Today, we’re joined by Elyse Leskovic, one of the editors of Baubles From Bones – a zine publishing stories from aspiring fantasy and sci-fi authors. Elyse is here to tell us more about the zine and how it all started….

Baubles from Bones began on a damp Wednesday in October.  I walked through the door of my apartment, took off my shoes, and entered a business with my friends all in the span of ten minutes. I remember the scene: Shane sitting in the armchair, smugly grinning. I was untying my boot laces when Joel said, “So hey, what do you think about starting a magazine?” And while I’m a chronic overthinker, there were no second thoughts. We set a date and built our concept at a coffee shop; drew a logo, scrapped it, drew another, scrapped that too, drew one more; dedicated our Wednesdays henceforth, forevermore, to zine meetings. Now, after many Wednesdays, here we are: a little but proud team of four (with the addition of Caroline, our social media manager) manning the ship of an SFF magazine in the wild waters of independent publishing. 

         At first, we struggled to pin what we were looking for. We knew we wanted fantasy, we wanted sci-fi, we wanted imagination—but from what niche? As creatives, we bring different angles to the table. I bring my love for poetry and romantics; Joel brings his love for the intergalactic and zany; and Shane brings his love of politics and rich language. We share multiple interests, but what were we looking for so much that we decided to make our own magazine?

         The overlooked. The little and quirky that offer sometimes piecemeal, sometimes paramount, themes. The authors that maybe hadn’t yet been given a lot of page-space. Stories with protagonists of all kinds and worlds, with magnanimous conflicts as well as the finitismal. We want the stories from deep inside ourselves, that help us laugh and feel less alone. We like our stories as nostalgic as the baubles you lose in couch cushions, and as telling as your own bones—hence, our name. Baubles From Bones.  

         Our first submissions window was open for a month. We thought we’d get about two-hundred submissions, maybe more (if we were lucky). We closed the window with just under five-hundred, and loved enough that we were able to plan our first two issues simultaneously.

         The stories we chose for Issue #1 are tales of adventure, finding oneself, or searching for a missing piece—much like us, fledgeling business owners, magazine editors, and twenty-somethings. Issue #2 is more centered around the highs and lows of grief. We don’t open our submissions with a certain theme in mind. The first thing we look for in our submissions is heart, then narrative quality. The pieces we find where those two characteristics sing are pieces that make it to the worst meeting in our whole process: the weeding meeting. The meeting where we deliberate and decide what we’ll publish, and what we won’t; where we have to send good stories to the cutting floor because we don’t have the budget (yet) to publish more than ten at a time. But, once we have the stories and poems we can’t part with, we find their common threads and then weave our theme. We hope that after our second submission window closes on July 31st, we’ll have enough submissions again to fuel Issue #3 and #4.

         That is the goal, for now: make it to Issue #4. And after Issue #4, make it to #5, and #6, and so on and on. We want to produce a quarterly, quality SFF magazine for as long as we can. We want our little community of four friends to extend to our authors and readers, because there’s no time like today to come together, and what facilitates that better than telling stories? What reminds us, better than a story, of who we are, who we want to be, and what we mean to each other?

         And, on top of such a nebulous and romantic goal, we just want to prove that independents like us can make and sustain a magazine. We are self-funded and wholly independent, and any money we make on sales goes right back into the coffer for the next issue. We want our magazines to prove that the little guys can do it, that the little guys have great stories to tell. From Joel, Caroline, Shane, and I, we really thank the authors and readers who have given us a chance so far, and hope you’ll give our magazine a chance, too.  

         Baubles From Bones: Issue #1 released in May of 2024 and is available for digital and physical purchase. Issue #2 releases on September 4th. 

Find out more on the website