Volume One Announces Itself to the World

Yes folks, that’s right. Volume One is here!

And it’s jam packed with arty and literary goodness. But don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

It’s available here:

Read it and weep!

Q the Editors & they will A back

No, this post title is not in some way an innuendo, though the fact that this was the first thing we worried about as we sat down to post this must mean that we are in quite a happy place regarding the design of the current magazine. The mice running the controls inform me that at the rate we’re  going, we may see a mostly final copy by this weekend. Everybody hold your breaths.

No, stop holding them now -we’re not THAT close to finished.

But we do need our contributors and readers help for out editorial. For anyone who was not aware, our editorial team has, in the last few months, welcomed a new member to the team, a co-editor whose name cannot be revealed for security reasons. (And because she’s afraid people will go look up her Facebook page for ammunition)

But, as part of our editorial, we are inserting a Q&A session with herself and myself and we require you guys to send us questions to (try to) answer.

So it’s quite simple. If you have a question, please leave a comment underneath this blog post with your question, name and any relevant quirky detail you might wish to impart about yourself.

Alternatively, you can email us at the usual mail minus8squared(at)gmail(dot)com

Happy questioning and hopefully the questions don’t make us unhappy as we try to answer them!

Submissions Closed – Anthology Coming Soon

Hello all!

Just to let you know that the submissions for our first anthology of 2011 have now closed. We have received PILES of amazing submissions and have selected the final submissions so we are not setting into the wonderfully tedious job of designing the magazine.

We hope to bring it to you sometime in mid-May. For now, watch this space and start honing those submissions for the next magazine.

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Also, for anyone who may be interested. We can be found on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Minus-9-Squared/166273743430292

and here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=342126916106&ref=ts

Or follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/minus9squared

Minus 9 Squared 2011 Anthology

Yes, we told you we had an announcement. And here it is:

After an extended hiatus, Minus 9 Squared is back.

As the dust settles on a hectic January, we are pleased to announce that Minus 9 Squared is returning to a virtual shelf near you this Easter.

While it was always our aim to have a magazine every month, time just did not allow and we have now decided that it would be best to focus on 2-3 magazines a year, anthologies if you will so there will be more page space in this magazine.

And the best news? There is no theme so you are free to send us whatever your heart desires (or doesn’t, it’s up to you!)

Looking forward to getting back in the saddle and bringing the biggest and best issue yet to all of you good people.

Submission Guidelines:

Fiction: 3000 maximum.

Flash Fiction: 500 words max.

Poetry: 40 lines max

Visual Arts: No larger than A4 size. JPG format. Maximum of 6 images per submission. We will NOT accept entire albums to choose our favourites from so choose wisely and send!

Theatre: Extracts of up to 3 pages OR 5 monologues

In addition to your submission, please include a contributor’s profile of a few lines that we may use should we choose to publish your work. For examples refer to back issues.

As always, please send all submissions to Anna at minus9squared@gmail.com

EDIT: We are of course; always looking for front covers as well and the following are the submission guidelines for it:

We are looking for images with the following criteria:

1. A4 size.

2. Portrait format

3. The title of the magazine (Minus 9 Squared) somewhere on the body of the cover.

4. Something brilliant would be preferable.

We are accepting visual artistry of any kind, just as long as it’s visual and well, arty.

So get cracking folks – the front page needs you!

Immortality awaits.

Deadline: 31st March 2011

Issue Four Announcement

After an extended hiatus, Minus 9 Squared is back.

For said hiatus, we apologise and beg your pardon, there have been some personal issues to the forefront of our minds and our time was dedicated to them for some time and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

However, we are pleased to announce that the theme for Issue 4 of Minus 9 Squared (publication date TBA) is LIES. We struggled with a number of choices for themes this issue. We contemplated a number of different themes but decided that they ran a little too close to the previous themes whilst this one is a bit more precise.

Submission Guidelines:

Fiction: 3000 maximum.

Flash Fiction: 500 words max.

Poetry: 40 lines max

Visual Arts: No larger than A4 size. JPG format. Maximum of 6 images per submission. We will NOT accept entire albums to choose our favourites from so choose wisely and send!

Theatre: Extracts of up to 3 pages OR 5 monologues

In addition to your submission, please include a contributor’s profile of a few lines that we may use should we choose to publish your work. For examples refer to back issues.

As always, please send all submissions to Anna at minus9squared@gmail.com

EDIT: We are of course, always looking for front covers aswell and the following are the submission guidelines for it:

We are looking for images with the following criteria:

1. A4 size.

2. Portrait format

3. The title of the magazine (Minus 9 Squared) the title ‘Lies’ and the subtitles ‘Issue 4 – September’ somewhere on the body of the cover.

