[Link] Just for Authors: Writer Beware’s Go-To Online Resources

by Victoria Strauss

Writers often ask me why, with all of Writer Beware’s warnings about bad actors in the publishing world, we don’t also provide recommendations or endorsements of the good guys. “You’ve got this gigantic list of scammers on your blog; wouldn’t it also be helpful to recommend reputable agents and publishers?”

There are several reasons why we don’t do this.

Writer Beware has a very specific purpose: to document and expose schemes, scams, and pitfalls that target writers, and to educate authors on how to recognize and avoid them. As far as we know, we’re the only organization with this exclusive mission. In other words, we aren’t a general-purpose resource: we are quite narrowly focused. We are also a small, all-volunteer team, with limited time and resources.

Also, one size does not fit all. Agents, publishers, etc. have widely varying areas of interest and expertise, and the best agent or publisher or freelance editor or cover designer for one writer might be the worst choice for another. Lists of “good guys” won’t necessarily be very useful, depending on what you write and what your publishing goals are (not to mention, they are incredibly time-consuming and research-intensive to compile and maintain; did I mention that Writer Beware is a small team?). It really is better for writers to do their own research and vetting, armed against scams and bad practice with the tools and knowledge Writer Beware provides.

Finally, recommending or endorsing any particular publishers, agents, etc. risks raising questions of conflict of interest. How do you know, one of Writer Beware’s many haters might inquire, that the agents on that “good guy” list didn’t pay to be there? Of course this would not be true—Writer Beware doesn’t even accept charitable donations—but we want to avoid all possibility of such questions arising. (This is why, when scammers want to discredit us, they have to make stuff up—such as that I own my own publishing company and am badmouthing competitors).

So I can’t suggest which agents to query, which publishers to approach, which self-publishing platforms to consider. What I can do is try to cut through some of the fog and noise of the internet by recommending reliable resources to help with your publication journey. The internet is a goldmine of information for authors, but it is also a swamp of fake facts, bad advice, and scams—and it can be very difficult to figure out which websites are reliable and which experts are actually experts.

Following are a few of my favorite online resources. Some you’ll no doubt already be familiar with, but hopefully you’ll also discover something new. (And of course Writer Unboxed would be on the list, if I weren’t already here!) Most of the resources are free, but some require subscription or a membership fee. Writer Beware receives no consideration or compensation for mentioning them.

Read the full article: https://writerunboxed.com/2024/10/25/just-for-authors-writer-bewares-go-to-online-resources/

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Pulp Factory Award winning artist Rob Davis provides the cover and interior illustrations for this, another Pulp Factory action-packed New Pulp adventure. Don’t miss it!

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION – PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!

Available now from Amazon in paperback and soon on Kindle.

Incorporating Multiple Religions Into Your Writing Diversity

 

Okay, let's talk about diversity this week, but not what you normally think about. Let's talk about religious diversity in your work. (In the interest of honesty, this one also was inspired by a panel I was on during Multiverse.)

Writers often err in one of two ways when it comes to writing protagonists (and antagonists) with a personal faith life -- either only writing their own because that's the only one they know well enough to write (or to be propagandistic) or they avoid religion in their stories altogether because they've been taught that it's something you don't discuss at Thanksgiving. 

I disagree. I think a character's inner POV and faith life can bring a new dimension to them. 

But let's see what our roundtable panel of writers thinks.

How does your own faith background or lack of one influence your writing?

Danielle Procter Piper: I was raised Catholic, so one of my characters has that background also. But I don't use it as an opportunity to "invite" people into that belief system. In fact, that character struggles with what he was taught and what he now knows as an adult. He's very good at encouraging his adopted daughter to find her own path...if she has spiritual inclinations at all.

Mari Hersh-Tudor: I was raised a strict Roman Catholic-mass in Latin and a narrow worldview. The more exposure to Weird Sh!t People Do When Someone Dies ™️ that I get, the more I absorb about how various cultures and religions treat adversity.

Kay Iscah: Definitely. I think a lot of fantasy has gone polytheistic, so I like centering monotheism, though not writing on earth I try to give things a distinct spin for their setting. The monotheism of Seventh Night is based on the idea of Christianity but without sacrifice or organized churches. This isn't necessarily a criticism of those elements, more of an exploration of how things might work or not work without them. I try not to be heavy-handed with those themes. In the interest of writing more universal stories, I tend to focus on ethics, but if you pay attention, it's a world where prayers are answered. Though not always in an obvious way. But I think writing and creating worlds can give us insight into the mind of God and how He operates.

Sean Taylor: I was not only raised in conservative Christian evangelical churches (Southern Baptist for the most part), but I also worked for the denomination at the national level for a few years until we had a bit of a doctrinal disagreement. So, yeah, my faith has been something that has been on my mind -- and therefore in my writing -- a lot. Both through the more devout and the current deconstruction and reconstruction period. It's difficult not to see a travelogue of my journey as your read my work and see the kind of questions that creep into my themes. 

If you do incorporate religious viewpoints into your fiction, how do you walk the line between advocating them and merely having them be a part of a character's, well, character?

