DLSnell.com

THE MARKET

NOTE: Author D.L. Snell conducted the following interview to give writers a better idea of what the editors of this specific market are seeking; however, most editors are open to ideas outside of the preferences discussed here, as long as they fit the basic submission guidelines.

THE SCOOP

1) What authors do you enjoy, and why does their writing captivate you?

This could be a long list, but I’ll try to keep it to my major influences: George RR Martin, Gene Wolfe, Kris Rusch, William Gibson, Stephen King, Suzanne Collins, Cory Doctorow, Scott Westerfeld, Neal Stephenson.

As you can see, I’m all over the map and I was sticking mostly to the speculative fiction genres. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what captivates me, but I would say great characters and interesting stories. Martin hits my reader cookies so completely that I will read anything of his, and usually multiple times as I study how he works his craft. He’s a master.

And while I have a few prose-heavy writers on that list, like Wolfe and Gibson, it’s their storytelling that interests me, not their literary stylings. In fact, what usually disappoints me about their stories is I have a hard time getting friends and family to read their works because they’re rather imposing on the prose. It’s not that I don’t love what they’re doing, I do, it’s more that the average reader has a hard time connecting to them.

2) What are your favorite genres? Which genres would you like to see incorporated into submissions to this market?

This is by its nature a science fiction theme, but other genres can be mixed freely.  Last year's Volume One was heavy on the near-future stories.  I'm hoping writers push a little further out on the spectrum and take chances with their writing. 

3) What settings most intrigue you? Ordinary or exotic locales? Real or fantasy? Past, present, or future?

I like big, bold storytelling. The type of stories I like show up regularly in the Writers of the Future contest.  So if you're wanting to stand out from the hundreds of similar slush stories I'll see, take me to an exotic location and tell me a story I've never heard before. 

4) Explain the type of pacing you enjoy, e.g. slow building to fast, fast throughout, etc.

That’s a hard one to answer. The pacing depends on the story being told. Pacing is like breathing, there’s purpose to the hesitation between the in-breath and the out. I would caution against all slow pacing, but unless there’s a stylistic reason, blazing through the story at mach ten without giving the reader a breath can be overwhelming.

5) What types of characters appeal to you the most? Any examples?

I have a sweet spot for flawed, but powerful characters.  Lisbeth Salander from the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes to mind first. Just about any character in Martin’s Game of Thrones. The Gunslinger and Wolfe’s Severion are other examples.

6) Is there a specific tone you’d like to set in your publication? What kind of voices grab you and keep you enthralled? Any examples?

Voice works when it works? I’ve been studying a lot of short fiction lately (even more than I usually do), and I’ve seen a lot of differing voice styles work. There has to be some anchor to the reader, but if you can do that and hold interest, then it’ll come together.

7) What is your policy for vulgarity, violence, and sexual content? Any taboos?

No taboos as long as it’s for the story’s sake. The further away you get from the norm, the harder it is to justify. And shocking for the sake of shocking won’t get far.

8) What kind of themes are you seeking most in submissions to this market? In general, what themes interest you?

Augmented reality can be used in a diverse enough way that any theme can be explored as long as it involves the human condition.

9) Overall, do you prefer downbeat or upbeat endings?

Prefer upbeat, but downbeat is acceptable as long as it serves the denouement.  A tragically beautiful ending is difficult, but powerful when it's pulled off. 

10) Any last advice for submitters to this market? Any critical do’s or do not’s?

Understand what augmented reality (AR) is all about. Be creative and push the boundaries. Don’t just slap AR into a current story and send it in. That tactic is extremely obvious. But also, don’t let the story just be about the technology. We have to be invested in the character before we can care about how technology changes us. Fiction provides understanding into the human condition and science fiction just provides a unique lens.  Flip the lens to AR, turn it to eleven and send in your best stories.

For more scoops, go to www.dlsnell.com.

D.L. SNELL is an acclaimed novelist from the Pacific Northwest. Anthologies include Pocket Books’ Blood Lite series, edited by best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson. Snell’s first novel, Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines, also attained critical acclaim from popular novelists such as New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry. Visit his website at dlsnell.com.

To reprint this article, please contact D.L. Snell.

THE MARKET

NOTE: Author D.L. Snell conducted the following interview to give writers a better idea of what the editors of this specific market are seeking; however, most editors are open to ideas outside of the preferences discussed here, as long as they fit the basic submission guidelines.

THE SCOOP

1) What authors do you enjoy, and why does their writing captivate you?

KR: I’m old-fashioned, so my tastes run to a lot of classics: Lovecraft, Hodgson, Machen, and their descendants, T.E.D. Klein, Karl Edward Wagner, Ramsey Campbell. With the exception of HPL and Campbell, these guys have simple straightforward styles that don’t get in the way of the stories they’re trying to tell.

