Today I'm talking to Rhona Long, the protagonist of MACHINATIONS and COUNTERPART. She's the leader of an underground resistance against a deadly machine uprising, and she is just the kind of badass you want on your side when the robots go wrong. A couple of months ago, I interviewed author Hayley Stone, but now I've managed to access an exclusive portal into the story world in order to ask Rhona a few questions.
Sarena Ulibarri: Okay, Rhona, here's something that's been bothering me. You and Samuel grew up in New Mexico (that's where I live — Go, Lobos!), and now you're stuck hiding in a bunker in Alaska while machines try to kill you. How do you cope without green chile? For most New Mexicans I know, that would be an apocalypse in and of itself. Rhona Long: Two words, my friend: memory loss. You can’t miss what you can’t remember, right? Though now you have me curious and… damn. Yep. Now you’ve got me hankering for this legendary chile. Thanks a lot. Though I guess that’s one good thing about having a faulty memory: you get to experience a lot of great things again for the first time. I’ll have to ask Samuel about it later. Watch him turn out to be a closet Mexican food fan. SU: How did it come to be that Alaska is the last holdout against the machines? RL: As much as I’d like to take the credit for it, everything was in place before I arrived. McKinley base was established by the US, as part of some continuity of government plan. Alaska was the perfect location because it’s so freaking cold. The ice messes with the machines, and the terrain gives their mobile units a lot of trouble. Plus, the mountain itself, Denali, protects the base from detection and aerial bombardment. So I guess you could say, paranoia, dumb luck, and the climate. That’s what’s saving the human race.
SU: The machines in your world are eliminating humans because they decided it was the logical way to stop human wars and cruelty. At least the TVs and DVD players will still obey your commands. What are your favorite films to watch while hiding out in your secret paramilitary base?
RL: Anything with Ewan McGregor. (Don’t tell Camus.) No, but seriously, Moulin Rouge is one of my favorites. What can I say? I’m a sucker for a good romance. Samuel’s also got me on a strict diet of old sci-fi and fantasy movies that he claims I used to love. He’s been right so far. All twelve of the Star Wars films were fun, and The Princess Bride always manages to lift my spirits. Zelda keeps trying to convince me to watch the second Terminator, but honestly the first one was enough. SU: Time for a serious question: You're a clone, resurrected from the DNA and memories of the original Rhona Long. What is it like to be the only clone in a world of non-clones, especially when humans are becoming an endangered species? RL: To be honest, I don’t think about being a clone as much now as I first did. I mean, I try not to, anyway. You ever hear the expression about carrying around a glass full of water? It’s like that. The longer you hold on to the glass, the heavier it gets, until finally it’s this crushing weight. It becomes all you think about. Better to set it down somewhere, and only pick it up when you really need a drink. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m done holding that glass of water, you know? I know what I am. I know who I am. If you’re asking me if I think that cloning is a solution to the genocide of the human race, I don’t know. I’ve never really considered it. But probably not. Clones come with a lot of emotional baggage. In case that wasn’t already obvious. SU: What's next for you and the other survivors? RL: I’m optimistic about a treaty between the North Americans factions, the Chinese, the North Koreans, and the New Soviets—I guess you’d still call them Russians in your world, huh? Politics be crazy, am I right? Such a coalition should strengthen humanity, divide the load, and make it easier to carry the burden of this conflict. I believe that together we can accomplish far more than we’ve managed to while apart. Whoa, sorry. Went into full Commander mode there for a second. Habit. Honestly, I’m just trying to take it one day at a time. Who knows what the future holds in store? Though now I’m hoping the answer is green chile... About the Author
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Hayley Stone has lived her entire life in sunny California, where the weather is usually perfect and nothing as exciting as a robot apocalypse ever happens. When not reading or writing, she freelances as a graphic designer, falls in love with videogame characters, and analyzes buildings for velociraptor entry points. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a minor in German from California State University, Sacramento. Counterpart is her second novel, and a choice for Amazon’s Best Sci-fi and Fantasy Books of the Month for October.
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At the 2014 MileHiCon, I went to a panel titled "So You Want to be in an Anthology." I expected this to be a discussion of how to find and submit to anthologies, tips for making it through the slush pile, maybe even methods for approaching anthology editors who don't hold open submissions sessions. There was a little bit of that, but what it turned out to be was an exclusive opportunity to submit to a charity anthology—the only ones allowed to submit to it were the people who attended the panel that day. The topic was "sidekicks": write a story in which the sidekick, rather than the hero, is the protagonist.
