Quick Sip Reviews Fanzine Hugo Voter Packet

Hello. My name is Charles Payseur and I'm the editor of Quick Sip Reviews. My content is fairly niche, aimed directly at covering as much short fiction and poetry as I can on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis. The vast majority of what I do is reviews, which I know aren't exactly the most exciting content when it comes to genre coverage. I've compiled a comprehensive list of what I covered in 2019, which can be found here. The first piece in this packet is also something of an overview of what the site did in terms of numbers in 2019. After that, I've included what is the bread and butter of Quick Sip Reviews, with six different review posts covering a range of the projects that I follow and review. After that is a taste of some of the additional content that I try to include. Thank you for your consideration!

Intro

2019 Year-in-Review

Reviews
Quick Sips - Fiyah Literary Magazine #9

Quick Sips - GigaNotoSaurus December 2019

Quick Sips - Serial Box: The Vela [s01.09 & s01.10]

Quick Sips - Uncanny #28 [May stuff]

Regular Sip - The West and Everything Above (Neon Hemlock Press)

Quick Sips - Tor dot com July 2019

Other Content:

Liver Beware! You’re in for a Drunk Review of Goosebumps #15: YOU CAN’T SCARE ME!

The Sippys Are Coming...

4000 Reviews: An Introspective

Quick Conversations: Post-Apocalyptic SFF (with L.D. Lewis, Marianne Kirby, and Nibedita Sen)

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2019 Comprehensive Post List

Quick Sip Reviews 2019 Comprehensive Post List

Anathema: #6; #7; #8; #9

Apex: #116; #117; #118; #119; #120

Augur: #2.2 [part 1]; #2.2 [part 2]

Beneath Ceaseless Skies: #268; #269; #270; #271; #272; #273; #274; #275; #276; #277; #278; #279; #280; #281; #282; #283; #284; #285; #286; #287 [part 1]; #287 [part 2]; #288; #289; #290; #291; #292; #293

Clarkesworld: #148; #149; #150; #151; #152; #153; #154; #155; #156; #157; #158; #159

The Dark: #44; #45; #46; #47; #48; #49; #50; #51; #52; #53; #54; #55

Diabolical Plots: #47; #48; #49; #50; #51; #52; #53; #54; #55; #56; #57; #58

Escape Pod: #683; #687 & #689; #694; #696-697; #702 & #704; #708; #710-711

Fireside Magazine: #63; #64; #65; #66; #67; #68; #69; #70; #71; #72; #73

Fiyah Literary Magazine: #9; #10; #11; #12

Flash Fiction Online: 01/19; 02/19; 03/19; 04/19; 05/19; 06/19; 07/19; 08/19; 09/19; 10/19; 11/19; 12/19

GigaNotoSaurus: 01/19; 04/19; 09/19; 10/19; 11/19; 12/19

Glittership: Summer 2018; Autumn 2018

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: #39; #40; #40 [addendum]; #41; #42

Lackington's: #19; #20 [part 1]; #20 [part 2]

Lightspeed: #104; #105; #106; #107; #108; #109; #110; #111; #112; #113; #114; #115

Mithila Review: #11 [part 1]; #11 [part 2]; #12 [part 1]

Nightmare: #76; #77; #78; #79; #80; #81; #82; #83; #84; #85; #86; #87

Omenana: #13; #14 [part 1]; #14 [part 2]

PodCastle: #577; #585; #589; #591; #600 & #602

Serial Box: Alternis: 01.01 & 01.02; 01.03 & 01.04; 01.05 & 01.06; 01.07 & 01.08; 01.09 & 01.10

Serial: Box: Ninth Step Station: 01.03 & 01.04; 01.05 & 01.06; 01.07 & 01.08; 01.09 & 01.10

Serial Box: The Vela: 01.01 & 01.02; 01.03 & 01.04; 01.05 & 01.06; 01.07 & 01.08; 01.09 & 01.10

Strange Horizons: 12/17/2018 & 12/31/2018; 01/07/2019 & 01/14/2019; 01/21/2019 & 01/28/2019; 02/04/2019 & 02/11/2019; 02/18/2019 & 02/25/2019; 03/04/2019 & 03/11/2019; 03/18/2019 & Samovar 03/25/2019; 04/01/2019 & 04/08/2019; 04/15/2019 & 04/22/2019; 04/29/2019; 05/06/2019 & 05/13/2019; 05/20/2019 & 05/27/2019; 06/03/2019 & 06/10/2019; 06/17/2019 & Samovar 06/24/2019; 07/01/2019 & 07/08/2019; 07/15/2019 & 07/22/2019; Fund Drive 2019; 07/29/2019; 08/05/2019 & 08/12/2019; 08/19/2019 & 08/26/2019; 09/09/2019 & Samovar 09/02/2019; 09/16/2019 & 09/23/2019; 09/30/2019; 10/07/2019 & 10/14/2019; 10/21/2019 & 10/28/2019; 11/11/2019; 11/18/2019 & 11/25/2019; 12/02/2019 & 12/09/2019; 12/16/2019 & 12/23/2019

