Be sure to tell us whether you’d prefer to your copy in PDF, MOBI (Kindle), EPUB (Nook , Sony Reader, Kobo, Stanza) or other digital format, and don’t forget to include a valid email address so we can contact you!

The Fine Print/Rules: Giveaway closes midnight on July 30, 2011 or whenever 25 comments have been posted. Winners will receive one digital copy of the ebook, in the format of their choice. One entry per person. Comments must include a valid response to the question “Why do you want a copy of this ebook?”; comments that do not address this question will not be considered for the giveaway and may be deleted (including spam, auto-generated responses and comments such as “Comment”). Winners will be added to our mailing list for future ebook promotions and website news, and will be able to opt out at any time.

A good one to consider: The 2011 Collagist Chapbook Contest only costs $15 to enter ($20 if you’d like a copy of the winning chapbook), and the winner will receive $250 plus 25 author copies. Entries are due by April 15, and will be judged by Collagist editor Matt Bell. For full details, be sure to check their website here.

Another great contest with an Austin connection is the Texas Observer‘s first annual Short Story Prize. Guest judged by Larry McMurtry (the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove), and with a prize of $1,000 plus publication, this contest costs $25 to enter (or $35 if you’d like a critique from their Fiction Editor, David Duhr), and is well worth the entry fee. Entries are due May 1, and Texas themes are encouraged, so what are you waiting for?

Encourage a young writer–or yourself!–and enter a couple of writing contests today.

Like any good magazine, Black Heart was formerly a print journal. When costs became prohibitive and staff spent more time selling magazines than writing or editing, we abandoned the concept and began printing online. But guess what? We still have issues, as you can see in our Store. Digital ones. And we’d like to make more, but we need your help.

Submit to the NOIR issue!

Black is back. Actually, black never left, though many have tried to claim various shades as the “new black.” At Black Heart, we’ve always known darkness, like spilled ink or a night without stars. We like it best with the lights out and the projector humming with a good, old-fashioned noir.

Help us create our NOIR issue, an homage to the days of yore, with a play on old-timey dames and gumshoes pussyfooting their way around a great big mystery. Send us your Sam Spades, your Maltese falcons, your Vincent Price bad guys typing in bathtubs and, of course, your femme fatales.

Give us mystery, suspense, guns and girls. Give us a new twist on the old black-and-whites we can quote line for line. (Oh, and check out the film noir Wikipedia page if you need a little inspiration, see?)

Our excellent, crime-fiction-lovin’ GUEST EDITOR Jimmy Callaway will determine whether you’re hard enough to be featured in our issue, based on his tough-as-nails, no-nonsense approach, so give us only your best work.

We’re looking for the following:

FLASH – 800 words or less

POETRY – up to 3 pieces per author

ARTWORK – original drawings, photos, paintings & more inspired by our theme (up to 3 images)

Items selected for inclusion will be published as the first of our new digital issues, quarterly themed events that will be available for digital download on the website starting in June 2011. Issues will be run separately from general submissions and feature up to 10 artists whose work we love.

DEADLINE: April 30, 2011

TO SUBMIT: Click here!

Questions? Contact us. Otherwise? Good luck, and godspeed, you fabulous noir fans!

Dear Artists: Suck a fuck! Love, Gov. Perry

I guess that’s why Perry, in his economic genius, has decided that arts programs don’t deserve the piddling $5.1 million they’ll be allotted over the next 2 years by the state budget. Makes sense, when you need to slash and burn funding in order to achieve your $27 billion deficit, right?

Yeah, that’s millions compared to billions, for those of you paying attention. Looks like someone needs to learn the meaning of all those placeholding zeroes, cus their New Math isn’t adding up.

Got a problem with Perry’s calculations? Sick of the same-old knee-jerk response to cutting arts funding whenever the going gets tough? Why not write Mr. Man a strongly-worded email! As his office allegedly “welcome[s] your comments and concerns,” you might as well let your voice be heard. Here’s the link (which also features Perry’s mailing address and phone number, in case you like to do things the old-fashioned way): http://governor.state.tx.us/contact/

Happy trails!

Perhaps you’ve seen the video?

Cheeky still from Amanda Fucking Palmer's "Map of Tasmania" video (click for YouTube)

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should watch it. This little ditty is inspiring revolutionary thoughts in our brains, in some very good ways. Please note that while the song is, indeed, about the hair on your vulva, and whether or not you ought to shave it off to “look like an 8-year-old,” it also contains the brilliant line:

They don’t know that we are the media.

This is fantastic. Why? Because it’s true. Bloggers, independent artists, anybody who scribbles their thoughts on a wall or painstakingly stencils them in the dark of night across a corporate billboard:

WE ARE THE MEDIA.

The media isn’t just a bunch of stuffy old white dudes sitting in a conference room trying to figure out what to spoon-feed us next. WE decide, and WE control the content just as much as they do.

Remember that next time you’re wondering why everything sucks and the world is full of hipster-douches who just want to sit back and spout off about how they could’ve done it all better. You can, and you should. We are the media, and if you don’t like what you see, you should turn it off and start your own artistic rebellion.

—The Media