I was in town for MileHiCon, but I left the convention early because my dad had bought tickets for the Chihuly exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Chihuly is an artist who does elaborate large-scale glass sculptures such as the ones pictured here. They are often set up in parks, gardens, or historical monuments, working with the landscape to enhance the effect of the artwork. These glass sculptures were set up all through the Botanic Gardens, creating a beautiful and magical scene. In the visitor's center, they showed a documentary about the construction of these installations, and as I watched, I started thinking about the people who assist Chihuly in his wild, abstract creations. And then I realized that could be my "sidekick" protagonist: an artist's assistant (in space, of course). I keep a 6x4 notebook in my purse for just such flashes of inspiration, so I pulled it out and started scribbling notes. A few days after MileHiCon was over, I wrote out a first draft, and titled it "Regarding the Incident on the Yellow Planet." To the Ladies, Gentlemen and Non-binaries of the Interstellar Arts Council: Please, I can explain. I know it looks as though I am solely responsible for the sabotage of the largest royal art commission in the galaxy's history, and, well, that's partially true. But even villains must have their motivations, and I assure you, I am not the villain of this story. By the time you read this message, I will no longer be at the address of its origin. Oskar taught me well the importance of leaving no fingerprints behind.
The story was accepted into the anthology, and I was able to meet with a number of the other contributors at the 2015 MileHiCon to sign each others' books. For many of the contributors, this was their first published story. It was something like my 40th, but it's one of the more fun publication experiences I've had. Even better, each sale of Sidekicks in either ebook or paperback goes to benefit MileHiCon, an absolutely wonderful small science fiction and fantasy convention that I haven't missed a year of since I discovered it.
I've been pining for this book ever since I first heard it announced, and I was lucky enough to win an advance copy. It definitely lived up to all the hype! A Shadow Bright and Burning is like a Lovecraftian Harry Potter, with some shades of a not-as-graphic version of Penny Dreadful (it is YA, after all). It's dark and beautiful, with characters who will haunt your thoughts long after you set the book down.
Jessica Cluess was a year ahead of me in the Clarion Workshop; she attended in 2013 and I attended in 2014. Clarion has a history of turning out amazing and successful writers, and it's always exciting to see writers from recent classes making a name for themselves. Jessica was nice enough to talk with me today about her novel, her influences, and her favorite Clarion experiences.
Sarena Ulibarri: In a nutshell, what was the path from manuscript to publication for A SHADOW BRIGHT AND BURNING?
Jessica Cluess: After I finished editing, I queried the book for five months. One week after sending my query to him, the man who became my agent offered me representation. After that, we polished the manuscript for several months before finally putting it on submission. That was nerve-wracking, but I’m glad we worked on it for so long, because it hugely paid off. We had an offer after less than two weeks on sub, and went to auction after that. All told, it was nearly two years from the first day I sat down to write the book to the day we got the offer to publish. It seemed long at the time, but now it feels like a whirlwind. SU: What advice do you have for young writers who are struggling through the first draft of a fantasy novel? JC: Beyond anything else, especially when it’s fantasy, I say this: it’s better to write a galumphing, messy, weird draft that has something passionate and exciting on every page than it is to write a clean, perfectly constructed draft that you don’t feel anything for. It’s actually easier to edit the weird one, because at least you know the feelings you want to evoke. Bottom line: just get it done. You can’t edit until you’ve written. SU: What books, authors, or films most influenced you when writing A SHADOW BRIGHT AND BURNING? JC: My biggest influence was Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I describe it as Jane Austen’s Lord of the Rings, and it really is that. If you love a comedy of manners mixed with an outrageously interesting magical system, you’ll dig it. SU: What’s your favorite memory from the Clarion Workshop? JC: The water gun fight we had with Robert Crais and Kim Stanley Robinson. There is a picture of me shooting Stan in the back while he runs away that is among my top five favorite pictures of anything. SU: How many stories did you write at Clarion, and what became of them? JC: I wrote five stories, because during week one we reviewed one of my submission stories. The truth is, nothing much has yet come from those stories, largely because I’m not really a natural short fiction writer. A lot of the people in the program were already masters of the short story, so I had a lot of catching up to do. One of them has already won a Nebula for her short fiction! I may see if I can get a novel out of some of them; my stories always ran on the long side. SU: Do you have any readings or signings coming up? Where can readers find you? JC: Yes! I’ll be on tour the last week of October, in San Francisco, Denver, Salt Lake City and Austin. It’s going to be a whirlwind week! About the Author
Jessica Cluess is a writer, a graduate of Northwestern University, and an unapologetic nerd. After college, she moved to Los Angeles, where she served coffee to the rich and famous while working on her first novel. When she’s not writing books, she’s an instructor at Writopia Lab, helping kids and teens tell their own stories.