Terraform: 12/18; 01/19; 02/19; 03/19; 04/19; 05/19; 06/19; 07/19; 08/19; 09/19; 10/19; 11/19

Tor dot com: 01/19; 02/19; 03/19; 04/19; 05/19; 06/19; 07/19; 08/19; 09/19; 10/19; 11/19; 12/19

Translunar Travelers Lounge: #1 [part 1]; #1 [part 2]; #1 [part 3]

Uncanny: #26 [01/19]; #26 [02/19]; #27 [03/19]; #27 [04/19]; #28 [05/19]; #28 [06/19]; #29 [07/19]; #29 [08/19]; #30 [09/19]; #30 [10/19]; #31 [11/19]; #31 [12/19]

Vulutre Bones (guest reviewed by Erin Barbeau): #4

Special:

Liver Beware!: #15; #16; #17; #18; #19; #20; #21; #22; #23; #24

Quick Conversations: Post-Apocalyptic SFF

Regular Sips: The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum; The West and Everyting Above

Sippy Awards: Intro; Relationships; Horror; Ugly-Cry; Action!; I-Don't-Know-What

Updates/Blog Posts: A Huge Thank You; 4000 Reviews: An Introspective; 2019 Awards Eligibility List; 2019 Year-in-Review; 2019 Recommended Reading List

THE SIPPY AWARDS 2019! The "Where We're Going We Won't Need Categories" Sippy for Excellent I Don't Know What in Short SFF

Welcome to the final installment of the 2019 Sippy Awards! So far we've covered relationships, horror, making-me-cry, and action in short SFF. What does that leave? Well...the thing is, sometimes there are stories that just don't fit into a specific box. Especially with speculative fiction, where the rule is you must break the rules. It means that there are ample opportunities to be innovative, to do things that don't fall in line with the traditional or expected. And for that I have the...

“Where We’re Going We Won’t Need Categories” 

Sippy Awards for Excellent I Don’t Know What in Short SFF

So sometimes it's hard to look at stories that are doing something rather different. Because they don't always fit nicely into the same discussion as other, maybe more mainstream stories. Except that they stand out as doing something new. On first glance, maybe they just seem weird. Odd. Many of them might be dismissed as just that. With maybe a few words on the beautiful language, and maybe a few words on how they were different. But I really love stories that sort of blur the lines between form and message. Where the way the story is told is part of the impact of the story, even as that impact is difficult to define. There isn't a lot of connective tissue between the stories in this category--they are doing some very different things. But that is actually what holds them together here, that each is innovative and daring, that each takes chances and risks that, for me, pay of wonderfully.

So where did these stories come from? Well, from a number of rather unconventional places, as one might guess. From Fiyah, whose mandate has always been to publish black voices who might fall outside the conventional (which is often viewed as the very white "classics" of the SFF canon). From Escape Pod, which innovates not just with what it publishes but by how it publishes, as a podcast for science fictional stories. From Strange Horizons, which in many ways has led the push to innovate the field as a non-profit and as a champion for stories that do something different and new. From Tor, who as one of the largest publishers in the genre is still invested in not falling behind the curve when it comes to experimental and challenging works. And from Lackington's, whose voice and style set it apart, a publication that knows what it likes and doesn't care if that falls outside what is often more popular or mainstream. The stories are dazzling and different, strange and haunting and good. So let's get to the awards!

THE SIPPY AWARDS 2019! The "Time to Run Some Red Lights" Sippy for Excellent Action!!! in SFF

If you were around for the first Fast and the Furious movie, you might remember the news articles about how people coming out of the movie were more likely to make risky driving decisions. Not that they were just copying what they saw in the movie, but that it left them amped! Well, rounding out my categories that are primarily about an emotional response (horror=pain, ugly-cry=pain), this category is all about EXCITEMENT! FUCK YEAH!!!! So hold onto your butts and get ready for the...

