Last year, Upper Rubber Boot Books ran a Kickstarter for an anthology of solarpunk stories, and backers (like me!) got to see the cover art before the rest of the world. If you saw my announcement last Monday, you'll understand that I have a very strong interest in this emerging science fiction subgenre. There's a lot of discussion about what solarpunk is or isn't, but the truth is there just hasn't been enough written to set the tropes and expectations yet. Some of what has been called "climate fiction" could be called solarpunk as well, if it presents an optimistic view of the future (which much of it does not). How do Sunvault editors Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Christopher Wieland define solarpunk? Here's from the Sunvault website: Solarpunk follows in the tradition of steampunk and cyberpunk as the embodiment of a counterculture ideology: innovating a way of life that is better for the present and ultimately better for the future. Concepts like clean energy and sustainability are integral to solarpunk as they are outlets for societal reform. The fight for positive change is where -punk comes into play. Sunvault will contain stories by Jaymee Goh, Lev Mirov, Kristine Ong Muslim, Daniel José Older, Nisi Shawl, Bogi Takács, Lavie Tidhar, A.C. Wise, and a whole bunch of others. Ready to see the cover? Here it is: Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation will be available August 29, 2017 from Upper Rubber Boot Books. You can follow them at their blog or social media for updates.
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A few weeks ago, a friend asked me for some advice about how to submit short stories to magazines and anthologies, so I'm sharing the advice I gave her with the world. If you're a new writer who's just stepping a toe into the world of publishing, or if you've gotten lucky with a few markets but don't really understand how the whole thing works, then this article is for you. This advice about submitting short stories is primarily for those writing fantasy and science fiction, as some of the details may differ if you write literary (for example, many literary markets allow simultaneous submissions while SFF do not), but no matter what genre you're working with, this six step sequence can help point you in the right direction. And who am I to give this advice? No one, really, but I've published approximately 35 short stories (many of them very short), ranging from non-paying and token markets all the way up to professional and prize-winning. According to Duotrope, I've sent out 535 submissions in the last six years. I'm also an editor who has read a good deal of slush for both magazines and anthologies over the last five years. Want to submit short stories to magazines or anthologies? Here's your six step sequence. First of all, is your story ready to submit? Have you had your critique group or beta readers look at it, and implemented as many of their suggestions as fit your vision for the story? Have you teased out every possible specific detail about these characters, this setting, this situation, as you can fit into the space of a short story? Have you read it out loud to listen for clunky sentences, word echoes, stilted dialog? Have you let it sit for a couple of days (or even weeks) and then read it again with fresh eyes? Is it absolutely the best you can do at this moment in time? If you answered no to any of the above, stop right now, and stop thinking about publication. Maybe it needs another rewrite, or five. Maybe you just need to write a different story. Or five. Second, research the markets. Decide what matters to you. Do you want to be paid professional rates, or are you okay with less? Do you want a paper copy, or do you prefer online publication? Do you want to be in a well-established publication, or do you want to take a chance on something newer? Market listings such as Duotrope.com, the Submission Grinder, and Ralan.com are excellent search engines that can help you discover new markets and narrow down the ones that are looking for the kind of story you’re writing. To find anthologies, visit small press websites (or follow them on social media) to watch for anthology announcements, and skim Kickstarter for anthologies that may still be taking submissions. Always visit the magazine or anthology’s website, and be sure to read the submission guidelines. Avoid any market that charges a submission fee*, and watch for red flags such as asking for exclusive rights. After you look at a dozen or so submission guidelines, you’ll have an excellent sense for what’s normal and what’s not. (*Submission fees are more common and accepted for literary markets, but are anathema in genre fiction. Contests are different, but should still be treated skeptically, especially if the entry fee is high.) Third, once you’ve decided which markets you’d like to submit to, read them. If you’re looking at anthologies, pick up another anthology by that editor or publishing house. If you’re looking at magazines, pick up their latest issue. Most magazines are available online, but you can also go camp out at your local Barnes and Noble to look at paper issues of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine, Asimov’s, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, and a few others. Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons and many others have podcasts you can download to listen to while you drive, walk the dog, or eat lunch. However you do it, make sure you’ve read at least a few stories in a magazine before you send yours there. You don’t have to read all of them cover-to-cover, but read enough to get a sense of what they value in a story, and if they’re publishing stories like the ones you’re writing. Even if your story is great, the editor won’t take it unless it’s also a great fit. Fourth, use Standard Manuscript Format (unless otherwise specified) and submit the story according to the market's guidelines along with a brief cover letter. Do not describe your story in the cover letter. The cover letter should be very short, and include the story’s title, word count, any previous publications or writing education you may have, and a “thank you” for their time. Don’t have any publications or writing education? No problem, just leave that part out. Do not apologize for having none, or offer any rationalizations or frustrations about it. Simply omit. If you have other education or life experience that relates to the content of your story, you can also include that. For example, if you are writing hard science fiction about space travel and you have a PhD in physics, say so. Or, if you are queer and so is your character, you can let the editor know the story is #OwnVoices. Here’s the standard cover letter I have sent out for years: Dear [Magazine Title] Editors, That’s really it. A cover letter is not a query letter (which you need for submitting a novel). It is simply a polite introduction that says “Here’s my story, thanks for taking a look.” Fifth, practice Rejectomancy (and abandon all hope). You can keep track of your submissions at Duotrope or the Submission Grinder, which will let you see the average response times for markets. Most science fiction and fantasy markets do not allow simultaneous submissions, so you’ll need to wait until you hear back from the first one before submitting the same story to the second one (and so on). If you know that Asimov’s, for example, takes an average of 100 days to respond, but Clarkesworld takes an average of two days to respond, that can help you plan which markets to submit to first, and help allay your anxieties as you wait for that response. If you haven’t already, start writing a new story. Sixth, when that dreaded rejection comes in, move on to the next market on your list, make sure to follow their guidelines (which may differ slightly from the last one), and submit the story to that magazine or anthology. Keep submitting until you run out of places you would be proud to see your work in. The pro-markets are great, but there are a lot of semi-pros and token markets that do a great job as well. Or, if the editors were nice enough to give you personalized feedback, you may want to do another pass through the story and incorporate their suggestions. Unfortunately, you can’t resubmit it to the same magazine or anthology unless the editor specifies that they’d like you to (called a "revise and resubmit"). If their response is an acceptance rather than a rejection, then do a happy dance, sign the contract (after reading it closely), make sure you get paid, and always share the news with your friends and social media followers when the story is released. And then, if you haven’t already, submit your next story. As part of the Apex Revive the Drive subscription drive campaign, I have the privilege of interviewing Apex Magazine managing editor Lesley Connor. I'll admit I haven't read every issue of Apex, but every time I dip into it, I find a new favorite, and some of my all-time favorite short stories have been published there, stories such as "Jackalope Wives" by Ursula Vernon, "Frozen Planet" by Marian Womack, "Paskutinis Iliuzija (The Last Illusion)" by Damien Angelica Walters, and of course "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love" by Rachel Swirsky. Apex stories are always dark and gorgeous, and stay with you long after you hit the end. The Apex Subscription Drive runs until April 17, 2017, and features some very cool perks. See the full details here. Sarena Ulibarri: The aesthetic of Apex Magazine has surely changed and evolved over the years and under different editors. What are some of the stories you feel best define the current Apex aesthetic? Lesley Conner: This is a fantastic question! And also a really hard one to answer because it isn’t as simple listing personal favorites. Apex Magazine is striving to publish stories that are dark and surreal, stories that push boundaries, that blend genres—or throw genre out the window entirely. We want real human emotions in fantastical worlds. Give us outrage, desperation, sorrow, and then twist it into something new and heart-wrenchingly beautiful. We want stories that introduce us to new worlds, that stretch our imaginations. None of these are things that are easily defined. But I will give it a shot! Stories I feel best define the current Apex aesthetic:
This is a pretty fair mix of stories. Different genres, different subject matter. Authors from different backgrounds. But all of these stories have something that says “Apex!” to me when I read them and I think they’d be a good place for new readers who wanted to sample what Apex is about. SU: What's the process a story goes through between the time it is accepted and the time it is published in the magazine? LC: We are looking for stories that are pretty close to being ready to publish when we buy them. We do a light copy editing and then a second pass proofreading, but that is basically it. Saying it that way, it sounds like we should be publishing a story the issue after it’s accepted, but that isn’t the case. We typically have several issues worth of content scheduled at one time. This means when we accept a story, it can be a while before we have the chance to publish it. Which is a good thing for us as a publication, because it allows us to select stories for an issue that fit together. Rather than simply publishing all the stories that we really liked—with no thought or consideration to theme, or pacing, or all the other things that make stories work together—having a cushion of already scheduled content gives us time to make sure we’re publishing a story in the correct issue with other pieces that will compliment it. SU: Jason is editor-in-chief and Lesley is managing editor—what's the difference in your roles? LC: Jason would tell you that I’m the one in charge and he just writes the checks. This isn’t true. I manage things. I know, I know, a really imaginative way to explain what a managing editor does—way to not really say anything, Lesley!