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Recently, Black Mirror Press released the anthology Snowpocalpyse: Tales from the End of the World, including my story "Breath Over the Mouth of a Bottle." I asked some of the other writers in this anthology to answer a three question interview about their story, their writing, and the worst snowstorm they've ever experienced. Turns out they're all witty and well-published, and their snowstorm memories will give you the chills. My own answers are at the bottom.
S.B. McCauley, "The Snow Woman"
1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
Trapped in a mummified body for decades, the spirit of Yuki-onna is set free and unleashes her winter wrath upon the world. 2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember? I live in Houston, Texas now — so snow storms don’t really happen here. However, I spent some time living in England and Virginia where I experienced some true snow. The worst snow and ice storm I can remember was when I lived in Virginia. Everything was shut down for a few days and the branches on the trees were so heavy with snow that huge branches broke and fell across our sidewalks. And the ice, which collected behind my car, was a few feet thick and couldn’t even be removed with an axe. We had to wait until it thawed to get my car out. I don’t miss the ice! 3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you? In addition to writing short stories, which are mostly supernatural and psychological horror, I’m working on longer works of middle grade fantasy. My current novel, entitled The Breaking, which was recently nominated for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Joan Lowry Nixon Award, is about a 12-year-old boy who has the power to break his entire world apart, but he wants nothing more than to save his non-magical family from slavery. Find S. B. McCauley Online: Website * Twitter * Facebook *Amazon * Wattpad Jennifer Loring, "The Wind Whispers, 'Witiko'"
1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
The disappearance of a man's unstable wife into the wilderness leads him to a legendary monster and the reason why the snow won't stop falling. 2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember? We've had some bad ones in the nine years I've lived in Philadelphia, but one of the worst happened just after my husband returned home from a trip with his friends. He had an allergic reaction that required a hospital trip — we lived close enough to walk, but all non-essential vehicles had been banned from the streets. It was eerie to walk through the city in the middle of the day in complete silence, with everything covered in white. We had to make our own paths through knee-deep snow that seemed like it was never going to end. 3. Where can readers find you? Find Jennifer Loring Online: Website * Twitter * Facebook * Amazon Walt Socha, "Let There Be Light"
1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
After a technical fix to global warming fails and plunges the world into a snow-covered apocalypse, a small band of ex-NASA survivors frantically search for a solution while under the scrutiny of their dystopian overlords. 2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember? I can’t remember any particular snowstorm, but I grew up in eastern Ohio (properly pronounced by us former natives as “Ah-hi-oh”) where several feet of snow is normal during the winter. But now-a-days, I live in the Pacific Northwest (Portland, OR) where a half-inch of snow brings civilization (and traffic) to a complete stop! 3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you? I’m a bit of a history buff, especially with regard to the factors that enable one civilization/culture to dominate others. In my first novel (Conflict coming out November 1st), I explore what happens when the knowledge of “guns, germs, and steel” (Yes, that is a spoiler reference to Jared Diamond’s famous non-fiction book) is introduced into 11th century North America. My elevator blurb for Conflict: While working on a dude ranch in present day Montana, Joe Kuruk saves a young girl from a club-wielding warrior. His confusion is intensified when he realizes that the girl, Alta, has crossed over from another time and place. And the only way to reunite her with her family is to cross back with her. Accompanied by a few friends, Joe crosses into Alta's world only to find her home destroyed by a savage war chief. Then the gate closes behind them. Stranded in the Eleventh Century, in the lands around the present day Susquehanna River, Joe and his band fight to create a safe home for the refugees they've gathered. And to prepare for future European contact. This is the first of a five book series. The second book, Contact, is due out February 1st, 2017. Find Walt Socha Online: Website * Twitter * Facebook * Newsletter Eddie Newton, "White"
1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
