We’re delighted to report that both Aliette de Bodard and Matthew Hughes have short stories in the September 2014 issue of Lightspeed Magazine, and are also both interviewed.

Aliette’s Author Spotlight is a free preview article from the magazine, and can be read here. Her story is PRAYERS OF FORGES AND FURNACES. Here’s the synopsis…

The stranger came at dawn, walking out of the barren land like a mirage—gradually shimmering into existence beside the bronze line of the rails: a wide-brimmed hat, a long cloak, the glint that might have been a rifle or an obsidian-studded sword. Xochipil, who had been scavenging for tech at the mouth of Mictlan’s Well, caught that glint in her eyes—and stopped, watching the stranger approach, a growing hollow in her stomach.

Matthew’s story is UNDER THE SCAB…

It was too late in the day to start back to Indoberia. Kaslo tried to find ways to busy himself about the castle, but his thoughts would not leave him alone. Finally, he went up to the flat roof of one of the larger towers and leaned against the parapet as the planet’s sun sank below a horizon no longer broken by the Commune’s skyline. In the opposite direction, the stars were coming out, but Kaslo saw only a handful of the glittering orbitals that used to stretch in a sparkling, glinting arc across the night sky.

Aliette de Bodard is the author of multiple award-winning and -nominated short stories, and also the Obsidian & Blood trilogy, published by Angry Robot Books. Matthew Hughes is the author, most recently, of the To Hell & Back trilogy, published by Angry Robot Books.