BEHIND THE ZINES with Suzan Palumbo, co-administrator of the IGNYTE AWARDS and a member of the FIYAHCON team

 

This month's Behind the Zines interview features the amazing Suzan Palumbo. I am so honoured and grateful that she took the time to answer some of my questions about her work in the speculative fiction community.

More about Suzan Palumbo:

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Suzan Palumbo is a writer, active member of the HWA, co administrator of the Ignyte Awards and a member of the Hugo nominated FIYAHCON team. She is also a former associate editor of Shimmer. Her work has been published in The Deadlands, The Dark Magazine, PseudoPod, Fireside Fiction Quarterly, PodCastle, Anathema: Spec Fic from the Margins and other venues. She is officially represented by Michael Curry of the Donald Maass Literary Agency and tweets at @sillysyntax. When she isn’t writing, she can be found sketching, listening to new wave or wandering her local misty forests.

Q. What’s your background?
Suzan Palumbo: I was born in Trinidad and Tobago and immigrated with my mother to Toronto Canada when I was a preschooler. I grew up in a Toronto neighbourhood that was primarily made up of Caribbean and South Asian immigrants. I was immersed in Caribbean culture, and we maintained ties with my mother’s family in Trinidad. I had a rough childhood generally. My family was quite poor, and we lived in government subsidized housing my entire childhood.

I have B.A. in English Language and Literature. After University, I went to college to learn how to teach ESL. I taught ESL for many years, eventually becoming the director of the private school in downtown Toronto where I worked. In that position, I designed curriculum, interviewed and hired people and planned school events. I enjoyed teaching quite a bit. I might even have been good at it!

Q. Were there any particular books, movies, or shows, or something else that first attracted you to speculative fiction?
SP: I didn’t have access to many books as a very young child and I think that is partially why I was a “later” reader. I had trouble reading until something clicked for me in grade three. But, I grew up hearing bits of Caribbean folktales from my mother and her family. Those oral folktales have been a major pillar of my interest in speculative fiction. I’ve written several stories with Trinidadian folkloric characters: Soucouyants, Douens, La Diablesse and other jumbies. When I was little, I was scared of these characters. But, jumbies aren’t simply malevolent monsters or ghosts. They are spirits with tragic histories. They are often marginalized people who were forced to barter their humanity to survive or who died tragically. I think that backstory element is what sparked my love of gothic fiction.

In terms of actual media, I watched a lot of Scooby Doo, He-Man and She-ra, Thunder Cats, Gargoyles and X-Men. I adored the Addams Family film and The Last Unicorn movie. I had an obsession with Batman the Animated Series. When I was in my early teens I read a lot of the classics such as: Frankenstein, The Monk, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Phantom of the Opera and Rebecca etc.. When I was a bit older, I got into the dystopian classics like 1984 and A Brave New World. I’m intrigued with speculative fiction’s ability to reflect our world and relationships and its function as a tool that helps us examine our global, political, social, emotional and personal flaws.

Q. You are one of the co-founders of the Ignyte Awards, In the description of the awards it says, “The Awards seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre.” Can you tell us a bit about how the Ignyte Awards were conceived and born. What was happening behind the scenes (and on the scene!) at that time?

SP: Yes! I cofounded the Ignyte Awards along with the incomparable L.D. Lewis. I’m going to speak about my part in the award’s conception but want to highlight foremost that I am only part of the story. The Ignyte Awards would not exist with out FIYAHCON which was born in the Summer of 2020 in the aftermath of the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Tayler. FIYAHCON was conceived by L.D. Lewis and members of the FIYAH Literary Magazine team. It “is a virtual convention centering the perspectives and celebrating the contributions of BIPOC in speculative fiction.”

That same summer I had publicly questioned the Sunburst Awards, which are a Canadian Speculative Awards series, as to why their finalist list had “absolutely” no BIPOC representation. I was very wrong in that assumption. The list did have quite a few BIPOC in many of the categories and I was rightly and publicly corrected for the inaccurate statement and the erasure of those writers. That said, I still felt that the award could do better in terms of representation. I don’t think I was wrong for pushing for more diversity. You can’t have too much diversity in my opinion. I offered to help the organization and wrote a multi page proposal outlining how I would increase BIPOC engagement and participation with the awards and bring in more community support. I submitted that document to the contact I had. I haven’t received a response to that proposal at present. The following year, the Sunburst Awards announced that they would be going on hiatus for understandable reasons that were pandemic and workload related.

It was with that mindset that I watched the live stream of the 2020 Hugo Awards where the host, George R.R. Martin, mispronounced several of the nominees’ names, made a transphobic joke and centered the achievements of white male authors of the past. I’m not going into specifics of exactly what he said here. Those events are easily searchable on Google. He did offer a partial apology for some of his remarks afterwards. But by that point I felt I couldn’t keep quiet any longer about wanting SFFH awards to do better. If no one was going to let me help or volunteer with the established awards to make them more inclusive, respectful and diverse, then I was going to make my own awards and try my best to treat everyone it served with respect.

I’d been aware that FIYAH was planning a convention but did not know L.D. Lewis or any of the con committee personally. I messaged L.D. and asked if FIYAHCON was interested in running an SFFH awards and suggested that we could call it the Ignyte Awards. L.D. and the FIYAHCON team had already been thinking of including an award ceremony as part of the convention, so she invited me to join FIYAHCON.

We put on those awards together in just over two months. We collected the pronunciation of every nominees’ name and practiced them with our host. We wrote the script and remarks together to ensure the ceremony was inclusive and fostered the joy and sense of community we wanted people to feel while watching. Speaking for myself, the Ignyte Awards is probably one of the most important projects I’ve been apart of. BIPOC and other marginalized creators are doing great work and I’m not sorry to say that I think they deserve to be proud of themselves and come together and celebrate how wonderful they are.

