Pushpin Books will be home to Last Outpost (a military themed SF anthology withing the Far Orbit anthology series) and future Far Orbit space opera anthologies including Far Orbit Perigee (accepting submissions Jan 1 - March 1, 2017, see pushpinbooks.com for more information).
Recently, editor and anthologist Bascomb James announced that his next venture after editing Far Orbit and Far Orbit Apogee for World Weaver Press and Hyperpowers for Third Flatiron Press (forthcoming May, 2016), will be to establish his own publishing house, Pushpin Books, a celebration of short speculative fiction.
Pushpin Books will be home to Last Outpost (a military themed SF anthology withing the Far Orbit anthology series) and future Far Orbit space opera anthologies including Far Orbit Perigee (accepting submissions Jan 1 - March 1, 2017, see pushpinbooks.com for more information). Beginning writers are often given the advice "write what you know." It's not a rule, not by a long shot. It's advice. And it's not even advice that applies long-term. It's training wheels. When you're starting to write, you have a lot of brand new considerations to make. You're learning to balance craft -- storytelling, grammar, narrative, pacing, character, dialog -- and the best way to do that is to do. That is, write. And if you're spending the majority of your time researching, then you're not writing. Further, it can become hard to parse if your story isn't working because of craft issues or because you're writing about something you clearly have no experience with. It's best to eliminate variables to help diagnose the problem. In this case, eliminating places, careers, time periods, situations, etc., that you're unfamiliar with, means that the problems that are left are probably craft problems. So once a writer reaches the stage where her writing feels solid enough to take on research . . . well, that's a brand new, fabulous can of worms. Read on for a discussion of reasons to research, pitfalls to avoid, how to move beyond Wikipedia, and when/how to approach an expert.
And a Very Merry Krampus to YouFor the past two years, whenever my friends, family, or the authors/editors I work with at World Weaver Press see a Krampus related article online or hear a Krampus bit of news, they immediately send it to me. My social media accounts floweth over with Eileen, have you seen this? Krampus links. But in early 2014, when editor Kate Wolford (Enchanted Conversation, Beyond the Glass Slipper,Frozen Fairy Tales) pitched to me the idea of World Weaver Press publishing an anthology of Krampus stories, I admit, I had no idea what she was talking about. But a bit of Googling and a few conversations later, I was in love. Okay, I wasn’t quite in love—yet—but I was fascinated. Krampus (also called Perchten or Tuifl) is a monster out of the Germanic Alpine tradition, and he’s been around for at least a thousand years—some sources say well over two thousand years—and specifically as a companion of St. Nick since the 16th century (or so the internet tells me). “His name comes from the German word krampen, which means claw. Some say he is the son of Hel from Norse mythology. Others say his physical features or even the chain and rusty old bells he wears come from other demonic-like creatures of Greek mythology” (source). Called by some “the Christmas Devil,” he’s not actually demonic in the religious sense of the word, at least no more than any other monster, troll, yeti, or other pagan-roots creature from folklore. Although Krampus certainly has the horns and chains and sometimes hooves associated with depictions of the devil. He’s also coated in shaggy fur and his most defining feature after the horns is a very, very long tongue. Take a quick look at any Krampus and you have to wonder what sort of influence this critter had in the design of Orcs in Lord of the Rings. In fact, the differences between Orc cosplay and Krampus cosplay are subtle. Yes, I just said Krampus cosplay. There’s a tradition in Europe—particularly in Austria but it’s done elsewhere and is catching on in North America—of holding Krampuslauf or “Krampus runs” on December 5, also known as Krampusnacht, or Krampus Night. Here’s my favorite YouTube video of a Krampuslauf, this one is from Graz, Austria, in 2010 . . . . . . and if you want to watch the video and see the rest of the article, you'll have to head over to Rhonda Parrish's blog, host of the Giftmas Tour. You can also find and enter the rafflecopter giveaway there. There's three prizes all huge stacks of books. If you didn't get a chance to read my flash fic fairy tale retelling "Yaga Dreams of Growing Up" in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, you can now listen to it in the online audio magazine PodCastle. The recent episode features three pieces of flash in PodCastle's excellently produced show.
