Issue 1 Editorial

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Congress Magazine. Here, you will find what we like to call thoughtful erotica: stories that excite the mind and bewitch the senses as they draw the reader in with strong plots and unforgettable characters. Good smut can be good literature, as connoisseurs know, and we seek to insert ourselves into that grand tradition.

This month we present three original stories and a reprint for your pleasure. First, Livia Llewellyn, that mistress of the sinister and seductive, treats us to “Bohemian Grove, 1916.” Ms. Llewellyn’s story is imminently suitable for our summer debut, being full of sweat-dampened dresses, tanned thighs, rumpled suits, and private jaunts to private islands. And owls. Then, we have Robert Levy’s “My Heart’s Own Desire,” a transgressive triple threat of love, sex, violence, and drugs. Oh—wait, that’s four things. It’s hard to count when one’s fingers are so busy.

Following Mr. Levy we have the mysterious Matthew Addison’s “Wish Girls,” about a man who’s grown tired of his matched set of magical sexy cheerleaders. If it sounds like a good problem to have, imagine having two immortal, lithe, long-limbed, stacked cheerleaders always hanging around your apartment, eager and ready to please no matter what the request (or command). If it still sounds like a good problem to have… you’ll just have to read Mr. Addison’s story.

And finally, we have David Nickle’s “The Bicameral Twist.” When I approached Mr. Nickle about writing for Congress, he suggested the title “Bicameral” as a tease. Well, we love teasing here at Congress, especially when it’s followed by something more substantial… and Mr. Nickle certainly provided that. “Bicameral Twist” is as cerebral as it gets, but keep an open mind. You might learn something about yourself… from yourself.

Future issues of Congress may feature nonfiction, or comics, or essays, but we’re all fiction this month. Come August, expect more; we’ll deliver the goods right to your computer or e-reader.

While our content will always be free online, an issue costs just $2.99 on Amazon and Weightless Books. You can also subscribe to our full six-issue run through Weightless Books for just $17.94. A small operation, we appreciate your support, as it means we can keep purchasing great fiction and luscious covers, like this month’s, by Gerard Vlaz.

A magazine is only as good as its writers and its staff. I feel so lucky to have four such talented authors ushering us into existence. I’m also l lucky to have support from Jeremiah Tolbert, our publisher—and such a killer name, courtesy Nick Mamatas.

So, welcome. I sincerely hope you enjoy your time with us… and that we leave you craving more.

 

About the Author

Wendy N. Wagner

Wendy N. Wagner is a full-time science fiction and fantasy nerd. Her first two novels, Skinwalkers and Starspawn, are set in the world of the Pathfinder role-playing game, and she has written over thirty short stories about monsters, heroes, and unsettling stuff. An avid gamer and gardener, she lives in Portland, Oregon, with her very understanding family.

About the Author

Jason S. Ridler

Jason S. Ridler is a writer, improv actor, and historian. He is the author of A Triumph for Sakura, Blood and Sawdust, the Spar Battersea thrillers and the upcoming Brimstone Files series for Night Shade Press. He’s also published over sixty-five stories in such magazines and anthologies as The Big Click, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Out of the Gutter, and more. He also writes the column FXXK WRITING! for Flash Fiction Online. A former punk rock musician and cemetery groundskeeper, Mr. Ridler holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada. He lives in Berkeley, CA.

About the Author

Carrie Laben

Carrie Laben grew up in western New York and earned her MFA at the University of Montana. She now lives in Queens. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in such venues as Birding, The Dark, Indiana Review, Okey-Panky, and the anthology Mixed Up! edited by Molly Tanzer and Nick Mamatas. In 2015 she was selected for the Anne LaBastille Memorial Writer’s Residency.

About the Author

Cecilia Tan

Cecilia Tan is “our genre’s premier pornographer” (says Walter Jon Williams)—the founder of Circlet Press and winner of the RT Pioneer Award and Career Achievement Award in Erotic Fiction. Her stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Strange Horizons, Best American Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica, and many many other places. Her 15th novel, The Initiates of the Blood, is forthcoming from Tor Books in 2017.

About the Author

Jesse Bullington

Jesse Bullington is the author of the weird historical novels The Sad Tale of the Brothers GrossbartThe Enterprise of Death, and The Folly of the World. Under the pen name Alex Marshall he is releasing the Crimson Empire trilogy; the first volume, A Crown for Cold Silver, was shortlisted for the James Tiptree Award, and the second, A Blade of Black Steel, just dropped in May. All of his novels have naughty bits. He’s also the editor of the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated anthology Letters to Lovecraft, and co-editor, with Molly Tanzer, of Swords v. Cthulhu. He can be found in the Pacific Northwest.

About the Author

Chuck Tingle

Hugo Award nominee Dr. Chuck Tingle is an erotic author and Tae Kwon Do grandmaster (almost black belt) from Billings, Montana. After receiving his PhD at DeVry University in holistic massage, Chuck found himself fascinated by all things sensual, leading to his creation of the “tingler”, a story so blissfully erotic that it cannot be experienced without eliciting a sharp tingle down the spine.

Chuck’s hobbies include backpacking, checkers and sport.

About the Author

Andrew S. Fuller

Andrew S. Fuller writes and edits horror, fantasy, and science fiction. His work appears in magazines On Spec, Crossed Genres, The Pedestal, anthologies FISHA Darke PhantastiqueSwords v Cthulhu, and several short films. Since 1999, he’s edited the fiction magazine Three-Lobed Burning Eye. He grew up in the Midwest, dabbling in heavy metal and theater, and now lives in Portland, Oregon between a volcano and two rivers, where he commits archery, design, and cocktail snobbery.

About the Author

Livia Llewellyn

Livia Llewellyn is a writer of dark fantasy, horror, and erotica, whose short fiction has appeared in over forty anthologies and magazines and has been reprinted in multiple best-of anthologies, including Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year series, Years Best Weird Fiction, and The Mammoth Book of Best Erotica. Her first collection, Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors (2011, Lethe Press), received two Shirley Jackson Award nominations, for Best Collection, and for Best Novelette (for “Omphalos”). Her story “Furnace” received a 2013 Shirley Jackson Award nomination for Best Short Story. Her second collection, Furnace (2016, Word Horde Press), was published this year.

About the Author

Robert Levy

Robert Levy is an author of stories, screenplays and plays whose work has been seen Off-Broadway. A Harvard graduate subsequently trained as a forensic psychologist, his first novel The Glittering World was published by Gallery/Simon & Schuster and is a Lambda Literary Award finalist as well as a nominee for the Shirley Jackson Award. Shorter work has appeared in Shadows & Tall TreesBlack Static, and The Brooklyn Quarterly, among others. He is currently working on a television pilot as well as a new novel, and can be found living in his native realm of Brooklyn.