I’m not perfect and can’t guarantee that we will never have a situation where a name is mispronounced but I care deeply about being respectful and am open to constructive criticism and feed back. I’m not certain that some of the legacy awards are open to receiving and acting on constructive criticism from the general SFFH community in the same way.

Q. Two of the Ignyte Awards I particularly love are: “The Ember Award for Unsung Contributions to Genre” and the “Community Award for Outstanding Efforts in Service of Inclusion and Equitable Practice in Genre”. What were your thoughts when you decided to include these Award categories? Because they seem specifically designed to award people for work in the spec fic community that isn’t always recognized.

SP: They are very much designed to award people for work in the spec fic community that isn’t always recognized. Short fiction magazines, professional organizations, conventions, forums, critique groups and so many other facets of this industry rely heavily on volunteer labour. They depend on other people’s kindness and willingness to help. I don’t see how SFFH, particularly the short fiction ecosystem would function without people volunteering their time.  We wanted to draw attention to this work because it has value. No one gets to where they are alone and for underrepresented groups, a lot of us wouldn’t be published at all without others advocating for us. I am nothing without community.

Creating an award for a specific person was L.D.’s idea. I came up with the name Ember. For me the name represents someone who kept working to help and inspire others even when they themselves didn’t have that same encouragement and support. It's important to thank people in the present while we can and not put that off until they get to some lifetime of service achievement age. Why not celebrate them now? Why not say thank you now?

Q. I know from following you on social media that you have some strong opinions about how cons should be run, and the problems with how many of them are run. What are some things you’ve learned from FIYAHCON, and what are some things you’d like others to learn from your experience?

SP: I am going to focus my attention on one specific point because I could write a book on this topic. I think virtual tracks for cons are vital and essential for accessibility. Any con that does not include some type of thought-out virtual component is silently saying we only care about parts of the community that are physically and financially able to attend our event. It may actually be the case that some cons only want certain people to be present at their events. If that is so, they shouldn’t be offended when they are told they are inaccessible or upholding exclusivity or gatekeeping, as the case may be.

FIYAHCON, under L.D. Lewis’ direction, proved that a virtual con could be engaging, educational, entertaining, and accessible. Flights of Foundry also runs a multi day, completely virtual convention that is time zone accessible to participants all over the world. Over the past couple of years, I’ve listened to many seasoned in person convention attendees bemoan the fact that virtual conventions don’t have the same atmosphere or dynamic as their beloved in-person events. There has also been a lot of talk around making virtual conventions feel like in-person ones.

My question in response is: Why should a virtual convention feel like an in-person convention? It is not an in-person convention. With FIYAHCON being the first event I was able to attend because of accessibility, like many of the attendees, I had no idea what an in-person convention felt like. Further, many in-person convention spaces are not physically or financially accessible for people in North America and around the world. Many are not welcoming to BIPOC. I understand wanting to get together with old friends in real life but then perhaps you should call the event: “Old friend get together” instead of “convention”. Shrugging off virtual components shuts out so many people from participating in community.

If conventions care about diversity and inclusion, they should bring in people who know how to plan and run virtual events and listen to their advice and opinions. I am baffled at how backwards looking and resistant to incorporating technology SFFH convention culture is, especially since the community it serves is interested in speculating about the future.

Please keep supporting and having virtual programming alongside in person events so that people who have been historically excluded can participate! You can do it, if you try! *steps off soapbox*

Q. You’ve been involved in a lot of different work behind the zines, for example as a slush reader at Shimmer. What advice would you give to someone else who might be interested in getting involved with a zine, or a writer’s organization, or breaking new ground like you’ve done with Ignyte?

SP: I think doing community work in any capacity is rewarding and educational. It’s important to consider how much time you have to devote to whatever project or organization you want to join and what your goals are regarding the experience. You have to be honest with yourself about how much work you can balance.

I learned a lot from reading slush. As a person who’s never had a regular critique group and had never been part of a writing workshop, being a first reader helped me learn to identify the strengths and weaknesses in other people’s fiction and articulate those in a concise way. When I first started reading slush, it required a lot of my time. That time commitment lessened as I learned to recognize which stories fit Shimmer’s aesthetic.  That said, while I was reading slush, I didn’t get a lot of my own writing done. I was okay with that back then because I was absorbing so much. Having that bit of a fallow period helped me be a better self editor.

Regarding running larger projects such as the Ignyte Awards: We need people who are willing and able to do ground-breaking work. It’s one of the ways change happens and the industry evolves. That said, when you run an event like this, the time commitment is significant, and you have to have a handle planning out your schedule months in advance. You have to be creative and good at thinking on your feet and problem solving because nothing ever goes according to plan when you’re trying to organize an event. You have to be patient and respectful when dealing with people and be prepared to work in a team. You have to be prepared for individuals to not take you seriously at first because you are not a traditionally lauded or respected event with a venerated history. The best way to stay on course with all these considerations swirling around, I find, is to make sure you believe deeply in the goal you are working toward. Knowing that the Ignyte ceremony will be a moment of joy for everyone is what gets me through all of the other hard work.

With that in mind, I want to emphasize that you don’t have to do something ground-breaking by yourself to have a positive impact in the community. Everything counts. I tend to have big ideas that I want to implement and announce them loudly but helping out with smaller things that take less of your time is valuable and appreciated. We have a small team with the Ignyte Awards that helps with emailing and vetting nominations. This doesn’t require a large time commitment and is crucial to putting together our ballot. I have to thank Eboni Dunbar and Leah Weyland for their assistance with this because I couldn’t do that by myself.