BMS: Lovecraft, for his original vision of horror. Stephen King for being the first author of adult books I ever read and introducing me to the joys of reading. Robert Bloch and Joe R. Lansdale for doing both bleak horror and black comedy so well. Richard Matheson for being the most consistently good and enjoyable over such a long career. And I can’t forget Robert E. Howard for his manly badassery. 

2) What are your favorite genres? Which genres would you like to see incorporated into submissions to this market?

KR: I’m obviously a big fan of supernatural horror, but much of the reading I’ve done over the past couple of years has been western-related one way or another—a lot of history, but also novels by Peter Brandvold, Elmore Leonard, and Gordon Shirreffs (who’s probably my favorite western novelist—good pulpy stuff).

BMS: Horror first and foremost, with various flavors of sci-fi and the occasional sword and sorcery fantasy, as long as it’s not too cute and fluffy. As for what I’d like to see for this book, a real blend of honest to god, scary as shit horror with undeniable Old West settings, themes, and characters. I don’t want to see a story, even if it’s a first rate horror tale, that only has the western aspect as set dressing, or a truly great western if it’s not in the least horrifying.

3) What settings most intrigue you? Ordinary or exotic locales? Real or fantasy? Past, present, or future?

KR: Well, this is a western book, so obviously we want stuff that fits into that genre and setting, whether it’s the eerie deserts and mountains, the agoraphobic plains, or more civilized/genteel atmospheres of cities like San Francisco or New Orleans. Cowtowns, Mexican villages, mining camps, Indian villages. Westward expansion could lead to any number of horrific situations in any number of environments.

BMS: I usually prefer modern tales, but in the case of this book we really want stories that feel authentic to the old west. If you have a story you wrote for some other setting, don’t think you can retrofit it with cowboy hats and six guns and think that will be good enough. If it is not first and foremost a true western, then it’s not going to fly.

4) Explain the type of pacing you enjoy, e.g. slow building to fast, fast throughout, etc.

KR: There are lots of different ways to write both horror stories and westerns. Some writers like to come charging out of the gate with an action scene, then settle in for a slow build-up to the story’s climax. I don’t think that’s any more “correct” or preferable than a story that builds slowly from the start. It really depends on what kind of story you’re telling, rather than an overall preference on my part. One thing I do think is missing in a lot of horror fiction is the sense of awe or unease produced just by little things. The recent Japanese-horror films used (and then over-used) this tactic a lot, but you also saw it in Machen and Lovecraft—that twinge of horror you got from something that seemed inconsequential. Or, alternately that gasp of wonder you had, say, when HPL described the awakened Cthulhu as “a mountain walked or stumbled.” That works a helluva lot better for me than a minutely detailed description of a vast alien being.

BMS: While arguments can be made for any type of story, the majority of short stories I really like are fast paced. I like the sense of action they impart. Conversely when it comes to novels or horror movies, I prefer creeping dread. Yeah that’s weird, I know.

5) What types of characters appeal to you the most? Any examples?

KR: I figured that since we’re doing a western book we’d see a lot of laconic gunfighters a la Eastwood but that hasn’t been the case so far. I don’t have any preferences, but I’ll share a dislike: all-powerful characters who know everything about the occult or the Cthulhu Mythos or whatever it is they are going to be up against. Continuing characters and horror don’t mix well in my mind, though there are exceptions. I’m well sick of all-knowing invincible Mythos-busters.

BMS: I always like strong capable characters that nonetheless come up against things they just can’t overcome. It’s the whole feeling of yeah, you might be a bad ass (in whatever field) but compared to this you’re still nothing.

6) Is there a specific tone you'd like to set in your publication? What kind of voices grab you and keep you enthralled? Any examples?
KR: There have been a number of other horror-western and weird western fiction anthologies, but I have yet to see one that emphasizes the HORROR aspect. Most of the anthos I’ve seen have had at least a few stories (often several) that were firmly tongue-in-cheek. That’s NOT what I want for Edge of Sundown. I want HORROR, not broad humor or tall tales or light-hearted bullshit. I want stories that take both genres with deadly seriousness. There can be wit and humor, but these stories should raise goosebumps, not guffaws. As for a specific example, I’ll fall back to one of my favorite horror writers, Karl Edward Wagner. Whether it was his dark fantasy Kane stories or his horror tales, Wagner knew how to tell a story. An unobtrusive voice but always—always—a compelling plot and characters. I’m more of a plot-guy than a prose-aficionado.

BMS: We decided that this anthology was going to be 100% horror. I want dark, truly horrific horror. No horror-lite, no wink and nod spooky tales, I want the author to first and foremost to try to scare the hell out of the reader. I want feel-bad, twisted, dark as the moonless night, “oh my god I can’t believe I just read that” kind of horror. 

7) What is your policy for vulgarity, violence, and sexual content? Any taboos?

