Fantasy Scroll Magazine Issue #5

by Emily Cataneo

  Horror, though—horror I think has its own separate audience. Of course there's a good amount of overlap between SF/F readers and horror readers, but it was my feeling that there were enough folks who wanted to read just horror/dark fiction and those who wanted to read SF/F without the horror/darkness vibe that it made sense to launch Nightmare as a separate entity.

  Of course the initial plan for that was also that I would not publish that magazine myself, so that was a factor as well. My original business partners on Nightmare, Creeping Hemlock Press, couldn't quite make it work in the end, so they turned the magazine over to me and I found myself as publisher of a second magazine I never really had any intention of publishing. But, again, in the end it worked out for the best.

  Running two successful magazines and editing a lot of anthologies is equal, in my mind, with having absolutely no free time. So you must be surrounded by a strong team that helps out. How are your magazines structured? Tell us about the team and the separation of duties.

  I definitely do have a great team around me! Prior to 2014, I was doing a lot more myself, but starting in Jan. 2014, I brought on Wendy N. Wagner to serve as our managing and associate editor. That slightly complicated job title means that she handles a lot of the typical duties of a managing editor (keeping everything on schedule, sending out contracts — basically administrivia) but also that of an associate editor (helping me decide which material gets published, line-editing stories, etc.). I was just getting so busy that finding time to do everything I needed to do for the magazines each month was becoming tougher and tougher to do, and I knew that with me starting my tenure as series editor of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy in 2014, I'd have less time than ever. Now she's essentially my right hand.

  But one of the other things Wendy handles is managing the rest of the team, which is fairly extensive. Anyone curious can check out our team on the staff pages of Nightmare and Lightspeed. I couldn't possibly publish or edit the magazines without them.

  At this point, I'm still selecting all of the fiction for both magazines, though Rich Horton and John Langan are my reprint editors, tasked with helping me find suitable reprints for the magazines. Assistant Editors Erika Holt and Robyn Lupo both provide feedback on stories but also manage our author spotlights (assigning them and making sure folks turn them in on schedule etc.). Cory Skerry and Henry Lien are our art directors. Jeremiah Tolbert of Clockpunk Studios is our webmaster. Stefan Rudnicki and the team at Skyboat Media produce our podcasts, and Jim Freund is our audio engineer. And my wife, Christie Yant, is our associate publisher, which basically means she helps me make all of the important decisions about the magazine. It's a huge collaborative effort.

  Since a lot of writers are going to read this, could you tell us what constitutes a great story for you? And, on the other hand, what is a bad story? Any advice for writers aspiring to one day have their stories in the pages of Lightspeed or Nightmare?

  This is always a hard question to answer. (If I had an easy answer for it, we'd have it up on our guidelines page so writers would know what they need to do to sell me a story!) But generally what I want to see in a story is something that surprises me, something that I've never seen before—whether that's via character, voice/style, or plot. A unique voice is probably the hardest thing for a writer to develop, so that's one of the most frequent ways that a story will initially grab my interest; naturally it has to have more than just that in order to be fully successful as a story, but it's the kind of thing that may make me take notice of a writer even if the story in question didn't quite work for me.

  As for bad stories... it's not very useful to hear, but the most common sin bad stories commit is they're just not interesting enough. Call it "boring" if you want a one word descriptor, but that's what it essentially boils down to. When I really get into a story, I disappear into it and the artifice of the act of reading sort of fades away; when I'm not into a story, it's like I'm very aware that I'm reading. A good story is a masterful illusion; a bad story is a clumsy magic trick.

  As for my advice for aspiring writers for breaking into Lightspeed or Nightmare: I'd say the best thing you can do is read as much of what we publish in the magazines as possible. And otherwise just read as much short fiction as possible. Reading novels is great too, of course, but if you really want to improve your short story craft it's essential to study that particular form.