Finally, I’ll say if someone wants to be involved in a zine or a project or organization that they care about and isn’t sure how they can join in, you can always just ask. Contact them and ask respectfully if there is anything that you can do to help. Whenever I’ve asked if I could join or help out people have always responded enthusiastically. A lot of the time I put out a question on twitter and get several responses as to how I can get involved.

Q. How has your view of the speculative fiction community, such as it is, changed since you decided to get more involved in the “business” side of things? There are a lot of barriers, and lot of built-in biases, on every level in this business. What are your thoughts on that?

SP: My thoughts are: Yes there are a lot of built-in biases everywhere on many intersectional axes and barriers. I’d like to see more representation. I’d like to see editors, magazines and publishers move towards embracing Non-Western Story telling modes. I’d like for them to go beyond repeating: “I want an active protagonist” because their definition of active is very narrow and limiting. I’d like to see more diverse acquiring editors at magazines and publishing houses. It’s not enough to have diverse slush readers when the person who has the power to buy the stories has a very narrow view of what constitutes a good story. I’d like to see more diverse con chairs so that diversity is baked into every con space.

That said, I think change is happening and I am hopeful. I’m seeing so much great work being published. I’m going to point to F&SF. Before, as a writer, I had zero hope of ever being published in F&SFbecause the editorial vision was extremely biased towards white western story telling. Yes, BIPOC were published by that magazine, but those numbers were low.  Under Sheree Renee Thomas, the representation in the magazine has increased. People who never wanted to submit to F&SF because they had no hope, some people who are fantastic writers and who had been submitting for twenty years are finally being published. Everyone is benefiting from this change in editorial vision.

Workshops are becoming more diverse. They are offering online options. There are more grassroots groups getting together to help each other. Some conventions are moving past basic diversity panels. The community is trying and I give them credit for that. I have a lot of opinions on what can be improved but as I said earlier in my answer about the Ember Award, it’s important to acknowledge the work people are doing now. There is much good in the SFFH community. I am grateful for it.

Q. Is there any advice or insight you’d give to your younger self after all the experience you’ve gained?

SP: Honestly, I’d just hug my younger self. I think to give myself advice would imply that I could have saved time or done something differently and I don’t think I would have done anything differently. I’m happy with where I am with my writing work and my other community projects. But sometimes even when you are working towards a worthy goal, you can become tired or discouraged and feel lonely. I wish I could have kept myself company during those times.

Q. What is something about your job with Ignyte you think most people DON’T know, but which is a major part of it when you’re active behind the scenes?

SP: I deal with most of the people/public facing work with the Ignyte Awards. That means I supervise the inbox, draft a lot of the communication emails, organize and communicate with the jury members, and answer questions or pass questions that I can’t answer on to L.D. Lewis. I also write the first draft of the script and go over it with the host and practice pronunciation with them.

Perhaps it would be surprising for people to know that I spend time assuring nominees that they are in fact eligible for the award and deserve to be nominated. I also help them with nerves or anxieties related to writing a speech and the possibility of having to deliver that speech. For the record, no one is required to give a speech. We would never force anyone to do something they weren’t comfortable with but sometimes people need to hear: The viewers will love whatever you have to say, as a form of encouragement and reassurance. Sometimes they need a mental hug!

Q. To turn toward the writerly side. You write horror and dark fantasy, and one of your stories, “Laughter Among the Trees” was just included in a Best of Dark Fantasy and Horror anthology. You have a short story collection coming out, and your book “Countess” is coming in 2024. Tell us a bit about these upcoming projects.

SP: Yes! My short story collection “Skin Thief” will be published in the fall of 2023 by Neon Hemlock Press. It includes a lot of my previously published work such as “Laughter Among the Trees” along with a 10K word unpublished novelette called “Kill Jar”. “Kill Jar” is a queer gothic tale set on an isolated estate in rural Ontario. It has green houses, snakes and a girl uncovering a dark family secret! The collection is very representative of the short work I’ve been producing over the past five years and has an arc and theme. Here is my pitch for the entire collection for those interested:

“Skin Thief” is a dark fantasy/horror short story collection. The book is named for a group of characters that appear in the collection’s first story, “The Pull of the Herd”. The stories feature queer women of color grappling with the complexities of identity, racism, immigration, oppression and patriarchy. Themes such as nature, gothic hauntings, Trinidadian folklore and shape shifting are interwoven throughout and are used to explore these struggles. The order of the stories in the collection mimics the peeling away of an assimilated Western identity or skin. Stories at the beginning of the book are set in Canada and are written in Canadian English. As the reader moves through the collection, the Canadian voice and settings gradually fade. The middle of the collection is composed of diaspora stories such as "Laughter Among the Trees" which contain some Trinidadian English. The last section of the collection features stories set in Trinidad with larger portions of dialect. Samantha, the narrator of the final story, entitled “Douen”, narrates in full Trinidadian dialect. Thus metaphorically, the collection reenacts the process of shedding a stolen or assumed identity, mirroring the themes of the individual stories themselves.

“Countess” my novella, will be published by ECW press in spring 2024. It is a queer, Caribbean, Count of Monte Cristo retelling, space opera. I love this little book very much and feel it is the story I’ve lived my whole life to write. I have never read or watched a space opera with an indo-caribbean woman as the protagonist so in many ways, this may be me breaking new ground on the publishing front. Even if it isn’t, I put my entire heart into it. Here is my elevator pitch for it!

