Specifically, my suggestion to cut back on the nonfiction in the magazine and focus more on the fiction. If you read his announcement, that’s what Adams is doing with the two magazines. He’s cut the nonfiction back considerably, while leaving the amount of fiction the same. Actually that’s only true if you read the magazine online. If you subscribe, there’s an exclusive novella with each issue.
In other words, here’s a publisher who realizes people read his magazine primarily for the fiction, and furthermore he’s taking steps to ensure they get what they want. I said this was the smart way to run a fiction magazine when I reviewed the last issue of RoF. Now that someone with the credentials of John Joseph Adams thinks the same thing and is willing to act on that idea, I’m going to say “I told you so.”
I wish Mr. Adams and his magazine the greatest success. Oh, and I told you so.
I grew up reading comics, but when Star Wars (the original film) came out, I got bitten by the science fiction bug hard and started reading that almost exclusively. Commercial fantasy hadn’t quite experienced a boom, although there was some around. Not too long after the movie, I noticed a novel (maybe in the library, maybe in the bookstore) that had Darth Vader on the cover. The title was Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, and it was written by some guy named Alan Dean Foster. Although I don’t remember actually doing so, I bought the book, read it, and enjoyed it. (I still have that copy.)
I started looking for more of this Foster guy’s stuff. This was in the late seventies, and Del Rey was publishing quite of bit of Foster’s Commonwealth novels, still one of my favorite universes. I was transitioning from the children’s section of the library to the adult section (YA as we know it didn’t exist in those days) and that shift was mirrored in my buying habits.
I quickly became a fan of the Flinx and Pip novels, and since new ones were being published at this exact time, I bought and read them.
Being a voracious reader, I even read the copyright page, a vice I still practice, and learned the artist’s name was Darrell K. Sweet. I loved the covers of the Flinx and Pip novels. There was detail and color. Action and adventure. Sweet had a unique style. He became the first cover artist I could recognize and identify on sight, although others would follow.
I noticed his work on the mass market paperback editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He did the covers for The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Piers Anthony’s Xanth. Some of the early Well of Souls novels by Jack Chalker. L. E. Modesitt’s Recluse series. Early novels by James P. Hogan, Robert Don Hughes, and Joel Rosenberg.
He seemed to be everywhere. One of my favorite covers was for Lawrence Watt-Evans‘ The Misenchanted Sword, the first in his Ethshar series. The yellow and orange glow of the setting sun, contrasted by the blue glow of the sword and the greens in the clothing and vegetation.
Sweet would later become known for his work on Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, but I’ve never felt those were his best covers.
I can’t say, even after thinking about it for the last two days, what it is about Darrell K. Sweet’s work that resonates so much with me. Some of it is early imprinting for sure, but I still react the same way when I see a new piece by him (new to me at least).
Part of it is the detail. Then there was the way the physical features, especially the facial features, made the people in the illustrations stand out from each other as unique individuals, as though Sweet had captured some essence of that character in his work. His women were always gorgeous and alluring, yet somehow wholesome and pure.
We met on three occasions. One was Armadillocon 14 in 1992, which I think was my first Armadillocon. The second was at Conestoga 8 in 2004. The final time I met him, and the time I had the most interaction with him, was at Fencon III in 2006, when Sweet was the Artist Guest of Honor, Alan Dean Foster the Writer Guest of Honor, and Lawrence Watt-Evans was the Special Guest. At the end of the convention, I told him that when I was a teenager, I didn’t read every book that had one of his covers, but I did pick up and seriously examine every book that did. He seemed to really appreciate the compliment.
That wasn’t just flattery, either. It was true. In thinking back, as well as reflecting on what others have written, I think part of that was because the genre was different then. Science fiction and fantasy were a lot more fun. We weren’t inundated with hot female demon hunting private investigators who engaged in some sort of necrophilia with the dead, the undead, or the mostly dead. Sweet’s art reflected this sense of adventure. I’ve been thinking about how much the genre needs that. Books then were shorter, less heavy in tone and content, and not as likely to try and raise my social consciousness. It was a heckuva lot more fun.
I’ll have some time to hit the second hand bookstores here in town over the next couple of days. I’m going to see what old paperbacks with DKS covers that I haven’t read. Final exams are starting, and I could use some fun.