My short story, "White”, is about driving on an endless wintry road, tense with dread, surrounded by blizzard in every direction, when one slide of tire or slip of steering wheel can be the difference between two very different futures. 2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember? The winter of ‘96-‘97 in Fargo, ND was like one long snowstorm, a record eight feet of fluff accumulating over the season. Every time I drove down the streets of the city, I marveled at white walls cut into caverns like alabaster trenches as tall as trees. Every time I drove anywhere, I felt like an X-wing pilot on a mission to destroy the Death Star: “Stay on target. Stay on target!” 3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you? If you like political thrillers check out my e-novel, American Herstory, available on Amazon. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if women ran the world? (I mean officially. I know they already REALLY run the world.) It follows a D.C. cop in 2016 as she tries to prevent the assassination of the first MAN to run for President of the United States of America. John Palisano, "All These Things We Didn't Believe"
1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
In "All These Things We Didn't Believe," a father must beat near impossible odds, and a nearly unbeatable trio of creatures, to find his son. 2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember? I was very small, but in the winter of '78 my hometown of Norwalk, Connecticut had so much snow my grandfather and father and uncles made us massive tunnels through the snow drifts. I still hear echoes of their voices and our laughter. 3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you? Working on getting the next novel, as it always seems to be. Just released a Halloween mini-collection. Lots more coming out soon. www.johnpalisano.com DJ Tyrer, "Dead England"
1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
The final survivor of a nation consumed by winter is left wondering if there is anywhere to run to and, if he's alone, who's out there? 2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember? I remember winters as a child when the drifts were deep and the insides of the windows were covered in ice. Wonderful! 3. Where can readers find you? Find DJ Tyrer Online: Website * Facebook Matthew Shoen, "The Last Winter Buck"
1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
"The Last Winter Buck" essentially asks what if winter never ended in my hometown and what would my father do in that situation? The answer is he would stay, cut wood and make a living out of the inhospitable circumstances. 2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember? The worst snowstorm I remember was the Ice Storm of 1998 which left my house without power for two weeks and killed 35 people. 3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you? Readers can find some of my published works in anthologies published by ACA Books, Sixfold Magazine, and an upcoming Cryptid anthology published by Bards and Sages Publishing. Ron Wade, Cover Designer
1. Describe the SNOWPOCALYPSE cover in one sentence.
The cover is more a question than a story, what lies down that path, past the snow, beyond the trees? (The real stories of course; literally and metaphorically). 2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember? The worst (and best) snowstorm was the blizzard of ’78. I lived on my parent’s farm, only went to school about 5 days the entire month of February, and spent days either digging through the huge snow piles that had accumulated from clearing the LOOOONG driveway to the house or sledding the hill that fronted the house. The nights, well reading some of the stories in the book brought back memories (at least in my 14 year old imagination) of the nights. 3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you? I am working on a couple projects, I have another cover for Ian page set, and waiting for release, have been talking to Clint Collins [of Black Mirror Press] about a couple of projects. Aside from covers I have a line of zombie targets that just released, each zombie with their own unique backstory, and am working on motion graphic pieces that dovetail into those products. You can see what I am up to at: ourzombieapocalypse.com Sarena Ulibarri, "Breath Over the Mouth of a Bottle"
1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
Aliens from a snowy planet are trying to terraform Earth, and a girl trapped in a snow-buried house with her dysfunctional family is the last human holdout that might be able to stop them. 2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember? I've spent a lot of my life in Colorado, and it used to be that they never cancelled school or shut anything down until the snowplow got stuck. (Now, well, every storm gets called a snowpocalypse.) The worst I remember was probably in the early 2000s during Spring Break, when my dad, my cousin, and I got snowed in with no power for several days. Though the characters and conflicts are different, I pulled quite directly from that experience for my Snowpocalypse story. 3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you? You've found me! I hope you'll poke around and read some of my other blogs, and check out my other published stories and the small press I run. I'm always working on several short stories in various stages of disarray, and there's that science fiction novel I keep giving up on and coming back to. Thanks for reading these three question interviews!