Virika Sameroo lives in colonized space under the Acerbot Empire, much like her ancestors before her in the British West Indies. Working hard to rise up the ranks of the empire's merchant marine, she's finally become the first lieutenant of an interstellar cargo ship. But her captain falls ill under suspicious circumstances and Virika must salvage the mission and the shipment of iridium that is integral to the functioning of the Empire's military fleet. When she returns to the capital, Virka is arrested and charged with treason despite her lifelong loyalty to the empire. This sets her on a path of revenge where she will confront personal trauma, intimate betrayal and prejudice as the fate of her people hangs in the balance.

Can’t wait to read that collection and that novella. Huge thanks to Suzan Palumbo for doing this interview!

• Suzan Palumbo’s website 

 

About Behind the Zines:

In this interview series, I talk to people working behind the scenes at various speculative fiction publications. My goal is to highlight the work that goes into keeping these publications alive, and to share insights from the people doing that work. Each interview is available exclusively on my Patreon for one week, and is then posted here at Maria's Reading. 

If you want to support my work, check out my Patreon or Ko-Fi.

 

BEHIND THE ZINES with Maria Schrater - Assistant Poetry & Fiction Editor, and Submissions Reader at APPARITION LIT

This month’s Behind the Zines interview features Maria Schrater. She is an assistant poetry and fiction editor, and a submissions reader at Apparition Lit.  I am so grateful to get a chance to talk to her about her work at the zine!

More about Maria Schrater:

Maria Schrater is a writer & poet living with two spoiled cats and dozens of menacing pigeons. Her work has appeared in Sycorax Journal and in Air & Nothingness Press’s Wild Hunt and Future Perfect in Past Tense anthologies. She is also an associate editor for Apparition Literary Magazine. When not writing, she can be found imitating bird calls in the woods.

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Each Behind the Zines interview is first published on my Patreon, and later here at Maria's Reading.

• Read all the interviews in my Behind the Zines interview series.

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Q. Tell us a bit about yourself. What’s your background, where did you grow up, and what do you do outside the world of speculative fiction?

Maria Schrater: I’m originally from Minnesota, mostly in the Twin Cities, and moved to Chicago for college – then stayed. I’m the oldest of five children, which definitely had an impact, I feel like I can be very classic Oldest Sister and I tend to root for oldest kids in books, media, and so on (imagine my deep 6-year-old frown of disdain when reading Grimm’s fairytales and seeing only the youngest succeed). My maternal grandmother is from Japan, so we had Japanese art, food, toys, etc. growing up – my favorite times of year were when Obahchan would send us candies from her trips to Tokyo. Outside of speculative fiction, I have a full-time job, and I have two cats and a puppy that take up most of my free time. I’m also obsessed with birds and escape rooms.

Q. What attracted you to the speculative fiction genre initially - as a child or young adult (or adult)? Were there any particular stories, books, movies, TV-shows, or something else that sucked you into the world of speculative fiction?

MS: I was a very early and voracious reader, and my parents had a rule that I could read just about anything on our bookshelves – but it was authors like Dostoevsky, Tolkien, Homer, and the Brontës, along with the occasional Magic Tree House. Once I graduated from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom it was either those Usborne science books or Lord of the Rings; there wasn’t much in-between those levels. Besides that, my media intake was restricted: I grew up without TV, didn’t watch a lot of movies, library books had to be approved by my mother, and my parents pushed me to read “above my grade.” I was also homeschooled until 6th grade. Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings were what really brought me into genre fiction, especially LOTR. I must’ve read the trilogy ten times during middle school. Everything since then has only whetted my appetite.

Q. Apparition Lit has been around since 2018, publishing some outstanding speculative fiction and speculative poetry. You have a few different roles at Apparition Lit: Assistant Poetry & Fiction Editor, and Submissions Reader. Can you tell us a bit about each of these roles and what’s involved for you in your work at the zine? What are some of your favourite things about the work you do at Apparition Lit?

MS: I originally started as a submissions reader in 2020, and that still makes up the majority of my role. I sometimes read for our monthly flash fiction contest, but it’s mostly for the quarterly issues. I have some background in poetry, and we get less poetry submissions, so I try to read pretty much all of the poetry we get – and choosing what to hold gets harder every issue! When reading submissions, I make a choice on whether to reject a story – maybe it needs a few more passes, the beginning’s too long, or so on – whether to get a second set of eyes on it because I see promise, or if I’m going to put a long string of exclamation points in the comment box like take this one!!

When we’ve chosen which poems are going into the latest issue, another editor and I work with the author on any tweaks. Poetry is such a delicate thing to edit because you have to take into account the rhythms, the length and shape of the lines, the flow of the piece: even changing a word can sometimes change the whole meaning, so I’m extremely surgical about it. I also sometimes do the audio versions of stories if our authors decline to do it themselves.

One of my favorite things every issue is when all the editors read through the stories on hold and leave their comments. At that point, we’ve narrowed the field down to some stellar stories that fit our theme, and I can start to put the issue together in my mind. I’m also very argumentative so I love pitching why we should take a particular story, though as an assistant editor, I don’t get to vote in the final meeting.

Q. How did you get involved with Apparition Lit? And did you have any hopes or worries before you started as to your own work and/or the fate of the zine? How has the actual work, and the situation for the zine, turned out compared to what you expected?

MS: I was just getting into the writing community on Twitter, and I happened to see that Apparition put out a call for volunteer submission readers and threw my hat into the ring. I wasn’t familiar with their work before then, but I read their latest issue and loved what I saw, and I was so excited when they invited me to join. I was hoping to learn more about editing, more about the industry, more about the craft, and make some connections – and everyone at Apparition is brilliant and kind and lovely, and I adore all our guest editors!!