—but it’s true. I make sure we have all the pieces we need for each issue: Have the stories been copy edited? Do we have author bios? Have I gotten the interviews back? What is the nonfiction for this month? Did we sell ads for the issue? I make sure that authors have been paid, our slush readers are getting through all the submissions in a timely manner, and handle queries from writers, artists, and readers. Jason does in fact send all the checks and payments, but he does much more than that. As editor-in-chief, he has the final say on what is going to be included in each issue of the magazine. He selects all the fiction, finds nonfiction, decides which authors we should interview and which story to podcast. He also builds the eBook editions of every issue. While I’m handling all the details, he has to deal with more big picture, long term issues that come with running a digital zine. Basically, Jason makes all the decisions and I organize the shit out of everything! SU: Apex Magazine always has fantastic cover art. How do you decide what image will grace each new issue? LC: Thank you! I love hearing that people enjoy our covers! Finding cover art is one of my favorite Apex tasks. We don’t try to fit specific artwork with certain issues/stories; I’m more thinking in terms of the other artwork we already have scheduled. I want to make that I’m not focusing too much on a particular color palette or a similar focal point in the image. The last thing that I want is for our covers to become predictable. So it’s a balance of finding artwork that fits the aesthetic Apex desires, while at the same time making sure that view doesn’t become stale. Lesley Conner is a writer/editor, managing editor of Apex Publications and Apex Magazine, and a Girl Scout leader. When she isn’t handling her editorial or Girl Scout leader responsibilities, she’s researching fascinating historical figures, rare demons, and new ways to dispose of bodies, interweaving the three into strange and horrifying tales. Her short fiction can be found in Mountain Dead, Dark Tales of Terror, A Hacked-Up Holiday Massacre, as well as other places. Her first novel The Weight of Chains was published by Sinister Grin Press in September, 2015. Best of Apex Magazine: Volume 1 marks her debut experience in anthology editing. She lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters, and is currently working on a new novel. To find out all her secrets, you can follow her on Twitter at @LesleyConner. Support Apex Magazine's Revive the Drive 2017! Get awesome rewards and support great short fiction.
My story "Astra, the Falling Star," a surreal sci-fi about two astronauts whose ship is destroyed while in orbit around an alien planet, has been published online by KasmaSF Magazine. KasmaSF publishes a new story each month, and I have the privilege of being their February author. They were nice enough to publish my apocalyptic Cassandra retelling "As Dust Rolls Toward the Mountains" a few years ago, and I'm thrilled they liked "Astra" as well. KasmaSF commissions original artwork by José Baetas for each story, which makes publication there extra special.
Here's the story's opening paragraph, and below that, the wonderful artwork José created after reading it. I freefall, plummeting through an alien sky. Clouds obscure my vision. Tears and mucus smear across my helmet to obscure it even more. I shut my eyes—such fickle and sensitive sensory organs—and imagine the equations of the forces acting on my body. I try to rearrange their values: my version of praying, I suppose. But the laws of physics will not bend just to save my life.
Speaking of artwork, I've recently joined Pinterest, and created a few boards that represent imagery from some of my forthcoming stories. I hope the images below will pique your interest enough to give the story a read. You can do that by clicking here. It's a short one, only about 3,000 words. And with luck, maybe I'll have a few more boards and a few more stories to share soon.
See the whole Pinterest Board by clicking here: "Astra, the Falling Star" Husband, leaving for work: "I'm off to save the world." The Dog: *whines* Me: "This dog appreciates it. He doesn't want to be a post-apocalyptic dog." Husband: "Yeah, he doesn't look good in spikes. He's not tough enough to hang with the other post-apocalyptic dogs." Me: "It's true. All the dogs you ever see in post-apocalyptic stories are, like, Pit Bulls and German Shepherds. You never hear about post-apocalyptic poodles." And so he went off to work, the dog eventually stopped whining, and I wrote "Post Apocalyptic Poodle." Charles Christian, the editor at Grievous Angel, bought the story because, as he says in his introduction to it, "I've a dachshund who came from a rescue charity but who I suspect is actually an alien in an unfortunate disguise." Everyone needs mirrors in fiction, even alien-eyed shorty dogs. I started to say just now that I try not to write apocalyptic stories, but my own publication list belies that claim. There's "The Bolt Tightener," where a seawall is the only thing keeping the monsters from their final victory; there's "Natural Selection," a maybe-it's-a-virus, maybe-it's-zombies survival struggle; there's "As Dust Rolls Toward the Mountain," a contemporary Cassandra retelling about an asteroid strike, there's "Breath Over the Mouth of a Bottle," where an unnatural snowstorm has engulfed the whole planet. So. I guess I do write the occasional apocalyptic story. But I'm a little tired of them, to be honest, which is why it was easy to for me to satirize the genre in "Post Apocalyptic Poodle." It seems to be impossible these days for writers to imagine a future that isn't an apocalypse or a dystopia. I'm very interested in the nascent Solarpunk subgenre, which challenges writers to imagine an optimistic future. Even most supposed solarpunk I've read is still dystopic or post-apocalyptic in nature. It's like the crash is so inevitable at this point that we can't even conceptualize of it not happening. Anyway. "Post Apocalyptic Poodle" is just over 500 words, and it's online to read for free. Give it a read, and then click through to see the other fun stories Grievous Angel has published. Post-apocalyptic Poodle has no master. She runs free in the ruins of her former master’s city. She ravages the Dumpsters, the roadside recycling, the industrial bins. Other survivors skulk around the alleyways and snarl at her. She rolls in mud until it cakes her hypoallergenic locks, positions sticks along her back like spikes, and snarls back. If you enjoy this story, check out my other "dog story," "Working Like a Dog," published in Bartleby Snopes.
