual humor anthology Unidentified Funny Objects. He has appeared three times in On The Premises and was a constant submitter to the contest. Making him a full time judge was the only way the editors could get him to stop. [From the editors—but mostly, we find his critical takes on our top ten stories to be highly valuable. Seriously, we can see why other magazines also use his talents.]
In Addition to the Regular Crew… We enlist the help of amateur short story enthusiasts to help us select winning stories. We’ve had anywhere from four to nine prize judges for any particular contest, and we usually have either five or six. Why do we ask for such help? Because we want to publish fiction that can be enjoyed by a wide range of audiences. This magazine was never intended to be Stories Tarl Likes Even If Nobody Else Does. Any story that can get through our fairly diverse crowd of fiction lovers is likely to be enjoyed by most of our readers, and we think that’s the best a fiction magazine can hope for.
benleib 