KR: My vocabulary is pretty spicy anyway, so I personally have no limits there. Sex and violence are fine too, as long as you have something to say other than just “here’s some tits and gore.” Too much of horror these days relies on graphic descriptions of violence at the expense of pacing and atmosphere and the aforementioned “awe factor.” Writers seem to be rushing toward the “money shots” of knife slicing skin, bullet tearing through flesh, or teeth ripping throat. I’d rather see something strange and unearthly instead.

BMS: I’m fine with vulgarity; it’s a form of expression I’m fairly familiar with, as long as it’s warranted. Violence, I like violent horror. While not essential to tell a good story, I grew up in the 1980s reading plenty of splatterpunk. Sex, as long as it’s not just tossed in to be titillating and nothing more, I’m fine with it. As for taboos, for me it would be the victimization and sexualisation of children. No one wants to read that, and if you do, then this is not the book for you.

8) What kind of themes are you seeking most in submissions to this market? In general, what themes interest you?
KR: I strongly prefer supernatural or cosmic horror, though I can definitely see possibilities for psychological horror as well. Sadism and torture porn usually have no draw for me, though there are exceptions. As I said earlier, westward expansion brought people into a big, wild, unexplored part of the country, and I think that’s something worth pursuing: the vast wildernesses, what lies in wait out there, what men can do to each other once they’ve left civilization behind. There’s also the angle of expansion and greed outstripping man’s caution, his rapaciousness and disrespect for the natives and the environment, and so forth.

BMS: I’d like to see more than the typical tough and stoic gunman fighting some monster that might be the first thing that comes to people’s minds when you say ‘horror western.’ To be sure, there is room in this book for those kinds of stories, but the American Old West was so much more than that. I’d like to see tales from all the other amazingly colorful characters that populated that part of the world in that time. Naturally, I’d like to see elements of the Native Americans, from characters to parts (and/or monsters) from their rich mythology. Perhaps an immigrant from the ‘Old World’ has brought some of his horrors and nightmares with him to this wild New World? Also cosmic horror a la H.P. Lovecraft and how that would interact with the people of the old west would also be a cool idea. Or non-supernatural horror, if it’s truly engaging.   

9) Overall, do you prefer downbeat or upbeat endings?

KR: I’m pretty pessimistic, so I tend toward the bleaker side of things, whether it’s in my own writing or the stories I select. I don’t mind happy endings so long as there’s some cost involved for the survivors. Brushes with the supernatural should always leave scars, whether physical or psychological.

BMS: Either, but if I had to lean one way or the other, I’d lean toward downbeat. Not only does it feel more horrific to me, I think too many of today’s horror stories have happy endings.

10) Any last advice for submitters to this market? Any critical do's or do not's?

KR: Take the western and horror genres seriously. DO NOT play them for laughs. Make me shiver, whether it’s with a horde of zombies breaking down the cabin door to eat the man and his son—who have just one bullet left—or the sight of the Thunderbird blocking out the sun as it soars over the desert. Write great stories.

BMS: Make sure you are well versed in both the old west and what makes a good, scary story. Also avoid the clichés, not every whore had a heart of gold or were soiled doves in the Old West. Some were just mean, nasty, could-give-a-damn-less-about-anyone whores. That’s just one example, there are countless others, so be warned. 

For more scoops, go to www.dlsnell.com.

D.L. Snell writes with Permuted Press. He edited Dr. Kim Paffenroth thrice, John Dies at the End once, and provided a constructive critique to Joe McKinney on his next major novel after Dead City, Apocalypse of the Dead. You can shoot D.L. Snell in the head at www.dlsnell.com.

To reprint this article, please contact D.L. Snell.

© University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Photo by Carlye Calvin

THE MARKET

NOTE: Author D.L. Snell conducted the following interview to give writers a better idea of what the editors of this specific market are seeking; however, most editors are open to ideas outside of the preferences discussed here, as long as they fit the basic submission guidelines.

THE SCOOP

1) What authors do you enjoy, and why does their writing captivate you?

We like mainline SF/Fantasy writers like Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, and Vernor Vinge.

2) What are your favorite genres? Which genres would you like to see incorporated into submissions to this market?

We prefer an SF/Fantasy bent.

3) What settings most intrigue you? Ordinary or exotic locales? Real or fantasy? Past, present, or future?

We like exotic locales, but ordinary settings are fine if the story is speculative (for example, time travel) or the situation is out-of-the-ordinary.

4) Explain the type of pacing you enjoy, e.g. slow building to fast, fast throughout, etc.

We are publishing short stories, so a rather quick build up is desirable.

5) What types of characters appeal to you the most? Any examples?

We like humans who have a wry sense of humor and a problem-solving attitude. We also like intelligent aliens and creatures.

6) Is there a specific tone you'd like to set in your publication? What kind of voices grab you and keep you enthralled? Any examples?

