(Blog Owner's Note: I'd like to say thank to Wendy Delmater for the following guest post. I have a copy of the anthology for the review and I'll have one out as soon as I can. This one has me excited. Maybe I'll be sending some stuff to Ms. Delmater ar some point as I am currently unpublished.)
I started working on The Best of A&A Volume 2 by keeping a list of my favorite stories we’d published since the first “Best Of” volume. There was an early story by Lavie Tidhar and a second novella that would not fit in Best of A&A 1—“Emmet, Joey & the Beelz”—but the rest were all published since the earlier A&A anthology. I ended up having to trim a story to two for the book-length and in one case had to drop a poem due to no longer being able to reach the author via email to send a contract. But the table of contents was pretty much that saved list, with two exceptions.
I’m in the habit of asking professional science fiction and fantasy authors if we could do reprints or get a flash-fiction piece from them since we pay pro rates for flash. That’s how Abyss & Apex ended up publishing Michael Swanwick, Ken Scholes, Jay Lake, and a story we reprinted in the antho by CJ Cherryh. Then, when I was out in Spokane, WA for the 2015 Worldcon I asked if Robert Silverberg had anything he’d not published online yet, specifically for Best of A&A 2. He sent me “End of Days,” which we used to close the anthology. But we don’t publish many pros.
You see, although A&A likes to pair new and emerging writers with established ones in the table of contents, which gives a vicarious boost to new writers’ careers, we cannot afford to pay pro rates for anything longer than flash fiction. Mostly, I’m stuck helping to make my authors into future pros via rewrites or at least getting them a publication credit that the pro markets respect. Shelia Williams of Asimov’s tells me she reads the cover letter last, and she says that she’s not surprised when she finds a good piece of fiction in her slush and they mention they’ve been published in Abyss & Apex.
A&A specializes in new writers. Twenty-five percent of the short stories we publish are the first thing that writer ever sold, and we’re proud of that record. For example many of the writers in The Best of A&A Volume 1 went on to great careers in SF& F, writers such as Aliette de Bodard, Lisa Mantchev, Will McIntosh, and Karl Bunker. And The Best of Abyss & Apex, Volume 2, has early stories by Marie Brennan and Mercurio D. Rivera, plus people I consider potential future pros like George S. Walker.
Changing the focus slightly, I’d like to share a story about the cover art for the Best of Abyss & Apex, Volume 2. Since Abyss & Apex Magazine publishes half science fiction and half fantasy, our anthology covers are a mash-up of both genres. For example, Best of A&A 1 had an astronaut on the front cover and a knight in armor on the back cover—reflected in each other’s helmets. For The Best of Abyss & Apex, Volume 2 we chose The Lady of the Lake receiving a sword from a robot. You get her underwater view of the robot on the back cover.
There was a bit of romance in the making of this book! As it was going to press I met, had a whirlwind courtship with, and married the love of my life at the age of 53. It sort of distracted me from the book launch, but he was kind enough to be one of the proofreaders. My husband Brian is now our webmaster.
We hope that this anthology, which has some stories not available at our online magazine, will continue to win Abyss & Apex new fans. And we look forward to publishing The Best of Abyss & Apex, Volume 3. You’re all going to love it.
- Wendy S Delmater, Editor
Abyss & Apex
The Best of Abyss and Apex Volume 2 is available at the following link.
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Abyss-Apex-Two-ebook/dp/B01M1UNYGT/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
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