Fantasy Scroll Magazine Issue #1 Read online

  You write speculative fiction and your stories, I believe, are difficult to label because they are so varied and unique. What drives you to this genre? Have you tried writing anything else?

  The answer is contained within your question, actually. It's possible to do so much in speculative fiction--the canvas is enormous--and that's room enough for me to try many, many new things, and if there's one thing I can't resist, it's going someplace new. I wrote literary fiction too when I first started out, but you can explore a lot of the real world by simply living it, so what's the point of that?

  You call yourself a temporary nomad, traveling across the U.S. and the world—is that an integral part of your writing? Are you incorporating what you see and what you find into your writing? Is that what keeps you going?

  At the time of this interview, my nomadic phase has come to an end. But my work has always, I think, contained a certain restlessness, and the settings are often divorced from a concrete sense of place (e.g., I won't name the city or country, even when the city and country are obviously fictitious, or I won't specify the time of year or historical period). My first appearance in your magazine is a notable exception to this—almost never do I consciously think, "I want to write a story about this exact area." Cf. previous remark about exploring the real world.

  In our first issue, we included your story "In the Shadow of Dyrhólaey." Tells us a bit about this story; how did it come to be, what does it mean to you?

  In 2010 I vacationed in Iceland, stood on the black sand beaches of the coastal town of Vík, saw the rock formation that this story's protagonist (who is a very real historical figure) falls in love with, and seriously couldn't believe that nobody had written this story yet. In the Shadow of Dyrhólaey is my love letter to Iceland. That is a gorgeous, magical country, and I would like to go back someday.

  Who is the best writer in the world? Kidding… What I meant was: who do you enjoy reading lately? What was the last book that made a big impression?

  Can I type "China Mieville" ten times in a row? From the work of his that I've read so far (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Railsea, and The City & The City), it's obvious that the man has a far-reaching, profound, perceptive genius that most mere mortals will never attain. China Mieville is all like, "I'm going to use interstitial fiction to explore the nuances of essential urban and social semiotics" whereas I'm all like "I WRITE TEH STOREES HERP DERP DERP".

  You write a lot of short fiction and haven't focused a lot on longer pieces, with some exceptions. Why is that? Are you planning any novels?

  Actually, I've written 8 novels. But they're all terrible and I can't sell them. Fortunately, I wrote eight short stories that were all terrible before I sold my first one, so we're scheduled to make it big with novel #9. Hahaha. Um... maybe you shouldn't quote me on that.

  What's next for you? Is there anything else you'd like to add?

  Next (soon?) up is a second self-published e-book of my short fiction, collecting all work published between my first F&SF sale ("The Ramshead Algorithm") and my last one ("The Soul in the Bell Jar"), plus the infamous 69 dirty science-fiction-and-fantasy-themed limericks I passed out on my business cards at an "interstitial arts party" at Readercon in 2011. I've also fallen in love with the 100-word story, courtesy of SpeckLit.com, and plan to write a whole load of those, some of which I'll sell and some of which I'll use for a Project Still In The Works. And then there's novel #9. While China Meiville is probably drafting some ground-breaking text that's like Nabokov's "Lolita" meets Larry Niven's "The Integral Trees", I'm writing a book that has a talking beaver in it. Fingers crossed.

  Thank you for the interview, KJ, and good luck with everything!

  Interview with Author Sarah Hans

  Sarah Hans is an author, editor, and educator. About a dozen of her short stories have appeared in print, and she is the editor of the anthologies Sidekicks! and Steampunk World. Her hobbies include crocheting blasphemies and dressing anachronistically. When not writing, blogging, or seeking enlightenment through crafting, she can be found traveling the aether aboard The Airship Archon, which frequently docks at science fiction conventions across the Midwest.

  Iulian: Sarah, you are a self-declared Buddhist steampunk horror writer. Could you please break this down for us and elaborate?

  Sarah: I've been a Buddhist for about 10 years, a steampunk for about five, and a horror writer since I was young enough to tell stories. I mention these things in the bio on my website because they are, in my opinion, the aspects of my personality that most inform my storytelling. There are Buddhist themes, horror elements, and steampunk settings in many, if not most, of my stories.

  Please share with us a little bit of the history of Sarah Hans: where have you started and where are you today, and, most importantly, what happened in between that made you who you are?

  That's a tough question to answer. How do I summarize 33 years of living, and learning, and suffering, and heartbreak, and triumph?

  Can you recall how you came to be involved in writing? I know for some writers it's hard because after a while it just feels like you've always been writing, but was there a defining moment for you?