Getting into it, I wasn’t sure what the workload would be, and that work has certainly grown over the last few years as we get more submissions. Still, it’s a bit of choosing how intensely you want to go at it: I read a ton for our latest issue, but the issue before that, I wasn’t in the slush as much as some of my fellows. Apparition is wonderful about offering the junior editors & submissions readers opportunities.

Q. What have you learned since you started at Apparition Lit, and what are some of the most enjoyable things vs. the hardest things about what you do?

MS: My critical eye has sharpened immensely since starting with Apparition. My first quarter, I read pretty much every story I picked in the slush from beginning to end, just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. The problem with that is, if you’re waiting to get to the end to see if the story is any good, it needs more work. Plus, it takes forever. I’m still pretty generous with how far I’ll read into a story that’s not quite grabbing me, because I think all sorts of things can affect an editor – mood, sleep, weather, biases (hard sci-fi is just not my thing), but I have a much better idea of what kind of work a story needs and if it’ll make the cut.

Rejecting stories is, of course, one of the hardest things I have to do! We get so many great stories but being great isn’t always enough; it must fit our theme as well. There are stories I love that I’ve turned inside out and backwards looking for an interpretation of our theme and just didn’t find it.

One of the most enjoyable things I can do is mark a story with a Hold. In our spreadsheet, it immediately highlights orange, like a shining lighthouse beacon beckoning to the other editors: read me next! I’m amazing! I also love working with our poets on edits, and our group call before each issue starts, where we discuss the theme and get to catch up a little bit. I’ve yet to meet any of the other editors in person but the energy through the call is palpable!

Q. You read both poetry and fiction for Apparition Lit. What do you look for in a poem or a story when you’re going through the submission pile for the zine? And is there any advice you would give to writers wanting to submit stories or poetry to Apparition Lit or any other zine?

MS: Language and rhythm are so important to me, in prose and poetry. I want to feel that momentum pulling me along – I’m much more forgiving than some of the other editors on pieces that need to be tightened or the beginning is too long if the prose and imagery is pulling me in. We also look for speculative elements to be present early in the piece – if the twist is that it was aliens or magic all along, and that twist happens on page ten, it’s likely not for us. I love strong character voices, worldbuilding concepts, and visual language. A great character or plot tension will get you farther than interesting worldbuilding, though.

For poetry, I want vivid, unusual imagery. Build me an intense mindscape, build me an emotional journey! I love narrative in poetry as well. If there’s a lot of lists, or if the spec element is mostly in metaphor, it’s probably not for me. I’m open to forms like sonnets, etc., but I think English is a particularly difficult language to rhyme in, and I will be checking your meter! Fair warning, though, other editors at Apparition are much harder to sell on form and rhyme.

Q. Do you have any thoughts on the interest in, and attention paid to, speculative fiction vs. speculative poetry, among readers and more generally in the “world” of speculative fiction publishing?

MS: I see a lot of magazines that focus only on speculative fiction and don’t take poetry, or take poetry in smaller increments than prose (which Apparition also does). I also think the readership for spec poetry is lower. My sense is that sometimes people find speculative poetry intimidating or feel like they don’t have the chops to write or read or edit it – and it is certainly a skill and requires a different way of thinking, but why should that keep you from trying? We certainly get poetry that I don’t feel equipped to understand, and I’m always trying to get better. In general, I think everyone should be more exposed to poetry – if you haven’t found a style or genre you enjoy yet, it’s definitely out there.

Q. What are some of your favourite pieces of fiction and/ or poetry published in Apparition Lit? Do you have any favourite speculative poets?

MS: I am so proud of everything Apparition has published!! It’s impossible to pick favorites. However, there’s something incredible about being the first person to read a story in the slush pile, write a glowing note about it, see it move to the shortlist, and from there be chosen for publication. It’s total luck of the draw at Apparition what stories you’ll wind up reading – I tend to move chronologically from when they were submitted, though I think some of my fellow editors skip around by title or have other methods. Some pieces I discovered were Six Steps to Become a Saint by Avi Burton, The Godmaker’s Cure by December Cuccaro, and träumerei by Ewen Ma, among others.

Q. Has being involved behind the scenes affected your view of the business of genre fiction publishing, compared to your perspective before? Have you gained any insights you didn’t previously have? And has being involved behind the zines changed your own writing, or how you think about your own writing?

MS: I now personally understand the agony of loving a piece and not being able to publish it, whether it’s not on theme for our issue, too similar to another piece, or just doesn’t hit the other editors in the same way, or a million other reasons. There’s a difference between hearing that rejections aren’t just about quality as a writer, and then actually being on the other side of that. I think it also gives me an appreciation for just how much work goes into these magazines, and what labors of love they are. Support your short fiction magazines if you can!!

As far as my own writing, I’ve touched on it in other answers, but it’s definitely helped me level up my own work. I’m much more comfortable writing long-form, but through the sheer volume of reading I’ve done, I’ve learned a lot about structure, pacing, and so on for shorter work. Flash writers, I don’t know how you do it. It’s still a mystery. I also learn so much from the poets who submit, in their gorgeous use of language and form.

Q. For writers and readers out there who might be thinking about getting involved with a zine in any capacity, what would you say to them? Do you have any tips and / or advice (or warnings!)?