From now until September 28, 2016, you can enter to win one of three copies of STARWARD TALES, a collection of short stories, poems, and visual art retelling legends, myths, and fairy tales as science fiction. This collection, published last month, features my story "As Dust Rolls Toward the Mountain," a Cassandra retelling set in the Colorado mountains as an asteroid hits the Earth.
(What's the Cassandra myth? Read about it here.) Other contributors include Danielle Airola, Francis W. Alexander, Patrick Baker, Lana Bella, Kimberly Y. Choi, Rachel Cohen, Jennie deBie, CB Droege, Josh Gaines, Ashleigh Gauch, Bob Hilger, Andrew J Lucas, JBMulligan, John Reinhart, Nick Romeo, Monica Rose Song, Marcelle Thiébaux. Goodreads Book GiveawayStarward Talesby C.B. DroegeGiveaway ends September 28, 2016. See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
I set up this giveaway, so I'll scribble a little autograph next to my story. If you don't win (or you don't do Goodreads), the book is available on Amazon for $9.99 in paperback or only $2.99 in ebook (or free if you're on Kindle Unlimited).
Many thanks to everyone who has ever taken the time to read any of my stories. If you enjoyed any of them, leave a little note on Amazon or Goodreads so others might be able to find them, too.
Many thanks to Scott Woodward and Clint Collins of Black Mirror Press for including my story "Breath Across the Mouth of a Bottle" in their debut anthology, SNOWPOCALYPSE: TALES OF THE END OF THE WORLD. It's available now from Amazon in both ebook and paperback.
The full table of contents: "White" by Eddie Newton "The Last Winter Buck" by Matthew Shoen "The Wind Whispers, 'Witiko'" by Jennifer Loring "Dead England" by DJ Tyrer "The Snowman" by Llanwyre Laish "Snoe" by Mark Lynch "The Snow Woman" by Susan McCauley "All These Things We Didn’t Believe" by John Palisano "Thaw" by David Sakmyster "Locusts in the Snow" by Richard Barber "Breath Across the Mouth of a Bottle" by Sarena Ulibarri "Snow and Ashes" by Zoe McAuley "Let There Be Light" by Walt Socha "The Snow" by Cheryl Pearson "St. Michael’s Parish" by Nicole Shelton "A Chill Subterfuge" by Barry Rosenberg "Snow Day!" by Clint Mesle
I look forward to seeing how other writers interpreted the theme of this anthology. Here's a brief excerpt of my story, "Breath Across the Mouth of a Bottle," which is part Weird Horror, part Science Fiction.
My dad and my cousin Brooke were fighting about the thermostat just before the power went out. Rather than weather the blizzard alone, I had abandoned my apartment and come to my dad’s house, and had convinced Brooke to do the same.
And look! Black Mirror Press made this awesome creepy book trailer. Check it out:
Today, I'm excited to participate in the cover reveal for Julia Ember's new YA Fantasy TIGER'S WATCH, coming August 2017 from Harmony Ink Press. I'm totally bummed that this is a full year away from being on my shelf, because it sounds amazing. Julia Ember is one of the amazing authors who has really heeded the call of "We Need Diverse Books" by writing compelling and beautiful fantasy with LGBT+ characters in settings that draw from cultural sources other than Medieval Europe. If you haven't picked up her first novel UNICORN TRACKS yet, I highly recommend it.
Sixteen-year-old Tashi has spent their life training as an inhabiter, a soldier who spies and kills using a bonded animal. When the capital falls after a brutal siege, Tashi flees to a remote monastery to hide. But when the invading army turns the monastery into a hospital, Tashi catches the eye of Xian, the regiment’s fearless young commander. About the Author
Originally from the Windy City, Julia Ember now resides in Sunny Scotland where she learned to enjoy both haggis and black pudding. She spends her days working as a professional Book Nerd for a large book distribution firm, and her nights writing YA Romantic Fantasy novels.
A world traveler since childhood, Julia has now visited over 60 countries. Her travels inspire the fictional worlds she writes about and she populates those worlds with magic and monsters. Find her online at julia-ember.com or @jules_chronicle.
The anthology STARWARD TALES is now available, featuring my science fiction Cassandra retelling, "As Dust Rolls Toward the Mountains." STARWARD TALES is a collection of short stories, poems, and visual art retelling legends, myths, and fairy tales as science fiction, published by Manawaker Studio.
