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Author Topic: New Editor at IGMS
autumnmuse
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Edmund Shubert, my TOC mate from the first issue of IGMS, is taking over the reins at IGMS effective June 1. According to Kathleen Bellamy, OSC realized he was stretched too thin and was not getting time to read the submissions for the mag, so he hired Edmund. OSC changed his Wikipedia entry to reflect this information:
quote:
In the fall of 2005, Card also launched Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show ([1]). He edited the first two issues, but found that the demands of teaching, writing, and directing plays for his local church theatre group made it impossible to respond to writers' submissions in a timely manner; former Card student and experienced freelance writer and editor Edmund Schubert became the new editor as of 1 June 2006.

And this from IGMS.com:

quote:

About IGMS
IGMS Welcomes New Editor, Edmund R. Schubert

Orson Scott Card is pleased to announce that Edmund R. Schubert has joined our staff as editor of InterGalactic Medicine Show. He will assume responsibility for selecting the stories that will appear in IGMS, beginning immediately by sorting through our extensive backlog of submitted stories.

Schubert's story, "Trill and the Beanstalk," appeared in the first issue of IGMS, and he has published over thirty short stories in a variety of other magazines and anthologies. In addition to his fiction writing, he is also executive editor of the business magazine, North Carolina Career Network, and is excited about this opportunity to bring his editing experience together with his love of great speculative fiction.


Anyway, to those who have had submissions sitting at IGMS for many moons, Edmund hopes to catch up on the backlog over the next couple months. Congrats, Edmund!

[This message has been edited by autumnmuse (edited June 01, 2006).]


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trousercuit
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That's wonderful! I hope Edmund likes that manuscript I sent in printed in 20-point Comic Sans all caps on card-stock soaked in mustard and chicken gizzards. I really tried hard to make it stand out.
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Keeley
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You did better than me. My submission is in 16 point wingdings, written entirely in second person with multiple colors to indicate my mood as I wrote the story.

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trousercuit
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I'm going to do my next one in smoke signals generated by a computer-driven Whistling Pete.
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trousercuit
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By the way, I initially read that as "16 point wrongdoings," which would have been really interesting.
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Edmund
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Seems like autumnmuse has already gotten the ball rolling in here. I just wanted to pop in and say hello. I met today with IGMS's managing editor, and will meet again with Scott next week to to make sure we get things off to a good start.

Obviously this is the opportunity of a lifetime and I am tremendously fortunate and honored and grateful for a chance to work with someone of the caliber of Orson Scott Card.

The assistant editor/slush reader has done a great job of keeping up with many of the submissions, and I'll be taking care of anything that got past her, something OSC hasn't had time to do because of his many other commitments. My immediate goal is to get caught up on not just the submissions, but the production schedule overall.

My larger goal, however, is to fill the magazine with great stories. That's one of the things Scott and I talked about when he asked me to take this on. In my opinion, too much short fiction today is about the author and their style. I don't have any patience with 'style monkeys.' I want to fill IGMS with tales about interesting and memorable charcaters having fantastic adventures. I think that's what people would like to read, too. If you have an opinion on that subject, I'd love to hear it right here in this forum.

I'm also going to be in Charlotte NC this weekend as a guest at ConCarolina. I'll be doing some panels and workshops, so if you're planning on attending the con, look me up. I'd love to talk to you about IGMS or anything else SF/F.

ConCarolinas web-site is posted below if you need info about it. Writer Guest of Honor is Spider Robinson.

www.concarolinas.org

[This message has been edited by Edmund (edited June 01, 2006).]


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Beth
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Good luck, Edmund! You'll have your hands full, that's for sure.


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wbriggs
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Well, *I'm* tempted (and it's possible driving distance) . . . but I haven't heard of ConCarolina, and I can't find any details on the Internet. Web page? Contact info? Thanks.

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trousercuit
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Well, now that you've shown up to say hello, Edmund - great, we're happy to see you editing. I'm really glad you totally buy into the "great stories, less stylistic garbage" thing, because hey, that's why I buy IGMS.
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MightyCow
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Congratulations on the new gig.

I'm interested in hearing more about what you'll be looking for and if possible, more specifics about these style pieces you want to avoid. Thanks.


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Silver3
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Congrats, Edmund, and good luck! Especially in catching up with that backlog, which by now must truly be impressive (I should know, I've got one in that pile since November ).

quote:
memorable characters having fantastic adventures

Sounds like a good program. I hate style exercises (which is ironic because I pay so much attention to it in my fiction). I prefer the "characters having an adventure" bit to the "sheer adventure with not-so-strong characters" part, though, but I suspect lots of people have differing opinions.