  Like most writers, I have always been a storyteller. Before I could write, I told stories to my assembled stuffed animals. Because everything was fodder for my stories, I asked a lot of questions. I was lucky because my parents encouraged this behavior. I won a few awards for writing and received a lot of encouragement from teachers in high school, but once I got my first story rejection from a magazine I stopped writing fiction almost completely. I turned my attention to other creative pursuits. It wasn't until about ten years later that I became interested in writing for publication again. I'd started attending conventions with my steampunk group (The Airship Archon) and I met a guy named Steve Saus. It's thanks to his encouragement that I submitted the first story I'd written in a decade. Thankfully that story was published, as were the next few I sent out, so by the time I started getting rejections I had already built up enough success that it served as armor against them. Dealing with rejection is a lot easier now, too, because I am a much older and more mature person who has overcome a lot more adversity, and who is on really excellent medication for her depression, and has really supportive friends and writing colleagues. I wouldn't have the perseverance I have now if it weren't for those things. And, as any writer will tell you, the writing game is 99% perseverance.

  What would you say were the few things that influenced you the most in your writing career? Was there a person, a writer, a set of events, some circumstances?

  Joining the Airship Archon, meeting Steve Saus at MARCon so many years ago, those were the events that set me on my current trajectory. Jay Lake has also been hugely influential because he said yes when I asked him to submit a story to Steampunk World, which really opened up the possibilities for me. I am extremely shy and asking Jay if he would submit a story was really hard, because even though he's such an approachable guy, he's still Jay Lake. He's intimidating! But he was so lovely about it, and has been throughout the process of creating the anthology, even as he struggles with cancer, that it made a huge impression on me.

  You are also an editor and you recently ran a Kickstarter campaign that was extremely successful. Tell us a bit about the Steampunk World project. What were the challenges of such a project and how did you manage to overcome them?

  The hardest part was making sure there was enough involvement from writers of color. This was really important to me. The theme of the anthology is multicultural, and it would be really disingenuous to publish a collection of stories about people of color written by white people. I invited a lot of writers in the first wave of invitations I sent out, but I didn't get nearly enough submissions from people of color, so then I sent out a second wave of invitations. Thanks to that, I was able to flesh out the anthology with some really amazing, authentic stories by some incredibly talented authors. The other challenge was, of course, getting funding for
the Kickstarter campaign, but that ended up being less of a challenge than I thought it would be. I'm still reeling a bit from the overwhelming support we received, not just from the steampunk community, but from the science fiction community at large. I hope that the popularity of this project and others like it, like Mothership and Athena's Daughters, which celebrate authors who are typically minorities in science fiction literature, will help big publishing houses to see that inclusive fiction is the Next Big Thing. Or maybe the Current Big Thing. And hopefully we'll see more minority writers receiving awards and contracts with big advances.

  What made you chose the particular genre you are writing? Have you attempted to write something else?

  I write genre fiction—science fiction, fantasy, horror. I don't limit myself beyond that. I have tried writing literary fiction, because (like many genre writers) I received a lot of criticism from writing teachers and my parents for writing genre. I don't like reading much literary fiction and I like writing it even less. It's just not what gets me excited. And if I'm not excited about a project, I won't keep coming back to my keyboard to finish it.

  What is the Airship Archon and how are you involved in this group?

  The Airship Archon is one of the oldest and largest steampunk communities in the world. We're based out of Columbus, Ohio. I'm the communication officer. I try to make sure that the officers are communicating with the crew, mainly, but I also present panels at conventions, manage the Facebook group, and occasionally plan an event. We have monthly events, attend conventions across the Midwest, and have a very active Facebook group. These people are my primary social group, and I love them to pieces. We strive to be welcoming and inclusive, as a group, and this has definitely influenced my fiction.

  You mostly write short stories for various anthologies. Do you have any projects for a longer piece?

  I am currently writing a novel. I got about 25,000 words into it before I had to take a break to edit Steampunk World. Now I'm student teaching, so I hope to get back to the novel on Spring Break or maybe after student teaching is done. The novel is Young Adult, because that's the story that I feel compelled to tell.

  Who are your favorite contemporary writers and who are your favorite classics?

  I adore the contemporary work of Jacqueline Carey, Suzanne Collins, Chuck Wendig, Mira Grant, Carrie Ryan. These are authors who put out a new book and I snatch it up and read it right away. I wish Ann McCaffrey were still alive, because then she would be at the top of that list as well. Is Octavia Butler considered classic or contemporary these days? She's another of my favorite authors. Her novel Parable of a Sower is one of the first science fiction novels I read as a teenager and was hugely influential in helping me fall in love with the genre. This year I'm trying to read more fiction by people of color, because my reading list has, in the past, been pretty white, so hopefully next year that list will have some additional names. As for classics, I have a secret love of Jane Austen novels (have you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? The zombies really spice things up), and of course Jules Verne. Oh and I have a soft spot for Dickens. I don't like a lot of so-called classic science fiction novels, so maybe this love of Victorian/Edwardian novels and contemporary science fiction is the root of my love for steampunk.

  If any writer (dead or alive) could come to you today and ask you to co-author a book, who'd that author be and why?

  Oooh good question. Probably Jacqueline Carey. Her novels have this scope and vision that is something I've yet to master, and I think our storytelling styles would work well together. The world needs more epic fantasy written by women and I think she could help me do it right. ;)

  Thank you very much, Sarah!