Well, I had hoped it would never come to this. While Realms of Fantasy hasn’t exactly been my favorite magazine, I’m very sorry that it has ceased publication and this will be my final review. For the time being, at least. It’s come back twice before, so we can always hope.
This issue wasn’t planned as a final issue, so I don’t know if there were any stories still in inventory. I imagine if there were, the authors were paid a kill fee and hopefully some of them will see publication elsewhere.
Publisher William Gilchrist said in his farewell post on the magazine’s website that the October issue would appear in print and would be late. He indicated that the issue should be available by November 15. I haven’t seen it, but it might not have arrived yet. B&N tends to be late getting the print copies. I bought the PDF version from the website.
Anyway, let’s look at the fiction.
There are five stories in this issue. We’ll take them in order.
First out of the gate is “Return to Paraiso” by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz. I’ve not read anything by Ms. Loenen-Ruiz before. This was a well written piece about a girl who is brought back to her village by the army in an unnamed Central American country. She’s pregnant and kept in a cage. She may also be the consort of a god and carrying his child. This story falls into the nature mother’s passivity defeats the evil of masculine machines, a type of story that really doesn’t appeal much to me. However, this one was better written than most things in this vein, and I rather liked it.
“The Man Who Made No Mistakes” by Scott William Carter is by far the most ambitious and morally complex story in this issue and arguably in any issue of the magazine since its last resurrection. It concerns a young man with the ability to go back in time and change the course of events. The only catch is he can’t go further back than the most recent change, whether that’s five minutes ago or five years. He’s in something of a quandary because he’s committed a horrible crime and the way a certain person is affected by that crime is the only thing that keeps civilization from collapsing. Every attempt he makes to undo the crime ends in major disaster. It’s one of the strongest stories I’ve read in months, and I expect to see it on the awards ballots and in some of the Years’ Best anthologies next year.
“Second Childhood” by Jerry Oltion is a ghost story of a sorts. Oltion is a writer that doesn’t always connect with me, in part because I find his work too preachy at times. This particular story isn’t as bad as some, but not a lot happens in it beyond the narrator’s mother comes back from the dead and various discussions the narrator has with her husband about the implications of that event. While some men might find the situation to be a horror story, I couldn’t get too excited about it.
The cover story, “Sweeping the Hearthstone” by Betsy James, is what I think of as a typical RoF story. It’s about a girl who comes to work in an inn, only to discover there’s a spirit inhabiting the hearthstone in the main hall. A spirit who is romantically interested in her, an interest that turns out to be mutual. This one is about emotions. While competently executed, it’s not the sort of thing I prefer to read.
The final story is “Barbie Marries the Jolly Fat Baker” by Nick DiChario, in which the toy knight runs away from home because Princess Barbie is getting it on with the baker toy. Given the author, I expected this one to be competently executed (in this I wasn’t disappointed) and something more original (in this I was disappointed). The ending gave me the impression the author got bored with his scenario and didn’t know where to take it, and so just stopped.
So that’s an overview of the stories in the October 2011 issue of Realms of Fantasy. This is (for now) the last issue. With the exception of the Carter, and to a lesser degree, the Loenen-Ruiz, there isn’t a lot here to recommend it. I realize your mileage may vary.
I hope RoF returns. It’s happened twice before. Maybe it will again. If it does, I’d like to make a couple of suggestions to any potential buyers/publishers.
First, go digital. Several prominent magazines began as print and are now electronic only, including but not limited to Fantasy, Something Wicked, and Apex, while others such as Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Lightspeed, and Heroic Fantasy Quarterly started out electronically and seem to be doing just fine. I can’t imagine all the color illustrations are cheap to print. You can get the same quality of illustration electronically. You also don’t have warehousing, shipping, returns, paper, or printing costs.