We are looking for stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something instructive to tell us as human beings.

7) What is your policy for vulgarity, violence, and sexual content? Any taboos?

 A little vulgarity is ok where appropriate. No overly graphic depictions of rape and murder, please, although some death and destruction is expected for this collection.

8) What kind of themes are you seeking most in submissions to this market? In general, what themes interest you?

The current anthology is about environmental disaster, or the fixes we’ve gotten ourselves into. The next anthology (open for submissions on April 1, 2012) will be on the theme of “War.” The final anthology for 2012 will have the theme, “Origins.”

9) Overall, do you prefer downbeat or upbeat endings?

Either is fine. Also like endings with a twist.

10) Any last advice for submitters to this market? Any critical do's or do not's?

We are also interested in short humor pieces, which will be featured separately in the anthologies. These should also have an SF/Fantasy bent, preferably.

For more scoops, go to www.dlsnell.com.

D.L. Snell writes with Permuted Press. He edited Dr. Kim Paffenroth thrice, John Dies at the End once, and provided a constructive critique to Joe McKinney on his next major novel after Dead City, Apocalypse of the Dead. You can shoot D.L. Snell in the head at www.dlsnell.com.

To reprint this article, please contact D.L. Snell.

THE MARKET

NOTE: Author D.L. Snell conducted the following interview to give writers a better idea of what the editors of this specific market are seeking; however, most editors are open to ideas outside of the preferences discussed here, as long as they fit the basic submission guidelines.

THE SCOOP

1) What authors do you enjoy, and why does their writing captivate you?

GB: Gawd there are so many… let’s see now! Two favourites: Raymond Chandler, because of his attention to detail and the rawness of his prose, and of course, H.P. Lovecraft, so rich with imagination and darkness, I couldn’t imagine a world without his sinister vision.

BMS: Lovecraft, for his original vision of horror. Stephen King for being the first author of adult books I ever read and introducing me to the joys of reading. Robert Bloch and Joe R. Lansdale for doing both bleak horror and black comedy so well. Richard Matheson for being the most consistently good and enjoyable over such a long career. And I can’t forget Robert E. Howard for his manly badassery. 


2) What are your favorite genres? Which genres would you like to see incorporated into submissions to this market?

GB: My genres, cyberpunk, and horror, for the most part. For this book, with immense clues in the title, we want to see the Cthulhu Mythos mixed with Steampunk, and are quite happy to see elements of fantasy, sci-fi, and even comedy within the subs.

BMS: Horror first and foremost, with various flavours of sci-fi and the occasional sword and sorcery fantasy, as long as it’s not too cute and fluffy. As for what I’d like to see for this book, a real blend of Lovecraftian nihilistic and inescapable horror with the often “future is bright” feel of steampunk. Also, I’d like to see some tales outside of the Victorian Britain setting.

3) What settings most intrigue you? Ordinary or exotic locales? Real or fantasy? Past, present, or future?
GB: I very much like alternate reality settings, whether it be past, present or future. Imagination can really soar when the world and reality have no boundaries.

BMS: I go through cycles. I’ll be into historical fiction for a while and then switch to something futuristic. However I always return to stories set in the modern world where reality clashes with the horrific or fantastic. 


4) Explain the type of pacing you enjoy, e.g. slow building to fast, fast throughout, etc.
GB: Any really, though it is good sometimes to read something slow paced, that suddenly goes ‘boom’ at a mile a minute near the end.

BMS: While arguments can be made for any type of story, the majority of short stories I really like are fast paced. I like the sense of action they impart. Conversely when it comes to novels or horror movies, I prefer creeping dread. Yeah that’s weird, I know.

5) What types of characters appeal to you the most? Any examples?

GB: Those that feel helpless against an overpowering Evil/Government/Religion, but fight back nonetheless. Doomed protagonists also read very well in a story.

BMS: I always like strong capable characters that nonetheless come up against things they just can’t overcome. It’s the whole feeling of yeah, you might be a bad ass (in whatever field) but compared to this you’re still nothing.

6) Is there a specific tone you'd like to set in your publication? What kind of voices grab you and keep you enthralled? Any examples?

GB: Dark for the most part, dystopian too. Steampunk tales in a grimy, polluted world with nothing shiny but the glint in the antagonist’s eye.

BMS: I’d be happy to run the gambit. From a few (but only a few) silly, humorous tales to the darkest, most feel bad stories imaginable, and everything in between. As long as it’s 100% steampunk and 100% Lovecraftian (or would that be 50% of both?) I’ll be happy.

7) What is your policy for vulgarity, violence, and sexual content? Any taboos?

GB: Swears are okay, as long as they are part of the story, but I don’t see our protagonists lowering themselves to such vulgarities. Violence, no problem where it is a necessary part of the story and not gratuitous. And sex… nothing X-Rated.