I first met Gregory Scheckler at the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction in Lawrence, Kansas, a two week intensive writing workshop. I was in the novel workshop with Kij Johnson, and Gregory was in the short fiction workshop with Chris McKitterick, but the two groups socialized plenty outside of workshop time. I encountered him again when he submitted a story to an open call at World Weaver Press, and I was happy to include his story "A Persistence of Ghosts" in my anthology Speculative Story Bites.
Recently, Gregory has taken the plunge into indie publishing with some fascinating science fiction projects. I asked him to stop by my blog to talk about his writing, climate change fiction, and his advice for aspiring writers.
Sarena Ulibarri: What was the most important thing you took away from the Center for the Study of Science Fiction writing workshop with Chris McKitterick and James Gunn?
Gregory Scheckler: Community. For me one of the biggest parts was the thriving community of people. The workshops were an incredible coalition of minds, including the students who were very accomplished writers. As for big writing lessons, there's almost too many to mention. One I've been thinking a lot about is how the emotional sense of story can grow out of protagonists and antagonists. Coming at fiction with a visual arts background, it's easy for me to imagine a scene or an image. And that's great, but for all their beauty, paintings are motionless (unless you throw them at the art critics). Story moves through time. So it benefits from characters who interact across timespans, who contest each other's inner and outer conflicts, which in turn provokes our emotions. In other words, the mechanisms of fiction reflect our human modes of community. SU: Your stories take place in a post-climate change world. How do you feel your work fits into recent ecologically-aware subgenres such as Solarpunk (i.e. the Sunvault anthology), Eco-Weird (i.e. Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy) or Cli Fi (i.e. The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi)? GS: Without climate action, goodbye humanity. I don't view my writing as situated in a post-climate change world so much as in a future extrapolated from the changes that are happening today and which will continue happening in the future. That's similar to James Gunn's thesis that science fiction is a literature of change (he outlines this idea in his Road to Science Fiction). Personal, cultural, scientific. Adding environmental issues brings climate change into that larger view. We might figure out ways to adapt to pressing ecological changes. Or we might ignore them and fall into the worst-case scenarios of geopolitical fractures that follow altered weather, flooding, rising ocean temperatures, loss of food sources, and species loss. These problems are intensifying for the foreseeable future. In that sense, a science fiction that extrapolates from what we know today must address climate change. So I think these subgenres are all on a compelling track. Solarpunk strikes me as a little too optimistic, sometimes, and I think my works are generally darker in tone like cli-fi, but not quite as inventive as eco-weird. The ecological-political issues play a bigger role in my upcoming trilogy, Infinite Things, which is permeated by a new kind of world government that asserts sustainable technologies -- and that's not always a good thing. (see next question). SU: Will your novels take place in the same world as the stories in Water Taxi in a River of Vampire Fish and Moon Dust Infinity? Will we see any of the same characters again? GS: Yes, and no. Water Taxi includes prehistory of some of the world described in my upcoming Infinite Things series of novels, whereas Moon Dust is stories that are happening at the same time as some of the upcoming Infinite Things series. Some of the Moon Dust characters have roles in Infinite Things, especially in the second novel I have planned for that series. I'm hoping to have the first novel in the Infinite Things series ready by Fall 2017, the second in early winter. Ideally each story and novel stands well on its own, but then when looked at as a group they create added meanings. Some of what connects these stories is the settings and world-building. I do have a variety of unrelated projects coming up in the meantime, such as the novels StarFold, and Biomimic Generations. Both of these share many of the concepts of artificial intelligence and synthetic humans that are introduced in Water Taxi and Moon Dust, but, they are set in quite different worlds.
SU: What advice do you have for young writers struggling through the first draft of a science fiction novel?