Second, stop trying to be the one stop shop for all things fantasy. This issue contained 84 pages. By my count, 26.5 of them were fiction, with words from the story on the page. Each story had a full page illustration (not included in the previous page count), plus there were several pages of ads scattered among the fiction. There was more nonfiction relating to fantasy in this issue than there was fantasy itself. I can’t speak for most readers, but I never bought RoF for the reviews or columns. I bought it for the fiction. With less than half of the contents being fiction, even taking ads into account, it doesn’t seem like a good buy for the money. The nonfiction columns, such as “Folkroots” or art features, are fine, but really, do we need 15 pages reviewing games, books (3 columns: general fantasy, urban fantasy, and YA), plus graphic novels? This issue was typical of most I’ve seen. Decide what you want the magazine to focus on, fiction or reviews, then do that better than your competition. Don’t try to be all things to all people.
Finally, get a new editorial team. Shawna McCarthy has been the editor of the magazine since its inception. Every time the publication has been sold, the new owners have kept her on. While I don’t question her credentials, I have reservations about her taste in fantasy. The stories all seem to be about the same. One of the commentators on the Black Gate post about the closing of the magazine called it chick-lit fantasy. I’d have to agree. The primary content seems to be about the emotional lives of women, with fantasy elements thrown in.
I realize there are a number of people who like that type of fantasy, not all of them women. But it doesn’t seem to be a successful formula commercially. If it were, why does it keep failing. I have no problem with one of the stories in each issue being in this vein, and while it’s not my preferred subgenre of fantasy, I do read widely enough that I would read, and possibly enjoy, something along these lines if there were plenty of variety to go along with it. There’s virtually no sword and sorcery in RoF, and what little I’ve seen this past year has been marginally S&S. And while I don’t think each issue should be only S&S either, I do think there should be a great deal more adventure oriented fantasy in the magazine.
To sum up, the final issue, with the exception of the Carter story, was nothing particularly outstanding. Writing that sentence gives me no pleasure, nor does the fact that the magazine has failed again. I do hope someone will bring it back. I think it could survive, given a change of emphasis and direction, especially if published as an e-mag.
I say in spite of myself because I turned out to be my own biggest obstacle. This is by far the longest thing I’ve attempted. I didn’t plan it out in detail well enough. I usually have a general idea of where I want a story to end up. Getting there is just details. The devil, as they say, is in the details. This novel has three viewpoint characters, four if you count the captain who only appears in flashbacks at the end of the major sections. The characters are in separate locations when the book opens, and I alternate chapters featuring each of them. I found myself writing more than one chapter about a character, depending how well I understood that part of the character’s story arc in relation to the other story arcs. I would then go back and insert chapters where needed. I found this to be both a stressful and liberating way to write.
Anyhoo, I’ve not been blogging much in the last couple of weeks because I was trying to make the deadline. I’m going to step away from the novel for a few days, finish up a fantasy mystery novella that’s about 1500 words from being done, start reading some of the books that have been piling up. I’m also going to think about some details I didn’t work out very well before I started writing a month ago. I hope to finish the first draft of the novel over the holidays, get it to the beta readers, and get to work on the second book in the series. I’ve learned a lot about writing and how (not) to approach a novel, and I’m eager to put some of those things into practice.
First of all, my family, both immediate and extended. (This includes the dogs.)
Our health.
Employment, both for me and my wife. And not just a job in my case, but something I find fulfilling. While I’m not sure it’s something I want to do for the rest of my life, I don’t dread going to work every day.
A place to live, food to eat, cars to drive.
Books to read. Lots and lots and lots of books to read. And vintage pulps. And comics and graphic novels. And opportunities to write.
The good things blogging has brought into my life: new friends, review copies of books from both authors and publishers, and outlet for my writing.
That I live in the greatest country in the world, where I am free to say what I like, read what I like, and worship God in the manner I see fit.
May God bless each and every one of you as much as He’s blessed me.
Locus Online is reporting that SFWA Grand Master Anne McCaffery died at home in Ireland of a massive stroke on November 21, 2011. She was 85. McCaffery was author of the long-running Pern series. In addition to Pern, McCaffery was the author of a number of other series, which she often co-wrote with up and coming authors who went on to have significant careers. These authors include, but are not limited to, Jody Lynne Nye, Elizabeth Moon, Elizabeth Anne Scarborough, and Mercedes Lackey. McCaffery won a number of awards for her work, including the Nebula and Hugo (she was the first woman to win both). In 2006 she was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.