BMS: I’m fine with vulgarity; it’s a form of expression I’m fairly familiar with, as long as it’s warranted. Violence, I like violent horror. While not essential to tell a good story, I grew up in the 1980s reading plenty of splatterpunk. Sex, as long as it’s not just tossed in to be titillating and nothing more, I’m fine with it. As for taboos, for me it would be the victimization and sexualisation of children. No one wants to read that, and if you do, then this is not the book for you.

8) What kind of themes are you seeking most in submissions to this market? In general, what themes interest you?

GB: Again, darkness in the Steampunk world, sinister conspiracies and things beyond comprehension breaking through into our reality.

BMS: Technology mixed with black magic or just going too far. Famous characters (fictional or real) from the era would be a good addition, as long as there’s a solid reason for them to be in the story. Perhaps pulpy adventure mixed with the darkest horror. 


9) Overall, do you prefer downbeat or upbeat endings?

GB: Either, and if it’s downbeat for the heroes and upbeat for the bad guys, that’s fine! The protagonist discovering the hopelessness of the human condition in the face of the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos would be a good (but not totally necessary) ending to a Steampunk Cthulhu tale.

BMS: Either, but if I had to lean one way or the other, I’d lean toward downbeat. Not only does it feel more Lovecraftian to me, but I think too many of today’s horror stories have happy endings.

10) Any last advice for submitters to this market? Any critical do's or do not's?

GB: DO NOT pay lip service to the Mythos, as in throwing in a few names here and there just to make something Cthulhu Mythos when it’s not. We want the stories rich with the elements of both genres, blended seamlessly.

BMS: Let me stress that again, DO NOT play lip service to the Lovecraftian element. I’ve recently put together a number of Lovecraftian anthologies and you’d be surprised how many authors think that namedropping Cthulhu or the Necronomicon is sufficient. Well it’s not. The same should be said about the steampunk genre. If you’re not completely comfortable with one side of this genre blending experiment or the other, it will show. 

For more scoops, go to www.dlsnell.com.

D.L. Snell writes with Permuted Press. He edited Dr. Kim Paffenroth thrice, John Dies at the End once, and provided a constructive critique to Joe McKinney on his next major novel after Dead City, Apocalypse of the Dead. You can shoot D.L. Snell in the head at www.dlsnell.com.

To reprint this article, please contact D.L. Snell.

THE MARKET

NOTE: Author D.L. Snell conducted the following interview to give writers a better idea of what the editors of this specific market are seeking; however, most editors are open to ideas outside of the preferences discussed here, as long as they fit the basic submission guidelines.

THE SCOOP

1) What authors do you enjoy, and why does their writing captivate you?

Stephen King, of course, holds a special place in our hearts. He has a great knack for diving into your average day man and bringing out the true horrors that hide beneath. No one better has been able to bring up a scenario and make the reader ask themselves what they would do if thrown into the same situation. In fact, we appreciate all this man has accomplished so much that we even made a sort of “SK Holiday” back in August on our blog wherein we reviewed some of his older work. We look to do it again next August as well.

2) What are your favorite genres? Which genres would you like to see incorporated into submissions to this market?
Well, obviously our favorite genre is horror. But just because it’s horror, don’t think that we’re expecting a bunch of blood and guts. No, we are looking for stories that are truly horrifying—concepts that rock the very sense of reality itself. We want to be scared, not grossed out.

As for this specific anthology, we don’t want stories that only take place in the past and have a horror element thrown in. We want tales more in vein of The Twilight Zone. We want the weird and the creative. We would like our writers to take a specific historical event, and ask themselves, what if something had gone differently? How would the future have changed? The biggest example being, of course, what if Hitler had won the war? What kind of world would we live in now? And, if you throw in some horror tropes such as zombies or cockatrices or what have you, why, that would be just fine.

3) What settings most intrigue you? Ordinary or exotic locales? Real or fantasy? Past, present, or future?
For this anthology we are looking for real settings instead of full blown fantasy. Just because it’s an alternate history theme, that does not mean that the story has to take place in the past, either; it just means that something in the past went in a different path than what we know to be true; therefore, the future could be and probably is the most appropriate setting for our book.

4) Explain the type of pacing you enjoy, e.g. slow building to fast, fast throughout, etc.
Either, really. Just that it is written well and truly horrifying. Both fast and slow have their advantages; with fast paced stories you are thrown into the story immediately, right there in the action—while a slow paced story, however, prides itself on building the tension. That’s the most important thing when it comes to slow paced stories, that it keeps with the tension. And if your story does begin slow, then it better have one hell of a climax if you want to stand out among the rest of the dozens of submissions we’ve already received.