Below is an excerpt of my story, "As Dust Rolls Toward the Mountains." This story was originally published in Kasma SF Magazine in April 2014, and I'm thrilled that editor CB Droege thought it was a good fit to reprint in STARWARD TALES. It will be a real treat to receive the physical copy of this book (though of course, it's also available in ebook). Apparently there will also be an audiobook version? I'll post about that when more details are available.
Cassie went blind the day before the asteroid struck. There had been no warnings from NASA or the White House, just as Cassie's loss of sight had not been foreshadowed by blurriness or headaches. Once blind, though, Cassie warned our mountain town about the asteroid. No one believed her, of course.
If you pick up a copy of STARWARD TALES, please leave an honest review! Books without reviews tend to sink into Amazon's black holes. Help keep this one sailing through space?
I took as many classes from Stephen Graham Jones as I could while I was at CU Boulder. Though probably best known for his new novel Mongrels, Stephen has a ridiculously long list of short fiction publications, many of which are very short flash or experimental pieces. One night I went to a faculty reading, where he shared a brilliant little flash story, and admitted afterward that he had written it during the commercial break while watching Star Trek. After his section of the reading was over, he sat in the back of the room and scribbled a brand new story while one of the other professors read. As a graduate student trying to balance classes, teaching, writing, and life, it was both frustrating and inspirational to see how he could squeeze writing in anytime and anywhere. So I decided to write a story on my bus ride home from that faculty reading. I would start it as soon as I sat down on the bus, and make sure I wrapped it up before my stop. “It Pours” is that story. This was still during the time when I was mostly using idiomatic expressions as prompts for stories (see my “Working Like a Dog” post for more on this), and so this title comes from the phrase “When it rains, it pours.” The first drops fell before I noticed the clouds that had gathered in the corner of my bedroom. I heard them, a slow drip that I attributed to a leaky faucet, or to an overflowing bathtub from the upstairs neighbors that I heard fighting all the time. But when I dragged my eyes up to the ceiling, straining, my whole face pulled by the effort of it, I saw the cumulus bunched into the corner like a clump of dust. I watched it spread across my ceiling. Drops plunked on pant legs, dripped off my arms. I laid straight as a corpse on the bed and let it happen, until every inch was soaked. A few months after "It Pours" appeared in The Cafe Irreal, I investigated a strange URL that was sending traffic to my website, and discovered that someone had translated this story into Vietnamese and posted it on some kind of Vietnamese online magazine. I know unauthorized translations are a big problem for some writers, but considering that I was paid a token amount for the original, and the Vietnamese site was nice enough to include my bio and link to my website, I couldn’t really complain. Google Translate tells me the way they translated the title meant “Rain in the Room.” I’ve lost the link now, or maybe they’ve taken it down, but it was kind of fun to know that this strange magic realist story I wrote on a bus ride found a few fans in an unexpected place. I often think that I need long hours and perfect conditions to get any writing done, but I need to remember one of Stephen Graham Jones' biggest lessons: there are dozens of pauses in each day that could be filled with words.
Today is release day for my anthology Speculative Story Bites, and I'm fully aware that most of the people in my life have no idea what I actually do as an editor and publisher. My colleague and friend Rhonda Parrish also wrote a great blog on this topic, answering the question, “So like, you just fix all the typos and then you get to have your name on the cover?”
The short answer: no, that's not what an anthology editor does at all. First of all, this particular anthology is a bit of an oddball. Before I took over as editor-in-chief of World Weaver Press, I was reading submissions for another anthology we were supposed to publish. It was, however, to be the third in a series of anthologies, and when the plug got pulled on the second in that series, I couldn't exactly go ahead with publishing the third. Speculative Story Bites contains several stories I salvaged from that submissions period, several I salvaged from the other cancelled project, and several that I solicited directly from World Weaver Press authors. It's a bit of a mish-mash of stories, but I adore each and every one of them, and I hope readers will find at least a few they love. Most anthologies don't have that kind of complicated background, but this one is pretty special to me because it does. So what does an anthology editor do? Without going into too much technical detail, here are the basic steps that an editor and/or publisher has to go through to bring an anthology to your bookshelf or Kindle.