  Interview with Editor Neil Clarke

  Neil Clarke is a Hugo Award-winning and World Fantasy Award-nominated editor and publisher. He is the owner of Wyrm Publishing and publisher/editor of Clarkesworld Magazine, a digital science fiction and fantasy magazine. Fiction published in Clarkesworld has been nominated for or won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Locus, Ditmar, Aurealis, Shirley Jackson, WSFA Small Press and Stoker Awards. You can read more about the Clarkesworld awards here.

  Iulian: Readers and writers alike know you for your amazing work at Clarkesworld and for the anthologies you have edited in the past. But could you give us a little background on non-editor Neil Clarke-- where did you start, what were your dreams and aspirations, and what were the different paths that eventually converged and brought you to your career of choice?

  Neil: I graduated from Drew University with a BA in computer science and soon afterward embarked on a twenty-five year career in educational technology at various schools and universities. I suppose that deep down, however, I always knew I wanted to be a bit more independent than my career permitted. Since college, my passions then have driven me to launch a software company—we wrote BBS software—and later, an online bookstore. That was the first time I was able to combine my love of science fiction with my technology skills. Years later, I began hosting free short stories for some of the magazines I was selling. One summer, I met one of the editors I worked with on that project—Sean Wallace—at Readercon and it led to a discussion that caused me to launch the magazine. Prior to 2006, I had never considered a career in publishing. Now I'm trying to make it profitable enough to replace that day job.

  Clarkesworld publishes high quality material year after year. What do you expect from a good short story? And the corollary—what is the fastest way for a short story to turn you off?

  Thank you!

  I expect a good short story to stand out from the crowd. I tell my slush readers, as they read about half of the seven hundred stories that come in each month, that I want to see any story that is still memorable the next day. I'm looking for the stories that surprise me, something that makes me really think or feel, because when you read as many stories as I do, it's easy to get bored, unfortunately. Eight years and fifty thousand submissions, you've seen nearly everything under the sun. The fastest way to turn me off? Zombies.

  I am certain your magazine's submission queue must be always full. When you find a story that is not 100% acceptable, do you take the time to work with the author to fix that last 1-2%, or at the magazine's level that type of activity is simply not justified? Describe the way you approach your interaction with authors.

  The level of editing that was required for stories we've published has varied wildly. Some are near-perfect when they come in, but others have needed more substantial corrections and adjustments. If I find a good story that has a single flaw that prevents me from issuing a contract (poor ending, logic error, inconsistent behaviors, etc.), I'll email the author and see if they are willing to work with me on it. That only happens once or twice a month.

  You have a wonderful group of people working with you at Clarkesworld. Tell us how important is it for an editor to have a strong editorial team? What is the general structure of your magazine and how do the responsibilities get split?

  That's easy. Without my team, Clarkesworld doesn't exist. I could answer the second part in length here, but it would probably be wiser to redirect you to my behind-the-scenes tour from my December editorial: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/clarke_12_13/

  Regardless of the staff, running a magazine takes a lot of time. In addition, you also have Wyrm Publishing and all its specific time-consuming process. Is time management one of the most difficult aspects of editing a successful magazine? How do you do it?

  And a full-time job, freelance ebook projects, and two kids on top of all that. It can be a bit much, but the trick is to get into a routine and know when to delegate—and how to do it well! (I have an amazing team). It also helps that I've been able to systematize and automate the technical side of the operation. My college degree hasn't been going to waste.

  Some people believe that it should be natural for a good editor to also be a good writer. Have you attempted to write? Or, as a professional editor, are you too critical with yo
ur own work that you'd never let it see the page?

  Writing has never been my passion. I think that probably kills it right there. I enjoy reading and editing, but I find writing to be too much of a struggle. Maybe someday I'll get past that, but I just don't have the time I'd need to invest in it. For the moment, my priorities lay elsewhere. There's only so much time in the day!

  There's only so much that you can publish in one year, and I am sure sometimes you must make tough choices. What are the hardest choices an editor has to make?

  Actually, one of the nice things about publishing a magazine—as opposed to an anthology—is that I don't have a limit to what I can buy. If I have too many stories in inventory, I can always close submissions and take a break for a few months. Unfortunately, I'm way too picky. It's rare to have more than a month or two of inventory in-hand. That often means living too close to the edge, and I've tried—rather unsuccessfully—to work on that, post-heart attack. I'd like to eliminate that source of stress from my life.

  I think the hardest stories to reject are the ones I've asked for rewrites on. I hate feeling like I've wasted the author's time, but sometimes a story just can't be adjusted/fixed to your liking.

  Who are your editor heroes? Was there anyone in particular that you could name as a having a major influence on your style and approach to editing?

  As someone who came into the profession from outside their circles, I wasn't exposed to the manner in which any short fiction editors did their job. There were obviously editors that published stories I like—Gardner Dozois, Sheila Williams, Ellen Datlow, among others—but for me it was more like curation. We had overlapping taste, but I was woefully ignorant of what they did. I've learned a lot on the job. Sean Wallace, who has been with Clarkesworld from day one, has probably influenced me more than anyone else, but most of the time it feels like common sense and trusting your instincts.