MS: Do it!!!! We always need more paying magazines, and extra hands to hold them up. No matter which role you take you’ll learn so much about the way short fiction markets function and read some spectacular work. I usually see a few calls for submissions readers every year, but there are also experts who are willing to discuss launching your own zine. I’ve also found that it helps me spot problem areas in my own writing: why’s a hook not grabbing me? Where does the story actually start (because it’s often not on the first page)? How can I write better dialogue? Reading hundreds of stories with a critical eye is hard work, but there’s few better ways to learn. My tip would be not to overextend yourself, because I often do that. Longevity in the field is important, but it’s something that has to be planned for. You never know how many submissions you’ll get in a particular period, so pacing yourself and scheduling more time than you think you’ll need for tasks are a must.

Q. You’re a writer of speculative fiction and poetry as well. What’s up next for you as a writer?

MS: I’ve gotten off to a slower start to this year than I would like, thanks to a number of things in my personal life. I’ll have a nonfiction essay out in Apparition’s Omen issue. Other than that, I’m still submitting short fiction & poetry, and in the last stages before I start querying a novel for the first time! I lurk on Twitter @MariaSchrater.

Huge thanks to Maria for doing this interview. ❤

• Find out more about Maria Schrater on her website mariaschrater.com.
• Check out Apparition Lit at ApparitionLit.com!

 

BEHIND THE ZINES with Laura Blackwell, Copy Editor at THE DEADLANDS

This month’s BEHIND THE ZINES interview features the wonderful Laura Blackwell. She talks about her work as copy editor for The Deadlands. and many other writerly things.

More about Laura Blackwell:

Laura Blackwell is a Pushcart-nominated writer of speculative fiction. Her stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies including Nightmare, PseudoPod, Strange California, and 2015 Locus Recommended and 2016 World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows. She co-hosts the online reading series Story Hour. You can find her on Twitter at @pronouncedLAHra.

Q. First up, what's your background: where did you grow up, and what do you do outside the world of speculative fiction? What first drew you to speculative fiction? And what kind of speculative fiction are you most into?

LB. When I was very small, my mom would write me little picture books and have me illustrate them. I was a weird, dreamy kid who was always making up stories and drawing comics about fairies and cute animals. I loved fantasy and science fiction first, just the sheer wonder of them, the boundless potential in other worlds. Horror worked on me very well as a kid—still does, really—and so it took me a while to come around to the idea that most of what I write is horror. I’d love to tell you that I read very broadly, and it’s true that I like to mix up reading different styles and settings, but I have to admit that supernatural horror and ghost stories are much more attractive to me than tales about serial killers and other real-life monsters.

Most of my bread-and-butter work is copyediting, and I’m not terribly specialized at this point. I edit short fiction and novels from various genres, and I have a few clients for tech blogs and interviews as well. I enjoy the variety. One of the wonderful things about copyediting The Deadlands is that I get to work on the entire magazine, from the short stories to the poems to the nonfiction articles and the Ask a Necromancer column.

Q. You're the copy editor at The Deadlands and you were previously the copy editor at Shimmer which is where I first met you when you did copy edits on a story of mine. (By the way, these are two of my favourite speculative fiction zines, past and present!) How did you get involved in zine-publishing business and what is it about the work that keeps you involved?

LB. I spent about a decade at a consumer tech publication, and had the great fortune to work with several top-drawer copy editors (this is back when magazines were printed on dead trees and had copy editors). They taught me some of the basics, and at some point I realized that I enjoyed reading style guides. This is apparently not a typical thought, and it suggested I might be happy copyediting.

When I ran across Shimmer, I was very taken with it, as you were (and thank you for saying so). It was so thoughtful and beautiful. And it turned out that Shimmer’s publisher was Beth Wodzinski, a college friend I’d fallen out of touch with. So, while catching up with Beth, I asked if there was any way I could help out with Shimmer. When there was an opening for a volunteer copy editor, Shimmer editor E. Catherine Tobler gave me a shot. She’s now the editor-in-chief at The Deadlands, and I’m so happy to be working with her again.

Q. What does a copy editor do? What does the job involve for you on a day-to-day basis? What are the most enjoyable things vs. the hardest things about your work? Do you have any pet peeves?

LB. The way I see it, a copy editor’s job is helping all writer’s words and ideas get into the reader’s brain. Often that means standardizing spelling, hewing to the style guide, and literally making sure numbers add up, just to keep things consistent. I do light fact-checking. Little things can catch a fraction of a reader’s attention and distract them from what matters. Questions of nuance are trickier, but also interesting and fun to think about.

Q. The work of a copy editor involves working very closely with a writer's text. What is that like, to offer corrections and suggest changes to someone's work, and do you find writer's are usually receptive to that kind of teamwork?

LB. One thing I enjoy is seeing not what’s wrong, but how many different ways there are to be right. The order of the words and phrases change emphasis and the way they work into a reader’s brain. Synonyms can have slightly different connotations or very different sounds that make a difference. My job isn’t to make a story “better” (whatever that means) but as much itself as it can be. That’s especially important for The Deadlands, which takes writer voice very seriously.

I tend to write a lot of notes and queries rather than “just fixing it.” By the time I get a story, it’s working fine; the question is if it’s working the exact way the writer wants it to work. This takes more time for everybody, but I think most writers are okay with it once they understand that I really am trying to help the stories live up to themselves and I’m not just marking things up to be a know-it-all. Sometimes they write me comments back, and that is a treat! I love geeking out over stories.

Q. What is something about your job behind the scenes that you think most people DON'T know but that is a major part of it when you're active behind the scenes?

LB. Language changes quickly! Once I copyedited a contemporary YA and literally spent an hour adding new words to my dictionary. I’m always looking for changes to Chicago style (and AP, which is faster on some things) and thinking about what to recommend to different clients for their style guides. And sometimes I’m the fuddy-duddy who doesn’t want to give up what I learned in eighth grade. CMoS, I love you, but I really do not think “important” and “importantly” should be interchangeable.