  Besides being the publisher and editor of award-winning magazines, you also edit a variety of genre anthologies. How different is editing an anthology from editing an e-zine? Do you set yourself annual goals in terms of issuing anthologies, or are they more of a spur of the moment kind of thing?

  I don't have any annual goal in terms of anthology quantity per se, but in my experience it's feasible that I can publish 4 or 5 anthologies in a year—in addition to Lightspeed and Nightmare—and there's room enough in the marketplace to allow that, so that's sort of what I'm shooting for at this point. For a lot of the books I do, there's not much left of the advance after I pay the authors, and then if they earn out I won't see the royalties for a year or more, so it's good to have a lot of different irons in the fire.

  Otherwise, though, most of my anthologies are born due to a burst of inspiration. Either because I detect something happening in the zeitgeist I think it would be cool to capture in an anthology, or I hit on something I just think would be fun to do, and if I'm lucky it'll have commercial potential as well.

  Editing anthologies and magazines are very different beasts. I feel like editing a magazine is a more pure editorial experience because I'm not really doing much soliciting—I'm just selecting what I like best from the stories that are submitted; or even if I do solicit, I'm not soliciting with any particular theme in mind, I'm just asking authors to write something for the magazine. Whereas with an anthology, most of the time it's going to be centered on some theme, which means that you have to recruit authors to write stories on that specific thing—and so by definition that the end result of that kind of project is going to be more of a manufactured sort of thing, not organic and pure like an issue of a magazine that is not beholden to any particular theme or genre (except the wide genres of SF/fantasy). With an anthology there are also huge commercial considerations that you just don't really have with a magazine.

  Are there any editors out there that have influenced your work and style? Any personal heroes? And on that note: what do you think makes a good editor?

  Well, as mentioned above, clearly Gordon Van Gelder was a huge influence on me as an editor. Otherwise, Ellen Datlow, Gardner Dozois, and David Hartwell also immediately come to mind, and also, to a some degree, Ben Bova—as he's kind of responsible for me reading short stories in the first place. Bova was one of the first core SF authors I followed and hunted down his books; as a result I ended up with several short story collections, and it was in those pages that I read some of my first SF short stories, but also was exposed to the wider world of genre fiction that was out there—the short fiction magazines, conventions, et al.—in the header notes he had before each story. Remember, this in the mid-to-late '90s, so the internet was around but not the treasure trove it is today, so I hardly knew anything about what was out there—thus Bova's intros and headers were kind of a revelation.

  This is a tough one: What is your favorite story from Lightspeed and what is your favorite anthology among those that you've published? And I'll even dare ask this: what is your favorite piece of short fiction ever?

  I'll answer your last question first: My favorite piece of short fiction ever is "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. The novelette version, not the novel version; though I like both, I'm not sure that the novel version was necessary, as the novelette is essentially perfect. The fact that "Flowers for Algernon" was published in F&SF originally is one of the many reasons it was such an honor to work there. I think my second favorite is "The Deathbird" by Harlan Ellison, and others of my top favorites include "Speech Sounds" by Octavia E. Butler,
"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin. But it's so hard to name just a few stories like that—I have so many stories that I truly love!

  I always hesitate to play favorites among my own anthologies and magazines too, but it's a fair question. I think that my favorite story I've published in Lightspeed is "Biographical Fragments of the Life of Julian Prince" by Jake Kerr. I just love the inventive way in which it tells the story via excerpts of Wikipedia entries and news articles and interviews, and how it forces you to construct this meta-narrative in your head as you read it. Though I might be forced to concede that this is kind of a tie with the very first story Lightspeed ever published, "I'm Alive, I Love You, I'll See You in Reno" by Vylar Kaftan. My wife and I both love it so much we got Vylar to write our wedding ceremony. (And as it happened, we were getting married in Reno.)

