Myths & Delusions • Editorial • April 2014
Spring has always been a fitting season for flirting with the fae.
The fae folk don’t always mean harm, but they’re always dangerous. That’s part of their allure. They’re accompanied by a risk of transformation, desired or not.
Our own much desired transformation has entered its final stage, moving from pupa to imago, if you will, in time for a spring emergence.
This beautiful new bloom of an issue happens to conclude the first year that Mythic Delirium has lived as an electronic publication. It’s astonishing to me that we’ve made it this far this fast. Time has sped, it seems, like a dragonfly wingbeat. We’ve learned a lot in our first year about production and promotion and procurement, but our flight has just begun.
We’re also leaving the shell of our former self behind. But it’s a pretty shell, filled with meaning. By the time you read this, the final issue of Mythic Delirium in its old print format will be going to press. It’s a retrospective spanning our first 11 years of life, with 25 poems selected by Anita from our first 24 issues. It’s a great way for our most recent subscribers to get a look at what has gone before, and a graceful way to lay our old incarnation to rest.
Too often projects like this come to a sudden, awkward stop. We’re blessed to have this opportunity to keep changing and growing. And here I have to mention the people who made this possible—our Kickstarter backers. Especially as the publication of these two issues—as well as my new poetry collection, Hungry Constellations, originally conceived as a Kickstarter reward—signifies that the campaigns we waged to revitalize Clockwork Phoenix and Mythic Delirium are at last winding down.
Refreshed, we head to the glade of the future to see what awaits. I can tell you our next issue (No 1.1!) is exciting indeed, a descent into deep waters with the likes of Margo Lanagan, Geoffrey A. Landis, Jane Yolen, Virginia M. Mohlere, Saira Ali, Jamie Killen, Sonya Taaffe, Gwynne Garfinkle and Valya Dudycz Lupescu.
But first, we’ll travel through the faery realm.
Anita and I felt it appropriate to gather our fae-themed acquisitions into a spring bouquet, though be warned—there are nettles and thorns to be found beneath those lovely petals.
We hope you’ll savor both the nectar and the stings.
—Mike Allen, Roanoke, Va., March 2014
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