You may have backed us during our first Indiegogo campaign. If you did, thank you! Due to circumstances outside our control, that campaign had to be relaunched, and we want to explain what happened and what’s new before we ask for your support again.

But if you already know you want to support the project, here’s the new link right up front.

What happened

When we set up the original campaign, we intended to use Indiegogo's flexible funding option, which collects pledges even if the campaign falls short of its goal. That setting was accidentally left on fixed funding instead, which means pledges would only be collected if we hit our full $3,000 target. We are now relaunching with the correct settings in place. If you were a backer on the original campaign, your pledge was not charged and we'd be grateful if you'd back us again on the new campaign.

What’s new in the relaunch

We’ve used the extra time to improve the campaign. New additions include:

• A standalone Luke Brantley and the Fantastic Flashlight tier — our recently published middle grade novel, available to backers at $12

• A standalone mug tier featuring the original cover artwork, the Cup of High Strangeness, at $18

• A campaign launch video so you can hear directly from us about what we’re building

Everything else you loved about the original campaign is still here: the Keeper of the Watchfire tier, the numbered limited-edition cover art print, the Herald of High Strangeness bundle, and all the rest.

The original post

If you missed our first announcement or want a refresher on what Issue 6 is and why it’s worth backing, the original post is embedded below. Everything in it still stands other than the dates.

The campaign video

The link

The new campaign is live now for you to follow and launches tomorrow. You can find it here.

If you backed us the first time, we’d be grateful if you’d back us again. If you’re new here, welcome! Thank you for giving independent speculative fiction a chance.

As I write this post, there is a little over a week left before the end of our summer fundraiser campaign. As it stands we are right at 40% funded. We have more goodies for campaign supports than ever before, so please take a look at what’s being offered.

I’m writing this short post to ask two things:

1. If you’re financially able to do so, please back the campaign.

2. If you’re not in a spot where you can back the campaign right now, please help us promote it to those who would be interested and able to do so. Sharing on social media is always welcome, but a personal message to a friend who likes the kinds of stories we print is even better.

As always, we appreciate the enthusiastic support we get from all of you and we hope we’ll be able to keep doing this for years to come.

UPDATE: Due to the Indiegogo verification process we were not able to launch on July 2. The new launch date is July 8.

A new issue of Silence & Starsong is on its way and before it goes to print, we’re giving our readers the first chance to back it.

Our Indiegogo campaign launches July 2. Between now and then, we wanted to tell you exactly what we’re building and why it’s worth your support.

What Issue 6 is

One issue a year. Every story chosen carefully, every piece of artwork earning its place. Nothing goes in just to fill pages because we only have one shot to get it right.

Issue 6 continues what Volume 1 started, bringing you stories from the perspective that materialism tries to crowd out. Not science fiction that treats the universe as a machine, but fiction that takes seriously the possibility that angels are real, that …

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Never preach harder than you entertain.

I got the quote above from Jim Butcher,1 author of the very successful Dresden Files series. It’s succinct and, I think, a great mantra for new and aspiring authors.

It’s not that an author can’t write stories with a message. However, if you put THE MESSAGE at the center of the story and force the characters and the plot to slavishly orbit your sermon-in-disguise, the result will not be the kind of story that people who like to read will want to read.2 Examples of this phenomenon abound, so I won’t bother to catalog them here.

If one were looking for examples of how to convey a message effectively, without sacrificing a good story, perhaps few would point to the works of Charles Dickens. After all, one might ask, isn’t Dickens well-known for how his books put a spotlight on the social issues of his day? Oliver Twist was all about how bad the Poor Laws were in Great Britain, wasn’t it? And Hard Times was definitely a “passionate revolt against the whole industrial order of the modern world”3 you must admit?

In a word: no.

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If you’re of a certain age and a certain degree of internet literacy, then you’ll also be familiar with the original version. Investigate all of the lore on your own time, because I won’t go into it here (and I have only a superficial awareness of it myself).

The movie was decent for what it set out to be, namely a psychological/cosmic horror movie that capitalized on a well-known internet phenomenon. There was one thing that I think it did particularly well, however, and I wanted to highlight it because I think writers—especially those who write speculative fiction—can benefit from it.1

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The man in question was an officer in the Roman army — some say a Centurion, others a member of the Praetorian Guard itself. Whatever his rank, the man served his Emperor well, but his heart belonged to a King even higher than the Caesar: the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. The man’s name was George.

