Ellen Datlow interview about her Horror, fantasy, and sci-fi book “Edited By” (Subterranean, 2020)

Ellen Datlow collection
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Ellen Datlow interview about her Horror, fantasy, and sci-fi book “Edited By”

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/32D4McZ

Interview Summary

Ellen Datlow has been editing horror, fantasy, and science fiction short stories and novellas for over forty years. She’s won numerous awards and accolades for her work and has edited numerous best of anthologies along with short stories for magazine and book publishers. Subterranean Press is releasing a book on some of the best stories she’s edited. I spoke to Ellen about her work as an editor, about genre fiction, and about the business in general.

0:32: Ellen talks about how she got into editing and editing anthologies.

(2:25: I think Ellen meant 1979 not 1989)

4:39 – Ellen talks about her work at OMNI and then how she got into anthologies.

8:32 – Ellen talks about hating doing writing herself.

11:29 – Ellen talks about how she chooses stories.

13:05 – Ellen talks about how she approaches stories that might need extensive edits and rewrites.

15:49 – Ellen talks about the tone and style of writing.

17:28 – Ellen talks about the time period “Edited by” covers and the genres included. She discusses her anthology work.

20:30 – Ellen talks about the difficulties of getting her pitches accepted.

23:46 – Ellen talks about how she manages an anthology project and deals with the writers in the anthology.

26:37 – Ellen talks about how she deals with anthology publishers when pitching an idea.

27:22 – Ellen talks about trends in writing.

31:29 – Ellen says that mostly all she gets to read are the things she edits. She also talks about how she is able to read so much.

33:05 – Ellen talks about some of what she is reading.

34:58 – Ellen talks about the length of stories she prefers. She talks about flash fiction past and present.

37:46 – Ellen talks about reading stories out loud. She talks about punctuation and commas.

39:24 – Ellen talks about how her editing style has changed over the years.

40:37 – Ellen talks about computer editing and track changes.

42:33 – Ellen talks about stories she has edited in the past.

46:46 – Ellen talks what she looks for in horror stories.

48:27 – Ellen talks about the publishing industry.

49:40 – Ellen talks about e-books.

50:21 – Ellen talks about editing works with art elements.

58:53 – Ellen talks about sci-fi horror.

1:01:16 – Ellen can be found on facebook and twitter @ellendatlow.

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/32D4McZ

https://subterraneanpress.com/news/announcing-edited-by-ellen-datlow/

https://www.facebook.com/EllenDatlow

https://twitter.com/EllenDatlow

Contact Information

For more “Full Contact Nerd” please follow me at crisalvarez.com, on Facebook at CrisAlvarezFCN, on youtube at Cris Alvarez on twitter @CrisAlvarezFCN, on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi, and on Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify for the podcast. Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.

Guests: Ellen Datlow

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags:  Books, audio interviews, editor, podcast, fantasy, science fiction, horror, fiction, award, hugo award,  Subterranean,

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/32D4McZ

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Cris Alvarez Full Contact Nerd Interviews

Melanie R. Anderson and Lisa Kroger interview about Horror and Speculative Fiction – “Monster She Wrote” (Quirk Books, 2019)

Melanie Anderson and Lisa Kroger discuss horror and speculative fiction
Melanie Anderson / Lisa Kroger horror and speculative fiction

Melanie R. Anderson and Lisa Kroger discuss Horror and Speculative Fiction

 

Interview Summary

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/31nsZDK

Melanie R. Anderson and Lisa Kroger have both extensively studied speculative and horror fiction. They’ve written a few books together on the subject and they recently won the 2020 Locus Award for non-fiction for Monster She Wrote which explores female authors of horror and speculative fiction.  They also won a Bram Stoker award for the book. We spoke about the subject and the book writing process.

0:41 – Lisa talks about how she and Melanie wrote a book on female horror writers.

2:02 – Melanie talks about previous projects they did together on ghosts and spectrality.

3:48 – Melanie talks about they structured the book.

6:36 – Lisa talks about their struggle to cover a broad scope of literary history.

8:48 – Melanie talks about female use of pseudonyms in horror fiction.

11:48 – Lisa talks about women not having to hide their identities.

14:51 – Lisa and Melanie talk about the nationalities of the women they included in the book.

16: 45 – Lisa talks about 19th century female horror literature.

19:11 – Melanie talks about 19th century ghost stories and why so many female writers wrote horror.

24:00 – Lisa talks about female writers mixing violence, gore, and sex

27:45 – Melanie talks about gore in horror.

32:47 – Lisa talks about a scandalous Margaret Cavendish story she really likes.

35:30 – Melanie talks about author Dion Fortune.

