Fool's gold: Margaret Atwood reported to be starting a SF magazine. Yeah, right.

My favourite magazine-related April Fool's gag this year was the report that novelist Margaret Atwood is to launch a new science fiction magazine called Loquacious Cephalopod. It was reported with a straight face by the apparently legitimate website Locus Online, based in California.

There were clues that this wasn't for real -- not least being the name of the author, L. Ron Creepweans and the fact that the item was tagged with the category "April 1st". Plus the name of the magazine was a giveaway, as was the suggestion that the Canada Council for the Arts and the Scotiabank Giller Prize were helping to underwrite the title. 

Atwood is quoted saying

“I’ve always been gratified by the unconditional love I’ve received from the science fiction community for works such as The Handmaid’s Tale and The Blind Assassin, and Loquacious Cephalopod is a way to return that love"