Member Newsletter

Speculative Literature Foundation Newsletter - No. 03

SLF Wishlist--Your Input Needed
We're starting to put together a wishlist for what we'd like the SLF to spend its funds on in the future. A couple of possibilities that have been brought up are an older writer's grant or a travel grant. We'd love to have your suggestions as to what kinds of grants and activities you'd like to see us implement. Send your ideas to Mary Anne at director@speculativeliterature.org.

Bay Area Fundraising Event at Omnicircus--Director's Report
I don't know how I can describe the OmniCircus space, other than a sort of post-apocalyptic Mad Max room mixed with "Something Wicked This Way Comes." Which is a good description of the OmniCircus performance later that evening too, actually. We ended up with about 40-50 people in the space; very unclear on how many were performers and how many were paying attendees, but it felt like a nice big crowd (and about as much as the space could hold -- we could have squeezed maybe five more people in, but not much more than that). Lots of friends showed up, of course -- but also quite a few new people came, mostly from the Borderlands Bookstore mailing list. So thanks, Borderlands!

We made a little over $200 towards the Fountain Award, which is great! That's about enough to cover the shipping costs for mailing manuscripts out to the jurors. And more importantly, we got to meet a lot of new people, and tell them (and some old friends) about the Fountain Award and the SLF, and I think we created some good buzz. It was a lot of fun -- this is really the first public event we've done for the SLF, and it made it all seem more real, somehow. We've been entirely electronic up to this point, and while we've gotten a lot done, it's nice to actually talk to people in person about it.

We served food and went through about twelve bottles of wine (plus three bottles of juice) so big thanks to our sponsors again for bringing the liquor. That's Strange Horizons, other magazine, NFG, Emerald City, and Borderlands. Yay! (Small Beer offered subscriptions to LCRW as door prizes, but Kaolin and I never quite got that coordinated. Hopefully next time!)

The evening also was heavily dependent on our great volunteers. David H. kindly came and worked the door; Kaolin (one of the SLF webmasters, and also with NFG) played bartender. Charlie Anders (who hosts the monthly Bay Area Writers with Drinks) was a terrific MC, giving funny personalized intros to each reader. The readers gave generously of their time and talent: Pat Murphy, Rudy Rucker, Ken Wharton and Terry Bisson all read without compensation, out of the goodness of their hearts. (Buy their books!) And behind the scenes was Jeremy Smith, another of our SLF volunteers who has been teaching me all sorts of things about fund-raising (in his day job, he does this kind of thing for small press publishers, since he works for the Independent Press Association) -- he's the one who put this whole thing together. I just showed up for the fun part.

Thanks to everyone who helped and everyone who came. Great event, great fun. I wish I could be in the Bay Area for the upcoming second event, the May 20th reading with Michael Chabon (co-sponsored by McSweeney's, Zoetrope, and other fine people, more details soon). But I'm really glad I made it to this one!

-- Mary Anne Mohanraj, SLF Director

Staff Introduction: Ariana Osborne
I'm the new recruit, and Mary Anne said I have to introduce myself. Ahem. Here goes.

I'm going to be working in Membership, under Chris Wallish. I have no idea what I'll be doing yet, but I assume it will be something terribly interesting. Like carefully hand-lettering membership cards. Or going door-to-door collecting dues, with a large man standing menacingly behind me.

I'm also the new Associate Editor of this very Newsletter! For those of you unfamiliar with the position, Associate Editor is a very fancy way of saying "David Lunde's New Underling". Thankfully, Dave lives too far away for me to fetch him coffee, or pick up his dry-cleaning. Actually, he's too far away to demand much of anything!

Please, don't tell him I said that.

I have a website -- http://silversmoke.org
I also have a cat, and she is very cute.

-Ariana

Additions to Website from Webcoordinator Shannan Palma
Additional links for website. Mary Anne's SLF Guide to Layout for Small Press/POD/Self- Publishing has already been put up, and very soon we will be adding a syllabus on "Fantasy in the Fantastic."

READER RESOURCES

MAGAZINES
The City Morgue
Washington D.C.-based magazine that covers Goth/Industrial/Punk community.

Scheherazade
"The Magazine of Fantasy, Science Fiction & Gothic Romance" - size A4, beautifully illustrated; issue 26 writers include Liz Williams and Karen Traviss.

ACADEMICS

COLLEGE / UNIVERSITY
Emory University
Undergraduate creative writing program.

EDITING

BOOK PRODUCTION
Writing World
A guide to the stages one must go through to prepare A book for publication. MOIRA ALLEN

GENERAL
Magazine Publishers of America
Web Manager: Phil Brandt. While this group is geared toward the general magazine
editor/publisher, and it has a hefty annual membership fee, it's also a lobbying presence and a potential resource for independent publishers. Web design by MPA.

American Society of Magazine Editors
This organization's site is part of the Magazine Publishers of America's Web site, but their dues are considerably less (and should be, since the MPA is a corporate representational entity) and the educational benefits available look worthwhile. Web design by MPA.

WRITING

MARKET LISTINGS
NobleFusion
Produced by a group of writers committed to improving their skills, selling their work and making it easier for new talent to find their place in the science fiction/ fantasy/ horror writing community.
Market information comes from published writers.

WRITER INFO / DISCUSSION AREAS
Writer's Gazette
Writer-related articles, paying call for submission and freelance job postings, contests, resources, & tips.

Literary Marketplace
Resource for the Book Publishing Industry.

WRITERS' ORGANIZATIONS
Dark Echo Horror
Organizations for Horror Writers

PUBLISHERS
Ralan's POD / Small Press Listing
P.O.D. publishers & small press publishers who specialize in horror & speculative fiction.

Universal Publishers
Self-publishing.