GS: That's a hard question because the author's specific struggle may come from a variety of problems, or sometimes even from prior successes. Is it a plot or structural problem, a language or descriptive problem, a character problem, point of view, or writer's motivation, or world-building, or a lack of a plan? A hundred possibilities. To help the author come up with her own best solutions to the issues, I'd have to know the writer's intentions, the story ideas, etc. But here's a five general strategies when struggles arise: When struggling, one tactic is to take a break. Set the work aside for a day. Give your subconscious mind a chance to mull over the story issues. Go for a walk in the woods, or other physical exercise if you can. Just to clear your head. Another tactic is to feed your mind new information. Read some non-fiction. The idea here is to expand and contest your understandings of the world, to find new solutions for your stories outside of what you're already thinking: the ideas, histories, new scientific developments. Science literacy helps science fiction. So I recommend Carl Sagan's 'Demon-Haunted World' as a great starting place if the author is new to the sciences. Other good preliminary sources are the better overview magazines, like New Scientist, Scientific American, Nature. A third tactic is to write a different story. Sometimes the approach to a new story or idea answers the problems in an older one. A fourth idea would be to pack up and go work in a different environment for a while. Sometimes I get more writing done in an hour at the library than I do in three hours in my office. Funny how that works. A fifth strategy is talk to people. For example once I was trying to write a scene that involved a character being mugged. I got stuck. So at a dinner with some friends I asked them "Hey, have you ever been mugged?" And some had or knew someone who had. What happened? What did it feel like? How did they respond? How did they feel the day after? People like to share their experiences, and these real-life events can inform our writing. SU: What books, authors, or films influenced you while writing your story collections? GS: Well, I draw broadly from many sources. I credit Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series with proving to me that contemporary ecological issues can matter in science fiction. But the love of the field for me goes back to Star Wars and Star Trek, when I was young. In those years I also read Tolkien, Ursula K. le Guin, Bradbury, Asimov, and Douglas Adams. I like a lot of the more intellectual films such as Moon, Tarkovsky's Solaris, and Arrival. Readers can find a suite of author's notes in the back of each of my books, noting some of the sources that inspired me. In relationship to quantum mechanics in Moon Dust Infinity, one of the best non-fiction books I read was Amanda Gefter's Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn (Bantam, 2014). SU: Do you have any readings or signings coming up? Where can readers find you? GS: My next public event is an art opening, here in the Berkshires in February. Sometimes I attend Boskone or Readercon. But the best places to find me are online, like Twitter and Facebook or directly via my email newsletter. Right now if you sign-up for the newsletter, you can get the ebook Moon Dust Infinity for free. And of course Water Taxi is free on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and elsewhere. :)
American author Gregory Scheckler lives in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. He enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars and he isn’t afraid to say so in public. He and his wife are avid telemark skiers, and enjoy mountain biking and hiking too. Writings credits include World Weaver Press, The Berkshire Review, the Mind’s Eye Liberal Arts Journal, and Thought & Action: Journal of the National Education Association. Selected visual arts credits include Ferrin Gallery, the Washburn Historical and Cultural Museum, Duluth Art Institute, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the Bennington Museum, the Berkshire Museum, and the National Science Foundation. In addition to writing and exhibiting, Gregory Scheckler currently serves as Professor of Art at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, where he teaches critical thinking, creativity and innovation.
I first came across Tara Campbell's writing when we both had stories in the Dear Robot anthology (see my "Story Behind the Story" post about that anthology here). Her epistolary Dear Robot story, "Nickerson Interstellar Student Exchange Behavioral Contract," is brilliant, so I'm sure her newly released novel, TreeVolution will be brilliant as well. It's about genetically modified trees who start attacking people in what the book's description calls "a little eco-payback."
In this week's interview, Tara Campbell talks with me about her path to publication, eco-sci-fi, and asking "what if?" questions.
Sarena Ulibarri: In a nutshell, what was the path from manuscript to publication for TreeVolution?
