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I am happy to be collaborating with Brandon Bell on a new project, Weird Bard Press, a small press focused on "socially aware fiction." Its first project, an anthology called Torn Pages, has its guidelines posted already. This particular book, which is Brandon's concept that he will edit, has a particularly interesting and powerful motivation behind it which will be elaborated upon in an article that he'll be publishing soon. When he asked me if I would knock the accumulated dust off my publisher hat and get busy on a new project, it was not possible to say no. I never even considered saying no. I decided in five seconds to say yes, because it's a cool project and it's with my favorite collaborator.
Hmm, collaboration: it ain't always for me. I don't always do well in groups (unless it's a group that I'm running). In my most private personal life, there's one person with whom I collaborate closely (he knows who he is) and the two of us are the entire group (with the cats, too, of course). In my day-to-day work-life, I do pretty well in the group (but I'm also kinda the boss of most of it, so I get my way a lot) but there, too, is one person who is my main collaborator, and he knows who he is. In my third strange area of life--this weird publishing and editing thing that's done almost entirely on computers--it's awesome to have a collaborator that you can actually get something cool done with, and in this area it's always Brandon Bell. My M-Brane Press handled his awesome magazine Fantastique Unfettered. He and I worked really hard and had great fun making our shared-world fiction concept The Aether Age a real book that Hadley Rille Books published a couple years ago. He also helped me make real my dream of a new book in the style of the old Ace Doubles by giving up one of his novellas to form half of it. I sometimes forget that he wasn't technically a collaborator on my antho Things We Are Not--though he did provide its awesome title story, reprinted here--because the whole time I was working on it I was constantly chatting with him by email about it and getting his insight about things. And the second story that I acquired for the M-Brane SF magazine's first issue was his. It was a stunner, and I knew that I was in touch with someone who was going to be important. So when he mails me and asks me if I want to do something, it's easy to sign up.
Another thing I like about the Weird Bard Press plan right now is that we're not doing a periodical. It's too much of grind right now at this stage of things. I like magazines, and I think Brandon does too, but we're not in that mode this year. FU was finally cancelled a few months ago after its last issue didn't quite make it all the way to press, and I have not--despite some low-level clamor for it--committed to bringing back M-Brane SF. And I'm not going to this year. I'm not saying never, but it's not the right year for it. So, we're going to do stand-alone books and focus first and fully on Torn Pages. It's exciting for me right now because I really have no more idea what this book is really going to end up being than anyone else does, but I know for sure that it's going to be super-cool and very interesting. This certainty comes from knowing that it has a great editor with a great concept.
Hmm, collaboration: it ain't always for me. I don't always do well in groups (unless it's a group that I'm running). In my most private personal life, there's one person with whom I collaborate closely (he knows who he is) and the two of us are the entire group (with the cats, too, of course). In my day-to-day work-life, I do pretty well in the group (but I'm also kinda the boss of most of it, so I get my way a lot) but there, too, is one person who is my main collaborator, and he knows who he is. In my third strange area of life--this weird publishing and editing thing that's done almost entirely on computers--it's awesome to have a collaborator that you can actually get something cool done with, and in this area it's always Brandon Bell. My M-Brane Press handled his awesome magazine Fantastique Unfettered. He and I worked really hard and had great fun making our shared-world fiction concept The Aether Age a real book that Hadley Rille Books published a couple years ago. He also helped me make real my dream of a new book in the style of the old Ace Doubles by giving up one of his novellas to form half of it. I sometimes forget that he wasn't technically a collaborator on my antho Things We Are Not--though he did provide its awesome title story, reprinted here--because the whole time I was working on it I was constantly chatting with him by email about it and getting his insight about things. And the second story that I acquired for the M-Brane SF magazine's first issue was his. It was a stunner, and I knew that I was in touch with someone who was going to be important. So when he mails me and asks me if I want to do something, it's easy to sign up.
Another thing I like about the Weird Bard Press plan right now is that we're not doing a periodical. It's too much of grind right now at this stage of things. I like magazines, and I think Brandon does too, but we're not in that mode this year. FU was finally cancelled a few months ago after its last issue didn't quite make it all the way to press, and I have not--despite some low-level clamor for it--committed to bringing back M-Brane SF. And I'm not going to this year. I'm not saying never, but it's not the right year for it. So, we're going to do stand-alone books and focus first and fully on Torn Pages. It's exciting for me right now because I really have no more idea what this book is really going to end up being than anyone else does, but I know for sure that it's going to be super-cool and very interesting. This certainty comes from knowing that it has a great editor with a great concept.
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