13 Stories!!! Really?

Well here we are.
Looking through the last couple of blogs I've written it is becoming apparent to me that the only time I get round to updating this site is when I finish a deadline.
Bad Joe! I really must try and write more often in here.
The problem, of course, is when you spend every day writing, reading and editing stuff that you have to, you feel kinda pooped out and not really in the mood for more writing. The other problem is that trying to update this blog regularly tends to bring home the fact that my life really isn't as interesting as you may think it is. So it makes sense that the only time I feel like I have something to talk about is at the end of a Something Wicked deadline.

Which brings us to the topic at hand - Something Wicked #8.
What a daunting task this has been - so many excellent stories, so many rejections. I go into more detail in my Editor's Letter in the mag, but it has been a rather harrowing process.
I guess I should stop whining and be grateful. Better to have too many excellent stories, than not enough. But by the same token I am a little concerned.
SW08 features 13 stories - by far the largest number of stories we've ever published. What if you guys, the readers, find it a little cramped. What if, in an effort to hold on to as many of the stories we've received, we've actually overdone it and filled the magazine to such capacity that we'll overwhelm our readers?
What if the stories are not as good as we think they are?

These are the constant questions that go through my and the other slush-reader's minds. You never know. It is probably one of the most petrifying things about being an editor is that you never actually know if the choices you made are any good.
The process of putting together 56 pages of cover-to-cover fiction is incredibly daunting, not only because of the cold, calculating choices you have to make when the page count starts diminishing, but also because we're so insulated during the creation process that only after the magazine has come back from the printers and hit the shelves do we ever know if the choices we made were any good.

I've read interviews with published authors who feel the same way. That space between sign-off of the product and waiting for the first reviews, or emails and crits to come back can be terrifying.
Up until that point you're working, head down, bent over the keyboard or the monitor, making sure that everything looks the way it's supposed to. That all the paperwork is in order, that all the images are the correct resolution, that every word is where it should be - you're too busy to worry about whether or not you made the right choices.
But on the day after deadline there is a lull.
You deliver the final version to the printers and then you wait...
It can take just over 24 hours from delivery to seeing the proof. It's an enforced quiet time. I can't start working on the next issue, or updating the site, until I know that Issue 8 has been put to bed.
So I wait and try and find stuff to do that keeps my mind off the tension.
I update this blog.
I catch-up on reading some of my other fave blogs (see column on the right).
I catch up on some TV series (I've recently discovered House - which I'm thoroughly enjoying).
I read for pleasure - I play my guitar.
And I wait.

Of course once I've signed-off on the proof tomorrow it all starts up again. Update the website, compile eBook version, sort out invoices and start paying artists and writers, start commissioning art for Issue 9, get ready for HorrorFest.

Actually, when I put it like that, there really is never a dull moment in the SW Office. Hmmm, interesting, I think I may have just blown my own excuse for not keeping this blog updated.

Something Wicked Issue 8 hits the shelves on the 23rd of October and we'll be launching it, and selling our usual T-Shirts and other merch, at the HorrorFest on Halloween.
See you then.

Recently read:
Sporeville, by Paul Marlowe
The Reapers, by John Connolly
The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-Time, by Mark Haddon

Reading:
Hyperion, by Dan Simmons

About to read:
The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
The Prefect, by Alastair Reynolds
Making Money, by Terry Pratchett
Seven Dials Mystery, by Agatha Christie
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

Listening to:
The Flat Earth by Thomas Dolby
The Pink Opaque by The Cocteau Twins
Random Selections by My Ipod :)