One Story has been accepting submissions online pretty much since our launch. We chose this route because it allows us better tracking of submissions and saves writers the expense of printing and mailing their work. It also saves quite a bit of paper.

For the past year or so, Devin Emke, the developer of our system, has been working with the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) to develop a customizable version for other literary magazines. We’re pleased to announce that Submission Manager is now available for sale at CLMP’s web site. Several magazines (Fence, Jubilat, and Ploughshares) are already using the system, and quite a few others will be coming online soon.

We’re so proud of this product and can’t wait to show it off. CLMP will be hosting demonstrations in their offices this fall. If you’d like to be invited to these, or if you’ve got questions about Submission Manager, send an email to submgr@one-story.com.

Recently One Story published its first robot story, and you wouldn’t believe the volume of scrawled-on-invoice positive responses to it. Turns out Paul Maliszewski is not the only one with automatons on the brain.

Enter “The Upgrade”, a futuristic glimpse into the socio-mechanical problems of tomorrow. Where today engineers are pushing polygons in video games past the acceptable “realistic” benchmarks, tomorrow they are surely upgrading the semantic capabilities of machines nearly human. Can you imagine the implications of being able to communicate as well with your machines as with other humans?

Check out Karl’s robotics page, or his website detailing his latest novel.

Valerie Trueblood, author of One Story issue #35, “The Magic Pebble” has recently published her first novel, Seven Loves. Seven Loves has been chosen by Barnes & Noble for their Discover Great New Writers program for Fall 2006. Seven Loves also received a rave review this past week in the San Francisco Chronicle, which said, “Trueblood has a poet’s eye and ear for description, and she is masterful in bringing uncanny intensity and focus to fragments of experience.” Congratulations, Valerie!

Featured in L Magazine’s First Annual Fiction Issue is Patrick Somerville, author of One Story Issue #28. You can find his short story “The Unrealized Subversive Fantasies of a Medium Pizza” online or in an L Magazine on a corner near you.

One Story is now hosting a blog at our website, www.one-story.com. For a long time we’ve been hearing that our readers are looking for a way to discuss One Story online. And here it is! Every three weeks, our editor Hannah Tinti will post a message about the current story, and visitors to the site can then add their own comments. So come by after you’ve read the new issue and let us know what you think.

We’ll also use this space to keep in touch with past One Story authors. Katie Sexton, our main blogger, will let you know where they’re reading, when their books hit bookstores, and if they’re involved in any other exciting pursuits. We’ll talk about the One Story reading series, the role of women in publishing, and also discuss current literature, particularly the world of the short story, and the readers who love them.

We hope you’ll join us at www.one-story.com/blog.

-Maribeth Batcha & Hannah Tinti

Alan DeNiro’s short story collection, Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead, which includes One Story issue #22, “Child Assassin” is a Booksense pick for August! Alan is also doing a reading on August 29th, at 6:30 pm at Dreamhaven Books, 912 W Lake Street, Minneapolis MN 55408. To find out more, visit Alan’s weblog at: www.goblinmercantileexchange.com.

Alix Ohlin’s short story collection, Babylon & Other Stories was just given a great review in The New York Times Book Review.

BRNNR, Austin, TX