  You didn't ask, but just quickly I'll say, since I'm naming favorites, I think my favorite story I've published in Nightmare is probably "57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides" by Sam J. Miller or "Construction Project" by Desirina Boskovich. And probably my favorite thing that I read or published in 2014 was "Break! Break! Break!" by Charlie Jane Anders, which was in my anthology I co-edited with Hugh Howey, The End is Nigh. (And in my role as series editor of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, I tried to read every story published in SF/F—in American/Canadian publications anyway—in 2014, so that's saying something.)

  Among my own anthologies, I'd say either Wastelands or Brave New Worlds are my closest to my heart, though I kind of feel like The Apocalypse Triptych may be the best publishing idea I've ever had. I can tell you that if I had a business manager, The Living Dead would be his favorite.

  What are the most valuable non-monetary rewards you get from running Lightspeed and Nightmare? The award nominations, a handshake at a convention, a friendly email from a reader? What makes it all worth it in the end?

  You know, in the middle of answering these interview questions, Lightspeed's Hugo for Best Semiprozine finally arrived after months of waiting. (The Hugos were presented in August, and today is January 20.) Or to be more precise, the rest of my Hugo arrived. They shipped it in two pieces: the base in one shipment and the rocket in another. The rocket was sadly even more delayed (I only got the base about a week before the rocket). Man, that'll teach me to not go to London when I'm nominated for an award! And on top of that I learned that two stories from Nightmare and my anthology The End is Nigh are all on the preliminary Stoker Awards ballot. It's been kind of a weird day.

  The awards are a huge honor, obviously. But ultimately the things that matter most are the human connections: Hearing from readers who are moved by the material you produce, having someone tell you that you not just moved them but produced their favorite book, or doing socially-conscious projects like the Destroy series of special issues we're doing and seeing the positive effect those things have.

  One of the other things that makes it all worth it is one of the things that really makes my life seem surreal at the same time: the amazing people I get to work with and consider colleagues. Like, I've had a number of phone conversations with Harlan Ellison. I've had lunch with Robert Silverberg (who insists I call him "Bob") and Joe Haldeman. I've exchanged emails with Ursula K. Le Guin. Neil Gaiman once gave me five gold doubloons. George R.R. Martin and I got married to our spouses at the same venue on the same day, one wedding right after the other. I even talked to Stephen King on the phone once, and, hell, now I'm editing an anthology with his son.

  What's next for you? What should people be looking for in 2015 and beyond?

  Last year, we crowdfunded a special issue of Lightspeed called Women Destroy Science Fiction!, which was a special issue 100% written and edited by women, challenging the fallacious contention that women don't or can't write "real" science fiction. It was hugely successful, and so we decided we might as well keep destroying things—and there are plenty of other underrepresented groups that could use a larger platform—so we asked queer authors to destroy it this year. As I write this, we're in the midst of our Queers Destroy Science Fiction! Kickstarter campaign. We started out looking to raise $5000 in order to fund making the special issue into a special double issue, but we reached that goal in about 7 hours and are now at just over $23,000, with 27 days to go, and have unlocked several cool stretch goals, with more to come. Of course by the time you publish this, we'll have raised more than that and probably unlocked a few more stretch goals!

  Otherwise, I've got a bunch of anthologies coming out in 2015. Wastelands 2, a post-apocalypse reprint anthology, comes out Feb. 24, but first, Titan will release a mass market paperback edition of Wastelands on Jan. 27. Operation Arcana, from Baen, is an all-original military fantasy anthology that comes out March 3. April 1 is the pub date for the final volume of The Apocalypse Triptych, The End Has Come. In August, I have an anthology coming out from Simon & Schuster's new imprint, Saga (though I can't announce what it is yet), and Vintage is publishing my video game-themed anthology, Press Start to Play. In October, the first volume of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy (guest editor: Joe Hill) comes out.

  In addition to that, I've got two other anthologies under contract with Saga, which will come out in 2016 and 2017, and I've got a couple other proposals out that will probably bear fruit before too long, though it's too soon to announce anything. Plus, there will be at least one more volume of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy in 2016, and then hopefully the publisher will decide to continue the series long into the future.

