When you refer to yourself as a “cheerful Goth,” you probably like to keep people guessing.
Which seems to be what writer Angela Sylvaine is doing in her first collection of short stories, The Dead Spot: Stories Of Lost Girls (paperback, Kindle).
In the following email interview, Sylvaine discusses how this collection came together, as well as what inspired and influenced the stories in it.
Under normal circumstances, writers talking about their process isn’t nearly as interesting as they think it is. Certainly not as interesting as when they talk about their books. Or about cake.
But when editing the following email interview with author Elwin Cotman about his new short story collection, Weird Black Girls (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), one line about how he writes single-handedly made me more excited for this book: “Whenever I write a new story, I’m trying to write something different from the story before.”
Under normal circumstances, I cannot abide the “throw it all away” philosophy of Marie Kondo. I just like my stuff too much.
But sometimes, decluttering can be good.
Which brings me to writer Danielle Ackley-McPhail who — as she explains in the following email interview — put together her new steampunk short story collection Echoes Of The Divine And Other Steampunk Stories (paperback, Kindle) when she realized she, “…had a lot of short stories … just sitting around cluttering up my hard drive.”
In the following email interview about their first collection of short stories, Bugsy & Other Stories (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer Rafael Frumkin somewhat defers when asked about genre.
But when asked whether this collection has an underlying theme, there’s no equivocation: “life on the margins.”
Edward Willett is clearly a lazy person. Sure, he’s a writer, runs Shadowpaw Press, and hosts The Worldshapers podcast. But what has he done lately?
Well, the answer to that is Shapers Of Worlds Volume IV (hardcover, paperback, Kindle), an anthology of science fiction and fantasy short stories by writers who’ve appeared on The Worldshapers.
In the following email interview, Willett discusses how this series got started, and what went into this fourth volume.
Of the many fears looming over our heads these days (and man, it seems like there’s a lot), none seems to loom as large, but also so abstractly, as the potential military conflict with China.
But for people who can’t wait — and who want it to be, well, weird — there’s the new alternative history / military science fiction anthology Weird World War: China (paperback, Kindle), the follow-up to 2020’s Weird World War III and 2022’s Weird World War IV.
In the following email interview, Weird World War: China editor Sean Patrick Hazlett discusses what went into assembling this short story collection.
There are no set rules when it comes to geographically based short story anthologies. Some editors impose strict guidelines; others take a broader approach. But while their reasoning can be as varied as the selections in their collections, they often have to do with the realities of publishing: page count, budgets, and so on.
But in the following email interview with Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, co-editor of The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022 (paperback, Kindle), he explains why he and his co-editors Eugen Bacon and Milton Davis favored a broader approach, and not just in terms of the geography but also the genres and formats as well: “Because unity is what I believe Africans need most.”
Like a lot of authors, horror writer Greg Chapman just wants his work to be read by people who will appreciate it. It’s why, when assembling his new collection of stories, Midnight Masquerade (paperback, Kindle), he chose to pair two of his notable novellas with some newly written and complimentary stories, among others. In the following email interview, Chapman discusses putting this collection together.
Over the course of his writing career, science fiction author William Ledbetter has had stories published in numerous journals, including (but not limited to) Analog, Escape Pod, and Asimov’s. And now he’s collected a bunch into a handy, take home package called The Long Fall Up And Other Stories (paperback, Kindle). In the following email interview, Ledbetter discusses how he chose which stories to include, which would make good movies, and how editing sci-fi short story anthologies influenced this collection.