“Time to Run Some Red Lights” Sippy Awards 

for Excellent Action! in Short SFF

As I said yesterday, I'm a bit of an emotive reader. Which means when a story hurts, it hurts. And when a story scares, it scares. But it also means when a story pumps it up, it makes me want to punch the sun in a mech suit the size of a planet! You know, like a normal person. Heh. But I love stories that really make me want to stand up, to run, to arrive somewhere breathless, alive. And these stories do just that, featuring characters fighting with all they have against what seems like an overwhelming situation. A threat to destroy their city, their world; a tournament where dreams are made or broken; an attempt by the actual devil to take the one person in the world you kinda tolerate--these are stories with some high stakes and some intense action.

As for where they came from...kinda all over. From the sadly-on-hiatus Apex Magazine, and from the always defiant Fireside Magazine. From Fiyah, from Tor, from GigaNotoSaurus (which came back from a bit of a hiatus this year). These are often sources for stories that get the blood pumping, the mind racing, the muscles twitchy and electric. So let's get to the awards already!!!

THE SIPPY AWARDS 2019! The "There's Something in My Eye" Sippy for Excellent Making Me Ugly-Cry in Short SFF

The 5th Annual Sippy Awards show no signs of slowing as we move past horror and settle into a whole new emotional destination. That's right, people, it's time to bust out the tissues, because this category is taking aim directly at your feels! I might be something of an emotive reader, but I feel that comes with trying to approach fiction openly and engage with it deeply. I tend to let stories in to where they can hurt the most, because while that can often backfire and leave me hurt and angry, it can also lead me to some amazing emotional connections with stories, which I'm honoring with the...

“There’s Something in My Eye” Sippy Award 

for Excellent Making Me Ugly-Cry in Short SFF

Following horror with this category makes a lot of sense to me, because for me both are about evoking emotions. With horror, that emotion is fear. With these stories, it's probably a bit more about...pain. Which might seem a strange thing to value in fiction. But it's not that the stories are about making the reader feel sad. There are plenty of ways that people seek out pain. Through exercise, through sport, through food--pain is about more than telling person that they've taken damage. It's a powerful experience, one of the most primal things, and a story that can hurt in the best of ways is rare and precious. Because it allows people to experience in a controlled way something they'd probably never want to experience in their own lives. It gives perspective, and it mingles pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, despair and burning hope. It takes a great deal of care, and requires a bit of trust, but these stories I feel earn it and then some.

Publication wise, it's another rather eclectic mix, though Strange Horizons does appear twice. Really that's no surprise for me, as the publication really does a great job at reducing me to a small puddle of tears on the regular. What's doubly appreciated is that Strange Horizons offer ample warnings for people who might not want to take the emotional plunge into a work that deals with such heavy themes.

THE SIPPY AWARDS 2019! The "I'm Sleeping with the Lights On" Sippy for Excellent Horror in Short SFF

Day 2 of the 2019 Sippy Awards takes something of an abrupt turn from relationships to look at stories that I felt excelled at something a bit...creepier. Now, some people try to separate SFF and horror, treating them as two entirely different things. But like peanut butter and chocolate, I often feel like the two do so well together. And there's no denying the horror elements of some SFF stories, and no taking out the SFF elements from some horror stories. So call them what you will, but today I'm celebrating the...

“I’m Sleeping with the Lights On” Sippy Award 

for Excellent Horror in Short SFF

For me, horror is all about fear, about feeling. And there's no denying that in 2019 there was plenty of that to go around. But even as fear is often used as a tool to divide, to instill hate and bigotry, to inspire violence, I feel it can also be a tool to unite, to build empathy, and to inspire hope. Often horror is a genre where uncomfortable and disturbing themes and content come out to play. The inclusion of those elements confronts readers with things that they often might feel like ignoring. And through those confrontations, some readers must face the weight of the real-world horrors going on all around them, made personal and poignant in the fictional spaces these works open up. From toxic relationships to cosmic insignificance, the works range in their focus, but all tread carefully and powerfully amidst pain, predation, and abuse.

Probably coming as no surprise, the stories here came from two of the biggest SFF horror publications around, The Dark and Nightmare magazines. Not that other publications don't also do horror well, but these two had some incredibly strong years, and the stories here represent by favorites, full of creep and cringe, dread and unease. They also, though, aren't afraid to be funny, and don't hesitate use a bit of gallows humor to get their points across. They are turns beautiful and repulsive, sensual and terrifying. So let's give out these awards!

