The Annotated Kitab al-Azif

I was planning to edit my Lovecraftian monster romance story, "The Annotated Kitab al-Azif," a page at a time before I started thinking about submitting it to various magazines. I generally hate editing, but I couldn't stop myself from going through the whole thing when I sat down to work on it this morning. I was like, "But then what happens??" It's got a nice flow and good momentum.

I might be delusional, but you know what? I think this story might actually be okay. Kind of good, even.

I hope I'm not jumping the gun, but I think it's ready to submit.

SFF Venue #1

Apex Magazine
https://apex-magazine.com/

Apex Magazine is an online zine of fantastical fiction. We publish short stories filled with marrow and passion, works that are twisted, strange, and beautiful.

Apex puts out an ebook issue every two months. I used to really love this magazine, but I stopped reading in the summer of 2019 due to extreme overwork and crippling depression. I should really start reading it again. The issues are short, and the editors have good taste. They have a very strong bias toward "dark fantasy" (which is how I'd classify my own work, which is almost horror, but not quite). To give a sense of the vibes, I seem to recall that Elizabeth Bear was involved in the founding of the publication.

Their maximum short story length is 7,500 words, and their submissions are always open. I've submitted work to them before, and their form rejection letter is very kind.