A Special Announcement About the Future

Hey folks,

I hope this post finds all of you well. I'm a bit busy and wanted to share with everyone my plans for the future.

As you may or may not know I am the founder and proprietor of Black Swans with Atom Bombs Publishing, hereafter referred to as BSWAB. In January I published my first paper zine, called "Bleeding from the Nose, Twisting in the Wind", under the BSWAB label. In the near future I will be publishing more paper zines.


Among my many constant concerns is streamlining the presentation of my work for ease of consumption and enjoyment for my audience. As a result, virtually everything I do henceforth shall be under the BSWAB label.

Starting in August I will be revamping a few things in the hope of streamlining my material and presentation.

In August I will be re-launching TheLordShen.com (my site) with a whole new design and some added content. I hope you all will return in the future to check it out.

Also in August I will be re-launching this blog with a new design. It will still be my official blog, but with more focus.

"Sketches of Cool" will become "Atomic Swan Serials". Seeing the amount of response I received via email and comments (which, again, I thank all of you for) to the fairy tale "The Children of Gods" I have decided that the major purpose of this blog should be to present serialized stories to my loyal fans and friends. I still may throw in a rant or a poem or a news piece here and there, but this blog's focus will be serialized tales.

Nothing is currently set in stone as to what my first offering of a serialized tale will be, but the most immediate idea I have includes multiple kaiju (giant monsters like Godzilla).


In September I will be publishing the first Atomic Swan paper zine under the BSWAB label. The first issue will contain some of my journal entries, fiction and poetry all concerning my battles with Hepatitis C.


Then in October I will be presenting my annual Halloween edition of my e-zine If - E - Zine(tm): The Free Online Magazine of Thrilling Speculative Fiction! This will be the first ever MONSTER ISSUE, meaning that not only will there be about twice as many stories (I usually average 2 or 3 stories per e-zine, so this MONSTER ISSUE will have 4 or 5 stories) but there will also be at least one tale with a monster as its main focus. In fact, I think I may steal the idea of "one monster per episode" from the original Outer Limits television series and require the e-zine to feature not only some elements of science fiction, but at least one story with a monster. What do you think? Let me know!

The e-zine will also be published for the first time under the BSWAB label this October.

My plate is full, to say the least. Wish me luck and please check back for updates and leave comments should the mood strike you. Also please be sure to check out the e-zine's MySpace profile and request an add if you have a profile, too!


Thanks again to everyone for the loyal readership and let's hope things only get more exciting from here on in.


~ charles