THE SIPPY AWARDS 201! The "I'd Ship That" Sippy for Excellent Relationships in Short SFF

Welcome, dear readers, to the FIFTH ANNUAL SIPPY AWARDS! For those uninitiated, the Sippys are the SFF short fiction awards that no one asked for but I'm giving out anyway! The rules are simple: of all the stories covered by QSR over the previous year, I'm selecting my five favorites in each of five categories. That's 25 stories in total, with 5 that walk away with the prestigious and coveted Big Sip Award. This is obviously the literary achievement that people wait their whole lives to reach, yes? Anyway, these posts will go up, one a day, for the next five days. As is tradition, I'm kicking things off with the...

“I’d Ship That” Sippy Award for Excellent Relationships is Short SFF

I'm a sucker for a good relationship story. They don't have to be romantic. Or sexual. Though most of these stories do feature romance and sex, they also feature characters that interact and orbit each other in intensely beautiful ways. For some of the stories, the connections are between just two people, lovers or friends or something else. For others, the connections flow between more people, or did, and were severed. They feature people striving to find comfort and meaning in their own skins, knowing sometimes that takes help, and understanding, and compassion. And occasionally it takes kicking some ass. Whatever the case, the relationships explored in these stories have stuck with me through a very hard year.

The stories come from all over, and it's probably no surprise that most of the relationships read as queer. But it's not just that which speaks to me. These are stories about people dealing with some crushing situations. And reaching out to each other, and helping each other, protecting each other, boosting each other. Surviving. Thriving. They're beautiful and fierce and I'll just get out of the way and let them speak for themselves.

2019 Year-in-Review

Lots happened in 2019. SO MUCH! And, as it seems I report every year, I am a bit tired. But might as well celebrate as I can. Quick Sip Reviews will be turning five years old in less than a week. And 2019 saw a lot of good, including 2 Hugo nominations for Best Fanzine and Best Fan Writer! So thank you so so much for reading and following and everything!

I already went over a bunch of stuff from 2019 in my eligibility post, so I'd suggest starting there for a general update on me. Otherwise, I also posted the Quick Sip Reviews 2019 Recommended Reading List today, so there's that. Anyway, I won't dally too long (I have to go shovel snow...boo). Below are the stats for 2019 plus some thoughts and updates. Cheers!

The Quick Sip Reviews 2019 Recommended Reading List

2019 is dead! Long live 2020! Well, perhaps not quite. Before I officially pronounce 2019 over and done, there's some business to get to first, namely looking back and taking stock of ALL THE AMAZING STORIES that I read over the year. Hence, the Quick Sip Reviews 2019 Recommended Reading List! Below are 106* works spanning the entirety of the year. I admit, I kind of cheated. This is pretty much a collation of all my weekly recommendations, which I do on my Patreon as my Sip of the Week column. Every Friday I give one Sip of the Week and one Honorable Mention, with a review of the former and brief note on the later. These are patron-exclusive, so if you want to get in on weekly recs (plus lots more), I'd recommend joining.

That said, the Sips and this list have two MAJOR caveats to them. The first is that they reflect my tastes and opinions. I'm not trying to give you the best stories, but rather the stories I liked the most. Secondly, these stories are ONLY taken from venues that I cover in my reviews. This incredibly narrows my field, regardless of how much I try to read. The field is vast and I would totally read more if I could, but circumstances restrict me in what I can get to. I regret not being able to read more and wider, but I do feel that what I read now allows me to get to as much and as wide a sampling of the field as possible. I own that, and while I do make apologies for it, I also stand behind it. This is what I do. This is what limits me. I still think and hope that this list will have value to some, and might help people find some stories they might have missed. The good news is that I have reviewed all of these stories right here at Quick Sip Reviews. You can put the title into the search (at the top left of the screen on desktops...if you're using mobile you can toggle on the desktop mode by going to the bottom of the page and finding the button there). So if you're curious to know more, there will be keywords and notes and all sorts of info. Plus more if you check the posts on my Patreon.

Next some brief stats. These 106 stories came from 26 different publications and 101 different authors (7 authors have 2 stories on the list). Strange Horizons placed the most on the list with 9; followed by Uncanny and Clarkesworld with 8; Beneath Ceasless Skies, Fireside, and The Dark with 7; Lightspeed and Terraform with 6; Apex with 5; Anathema, Fiyah, Nightmare, Tor, and Flash Fiction Online with 4; Diabolical Plots and PodCastle with 3; Escape Pod, GigaNotoSaurus, Glittership, Lackington's, Omenana, Augur, and Translunar Travelers Lounge with 2; and Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Mithila Review, and Samovar with 1.

My many thanks to all of the authors, editors, and other people involved with bringing these stories into the world. They are amazing. So, without further delay, the list! Cheers!