RIP RoF

Ouch.

SFScope reports that Realms of Fantasy has announced that April will be their final issue.

This saddens me no end, not just because a couple of my stories are begging to visit there, but because RoF was a professional speculative fiction venue with a viable, growable, non-geriatric demographic, and a clearly different sensibility that I enjoy as much as, say, Strange Horizons.

I have to admit that stories in the big three classic SF magazines (Analog, F&SF, and Asimov's) more often bore me than not. There was an article on the web that I can't find now, discussing how those magazines reflected their older demographics, both in style and subject. The stories are all about old people dealing with old people's issues, or stories with nostalgia value, more or less. There's also a political bias that further cuts down the sales potential.

Honestly, even though I'm about to qualify for associate membership in the AARP, I like to read stories about different people with different problems. I like coming of age stories, love stories, tech stories, lots of things. I don't mind stories about middle aged people, but that's not all I want to read. Where's the wonder?

Well, it was over at RoF, while it lasted.

hat tip Shawn Scarber, who sent this by email to NTSFW.