Tara Campbell: It was a little over three years between the initial idea for TreeVolution and having the book in my hands. I wrote for a year and edited for another year. I thought it was ready after that round of edits and started shopping it around to agents. Turns out it wasn't ready, so I did an additional round of edits the third year and widened the query net from just agents to small presses as well. Then Carrol Fix, my editor from Lillicat Publishers, got what I was doing and took the project on! SU: What advice do you have for young writers struggling through the first draft of a science fiction novel? TC: I started with short stories before I ever thought of writing a novel. I found that writing stories was a way to keep myself motivated with while slogging away on the longer-term project. With stories, you have a sense of accomplishment finishing them, and you can workshop a discrete project, which informs your writing on the larger project. And you have the relatively instant gratification of publishing stories in journals while you're still working on the novel. Additionally, taking a break from the longer work always helped me to go back and see it more objectively, to cut what I needed to cut and, more importantly, to show me that it wasn't really the disaster I thought it was when I got frustrated with it. SU: I know writers (especially those in the “literary” or “cross-genre” camp) don’t always like to put labels on their work, but how do you feel TreeVolution fits into recent ecologically-aware subgenres such as Solarpunk (i.e. the Sunvault anthology), Eco-Weird (i.e. Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy) or Cli Fi (i.e. The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi)? TC: I tend to read across genres, and to be honest, have only recently come back to science fiction after a long hiatus. I didn't set out to write in a specific genre, I really just followed questions that intrigued me. In terms of TreeVolution, the impetus was a radio segment about a team of French scientists who had devised a way to listen in on the circulatory system of trees, and could detect when a tree was not getting enough water before any visible signs of distress appeared. I started wondering what else the trees would tell us if we could understand them, and the research into plants and trees was so fascinating, I had to write about it. I guess if one had to label it, one could call it near-future eco-sci-fi. The focus is not so much on the future, but on the point at which we decide what kind of future we're going to have. Will the environment be our antagonist or our ally? SU: You’ve published quite a lot of short fiction! How does the writing process differ for you when you’re writing short versus when you’re writing long? TC: I think short stories are more forgiving of my writing process, which is usually to start with a "what if?" and spin out all of the ways that thing could have happened, as well as the pros and cons now that it has happened. Like what if flowers could talk? Or what if humans found a way to get nutrients from chlorophyll instead of food? Or what if the last Gashlycrumb Tiny lived? Many writers start with an outline, especially with novels, but I'm more of a "pantser." I like to take that voice or phrase that pops into my mind, like "Death sure changes a person," and think about what that could actually mean. I can just let go and follow the breadcrumbs when I'm writing something short, but writing a novel requires a larger question and a lot more planning. SU: What books, authors, or films influenced you while writing TreeVolution? TC: You know, I actually looked for books that were similar to what I was doing, but many of them featured dystopian wastelands or were written from a scientist's point of view, or went into the fantasy realm of Tolkein's Ents. I wanted to imagine how a transformation in the way humans interact with the environment would impact every day people. Of course there are scientists in my book, because my characters are looking for fact-based answers, but they are discovering them along with the general public rather than being the experts with all the answers. I like the idea that a relative layperson is having to get up to speed on these complex issues in the face of a looming crisis, because we all are. In that spirit, I've included a list of resources in the back of the book, lists of some of the articles I used to try to get a handle on the topic of communication between plants and trees, genetic modification and other experimentation with plants and trees. It was sometimes hard to get out of the articles and keep writing! SU: Do you have any readings or signings coming up? Where can readers find you? TC: Yes, thank you for asking, I have a few appearances coming up in the Washington, DC area over the next few months. I have about one reading a month on the calendar, and I'm thrilled that TreeVolution has been selected as the featured novel for Barrelhouse's Conversations and Connections conference in April. In fact, I've finally gotten organized enough to list my appearances on my website.
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With a BA in English and an MA in German, Tara Campbell has a demonstrated aversion to money and power. Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, she has also lived in Oregon, Ohio, New York, Germany and Austria. She currently lives in Washington, D.C. where she volunteers with 826DC and the Washington Writers Conference/Books Alive. She was the grateful recipient of two awards from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 2016: the 33rd Annual Larry Neal Writers' Award in Adult Fiction, and the 31st Annual Mayor's Arts Award for Outstanding New Artist.
My company, World Weaver Press, is participating in Small Press Week, an initiative helmed by Upper Rubber Boot Books to promote small press publishing. However, it's release day for HE SEES YOU WHEN HE'S CREEPIN': TALES OF KRAMPUS, so I'm bringing today's Small Press Week post over to my personal blog because I want to stay on Krampus's good side and let him have the spotlight. The topic for today says this: "Every Tuesday is #newreleasetuesday, but this Tuesday is for featuring all of your 2016 releases, no matter when their release date." One mistake small presses sometimes make is they forget to be small. When you have an operation run by only a few people, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. Originally, World Weaver Press was planning to release 16 titles in 2016. What we managed was 9 titles (plus one upcoming relaunch), and to be honest, I'm exhausted. It may not seem like a lot, but there are so many details that go into publication that it really adds up. (See our Small Press Week: Secrets post and my post on editing anthologies for more insight into what goes on behind the scenes in a small press.) I haven't always been able to give these books the attention and publicity I wish they could have, but I've always given them the best I could, and I'm so proud of what we've brought into the world this year. Beside each book, you'll find an excerpt. These excerpts are different from the ones available on the World Weaver Press website, so please give them a read. Maybe you'll even find a new favorite or a good holiday gift. Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions by Larry Hodges A third party, and an alien, take on a corrupt world government.