  So, you know. I've been keeping busy!

  John, thank you very much for agreeing to this interview. Good luck with all your projects. I am really looking forward to the new anthologies. Looks like it will be a busy year!

  Artist Spotlight: Todor Hristov

  Todor Hristov is a concept artist and illustrator, currently working fulltime for Norwegian Software and Web development company, Kaizen Web Productions.

  Iulian: Tell us a little bit about yourself: where did you grow up and how did your early life influence your future as an artist?

  Todor: Hi, my name is Todor Hristov and I am 30 years old. I'm originally from Bulgaria and I grew up in a small town called Novi Pazar. I have been drawing ever since I can remember. Our town town has a well-developed silicate industry and we have a good professional high school, preparing professional designers and decorators for that industry. Since I had an interest in arts from a very early age, it was natural for me and my family to go study there. After I graduated, I went to university studying Commercial and Graphic Design. Over those couple of years I learned to draw and sculpt. I acquired a good level of knowledge about lighting, anatomy and perspective, but I tended to avoid and disliked working with colors. That's why now, after all those years I try to keep up and learn color theory as much as I can.

  The biggest influences to developing my drawing skills were all kinds of fantasy and medieval movies, books, encyclopedias, animation, and comics. I am also very interested in bodybuilding, the human body, and anatomy. Even now I train a lot and always try to have a casual fitness goal. And the dedication and discipline required achieving that goal transitioned into my art development and thus it has helped me significantly.

  What are your favorite design tools and how did you get to learn them?

  When it comes to exploring new ideas and designs, for whatever subject, I prefer line drawing with some basic perspective. Back in school we designed silicate objects (vases, glasses, bottles, etc.) drawing them accurately on paper with exact sizes and proportions in different views and perspective. I'm used to this way of thinking even now when I draw digitally. I also had a lot of experience with traditional modeling with clay and harder materials. I had learned Photoshop back in my university years and worked as a graphic designer for a few years after that. Then, 3 years ago, I had decided that I can achieve my dream of becoming a concept artist. So I started learning digital painting. I struggled a lot at the beginning, watched tons of tu
torials online, and kept pushing. I've taken a few online classes last year at CGMA and Schoolism, learning color theory and environment design. There's still so much more to learn.

  Are there any other artists out there that you admire and whose work has helped shape your work?

  I admire A LOT of artists. I can write 100 names here and still may miss some. I had the pleasure to meet some of them, and boy it feels like I'm meeting my idols, my rock stars! That's what they represent for me. Some of the names I can't miss though are: Feng Zhu, Level Up team—Jonas De Ro, Vojtek Fus, and Darek Zabrocki. Their online tutorials and sessions with other professionals offer help to so many new artists, and I'm happy to be one of them.

  Stylistically, I admire Wei Wang, Dave Rapoza's rendering techniques, Jonas De Ro, Raphael Lacoste, James Paick, Aaron Limonick's environments, Scott Robertson, and Michal Kus. There are so many more…

  Where do you find inspiration?

  As I mentioned above, all my life I have been enjoying fantasy and historic movies, books, encyclopedias, animation and comics. Later on I was fascinated by the cool CG effects in the movie industry. And as a gamer I was amazed by the graphics of the new computer games. This was the time I started looking into concept art for games and movies. This is what I wanted to do one day. Overall that's it: games, movies, books and other concept artists and illustrators.

  How would you break down your workflow in steps?

  When I do illustrations and characters/creatures, I always start with rough sketch, and gathering reference. Sometimes I clean the sketch and define it if it's more conceptual work, to make it clearer. Then I block in the basic shapes and values choosing my main color, and then I add different light sources with their colors. Keeping in mind the color harmony and color relationships, I add the additional local colors and after that just render it out.