Q. Do you have any favourite stories that you've copy edited that you'd like to recommend?

LB. I can’t pick favorites. I love them all! But having just copyedited the fiction for The Deadlands’ April 2022 issue, I have to say it’s a good time to subscribe. Both the stories were so precise in their intent and their voice that they were very easy to copyedit. One of them absolutely gutted me, and the other awakened a roiling hatred for a famous poet. Powerful stuff.

Q. You're also an excellent writer, how do you feel the work as a copy editor has influenced your own writing, if at all?

LB. Copyediting challenges me to look at subtle differences in style and voice, which is always useful. It also challenges me because I have to pay very close attention to really stellar work, which makes me want to give my best not just when I edit, but when I write as well. Whether it’s helped me become a better writer, I can’t say, but thank you for your kind words.

Q. For those writers and readers out there who might be thinking about getting involved in working for a zine in any capacity, what would you say to them? Any tips and / or advice?

LB. I suggest thinking about the kind of work you’d like to do and who and what you’d like to work with, then looking at your skill set and seeing what you have to offer. Unless you have specialized skills, you may start out volunteering as a slusher (I did, ages ago, for a now-defunct publication). It certainly helps if you can point to success at meeting deadlines. Let the folks you work with know what else you’d like to learn, too. And of course, being easy to get along with helps in any career.

Q. You're also one of the people behind the wonderful weekly event Story Hour. I've been part of Story Hour and absolutely love the format. How did Story Hour come to be, and what kind of feedback have you received?

LB. At first, Story Hour was just Daniel Marcus and his friends reading to one another (“just Daniel and his friends” includes Pat Murphy and Nisi Shawl, among others, so there were impressive readers from the start) once a week on Zoom and Facebook. I really liked the format, which emphasized full stories. In those anxious early days of the pandemic, it meant a lot to see real live humans and hear stories that had definite closure. Daniel also gave a shout-out to a worthy nonprofit at the beginning of each hour.

After a while, Daniel said he might scale back to monthly Story Hours. I thought that would be a pity, because it’s so much harder to remember events that happen only once a month versus once a week. I asked what I could do to keep it weekly, and he asked if I would be willing to co-host. It’s worked out really well. He set up the website, and I do some promotion. We both recruit readers, although the website also lets readers come to us—which is great, because we don’t know everybody. We alternate hosting duties now, and we bring in guest hosts from time to time. I have heard some phenomenal stories and met some lovely writers who I might not have known otherwise. Story Hour gives me something to look forward to every Wednesday, and has for two years now.

(Find out more about Story Hour at https://www.storyhour2020.com/)

Q. Finally, some writerly questions. You are part of the new Chiral Mad anthology, tell us a bit about that, and any other projects you have coming up.

LB. Award-winning Michael Bailey of publisher Written Backwards started the lauded Chiral Mad psychological horror series about ten years ago, and this volume will be the fifth and final. It includes one of my favorite stories of my own, “What Is Lost in the Smoke.” It’s personal, because I live in California, where we have “fire season.” Even if the community you live in doesn’t catch fire, the air is full of ash for days on end—and when you stop to think what that ash is made of, it’s deeply disturbing. A survivor of California wildfires, Michael immediately saw the heart of the story. Any story sale is exciting, but knowing an editor really gets it is a wonderful feeling.

I get the chills just looking at the ToC for Chiral Mad 5. It’s too many to list—this will be a big book!—but the name “Stephen King” rings a bell, doesn’t it?

(Find out more about Chiral Mad at https://blog.nettirw.com/anthologies/)

Later this month, I’ll moderate a panel on editing for Flights of Foundry, which is a first for me! This year, I have two very different stories coming out in Nightmare and Weirdbook. In the background, I’m revising a science fiction gothic novel and drafting a suburban fantasy.

Find out more about Laura Blackwell on her website!

Spotlight on APEX MAGAZINE—an interview with editor-in-chief Jason Sizemore and managing editor Lesley Conner (plus: check out that sweet sweet Kickstarter!)

This week, I have a special treat for you. It's an interview with the dynamic duo behind Apex Magazine: editor in chief Jason Sizemore and managing editor Lesley Conner. Apex is a brilliant SFF zine, and they're running a Kickstarter right now to finance their work for 2022. If you haven't supported them yet, head over and pick up a subscription or some of the other rewards available.

Huge thanks to both Jason and Lesley for answering some of my questions about the zine and the business of running an SFF publication!

Q. What’s your background apart from being the people running Apex Magazine?

Jason: The roots of the magazine trace to the year 2004 with the birth of my first kid and my 30th birthday. I had something of an early mid-life crisis and needed a creative outlet. I was big into the saddle stitch zine world at the time and thought it would be fun to do something like that. It was fun. And fulfilling. Here we are in 2021, that kid is now a senior in high school, and I'm still doing the zine.

Lesley: I grew up in a small town in West Virginia, and graduated in 2004 from WVU with a BA in English. I've been lucky enough to call Apex my full-time gig for nearly ten years now. Other than that, I fill my time with keeping up with two teenage daughters and volunteering for Girl Scouts. I run an incredibly active troop, and volunteer for multiple levels within the organization.