5) What types of characters appeal to you the most? Any examples?
It would be interesting to see others’ takes on famous historical figures—a few examples being maybe Teddy Roosevelt, Lee Harvey Oswald, Vlad the Impaler, etc. The possibilities are endless. But don’t think that we only want stories featuring famous historical figures; the events and their consequences are more important here, although that isn’t to say that your characters (whoever they are, real or fictional) shouldn’t be written well all the same.

6) Is there a specific tone you'd like to set in your publication? What kind of voices grab you and keep you enthralled? Any examples?
An anthology shouldn’t stick to one specific tone but instead offer a variety of nightmares to appeal to all readers.

7) What is your policy for vulgarity, violence, and sexual content? Any taboos?
Only when necessary. If it pertains to the plot, then by all means knock yourself out. But if you’re just trying to be edgy, then we’re the wrong publication for you.

8) What kind of themes are you seeking most in submissions to this market? In general, what themes interest you?
One question: WHAT IF? What if Y had happened instead of X? What would the consequences be?

9) Overall, do you prefer downbeat or upbeat endings?
Whatever seems appropriate for the rest of the story. If the rest of the story is dark and utterly hopeless, then we don’t want a copout upbeat ending. But there’s no reason to force a downer on us either. Each tale is different.

10) Any last advice for submitters to this market? Any critical do's or do not's?
Do not send us stories that take place in the past and that’s it. Just because there’s the word “history” in the description does not mean you get to skip reading the rest of the guidelines. Please make sure you understand what we’re after before submitting. Also, good luck! This book is going to be awesome.

For more scoops, go to www.dlsnell.com.

D.L. Snell writes with Permuted Press. He edited Dr. Kim Paffenroth thrice, John Dies at the End once, and provided a constructive critique to Joe McKinney on his next major novel after Dead City, Apocalypse of the Dead. You can shoot D.L. Snell in the head at www.dlsnell.com.

To reprint this article, please contact D.L. Snell.

THE MARKET

NOTE: Author D.L. Snell conducted the following interview to give writers a better idea of what the editors of this specific market are seeking; however, most editors are open to ideas outside of the preferences discussed here, as long as they fit the basic submission guidelines.

THE SCOOP

1) What authors do you enjoy, and why does their writing captivate you?
SMG: Oh, a whole lot of people. Nabokov, Tanith Lee. They have to have some flair. That certain style which pulls at you.

OG: Man, as Silvia says above, lots of people. I'm personally a huge fan of Mike Mignola, who's known more for his art than his writing, though he's amazing at both. I'm a fan of a lot of the turn-of-the-century guys and the #Weird Tales authors like Lovecraft, Leiber, Hodgson, etc. And of course I'm a really big fan of M.R. James and E.F. Benson and a lot of other guys with two first initials and then a last name.  


2) What are your favorite genres? Which genres would you like to see incorporated into submissions to this market?
SMG: We are looking for all kinds of speculative fiction. Mushroom noir. Steamfungus. Whatever floats your mushroom. I'm actually very serious about mushroom noir. And there's stuff that should just write itself, like some #Alice in Wonderland variation because of the whole mushroom consumption in that.

OG: Again, as Silvia says, there's no one genre we're looking for in #Fungi, but I'm personally partial to weirder supernatural stories, something a little spooky, a little haunting. Hard sci-fi or high fantasy is going to be a harder sell for me than something that's got a little creep to it.


3) What settings most intrigue you? Ordinary or exotic locales? Real or fantasy? Past, present, or future?
SMG: I wouldn't call it exotic, but I want to see stuff that's not set in the USA. The world is bigger than one country. If we don't get a story set in China with Chinese characters, that would be unforgivable, for example. The country has over 200 species of mushrooms and they have been used in traditional medicine for many, many years.

OG: While I love a good story set in a decaying New England town (and we've gotten a few good ones already), I'd second the notion that we'd like to see stuff set all over the world.


4) Explain the type of pacing you enjoy, e.g. slow building to fast, fast throughout, etc.
SMG: I'm for slow, but that doesn't mean you are allowed to bore me to tears. You've got to catch our attention somehow. It doesn't have to be with a fistfight, but give me something.

OG: I love a good slow burn, though what works best varies from story to story. I think if you're going to go with a slow start, though, then something like atmosphere or tone is absolutely imperative right up front.


5) What types of characters appeal to you the most? Any examples?
SMG: Ones who are not stupid? Seriously, I get to read many stories in which the protagonists seem to have been banged on the head with a big hammer.

OG: I remember the old guidelines for #Weird Tales used to ask for "protagonists who protag," and yeah, I'd like to see some of those. I prefer characters who're taking an active role and at least trying to do something, rather than passive victims succumbing to their fate. (Not that the active characters can't still fail, or be attempting something harmful, but I'd like them to be at least attempting something.)


6) Is there a specific tone you'd like to set in your publication? What kind of voices grab you and keep you enthralled? Any examples?
SMG: I like weird stuff. Stuff that isn't afraid to play with form.

