An Unlikely Hiatus

Hello, gentle readers. It’s been a while since we’ve posted an update, and as such, this announcement may not come as a surprise. Unlikely Story is officially going on hiatus in 2017. At the moment, day job demands have made it impossible to devote the amount of time to Unlikely Story that it deserves. It is unfair to the authors who work so hard to write us brilliant stories to keep them waiting indefinitely to hear back from us, and waiting even longer to see their stories in print, and it is unfair to our readers for us to release a publication that is anything less than our best effort. Rather than trying to fit Unlikely Story into a few free minutes here and there, we’ve decided to take a step back, take some time to breathe, and hopefully come back to Unlikely Story when we can focus on it properly.

In the meantime, our archives remain online, and Clowns: The Unlikely Coulrophobia Remix -- our first print publication -- is available for purchase. If you missed an issue or a story, now is the perfect time to catch up. Thank you for coming with us on this journey so far. We don’t have a timeline for when we might resume operations, or what form our publication will take in the future, but once we do, you’ll read about it here.

Thank you once again for reading, and best wishes for 2017.

Award Eligible Works 2016

Award season has kicked off with the opening of the nomination period for the Nebula Awards. As a handy reference guide, here’s what Unlikely Story published in 2016.

Clowns: The Unlikely Coulrophobia Remix is eligible as a whole in the anthology category for awards that have such a category (Stoker, World Fantasy, This is Horror, etc.). The individual stories in the anthology are also available in the Short Story category for most major awards, except for the following five stories, which were originally published in 2015: Five Things Every Successful Clown Must Do, Perfect Mime, A Million Tiny Ropes, Everyone’s a Clown, Break the Face in the Jar By the Door. All the other stories in the collection are eligible.

All the stories which appeared in our Unlikely Observances Issue are also eligible in the shory story (or equivalent) category for most awards, and are free to read online.

The Death of Chaos by anne m. gibson

Old Customs by Rajiv Moté

The City & The Man; The Man & The City by Joshua A. Dilk

Little Government Gets Us Nowhere by Rhonda Eikamp

“Fear Death by Water” by Arkady Martine

Ship of Fools by Heather Morris

Burning Day by Charles Payseur

That’s what we did in 2016. Thanks for reading!

Journal of Unlikely Observances Issue 12.5, April May June 2016

Table of Contents

The Death of Chaos by anne m. gibson
Old Customs by Rajiv Moté
The City & the Man; the Man & the City by Joshua A. Dilk
Little Government Gets Us Nowhere by Rhonda Eikamp
“Fear Death By Water” by Arkady Martine
Ship of Fools by Heather Morris
Burning Day by Charles Payseur

Editors’ Note:

Ah, Spring! Winter’s reluctant release as the river’s ice cracks and breaks away, as the year’s new leaves unfurl and flowers push up through the warming soil. Insects emerge from dormancy, bears crawl forth from the earth, and baby raccoons fill the wildlife rehab centers. The world explodes with color and sound. And we mere humans can’t help but celebrate the renewal of the earth in a thousand myriad ways, from the colorful celebrations of Holi to the resurrections of Jesus, Mithras, and Dionysus; from the Feast of Fools to the dances of Beltane. And of course, April Fool’s Day: a day of tricks and jokes, of inversions and the breaking of rules.

Winter, as just about everyone reading this should have heard by now, is always coming. But Spring breaks those frozen chains. Spring cheats Death; Spring hopes eternal.

The Journal of Unlikely Observances is Unlikely Story’s third April Fool’s Day mini-issue. This year, we bring you stories that celebrate celebrations, stories of hope and self-discovery and renewal, and of putting the past away. Stories of tricks played, and of tricksters played as well.

And let us ask, Dear Reader: What better day to celebrate April Fool’s than the last day of June (or is it the first day of July where you are? O Time, trickster even unto the end!)? No matter. Together, let us cheat Time itself, and Time’s vicious, tyrannical side-kick, Deadline.

Every day can be April Fool’s Day, if you let it.

Cover art by Linda Saboe

Announcing The Journal of Unlikely Observances ToC

It may not be April Fool’s Day anymore, but it’s still April, so it counts, right? At long last, we’ve made our final decisions for Unlikely Story #12.5: The Journal of Unlikely Observances. Now we’re delighted to unveil (in no particular order) the ToC:

Burning Day by Charles Payseur
The Death of Chaos by Anne Gibson
Old Customs by Rajiv Mote
Fear Death by Water by Arkady Martine
Little Government Gets Us Nowhere by Rhonda Eikamp
The City & the Man; The Man & the City by Joshua Dilk
Ship of Fools by Heather Morris

As always, we had tough choices to make in selecting the final line up. We received many excellent stories, so thank you to everyone who submitted work. We thoroughly enjoyed reading your pranks, your celebrations, your transformations, and your rebirths. The Journal of Unlikely Observances is going to be fantastic, and we look forward to sharing it will all of you soon!

Foolish April

At Unlikely Story, we take April Fools very seriously. We had every intention of sticking with tradition and having a new issue out to celebrate the day. Obviously, that isn’t going to happen. But don’t despair! The Journey of Unlikely Observances will still be published, just not on April 1st as originally planned. We have a handful of stories from February 28 & 29 to read and respond to, along with the stories we’re holding for further consideration.

Unfortunately, at this point, we’re not entirely sure when we’ll be able to get the issue published. Day job demands are eating up a lot of time, hence why we’re running behind. We’ll do our best to keep folks updated as we go along, and we apologize for the delay.

Thank you to the authors who are still waiting to hear from us for your incredible patience, and thank you to all of our readers as well. We promise that when it appears, the issue will be a fantastic one, and worth the wait.