Conceive a Theme or Angle
Since an anthology is a collection of short stories by various authors, it is usually centered around a theme. That theme may be broad—the theme of Speculative Story Bites is "speculative fiction under 4000 words"—or it may be narrow-- for example, Rhonda Parrish's anthology Corvidae is focused on fantasy stories about crows, magpies, and other "corvid" birds, and Kate Wolford's anthology Frozen Fairy Tales is all about fairy tale retellings set in winter. At this point, the editor and publisher must also decide on guidelines for writers, including how long or short a story can be, what genres are acceptable, and how much writers will be paid. Solicit Stories or Open for Submissions Soliciting means approaching authors individually to ask if they are willing to contribute a story. Opening to public submissions requires posting the guidelines to market websites such as Duotrope and Submission Grinder, sharing the call for submissions on social media, passing around handbills at conventions, hanging flyers in hipster coffee shops, or however else you plan to reach writers. Read Slush and Send Rejections or Acceptances "Slush" refers to the stories from a public open submission period. For the anthology that Speculative Story Bites was originally supposed to be, we received nearly 350 submissions. Some, I only read the first few paragraphs and could tell they were either not well-crafted, or not right for my vision. Others, I had to read multiple times to decide. Most stories received a copy-and-pasted form rejection, but some received personalized feedback about why they were not accepted. Narrow Down the Shortlist Once I picked the stories that were well-crafted and fit my vision, then came the gut-wrenching decisions about which ones to actually include. Maybe some are too similar to each other, maybe one just didn't fit as well as I thought, maybe another wasn't as memorable. These are the rejections I really hate to send. Usually at World Weaver Press, we seek a second opinion from another editor to help with this stage. For Speculative Story Bites, I had help from assistant editor Laura Harvey, as well as then-intern Rae Oestreich. Issue Contracts and Payments Payment terms should already be included in the submission guidelines, so writers know what to expect, but there are important details that need to be agreed upon about when payment will be issued, as well as what rights the publisher has to the story and for how long. Edit the Stories There are three stage of editing: 1) Developmental Editing: "This plot point doesn't make sense." 2) Line Editing: "This sentence doesn't make sense." 3) Copy Editing: "This comma shouldn't be here." The way I prefer to do it, the primary editor for a book does the first two, and someone else (another editor or an intern) does the third. That means the very thing that most people associate with "editing" is not even the responsibility of the editor whose name is on the cover of an anthology. Arrange the Stories There's an art to deciding which story goes first or last in an anthology, and how to order them throughout for balance and emotional impact. Format the Book Often, this responsibility falls to the publisher rather than the editor, but since I'm both for this anthology, it's all on me. Formatting an ebook uses HTML markup language, and looks something like this inside:
Speculative Story Bites will not be available in paperback, but for anthologies that are, it requires a separate document designed according to the printer's specifications. Here, we get to have tons of fun with headers, section breaks, margins, kerning, leading, gutters, and various other typographical details that most people don't even realize exist.
Create Cover Art Again, this is not usually the editor's responsibility, but the editor may at least have to contribute ideas or feedback on cover options. I made the silly little cover for Speculative Story Bites myself, and it was much simpler than the covers I made for Campaign 2100, Char, and Murder in the Generative Kitchen, largely because it is ebook only. Creating a full-wrap cover for a paperback is much more complicated. (We don't even mess with hardbacks...) Upload to Bookselling Venues Our books are sold at Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, Kobo, and sometimes iTunes and Omnilit. Each one has slightly different requirements and systems. iTunes, for example, won't accept any file that includes Amazon links. Omnilit needs the cover to be a certain number of pixels. Amazon requires a different file format than all the others. Aside from just uploading the file and hitting "publish," this stage also requires selecting appropriate keywords and categories, and making sure the book description and author names all show up correctly. Market the Book Once you've created an anthology, you still have to convince people to read it. This involves some combination of sending copies to review outlets, bloggers, and street teams, hosting giveaways, sending out email newsletters, attending conventions, participating in blog tours, social media posting, paid advertising (preferably with effective venues such as Bookbub or EReaderNewsToday), and various other types of voodoo. I hope this has provided some insight into how an anthology gets put together, and why an editor or anthologist may give you a death glare if you assume it's all about typos, Have questions? Leave a comment!
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