Listen here: Podcastle episode 378. I love speculative romance. Loving something is always personal, so I suspect the reasons you love it may be different than my own. And I want to hear those reasons in the comments! Until then, here's my love letter to the sub-genre: Speculative fiction, whether sci-fi or fantasy or paranormal, is all about the what if? questions. Those wonder and awe inducing daydreams that have been a part of the stories we've heard and read since we were kids. What if we could fly? What if there are unicorns in another realm? What if there's a big red dog that wants to be my friend? What if there's something hiding in my closet, and does it want to eat me or play with me? What if I could command magic? What if aliens landed on Earth . . . and they looked like smoking hot men? Read the rest of my love letter to speculative romance at RedMoonRomance.com . . . First off, I have done A Thing: my short story "Candy, Shoe, and Skull; Sallow Flowers Plucked Like Chains" appears in this month's issue of Niteblade Fantasy and Horror Magazine. And yes, it's the dark fairy tale issue. If you know me, you understand why that is perfect. I've read the magazine and there are some delightfully wondrous and oh-so-dark retwistings of fairy tale in these digital pages. So far my favorites, other than my own story (because: of course), are Eric J. Guignard's "A Kiss and a Curse," a Beauty and the Beast retelling of dire consequence, the narrative poem "Et je ne pleurais jamais les larmes cicatrisantes magiques; c’est seulement un mensonge joli: Arne-Thompson Index No. 310" by Elizabeth McClellan featuring a Rapunzel with agency and engineering on her side, and Rhonda Eikamp's "The Men in the Walls," which is also very, very dark. Well, they're all dark. This is, after all, the dark fairy tale issue. But there's a delight in these dark stories that my brain keeps turning over and over. I love the twists and shapes of these tales. My piece, "Candy, Shoe, and Skull; Sallow Flowers Plucked Like Chains,"really came about because I kept picking at the notion of where fairy tales come from, then applied that to the modern world. We're all just dark and twisty beings who don't understand what's going on.There are two main theories in folklore studies about the origins of these stories of the people and the fact that so many cultures developed the same basic tales seemingly independent of one another. One notion is that these tales arise from the collective subconscious. That human brains are all hardwired similarly -- we fear the dark and unknown, we have a thing about shoes, we conflate eating, sex, and cannibalism -- and communicating this to each other produces narratives. The ones that resonate with the listener get retold, and retold, and retold. Over the generations, a regional flair gets added or subtracted as the culture changes. Eventually, the tales were written down, but that didn't stop them from changing. The other notion is that humans craft fairy and folktales as a coping device -- the tale itself is a means of understanding the world we live in. This notion draws mythology and fables in under the same explanation even though folklorists like to firmly divide folklore, fairy tale, myth, fable, tall tale, etc. into their own groups. But the notion is that we tell origin stories to explain why the sea is salt or why the sun chases the moon across the sky. We also tell stories that are warnings: don't take candy from stranger houses, be careful or a fox will trick you out of your riches, nobody likes vain mean girls. Beauty and the Beast tale types are generally seen to convey the hope make the best of a bad arranged marriage and maybe it'll get better. When strange things happen, we seek explanation. What goes on when people leave civilization? What is out there? What happens to children who wander off from town? Letting it unravel to its furthest logical outcome.I started in a modern(ish) world that possessed fairy tale logic -- a belief that wonder and action create life not just action; therefore, magic (in certain forms, such as talking bears) exists. I then brought forth a town and gave them a collective voice who didn't know what happened to children who wander off from town. And I let them tell their story. Let them set forth into the modern-yet-fairy-tale world to discover the tale-truths of their existence.
I hope you'll pick up a copy of Niteblade and see the story for yourself as well as the other great offerings in the issue. It's well worth the $2.99 to get the ebook or PDF edition. But since we're talking about money . . . Niteblade has an interesting sales model: Once they reach $50 of sales and/or donations for an issue, the stories and poems unlock and become available online as well as continuing in their for-purchase avenues such as Amazon Kindle. (N.B. The sidebar meter does not appear to be updating in real-time, rather it's a once-a-day update. I think.) So go forth, and unlock the dark fairy tale goodness. |
Eileen WiedbraukWriter, book designer, coffee addict, cat herder, learning to code, MFA grad, Odyssey Workshop alum, tech geek, kdrama devotee, avid reader, and a somewhat decent cook. Categories
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