Q. How did you first decide to get into the SFF-zine business?

Lesley: I wouldn't say that it was a conscious decision on my part. Jason and I had become friends after bumping into each other at multiple conventions over the years. He mentioned on Facebook needing someone to help out with marketing. At the time I was a stay-at-home mom and I thought it sounded fun! I'd get to help a friend, and do something new and exciting. So I volunteered. I had no idea that it would lead to a career that I am absolutely in love with, but I'm incredibly grateful. I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

Q. Can you tell us a bit about Apex’s history as a zine and what you feel some of its most important accomplishments are as a SFF publication?

Jason: There's a certain amount of hubris required to answer a question like this. Fortunately, I have hubris in great supply...

 Honestly, though, defining achievements is difficult. We've entertained many readers over the years. We've had stories win the Hugo and Nebula awards. I think we've done some positive things in helping boost the voices of marginalized and under-represented writers in SFF.  We've published very early work from notable writers such as Lavie Tidhar, Rebecca Roanhorse, Alix E. Harrow, and Cherie Priest.

All of these are things I'm proud of. Things I want to continue doing. Things I want to do better.

Q. You’re running a Kickstarter campaign for Apex’s next year, 2022. Can you talk a bit about the financial side of running a magazine like this and why you decided to finance your publication through a Kickstarter rather than the subscription model or other alternatives.

Jason: Prior to our hiatus in 2019 (due to personal health stuff), we financed the publication completely through subscriptions and advertising. Thanks to longevity, brand awareness, and quality of our content, we had accomplished the unthinkable—making an online zine profitable.

When we did our relaunch Kickstarter in 2020, I had hoped we would pick up right where we left off. This was a ridiculous hope. We've had a phenomenal 2021, but having to rebuild your subscriber base to pre-hiatus numbers will take awhile. I'd venture to say it's more difficult this time due to the pandemic, social discontent, and the evey-rising amount of noise on social media. A week doesn't pass where I speak with someone who doesn't not know that we're publishing again.

For these reasons (and multitudes more), we're relying on a hybrid model of direct subscribers and crowdfunding. I love Kickstarter and the opportunities it provides, but a crowdfunding project is a lot of work, so I hope we won't need another after this one. I wouldn't be surprised if we do, though. Maybe it's the future of online zines? 

Q. What are some cool perks you offer in your Kickstarter for those who might want to support you? What are the stretch goals?

Jason: We have the usual cool stuff like tuckerizations, critiques from Lesley Conner and myself, and swag packs. There's dinner with Apex at Worldcon. Signed hardcovers. Fancy bamboo bookmarks. Subscriptions.

The stretch goal I'm most excited about is funding an Asian and Pacific Islanders bonus issue. A very close second is including spot art by Justin Stewart with every story! 

6. Every zine has its own voice and vibe, its own personality if you will. How would you describe what Apex Magazine is all about?

Lesley: Apex's vibe is definitely dark. Jason and I both love those stories that push the edge of being almost too much to take. The darkness appeals to us. But that doesn't mean that they're stories without hope or emotion. Actually, I'd say that the perfect Apex stories are the ones that have the biggest emotional impact. The ones that feel like a gut punch or leave the reader reeling in an emotional storm. There are no rose-colored glasses in the Apex offices. Instead, we're looking for the gritty reality taken apart and put back together in a speculative story.

Q. Could you pick three stories from past issues that in your opinion captures what you look for in stories for Apex and represents the kind of tales you want to publish?

Jason: I love questions like this!

"Without Wishes to Bind You" by E. Catherine Tobler — I want to be surprised by the fiction we publish. This is a work that could be campy and silly, but comes across as sweet, earnest, and gritty with realism.

"Curse Like a Savior" by Russell Nichols — Subtly dark. Coated with a veneer of humor. A scary bit of prognostication by the author.

"So Sings the Siren" by Annie Neugebauer — Here's another that took me off guard. It's a really short piece, but strong enough to pick up a Stoker Award nomination!

Q. If you could give advice to the writers wanting to submit stories to Apex, what would you say?

Lesley: 1. Read a few of Apex Magazine's newer issues to get a feel for what kind of stories we're looking for. They're available to read online for free. 2. Follow the submission guidelines. They're also online for you to read for free.

I know that answer seems too simplistic or maybe even flip, but the amount of submissions we get where it is obvious the writer has never read an issue of the magazine or ones where the author blatantly didn't follow the guidelines is baffling. Doing these two things really will give you a step up.

Q. If you could go back in time and talk to yourself when you got into the business of running a zine, what insights – warnings or advice or otherwise! – would you give yourself?

Lesley: To know my own self-worth! If we're going to be completely honest, I owe a LOT to Jason Sizemore because he saw something in me that took me years to see for myself. He believed in me when I didn't. A huge part of my early years working for Apex was me building self-confidence, both in myself as an individual and in my own talent. It changed me as a person and in how I interact with the world. So yeah, if I could have learned that sooner, that would be great. The fact is, though, past-Lesley would never believe me. It took someone else endlessly challenging my self-deprecation to finally start to believe in myself.

10. In your opinion, how has the SFF field on the whole evolved in the time since you became part of it? What trends and changes have you seen?

Jason: The field has become more diverse and much more interesting. The genre short fiction I read now is lightyears better than it was in 2005. The old print digests are still producing great work and now we have Clarkesworld, Apex Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Lightspeed...

Read Apex Magazine

Support the Kickstarter

Support Apex on Patreon

Find Apex Magazine on Twitter

Editor bios:

• The man with the titanium jaw, Jason Sizemore is a three-time Hugo Award-nominated editor, writer, and publisher who operates the genre press Apex Publications. He currently lives in Lexington, KY. For more information visit www.jason-sizemore.com or you can find him on Twitter @apexjason.
• Lesley Conner is a writer/editor, managing editor of Apex Publications, and a Girl Scout leader. 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.