And George would slay the dragon.

The …

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Luke Brantley and the Fantastic Flashlight is a middle-grade paranormal adventure set in small-town Alabama during the summer of 1993.

Luke Brantley expects his final month of summer vacation to be like all the ones before—riding bikes around town, fishing, and spending time at his grandmother’s house. But while helping her sort through his late grandfather’s belongings, Luke discovers an old flashlight hidden away in the attic.

When he switches it on one night, the beam reveals something impossible lurking at the edge of the woods.

Soon Luke and his friends find themselves tangled in a mystery involving strange creatures, a secretive government organizati…

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Starting May 18th and running through June 1st, Silence & Starsong will be accepting submissions for our Fall 2026 issue. If you’ve been sitting on a story that inspires wonder and awe, now is the time to send it our way.

We’re looking for speculative fiction of all kinds: fantasy, science fiction, action and adventure, horror, fairytales, and the strange things that live at the edges of all of those. We also welcome poetry and artwork.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Prose: 4,000–9,000 words (longer works may be considered for serial publication)

• Poetry: traditional forms appreciated, but innovative work with real craft is equally welcome

• Compensation: $0.02/word for prose; $0.50/line for poetry

• Format: .doc, .docx, or .rtf, standard manuscript format, submitted to editor@silenceandstarsong.com

• We ask for 6 months’ exclusive worldwide rights for original works

For the full guidelines—including what we’re looking for, what we’re not, and a list of authors whose work gives you a sense of our taste—visit silenceandstarsong.com/submission-guidelines.

We look forward to reading your work.

The short story was polished. It was ready. I wrote five drafts before submitting it and the anthology itself had an entire team involved with editing, marketing, making the book beautiful, et cetera. Then when it came out, eighteen authors all did their darndest to get their hard-earned audiences to buy the thing.

We were happy to sell 49 copies in a week (largely just to us authors).

Meanwhile the video game was super rough. Typo-ridden. Included a game breaking bug. It was a single chapter rough draft that I blitzed through to get to the end then posted to a forum as a prototype to show people what I was envisioning.

Within a week, Chapter 1 of The Iron King’s Heir had ten thousand views and …

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I’m pretty sure Hogwarts Legacy was the last video game I ever really looked forward to. Rowling’s Wizarding World has pretty much everything you could want for a game: an obvious progression system (learning new spells); clear potential for choices-matter mechanics (choosing a house); mini game options (quidditch); and a vibrant, mysterious world ripe with secrets to uncover. What could possibly go wrong?

Even if you haven’t played it, you can probably guess at the answer. The modern machine is what went wrong.

To be clear, the game isn’t all that bad. Some of the design is beautiful even, and the combat was somewhat enjoyable and certainly visually appealing. But it’s just not all that good either, despite the five years and $150 million that went into making it. The characters are flat, the dialogue…

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For a preview, here’s the prompt and other information we announced back in December:

Announcing our 2025 round robin story and opening chapter submissions.

An orbital monastery has gone silent.

There was no distress signal.
No report of technical failure.

Only one final transmission:

“The manger is empty.
And the star is moving.”

Bethlehem Station was built as a working monastery in orbit. Not a symbol. Not a museum. A place of prayer above the Earth. Now it’s dark.

We’re using this premise as the starting point for our 2025 Round Robin Story—a collaborative work of speculative fiction that will unfold one chapter at a time.

If you haven’t encountered a round robin story before, the rules are simple, but demanding. Each chapter becomes canon. Each new author must continue what came before. The story develops slowly, deliberately, and publicly.

The opening chapter matters more than the rest, so we’re treating it that way.

For the first round, we’ll be accepting submissions up to 2,000 words, giving the opening author room to establish the setting, tone, and central mystery. In addition, that author will propose two possible directions the story could take next. We’ll choose one of them, and the second chapter will follow that path.

Follow-up chapters will be limited to 1,000 words. Authors of selected installments may choose any ebook issue of Silence & Starsong Magazine as their reward. Stories will be published on our website.

All of our usual guidelines regarding appropriate content apply. Please see our website for full details.

The manger is empty.
The star is moving.

What happens next is unwritten.

— The Editors