Char by Kristina Wojtaszek An isolated fae must travel a century into the past to rewrite the book that will save her people.
Omega Rising by Anna Kyle Cass Nolan has been forced to avoid the burn of human touch for her whole life, until a sexy ranch hand changes everything.
Bite Somebody by Sara Dobie Bauer Celia thought becoming a vampire would make her perfect, but she's just as awkward as before, only now she has a craving for blood and a crush on her tasty neighbor.
Sirens, edited by Rhonda Parrish An anthology of fantasy and science fiction: 16 siren songs that will exemplify and defy your expectations.
Speculative Story Bites, edited by Sarena Ulibarri Fifteen bite-sized stories, offering a sampler platter of fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal horror.
Murder in the Generative Kitchen by Meg Pontecorvo Does your high-tech kitchen know you better than you know yourself?
The Meddlers of Moonshine by A.E. Decker Something is rotten in the town of Widget, and Rags-n-Bones knows it's all his fault. (Moonfall Mayhem #2)
He Sees You When He's Creepin': Tales of Krampus, edited by Kate Wolford Whether you want a dash of horror or a hint of joy and redemption, these 12 new tales of Krampus will help you gear up for the most “wonderful” time of the year.
Thank you for checking out all the books World Weaver Press published in 2016! Check the WWP blog for more of our Small Press Week posts, and follow the hashtag #SPWeek16 on Twitter to find more great small presses.
In case you missed my post last week, Adventures in Zookeeping is the newest MileHiCon fundraiser anthology, edited by Sam Knight and published by Villainous Press. They were nice enough to include my story "The Fourth Lemur." I asked some of the other authors about their stories, their writing, and their favorite memory of the zoo. My answers are at the bottom!
C S Peterson, "The Jeweled Black Quaver"
Describe your Adventures in Zookeeping story in one sentence.
In "The Jeweled Black Quaver" Ranger Callie Orpheo walks a thin line between paradise and hellfire to preserve a creature that prefers a post apocalyptic habitat. What's your favorite zoo-related memory? When my daughter, Keziah, was six years old she climbed into a 'bubble' window in the beluga whales exhibit at Mystic Aquarium in CT and put her forehead against the glass. Aurora, one of the whales, swam over and pressed her head against the other side of the glass. They stayed like that for several minutes, then Keziah said good-bye, crawled out of the bubble and Aurora swam away. Sadly, Aurora the whale passed away quite suddenly a few months later from a ruptured aorta. We will never forget that moment they shared. What are you working on now? Where can readers find you? Readers can find me at cspetersonauthor.com and as a contributor at fictionunbound.com, a speculative fiction blog. Right now I am working on a YA historical fantasy about a girl named Scralig who has one golden eye and one blue eye: Once, by her blue eye, she swore she saw the ravens laughing before they flew off to whisper into Odin's ear. Once, through her golden eye, she saw a thunder creature land in the upper pasture. Black smoke rolled off its wings and nets of lightning flickered along its arms. That was when she was small. Perhaps it was just her grandmother’s stories that put the visions in her head. Now Scralig is older and she knows better than to trust visions. Besides, in a Viking village, a dark-skinned girl with an evil eye has other things to worry about. Alicia Cay, "Monsters of Yesterday"
Describe your Adventures in Zookeeping story in one sentence.
"Monsters of Yesterday" takes you to where the monsters, creatures, and myths of imagination end up when they are no longer remembered. What's your favorite zoo-related memory? When I was much younger I got to visit the zoo on a school field trip. Two things about that trip remain memorable for me. I got to ride on an elephant, which by the way, is super uncomfortable. Seriously, those pachyderms have spines like butter knives. The second was having an animal toy made for me in one of those machines where you put in a dollar or two and get to watch a plastic animal molded right before your eyes. I had seen some girls use the machine on our way into the zoo, and I had to wait the entire day when we were leaving, to pass the same machine and have one of my own made. I wanted one of those things so badly! And in fact, I ended up keeping that plastic, yellow lion for years afterwards. But do I remember seeing the actual animals? No. It's hilarious the stuff that sticks with us. What are you working on now? Where can readers find you? I continue to hone my abilities by writing short stories, then for fun I enter them in contests. All of my entered stories have 'placed', but none have yet won. Our legion of adoring fans can find me on my blogsite: aliciacay.com. Links to my Facebook, Twitter, and a few other places can be found there. Carolyn Kay, "The Corpse Flower"
Describe your Adventures in Zookeeping story in one sentence.
