From the Cloud

Stephen Higgins

Having been drawn back into an active editorial role has also drawn me back into the reading of science fiction. I've missed it. Well, I missed reading new science fiction. I found that I have been re-reading old favourites and appreciating them just as much as I did the first time around. But there is something exciting about reading a story that only a handful of people have seen. If you have ever read for a magazine you will know about the joy of finding a genuinely good story among what has come to be known as the ‘slush pile’. You temper your joy by acknowledging that perhaps the story only seems good in comparison to all the others you've just waded through. But the story sinks in. Any decent reader knows a good story almost from the first few words. It resonates. It feels good. It flows. Of course there are exceptions to the rule. I have read many stories that drew me in, but finished them feeling disappointed—the author had shot all of their arrows early on, as it were.

Our readers are fantastic at giving advice and offering opinions on the stories we receive. This is something that we have prided ourselves on for many years. Many authors have submitted a series of stories to us and we have seen them get better and better as they incorporate the advice that a reader has offered until of course they sell a story. We are often asked for some guidelines on the type of stories we like. Authors, especially inexperienced authors, often think there is some well kept secret among publishers regarding the ingredients of a successful story. Quite the opposite is true. We want our contributors to know precisely what it is we like in a story. We like ‘good’ stories. Trite, I know, but accurate.

Read the stories in this issue. Read the stories in our previous issues (both print and digital) and you will see what we like. The key to the success of Aurealis has always been that we love the genres we publish. We read this stuff for pleasure, just as our subscribers do, and if you are reading this, just as you do.