Introduction to Northern Lights: 20 MinnSpec Tales

This book almost was -- and then wasn't -- twice. Third time is the charm, it seems.

Let me tell you a story. The story starts -- as so many stories in upper Midwest SF/F/H fandom and publishing do -- at Wiscon.

A well-known local Twin Cities writing group, The Wyrdsmiths, were celebrating the release of their latest group anthology project. I bought one. It had high-quality production values and high-quality fiction. The latter came as no surprise, given the skill level of that group. I was not the only one from MinnSpec to see this anthology: Our chief organizer, Hilary Moon Murphy, also thought it was a great idea. Such a great idea that she thought MinnSpec should do something like it.

I agreed, as did several other assistant organizers and group members. We talked about it at various meetings throughout 2007, tossing around plans to form committees to select stories, to create art, to do layout, etc.

One thing we had not considered: The Wyrdsmiths were something like nine or ten members at that time. We had over 200 people in our group. Not everyone was going to get into the anthology. People seemed keen on the idea, but it was harder to pin people down to do the work. No one wanted to lead the project (I had flat refused: I wanted it to happen and was willing to work on it, but I was not going to be in charge.) The project bogged down under too many big ideas and too few hands. Some members wondered if this was really anything more than a big self-publishing project. The killer was that we had no way to pay for it.

MinnSpec invited in a well-known local author who was opening a publishing house to speak with us about the project. We wanted to talk to him about the realities of book publishing, wanted to get his advice. I think some of the leadership secretly hoped he would offer to publish the project if we handed him a finished selection of stories and maybe some artwork.

He was a cranky, curmudgeonly, irascible fellow who was disdainful of the idea (at one point I think the words "dog and pony show" were used), and advised us against it--over and over. He ate his sushi and went home. It was the final nail, and after that the subject of a group anthology fell by the wayside.

But there was a part of me that really believed in this project, and in 2008 when I was approached by a fellow MinnSpec organizer about the two of us taking over this project, I was intrigued. We talked to Hilary, and got her blessing to run with it. We talked to the editor of a local anthology magazine, who gave us some good advice on story selection and production cost. We talked to a book packager, who pointed out some legal and production problems we were facing. Again, the main issue was money. Neither of us had the disposable cash to pay for the initial production costs upfront. We talked about getting the authors to buy in, but that would have meant having 15 to 20 people who "owned" the book, and that way lay madness. The project fell through a second time.

After those two false starts at publishing the project, I was pretty sure we were never going to make this group anthology happen, but in late 2009 someone at a meeting asked, "Whatever happened to the anthology project?"

It was in that moment that I lost my mind.

Actually, it was in that moment that I realized MinnSpec now had a strong relationship with a regional small press publisher, Sam's Dot Publishing. Several of our members had stories published in SDP's stable of magazines. One member had a novel with them. Another member had a novel under contract. A third had a short story collection.

I asked my fellow members of the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers if we wanted to pitch the project to Tyree Campbell, owner and publisher of Sam's Dot Publishing. The MinnSpec organizers agreed. I was given power to take point. I pitched. Sam's Dot Publishing agreed to be the publisher. I offered to be editor based on my slush reading experience with Fantasy Magazine, and suddenly we were off. There was some discussion about whether to make the anthology reprints only or to open it up to both reprints and originals. The true spirit of MinnSpec has always been that all members are equal, and so all members should have an equal chance of getting in: The anthology was opened up to all members.

The stories in Northern Lights are representative of the diverse voices of our group. There is fantasy of all kinds, a strong showing of science fiction, and just a smidge of horror tossed in. Talking frogs, oriental dragons, lonely miners on distant outposts, werewolves, computer hackers, superheroes, dinosaurs, vengeful spirits, sentient houses, and more await you inside. Like MinnSpec as a group, this anthology features authors at different points in their careers, from those with multi-book deals in their pockets to one who made his first sale right here.

It was a joy for me to put this anthology together. I love every story presented here. I hope you love them as well. You can purchase Northern Lights: 20 MinnSpec Tales here.

I'd like to thank the following people for their assistance and input as we moved forward with this project: Paul Azeti, Voo Dang, Cjad Elstad, Terry Faust, Ricky Foos, Dan Goodman, Eric Heideman, Jaye Lawrence, Sherry L.M. Merriam, Hilary Moon Murphy, Abra Staffin-Wiebe, Zach Schuster, Pat Sullivan, Liz Tufte, and Todd Wardrope, and the rest of the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers organizers and membership.

And, of course, a big "Thank You" to Tyree Campbell and Sam's Dot Publishing for taking a chance on this project.

Happy Reading.

