The Journal of Michael Merriam

John is one of our overseas members, a former Minnesotan now residing in the United Kingdom. He is still active on the group message boards, offering his thoughts and opinions on a variety of matters important to writers.

“Unbelieving Jaxx” is one of the longer pieces in the anthology, a twisting, turning tale of an alternate world of steam tech and powerful magic written very much in the style of Victorian speculative literature. I am quite pleased to present it here.

“Unbelieving Jaxx” originally appeared serialized in Steampunk Tales issues #6, #7, and #8


Sky-Tinted Waters is available from Sam's Dot Publishing.

I found myself at the Twin Cities Book Festival in 2010, standing next to Tyree Campbell, owner and publisher at Sam’s Dot Publishing. Tyree and SDP had published the first Minnesota Speculative Fiction anthology, Northern Lights: 20 MinnSpec Tales, and I was helping Tyree sell the anthology and other items to the people passing by his table.

Northern Lights was selling well, an anthology of stories by local writers being a hit with the Minnesota crowd. I asked Tyree if he would like to publish another anthology in conjunction with MinnSpec. He agreed, and we set a tentative publication date for early 2012. I brought Eli Effinger-Weintraub, another MinnSpec member, on board as copy editor.

I sent out a call for submissions to the group. The stories arrived in my email inbox. All of the stories were high-quality. These twenty stood out for various reasons. Of the twenty-one author's, nine had appeared in the previous anthology, so it was good to get some new blood between the pages

This second anthology was significantly easier to get off the ground than the first, proving the value of both networking and having a product that sold reasonably well against which to measure another potential project. It is my hope that you enjoy reading Sky-Tinted Waters as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

Michael Merriam
Hopkins, Minnesota
2012

With Sky-Tinted Waters, award winning small-press publisher Sam's Dot Publishing and the 350+ member strong Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers follow up their successful Northern Lights: 20 MinnSpec Tales anthology with twenty new tales certain to thrill, entertain, and illuminate. Within these pages the reader will find exciting fantasy, horror, and science fiction stories featuring:

…Rampaging steam-powered constructs
…Bioengineered killer squirrels
…Military serums filled with nanotech
…A demon who pounces on mispronounced words
…An invisible flying pony
…The two worst friends in the world at the edge of space

…And fourteen more tales of adventure, enchantment, humor, terror, magic and science gone wrong, the unexplained, and the unanticipated by twenty authors ranging from debut talents to established professionals in the field of speculative fiction.


Sky-Tinted Waters is available from Sam's Dot Publishing.

Sent acceptances and rejections for the MinnSpec group anthology. Made the day of 20 writers. Crushed the hopes and dreams of all the others.

This time for the anthology Northern Lights: 20 MinnSpec Tales, which I had the pleasure to compile and edit. This will be for sale starting the first of September. I'm trying to pull together a release party in middle or late September (and if anyone can suggest a good local venue that can handle up to 40 and is free or stupid cheap, let me know).




Table of Contents For "Northern Lights: 20 MinnSpec Tales."

Kissing Frogs by Jaye Lawrence
Three Views of the Maiden in Peril by Catherine Lundoff
The Desires of Houses by Haddayr Copley-Woods
Come and Catch Me, Henry by Jason D. Wittman
The Disconnected by David Steffen
The Leviathan’s Teeth by Kelly Barnhill
Dinosaurs of the Great Depression by Damian Sheridan
Garbage Man by R. Scott McCoy
Guess Who's Coming to Gotterdammerung by Terry Faust
Bright, Bright City Lights by Lyda Morehouse
Can't Stop, Won't by Carrie Devall
At The Edge Of Twilight, Melissa Remembers Flight by Michael Merriam
Daedalus by Patrick Sullivan
Sabine Baring-Gould and the Werewolf by Roy C. Booth
Oh, Hell by Britt Aamodt
The Question by Sharon Boerbon Hanson
Narcissus in Links by Joel Arnold
The Radiator Burped by Abra Staffin-Wiebe
The Robber King And The Blood Orange Tree by Maggie Della Rocca
Run of the Fiery Horse by Hilary Moon Murphy

Now that I've put a few weeks between me and selecting stories for Northern Light: 20 MinnSpec Tales and surviving a grilling by various MinnSpec members about why I chose certain stories, I've started to have some thoughts about sitting in the editor's chair.

Besides selecting the stories for the MinnSpec anthology, I have also been reading slush for Fantasy Magazine for nearly a year. I've read a lot of fiction in the last year. Some of it was quite good. Some of it, not so much. Once in awhile you find a gem. Most of it is middle-of-road. Okay, but nothing special.

The thing is, all of these stories are special, at least to the one who wrote them. The writer worked on this story, made it the best they could with the tools they have available. They had the courage to send it out into the world, hopeful that an editor also would find it special.

As an editor, I do not owe the writer anything more than a yes or no. As a writer, I don't expect anything more from an editor than a yes or no. If I can give (or receive) useful advice, great, but it is not owed. Look, the slush pile is a hard place for both the writer trying to break out of it and the editor wading through it looking for that one story that leaps out. I know what this is like from both points of view.

Recently, I figured out why I get tense when I read about (or receive) a rejection full of nastiness designed to encourage the writer to put away their word processor and take a job digging ditches in Alaska with a spork. It is the same reason I dislike certain blogs by agents and editors that take great glee in snarking and poking fun at submissions by would-be authors who are still learning their craft.

I dislike this because it's disrespectful.

And if an editor or agent does things to identify the submission they are being nasty about, it is ten-times worse in my opinion.

Yes, I know writers--especially new writers--are just as bad about going to their blog and pissing and moaning about agents and editors who don't understand their wonderful story. This is disrespectful as well, but right now I'm talking about--and from the point of view of--those on the business end of publishing and how they treat those on (or who aspire to be on) the creative end.

I know the number of sub-par stories you find in the slush. I know that sometimes you get a story that is nothing more than the writer working out their emotional issues, or putting their personal kinks on the page for you to read in mind-numbing detail, or showing you just how badly they need psychological help, but...

But they had the desire to write the story, the drive to finish the story, and courage to submit the story. That deserves respect, no matter the level of skill or flavor of the story. If you are an editor or agent, you are a professional. You can critique and teach without being nasty.

Don't be the editor (or agent) that writes mean-spirited rejections and mocks writers on their blog. Be professional. That writer tried their best. Be respectful of that effort.