Check out Issue #3, we’ve got an interview with Gregory Maguire, a spotlight on Fantasy Scroll Magazine, and an article on constructing languages for your story!
Interview with Gregory Maguire
Why did you become a writer?
I had a great aversion to working in offices, as I grew up during the period hallowed by MAD MEN—boring drunken men in white shirts and ties, all with the same sort of impenetrable macho stiff-upper-lipped mien (at least it seemed so to a small kid). I decided by the time I was about 6 that I would rather make things than sell shoes or insurance and have to go to an office and be manly in that only-variety-of-manliness way available for me to examine. Read more here…
Spotlight on Fantasy Scroll Magazine
What they are looking for: I am looking for great stories more than anything else. Great stories, to me, are built around interesting plots and memorable, strong characters. Because we are talking about short fiction here, there’s not a lot of time to spend outside of the story, so I expect a manuscript to start strong and hook me early. If the story drags on I will lose interest. On the same token, if the ending is flat and leaves me unsatisfied, the story won’t work either. So, I am looking for a strong story through and through, where great characters do something that holds my interest. Read more here…
Language is an important part of world-building. The inhabitants of your world use language to communicate, exchange thoughts and ideas, archive and pass information from one another.
You must think about language in the beginning of your world-building, because the decisions you make about it, will influence a lot of your future work. Of course, this post is not a tutorial on how to create a language itself, given that the subject is extremely wide, but more as to guide you through the various options you have as you are creating your world. Read more here…
The Speculative Craft 