Introduction to Northern Lights: 20 MinnSpec Tales

This book almost was -- and then wasn't -- twice. Third time is the charm, it seems.

Let me tell you a story. The story starts -- as so many stories in upper Midwest SF/F/H fandom and publishing do -- at Wiscon.

A well-known local Twin Cities writing group, The Wyrdsmiths, were celebrating the release of their latest group anthology project. I bought one. It had high-quality production values and high-quality fiction. The latter came as no surprise, given the skill level of that group. I was not the only one from MinnSpec to see this anthology: Our chief organizer, Hilary Moon Murphy, also thought it was a great idea. Such a great idea that she thought MinnSpec should do something like it.

I agreed, as did several other assistant organizers and group members. We talked about it at various meetings throughout 2007, tossing around plans to form committees to select stories, to create art, to do layout, etc.

One thing we had not considered: The Wyrdsmiths were something like nine or ten members at that time. We had over 200 people in our group. Not everyone was going to get into the anthology. People seemed keen on the idea, but it was harder to pin people down to do the work. No one wanted to lead the project (I had flat refused: I wanted it to happen and was willing to work on it, but I was not going to be in charge.) The project bogged down under too many big ideas and too few hands. Some members wondered if this was really anything more than a big self-publishing project. The killer was that we had no way to pay for it.

MinnSpec invited in a well-known local author who was opening a publishing house to speak with us about the project. We wanted to talk to him about the realities of book publishing, wanted to get his advice. I think some of the leadership secretly hoped he would offer to publish the project if we handed him a finished selection of stories and maybe some artwork.

He was a cranky, curmudgeonly, irascible fellow who was disdainful of the idea (at one point I think the words "dog and pony show" were used), and advised us against it--over and over. He ate his sushi and went home. It was the final nail, and after that the subject of a group anthology fell by the wayside.

But there was a part of me that really believed in this project, and in 2008 when I was approached by a fellow MinnSpec organizer about the two of us taking over this project, I was intrigued. We talked to Hilary, and got her blessing to run with it. We talked to the editor of a local anthology magazine, who gave us some good advice on story selection and production cost. We talked to a book packager, who pointed out some legal and production problems we were facing. Again, the main issue was money. Neither of us had the disposable cash to pay for the initial production costs upfront. We talked about getting the authors to buy in, but that would have meant having 15 to 20 people who "owned" the book, and that way lay madness. The project fell through a second time.

After those two false starts at publishing the project, I was pretty sure we were never going to make this group anthology happen, but in late 2009 someone at a meeting asked, "Whatever happened to the anthology project?"

It was in that moment that I lost my mind.

Actually, it was in that moment that I realized MinnSpec now had a strong relationship with a regional small press publisher, Sam's Dot Publishing. Several of our members had stories published in SDP's stable of magazines. One member had a novel with them. Another member had a novel under contract. A third had a short story collection.

I asked my fellow members of the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers if we wanted to pitch the project to Tyree Campbell, owner and publisher of Sam's Dot Publishing. The MinnSpec organizers agreed. I was given power to take point. I pitched. Sam's Dot Publishing agreed to be the publisher. I offered to be editor based on my slush reading experience with Fantasy Magazine, and suddenly we were off. There was some discussion about whether to make the anthology reprints only or to open it up to both reprints and originals. The true spirit of MinnSpec has always been that all members are equal, and so all members should have an equal chance of getting in: The anthology was opened up to all members.

The stories in Northern Lights are representative of the diverse voices of our group. There is fantasy of all kinds, a strong showing of science fiction, and just a smidge of horror tossed in. Talking frogs, oriental dragons, lonely miners on distant outposts, werewolves, computer hackers, superheroes, dinosaurs, vengeful spirits, sentient houses, and more await you inside. Like MinnSpec as a group, this anthology features authors at different points in their careers, from those with multi-book deals in their pockets to one who made his first sale right here.

It was a joy for me to put this anthology together. I love every story presented here. I hope you love them as well. You can purchase Northern Lights: 20 MinnSpec Tales here.

I'd like to thank the following people for their assistance and input as we moved forward with this project: Paul Azeti, Voo Dang, Cjad Elstad, Terry Faust, Ricky Foos, Dan Goodman, Eric Heideman, Jaye Lawrence, Sherry L.M. Merriam, Hilary Moon Murphy, Abra Staffin-Wiebe, Zach Schuster, Pat Sullivan, Liz Tufte, and Todd Wardrope, and the rest of the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers organizers and membership.

And, of course, a big "Thank You" to Tyree Campbell and Sam's Dot Publishing for taking a chance on this project.

Happy Reading.