4. Something brilliant would be preferable.

We are accepting visual artistry of any kind, just as long as it’s visual and well, arty.

So get cracking folks – the front page needs you!

Immortality awaits.

Closing Date: 31^st August

M9S Contributor Publishes First Collection of Short Fiction

Just a quick update to congratulate Jeremiah Ambrose on the recent online publishing of his first collection of short stories: Up Syndrome.

Jeremiah’s short story “I Love Pope” was published in Issue Two of Minus 9 Squared and features in this collection also.

We congratulate him most warmly and wish him the very best in the future.

Up Syndrome can be found here: http://issuu.com/owlwink/docs/upsyndromevol1x

Updates

Just in case anyone thinks we’re resting on our laurels as regards Issue 3, we felt the need to clarify. Due to the extent of submissions we are snowed into our office with submissions, all knocking on the door yelping “pick me! pick me!” We’ve made significant efforts to silence them but they’re persistent little buggers so we’re ignoring them instead. We will have a final draft very soon.

In other news, we are going hunting printers this week to look into print copies of Issue Two – The Memory Issue and hoping that we will have a sample and pricing information ASAP.

Last but not least, there is some new work over at http://www.minus9online.wordpress.com

Please check out the work and send your submissions to us so that we may keep this venture going. Pretty soon, it will be a cornucopia of brilliant literature and artwork. Become a part of it.

‘Cover’ Us In Wonderment

Coming in from the cold here a little bit, we’ve left this blog quite sparse of late and we feel badly about, we do. So we’re taking this opportunity to throw up a few guidelines regarding front cover submissions. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be the front cover of Issue Three then tell us, show us and no doubt impress us:

If you would like your work to be in with a shout of winning this illustrious and much coveted golden slot on the zine then just take down these few details, get the tracing paper and magic markers out and dazzle the bejasus out of us:

We are looking for images with the following criteria:

1. A4 size.

2. Portrait format

3. The title of the magazine (Minus 9 Squared) the title ‘Disaster’ and the subtitles ‘Issue 3 – June’ somewhere on the body of the cover.

4. Something brilliant would be preferable.

We are accepting visual artistry of any kind, just as long as it’s visual and well, arty.

So get cracking folks – the front page needs you!

Immortality awaits.

News for Issue Three

We would like to thank all contributors, readers, subscribers and anyone who has shown any interest in this zine for everything so far. Issue One and Two would not have happened without you so raise a glass to yourselves and knock it back good and hard. Maybe one day, we’ll be able to refill it for you (The ambition is there.)

We have something big planned for Issue Three and it’s about time we unleashed the info.

Like everyone else in the world, we at Minus 9 Squared sent our sympathies to those affected by the recent Icelandic volcano eruption, be it as a direct result of the volcano itself or the ensuing chaos that struck Europe with the imposed No-Fly zones.

It was amazing to watch the news and think that the whole of Europe was at effectively a standstill, and it got us thinking about the power of nature, as clichéd as that sounds…

So as a tribute to those who endured trying conditions during this incident (and continue to in the intermittent ash cloud strikes since then) we have decided that Issue Three of Minus 9 Squared will focus on the themes surrounding the Iceland volcano crisis.

The main theme is going to be Disaster but we’ll be accepting work around any other themes people find relevant.

This is the first theme we’ve picked which, essentially isn’t a theme at all, it’s more like a free-for-all. If you have work that fits a theme which you feel is relevant to the events surrounding this event then we want to see it.

We are also on the look out for front covers again and hope to see more of the talent we were privileged to last issue.

Submission Deadline will be updated on the Minus 9 Squared WordPress site very soon so keep your eyes peeled and get your work in on time!

A Few Restrictions:

Short Fiction: Capped at 3000 words.

Poetry: Capped at 40 lines.

Flash Fiction: Capped at 500 words

For this issue, we ask that contributors please adhere to a few other submission guidelines:

1. If sending fiction, please, no more than two stories per person.

2. Poetry – up to 4 poems.

3. Flash fiction – no more than 3 pieces.

4. Photography/Visual arts – up to 6 photographs/pieces of art.

In the past we have been sent entire photo and art albums and we apologise but we simply do not have time to sift through them so pick and choose wisely and send them on.

DEADLINE: 4th June 2010

Issue Two Has Arrived!

Just head over to the “Issues” tab on this site and click on the appropriate link!

Happy reading!