OG: Again, I like stuff that's a little on the macabre or spooky side, so I'm going to gravitate toward that.


7) What is your policy for vulgarity, violence, and sexual content? Any taboos?
SMG: Whatever works for the story. However, violence for the sake of violence is bo-ring. Also, this is not an erotica anthology.  

OG: I don't think I have anything to add to that.


8) What kind of themes are you seeking most in submissions to this market? In general, what themes interest you?
SMG: Body horror. Stories without plots. Stories that are not third-person POV. Hero’s journey? Not my cup of tea. Stories with good science.

With that said, I don't want it to be all people turning into mushrooms. How about mushroom as a tool for murder? You know, poison. A society interested in the cultivation of mushrooms. A mushroom deity. One of the largest organisms on earth is a fungi. Or, think of penicillin.

OG: I'm a big believer in people turning into mushrooms, it's true, but we're going to get, and have already gotten, a lot of those stories. Also, we're getting a lot of stories with overt Lovecraft references. I'm not averse to a good Lovecraftian fungus story, but I definitely don't want this anthology to be all Lovecraft all the time.


9) Overall, do you prefer downbeat or upbeat endings?
SMG: Whatever works for the story.

OG: Ditto.

 

10) Any last advice for submitters to this market? Any critical do's or do not's?
SMG: Please provide a cover letter with your most relevant credits. Do not summarize the story for me.

OG: And please, please put the word count in your cover letter!

For more scoops, go to www.dlsnell.com.

D.L. Snell writes with Permuted Press. He edited Dr. Kim Paffenroth thrice, John Dies at the End once, and provided a constructive critique to Joe McKinney on his next major novel after Dead City, Apocalypse of the Dead. You can shoot D.L. Snell in the head at www.dlsnell.com.

THE MARKET

NOTE: Author D.L. Snell conducted the following interview to give writers a better idea of what the editors of this specific market are seeking; however, most editors are open to ideas outside of the preferences discussed here, as long as they fit the basic submission guidelines.

THE SCOOP

1) What authors do you enjoy, and why does their writing captivate you?
The science fiction authors that I have enjoyed whose ideas and style are relevant to the Extreme Planets anthology include Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks, Greg Egan, Peter F. Hamilton, David Brin, Neal Asher, Ken Macleod, Charles Stross, Stephen Baxter, Robert Reed and Greg Bear. These authors can write tales with a pace, have good characters and most of all leave me with a sense of wonder. When I finish reading their works I feel like the universe is bigger and more wondrous than I had ever imagined, and that the scale of space is just huge. They also get the science and technology right, creating believable futures.

2) What are your favorite genres? Which genres would you like to see incorporated into submissions to this market?
I like thrillers, stories with a sense of will or won’t the protagonist get through to the end of the story in one piece after facing numerous obstacles, dangers and antagonists out to stop them. I also like a sense of adventure. For example, in Extreme Planets, a story might involve a group of planetary explorers working together to determine the best way to alter a planet’s atmosphere to make it breathable for them. This might be an okay story on its own, but if there was a time frame to solve the problem because the only air recycler on their spaceship has failed, and that someone in the team is deliberately sabotaging their efforts, then this adds extra tension, pace and mystery that a story would otherwise lack. We’ve set story lengths up to 10,000 words so authors get the opportunity to play with and develop their ideas.

3) What settings most intrigue you? Ordinary or exotic locales? Real or fantasy? Past, present, or future?
This is an anthology about planets that push the boundaries of what is possible in an alien environment, so my co-editors (David Kernot and Jeff Harris) are looking for stories set on or about these kinds of worlds, what it would be like for humans to observe, explore or live there (or fight wars or plunder its resources for that matter), and how the environment might affect any life that might have evolved there. So if this is an anthology about alien worlds, then we want far future science fiction stories involving spaceships (or equivalent) and the technology that goes with it, or the technology to observe these worlds from afar. Technology similarly needs to be sufficiently developed to create a believable future.

We are also interested in stories about pantropy (re-engineering humans to survive in alien environments) and terraforming.

We are not interested in steampunk or fantasy extreme worlds.

4) Explain the type of pacing you enjoy, e.g. slow building to fast, fast throughout, etc.
I want to see action unfolding as the story is being told, not recounts of what has happened in the past, or detailed essays as to why the characters are where they are or how technology works. Details like that should come out in the narrative. Lastly, I want to see dialogue. Stories without any dialogue at all really don’t work for us. And stories have a pace, don’t get bogged down with too much description when it is not needed and don’t race through scenes that need a little more description to set the scene.