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Edmund
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There's a place for style in writing and I've studied it myself. However, there's a big difference between style used in service of the story and style used as the author's way of saying "Hey, look at me!" It's that second one I have no patience for.

Scott has an excellent essay (I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in the Uncle Orson's Writing Class section of this web-site) where he talks about Isaac Asimov's style. He points out that while some critics complained Asimov had no style, it was truer to say that Asimov's style was intentionally transparent, so that the reader focused on the story instead of the author. (And Asimov didn't do to badly as a writer; I think he even managed to get a couple of his books published.) That's the kind of style Scott and I agree we prefer - style in service to the story.

As for character vs. adventure/plot vs. everything else, I wrote an essay once called "History's Literary Perspectives" where I talked about what gets remembered the longest, and in the final analysis I think great characters override everything else. The reasons Shakespeare's works survive to this day is because of his enduring characters. Ask the average man on the street and they'll tell you they don't like reading Shakespeare's plays (his style is dated by several centuries, making it largely a moot point outside of academic circles), they can't really tell you much about the plot (you're lucky if you can get a one-sentence synopsis out of them), but EVERYONE knows who Hamlet is. Everyone knows who Romeo and Juliet are. Because they are great characters.

If you let time slowly erode those things that are less important, what you are invariably left with are great characters. What makes them great are the things they said and did. And the author's style? Well, probably people wouldn't have read the story in the first place if there wasn't a decent writing style to begin with, but when all is said and done, that's the first thing that is stripped away by time and history.

[This message has been edited by Edmund (edited June 02, 2006).]


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Silver3
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quote:
However, there's a big difference between style used in service of the story and style used as the author's way of saying "Hey, look at me!" It's that second one I have no patience for.

I couldn't have put it better.

An action-filled plot and so-so characters make me read the story the first time. Great characters are what make me read the story over and over.


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Kickle
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Congratulations Edmund. I don't have anything waiting in the slush pile, but for future reference--what kind of cookies do you like?

[This message has been edited by Kickle (edited June 02, 2006).]


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Survivor
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Probably not one where an equal volume of cinnamon oil has been used in place of cinnamon powder, that's for sure. Yeow!
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Keeley
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Forgot to say congrats, Ed, soooo... congrats!!


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oliverhouse
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It's the first lesson in Uncle Orson's Writing Class, and it's a good one.

http://www.hatrack.com/writingclass/lessons/1998-05-12-1.shtml

Here's the relevant snippet, lightly edited:

quote:
Isaac Asimov, as a young writer, found himself imitating the admired style of his youth -- a purple kind of prose that today would be execrable, but even then was no great thrill to read. Disgusted with the results in his own storytelling, he stopped trying to have a "style" at all, and instead concentrated on simple, declarative writing. In his own mind, he was removing all style from his work. But I see it differently. Asimov was concentrating on perfecting his rhetoric, which he did better than any other writer of our time. His writing became so transparent, so rhetorically effective, that you are almost never conscious of the style, but rather are conscious of the ideas or events being presented...

In fact, Asimov became the foremost practitioner of the American plain style... And -- most important to this discussion -- his work had a definite, pronounced style which is extraordinarily hard to imitate. His "fingerprint" is clear and uniquely his own. That it does not intrude on the reader's consciousness at any point during the process of reading is one of its virtues, not a failing.


Congratulations on the new gig, Edmund. I don't know you at all (except that you have the names of one of my favorite Narnia characters and one of my favorite composers), but it's a good slot to be in and I wish you the best.

Regards,
Oliver


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Pyre Dynasty
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Well I'll add my conflagurations to you Edmund.

In light of your recent post please disregard the thrity stories I submitted to IGMS titled "The Style Monkey Chronichles" (misspelled on purpose, you see monkeys can't spell. Except those thousand, but they're from the moon anyway.)


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Kolona
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Sounds like you're already doing a great job, Edmund. Congrats.
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trousercuit
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Conflagurations...

Geez. I can't believe I forgot. CONFLATULATIONS, Edmund!


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djvdakota
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Dear Edmund,

My warmest congratulations! What an opportunity!

Exactly how fast do you read? (That was a hint, by the way.)


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Edmund
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Not
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Edmund
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very
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Edmund
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fast
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trousercuit
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Doesn't mean you need to drag us down to your level, old chap.
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Survivor
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Not at all. The assistant editor is rejecting...er "keeping up with" most of the submissions already. Desho? By the way, if I may ask, what's the current percentage of submissions that get past her and go to you?
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hoptoad
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Not
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hoptoad
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very
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hoptoad
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many
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pooka
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I'm thinking we need to revise the idea of the first 13 lines.
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