In "The Corpse Flower", a rare African flower breaks out of its enclosure, causing mayhem at the Steam City Zoo, and it's only a matter of time before it eats someone. What's your favorite zoo-related memory? I got to see Shamu at Sea World when I was 7. It started me on the path to a science career. What are you working on now? Where can readers find you? I'm currently working on a steampunk/fantasy novella that should be out in early 2017. People can find me at www.bewitchinghips.com Ashley Vasquez, "Bound by Death"
Describe your Adventures in Zookeeping story in one sentence.
In "Bound by Death", havoc ensues when the newest attraction in a zoo in the afterlife realizes that she's dead, and the rules of the zoo (like enclosures) don't apply. What's your favorite zoo-related memory? My favorite zoo trip was in Belize, where the zoo is made up of local animals from the country. Because it's a small country, and a lot of the animals are hunted for food, I spent part of my time horrifying tourists by talking loudly about the creatures in the zoo that I had eaten during my time there, such as deer, picary, gibnut, and iguana. What are you working on now? Where can readers find you? I'm currently working on a Steampunk Noir novel set in the 1940's. People can find me at facebook.com/ashleyvasquezauthor Susan Adams, "Sanctuary"
Describe your Adventures in Zookeeping story in one sentence.
"Sanctuary" is a safe haven to outcasts from all walks of life, but that safety is threatened when some one starts sabotaging the sanctuary's protective spells. What's your favorite zoo-related memory? My Uncle Denny, to whom this story dedicated, was an enthusiastic conservationist and had a small, private zoo, specializing in large cats. He obtained a Siberian tiger, named Boomer, when Boomer was just a cub and trained him to accept commands. In spite of Boomer's obedience, he was not my uncle's pet. Uncle Denny kept Boomer in an enclosure surrounded by a double fence. When I was about fifteen, Uncle Denny let my younger sisters and me into the outer fence; Boomer laid down against the inner one. And that's how I got to pet a tiger. What are you working on now? Where can readers find you? My current work in progress is a mainstream fiction novel, much of which takes place in a zoo. I can be found on Facebook at: Facebook.com/Scadamsauthor and on Twitter at: @adams226sc. Sarena Ulibarri, "The Fourth Lemur"
Describe your Adventures in Zookeeping story in one sentence.
A disgruntled zookeeper thinks she's turning into a were-lemur, but the truth is even weirder than that. What's your favorite zoo-related memory? During the 2014 Clarion Workshop, several of us took a break from the non-stop writing and critiquing to go explore the labyrinthine San Diego Zoo. We wandered until our feet were sore, and then it took us another hour to actually find our way out. I was sure all the workshop stories for the coming week would be about being lost in a Gothic menagerie. My friend Vida Cruz blogged about this zoo trip in much more depth here. What are you working on now? Where can readers find you? You've found me! I hope you'll poke around, read some other blog entries, and, of course, grab your copy of ADVENTURES IN ZOOKEEPING from the link below!
Last weekend was MileHiCon, one of my favorite local SFF conventions. I was on a couple of panels this year, but the real highlight of the convention was the release party and reading for ADVENTURES IN ZOOKEEPING, an anthology that includes my story "The Fourth Lemur." This is the second of the charity anthologies (all proceeds go back to MileHiCon) put together by Sam Knight that I was lucky enough to be included in. In fact, last year after releasing SIDEKICKS, Sam Knight asked for suggestions for the next anthology, and I was the one who suggested the title/theme "Adventures in Zookeeping."
On Saturday, we gathered in the ConSuite for a dual release party along with the contributors of another anthology, DOMESTICATED VELOCIRAPTORS, and then we ventured downstairs to one of the panel rooms where we had the chance to read our stories to the room. For many of the authors, this was their first time doing a public reading, but everyone did a fantastic job. I tried to break the tension a little bit by standing up on my chair to read, rather than going up to the front like everyone else. Ever wonder how much fun it would be to be a zoo keeper if your wards included the strange, the supernatural, the not-of-this-earth? This collection of speculative fiction ranges from were-lemurs to a breeding program for a Lovecraftian horror. Edited by Sam Knight. This anthology evolved from a panel at MileHiCon in Denver, Colorado, titled "So You Want To Be in an Anthology?" The stories contained within were contributed by attendees of that panel. All net proceeds are donated to support MileHiCon.
So those "were-lemurs" mentioned in the book description? Yeah, that's my story. Except, maybe it's not that simple. Maybe there's more to that weird, somewhat human-looking lemur that shows up in the zoo, maybe that bite the zookeeper got isn't doing exactly what she fears it's doing.
Next week I plan to interview some of the other authors from this fun anthology, so please stop by to learn more about their stories, and pick up a copy of ADVENTURES IN ZOOKEEPING when you have the chance. It has some very fun stories in it, and it helps support an excellent science fiction and fantasy convention that has always made me feel at home.
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