37:28 – Melanie talks about how religion affected the writing these women did. Lisa talks more about Manfrone.

41:39 – Melanie talks about she did the research for the work.

44:55 – Lisa talks about how she added to her horror reading list and how some writers seem to have disappeared completely.

48:28 – Lisa talks about horror comic books.

49:47 – Melanie talks about the joy these authors took in their work.

53:36 – Lisa talks about the writers who she felt touched by.

56:26 – Melanie talks about Gertrude Barrows Bennett and Jewelle Gomez.

58:59 – Lisa talks about the Gilda stories.

1:01:20 – Lisa and Melanie talk about writing the book and getting it published.

1:07:48 – Lisa is at lisakroger.com and on twitter @lbkroger and on instagram @lisa_kroger. Their podcast is knowfearcast and monster she wrote podcast and @monsterwrote on social media.

1:09:25 – Melnaie is at melanieranderson.com and on instagram @melanieranderson7.

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/31nsZDK

https://www.quirkbooks.com/book/monster-she-wrote

http://www.lisakroger.com/

https://melanieranderson.com/

http://www.knowfearcast.com/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-monster-she-wrote-podcast/id1498646080

Contact Information

For more “Full Contact Nerd” please follow me at crisalvarez.com, on Facebook at CrisAlvarezFCN, on youtube at Cris Alvarez on twitter @CrisAlvarezFCN, on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi, and on Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify for the podcast

Guests: Melanie R. Anderson and Lisa Kroger

Host: Cris Alvarez

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/31nsZDK

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Full Contact Nerd and Cris Alvarez

Speculative Fiction anthology – “New Suns” (Solaris, 2019) – Nisi Shawl interview

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/2CKiHVT

Nisi Shawl has written and edited speculative fiction for years and recently won the 2020 Locus Award for best anthology for her edited work New Suns. We spoke about the book, winning the award, the difficulties non-white authors face in the publishing industry, and about writing and editing in general.

0:42 – Nisi talks about how she felt about winning the 2020 Locus award for best anthology.

1:30 – Nisi talks about how the anthology was developed.

2:42 – Nisi talks about how she chose the stories she used in the anthology.

4:20 – Nisi talks about the process of editing the anthology.

5:45 – Nisi talks about how adult the material is in the anthology.

7:00 – Nisi talks about the various times of stories found in the anthology.

9:34 – Nisi talks about writing by non-white authors.

11:25 – Nisi talks about publishing support for non-white authors.

12:55 – Nisi talks about ways within which the industry can support non-white authors.

16:08 – Nisi talks about gender issues within publishing.

17:48 – Nisi talks about other kinds of feedback within the publishing industry.

20:59 – Nisi talks about social media in pushing change.

22:42 – Nisi talks about the nationalities of the authors in the book.

25:08 – Nisi talks about the lengths of the stories in the anthology.

26:26 – Nisi talks about the works that inspire her and works she enjoys.

28:47 – Nisi talks about her love of Outlander. She also gets into the importance of politics within the show.

34:35 – Nisi talks how she approaches the editing process.

37:38 – Nisi talks about she approaches giving editorial changes.

38:13 – Nisi talks about other anthologies she’s edited.

40:04 – Nisi talks about her editing work over time.

40:59 – Nisi talks about her approach to writing.

42:01 – Nisi talks about writer and editing interactions.

44:04 – Nisi talks about self-publishing.

46:10 – Nisi talks about past jobs she had apart from writing and editing.

47:14 – Nisi talks her desire to end world hunger.

49:07 – Nisi talks about how she got LeVar Burton to write the introduction for New Suns.

51:21 – Nisi talks about other non-white authors who should have as much notice as Octavia Butler such as Samuel Delaney and Charles Saunders.

53:44 – Nisi can be found at nisishawl.com.

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/2CKiHVT

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/New-Suns/Nisi-Shawl/9781781085783

http://nisishawl.com/

 

For more “Full Contact Nerd” please follow me at crisalvarez.com, on Facebook at CrisAlvarezFCN, on youtube at Cris Alvarez on twitter @CrisAlvarezFCN, on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi, and on Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify for the podcast

Guests: Nisi Shawl

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, writer, editor, anthology, fiction, tags: anthology, post-apocalyptic, future, historical, Octavia Butler, gender, sexuality, flash fiction, Everfair, Middlemarch, Outlander, glaucoma, Battlestar Galactica, time traveler, Scotland, British Empire, politics, ursula Le Guin, world hunger, twilight zone, Levar Burton, Library of America, Samuel Delaney, Charles Saunders, Gloria Naylor

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/2CKiHVT

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.