5) What types of characters appeal to you the most? Any examples?
Science fiction is about problem solving, so I want characters that at least try to solve problems facing them. They may not succeed but I want to see them give it a go. Protagonists hold more appeal to readers when they are active, not passive. They don’t wait for things to happen, or for someone else to take the lead, they drive the action themselves. If a spaceship is going to crash into a black hole, then the main character in this particular story is the one working very hard to ensure this rather unpleasant end doesn’t come to be, even though she or he might be faced by a whole host of secondary events or characters, willingly or unwillingly, trying to see her or him fail.

Also, I like characters that care about something, and stand up for what they believe in. I like characters that are also human, in that they have failings as much as they have positive traits. I like to see characters evolve, learn something about themselves and come out the other end of a story as a better person.

6) Is there a specific tone you'd like to set in your publication? What kind of voices grab you and keep you enthralled? Any examples?
I said earlier I like the thriller style, where there is a sense of action and danger. I like stories where I am compelled to turn the next page because I want to know what happens next. I want to be surprised by twists and turns that I didn’t see coming.

I’m a huge fan of Alastair Reynolds––now he knows how to write a story with pace and energy that grabs my attention. If submitters can write a story as good as his, then they will be in for sure.

7) What is your policy for vulgarity, violence, and sexual content? Any taboos?
Violence towards children and minors will be extremely hard to sell. Vulgarity, violence or sexual content just for the sake of shock value isn’t appropriate. I don’t care if your story has words like ‘fuck’ in it, or there are sex scenes or bloody demises of characters, but we’re not after gory horror tales either. There is one main rule to follow: make vulgarity, violence and sexual content appropriate to the story. If in doubt, less is definitely preferable to more. Implication is better than graphic description.

8) What kind of themes are you seeking most in submissions to this market? In general, what themes interest you?
Simply, we want stories about the most bizarre but plausible (in a science fiction setting) world that can be imagined. Then we want to see what life is like on these worlds and how humans would survive there, or stories about observing or discovering these worlds.

There are so many speculative worlds out there, both in science and science fiction literature. We want stories about super-sized ocean worlds with sea hundreds of kilometers thick and deeper layers of hot ice, carbon worlds with diamond mountains and petrochemical seas, iron worlds with extreme magnetic fields and alien life forms that have evolved with iron in their biochemical makeup, and planets with super gravities and atmospheres so thick it is like walking in liquid. But we’re also keen to see artificial worlds along the same vein as Larry Niven’s Ringworld, the lattice structure in Alastair Reynold’s Pushing Ice, artificial Jupiter sized spaceships like Robert Reed’s Marrow, Shellworlds like in Iain M. Bank’s Matter, Alderson Disks like in Charles Stross’ “Missile Gap,” and anything else anyone out there has the imagination to conjure up.

9) Overall, do you prefer downbeat or upbeat endings?
Don’t care, so long as I’m dragged into the story because I’m enjoying it and I want to see how it ends. Protagonists should fight the good fight. Sometimes they win and sometimes they lose. The main criterion is that they fight for what they believe in.

10) Any last advice for submitters to this market? Any critical do's or do not's?
Be a fan and avid reader of science fiction, otherwise you are unlikely to understand the nuances that make the genre what it is, and what we are looking for. Also, read current works out there, because science fiction changes a lot, even in a decade. Some good examples of recommended reading are Asimov’s Interzone and Analog magazines, and anthologies such as The New Space Opera by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, and Mindblowing SF by Mike Ashley, but there are plenty of other examples out there, such as the works by authors I recommended earlier. Also, science magazines like Cosmos, New Scientists and Scientific America also have lots of great articles to kick-start the imagination.

A critical point: if your only understanding of science fiction comes from watching science fiction movies and television series, then you are doing yourself a huge disservice, because the ideas in the visual media pale in comparison to the ideas in the literature and are about 50 years behind in their concepts. If this is your only influence, your stories will look amateurish in comparison to those who read in the genre.

Critical do not’s, that’s easy. Ensure that your story does not include any of the following: vampires, elves, fairies, werewolves, unicorns, magic, religious stories where god is a real person, Lovecraftian monsters, medieval settings, immortal godlike humans calling themselves ‘Thor’ or equivalent, superhero stories and stories set in universes with a similar set-up to Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. No horror unless it is a science fiction story with horrific elements, and no fantasy.

Very few science fiction anthologies appear in the open submission market, so we ask authors to make their work count. We want good science fiction stories about worlds that push the limit of what we think is possible.

One last note, we will consider reprints from professional authors, but they are going to be really hard to sell if we get really good original tales to compare them against. Query if you think you have a reprint story for us, we won’t discount them. Query if you have any idea that you think might interest us.

For more scoops, go to www.dlsnell.com.

D.L. Snell writes with Permuted Press. He edited Dr. Kim Paffenroth thrice, John Dies at the End once, and provided a constructive critique to Joe McKinney on his next major novel after Dead City, Apocalypse of the Dead. You can shoot D.L. Snell in the head at www.dlsnell.com.