Update 4/4/13

It's been a long year, and I apologize for the delays. I think we've finally received enough good entries to really start piecing together a good publication.

I've also decided to start accepting nonfiction articles about retrofuturism and topics that relate to it. So send those as well, using AP style with the subject "nonfic" plus name.

Thanks everyone for your patience.

Cheers,
J Boone Dryden
Managing Editor

Debut Issue

Hello everyone!

I know you're probably anxiously awaiting the debut issue of The RetroFuture Engine. We're still waiting -- that's the short, short version.

I want this to be good and in the wanting, I am being picky about the first stories that get put to print. So far I've only done two rejections. That means if I still have your story, it's still in the running; it just might not be in the first issue (and I'll send you a note on that soon).

We're hoping to do something for Christmas -- i.e., a Winter issue -- that will set us up to have a Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall schedule. That will mean a slight shift in our reading period, and I'll post that as soon as we figure that out.

Please do send us your material. We are still looking for great Retrofuturistic pieces.

Dream on!

J Boone Dryden

Open for submissions!

The RetroFuture Engine needs fuel!

Send us your most polished, most engaging, and most inventive stories!

We're looking for pieces between 750 and 6000 words. Check out our Guidelines for what we want, and our Submissions for how we want it.

Send your submissions to specficeditor@gmail.com with "Submission: {title}" in your subject line.

Ready the fuel!

Just a little something to tease you! The RetroFuture Engine is about to get revved up.

"Retrofuturism is about contemplative nostalgia. There is a sense of longing in it for the days when technology was looked upon with optimism, and people were polite -- sometimes to a fault. It hearkens back to a time of great improvements in the quality of life, too, and we owe much to their ingenuity for the way we live today.

Retrofuturism is also about re-imagining the past's future. It's about technology and societies and sheds a new light on what would have been, what could have been, or what should have been, had there only been the right person there to set the world on a different path. It's about the world of the past from the eyes of the present.

The past of Retrofuturism, though, is also one of oppression, repression, and suppression. Entire cultures were forced into submission, some were beaten into quietude, and yet more were pushed into obscurity. It is a time period that, with our modern outlook, we look back on and see strange, shocking, and even enlightening mirrors of our own struggles in life.

For our tastes, Retrofuturism covers the end of Romanticism with clockwork stories; the grandeur and innovation of the Industrial Revolution with Steampunk and Gaslight Fantasy; and through to the combustion engine with Dieselpunk. Consider it 1780 to 1920.

The RetroFuture Engine is a magazine of introspection and investigation. It is about technology, societies, cross-cultures and counter-cultures, and pushing beyond parasols and goggles. It is a magazine that welcome adventures that remind us of Edisonades, safari stories, and fantastic voyages. It is a publication of bold color and strong character.

Give us your best and your worst!"