Ef Deal: Having been raised Roman Catholic in the '50s and '60s (no, I did not have vicious nuns but I did get kicked out of church by the priest) and now writing a setting of 1842 France, religion is discussed in my second book, first when she overhears the King declaring homosexuality an offense against God, "Scripture is quite clear," and again when her lady's maid confesses her own lesbianism and fears for her soul. I happen to subscribe to the belief that God is love, and frankly, the King had more mistresses than he had children, and the punishment for adultery is quite clear if you want to declare Scripture as your rule instead of God's love.

It was a fun diatribe to write, given the setting of a Paris salon, where men engaged in philosophical discourse that amounted to little.

Kay Iscah: I think I try to advocate more for ethics, education, and spiritual seeking than promoting specific spiritual practices. I promote seeking truth, but I think that generally needs to happen through the story and not feel like something tacked onto it. I can get into the head of someone with a different belief system, and do so a bit in Horse Feathers. Phillip is a skeptic and atheist, but becomes interested in moral philosophy. He mostly fights it out in his head as atheism is not particularly popular in his period, but if I ever get around to writing sequels, it will cause some contention.

Sean Taylor: I don't write much fantasy, so most of the religions I write into my fiction are based on real-world faiths. I have written about fantasy-type gods once, but even then I made up my own and shied away from the established pantheons from world religions so as not to screw up details that might really matter to some readers. 

None of my characters evangelize their beliefs. That's so not my style, not even in my more devout days. And most of my believing folks (whatever the belief or the deity) they tend to be a lot more loosey-goosey about things like doctrine and rules, and tend to side more with the "Big Guy in the sky who wants us to love on each other" kind of thing. There are a few characters though, like my angel superhero, Tobit's Angel, in the Show Me A Hero collection, who is particularly exploring what it means to be an angel and in what religious direction he fits. Is he a Christian angel? A Muslim angel? A Jewish angel? A New-Age angel? All he knows is that he is most definitely an angel. Another superhero character, Fishnet Angel (not an angel), is a former Catholic who becomes possessed by an ancient deity and now must deal with the fact that his/her religion doesn't stand alone anymore. 

Danielle Procter Piper: Because I don't believe in shoving my beliefs down other people's throats (because I strongly dislike it being done to me), I don't depict religious belief as an asset but more of a curious choice. In fact, I tend to tone down major religious holidays. My sci-fi/action/thriller Venus In Heat is a Christmas story in that it takes place over the holiday, and while it's mentioned, none of the lead characters actually celebrate it in any way and they're all perfectly fine with that. 

Mari Hersh-Tudor: My own fiction encompasses a wide range of religions, from theoretical to Actual Gods Interfering™️.

It’s pretty easy not to advocate toward any one religion, I made mine up anyway, and I don’t have any characters (so far) who would do so.

Just as some writers make a conscious effort to break out of their boxes by intentionally learning to write characters of a different gender or sexuality or race, how have you sought to bring in a variety of "faith" backgrounds into your fiction?

Sean Taylor: I love to study other faiths and in particular the absence of such a faith. I think some of it comes naturally by just having a wide variety of folks in my circle of friends and writer buddies, but some of it involves intentional research and study and seeking out people to talk to to get details right, particularly emotional and psychological details. 

Danielle Procter Piper: Because my world is populated with people of various beliefs, so are the worlds of my stories. In my sci-fi I have the former Catholics, pagans, and a Buddhist, and most of the characters' faiths are never even mentioned. In my Medieval fantasy I have characters from all over Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa...and each has their own beliefs, but the main characters simply accept each other as they are without clashes of faith. 

Kay Iscah: This may expand as my catalog of published fiction expands. I do poke at it a bit in Horse Feathers. But I tend to treat it a bit as an aspect of setting. There's an unpublished series I'm working on where I anticipate navigating some different religious views in characters, but again, I want to keep that a light touch. It should feel like an organic part of the setting and aspect of the characters not a lecture for the reader. It should come up because the characters are debating moral philosophy of situations, and not simply because I want to soapbox about something.

And even within the same religion, you have sects and interpretations and room for debates and differences of opinion. It would be an unusual faith where all the practitioners agreed on every aspect.

Now, to twist it on its ear, how much more does a character's non-religious POV get strengthened as an MC when they are surrounded by a variety of real-world characters of varying beliefs -- as opposed the non-religious MC in a world that seems to be void of any religious thought whatsoever?

Mari Hersh-Tudor: It is a great deal of fun, however, to torment narrow-minded characters by throwing them at angry gods that they don’t believe in and writing the fallout.

Kay Iscah: I don't write a lot of "real world" stories. But in a way, this described Phillip in Horse Feathers. He has a fairly scientific mind for a medieval peasant. He comes from a country with a lot of competing faiths and that feeds into his skepticism. He settles in a heavily monotheistic country and avoiding religious instruction is his small act of rebellion against a society where he feels very limited. But for the general question, I think personality and individual experiences play a huge role in how the religious setting affects the MC. You could take two different characters, run them through the same scenarios, and get two wildly different reactions.

The non-religious MC may have his views challenged more if confronted with a variety of faiths whereas the non-religious MC in an atheist or agnostic setting might never be pushed to think about them. Some people would welcome never being challenged while others would start asking certain questions because no one else is asking those questions.

The rub is that the author determines what the "truth" of that world is. Which will determine what "truth" the MC will be able to find with their questions and seeking.

I've heard of Christians who dislike The Truman Show because they think it's intended to be a metaphor for breaking out of our philosophical bubble or belief system. But as a Christian, I find The Truman show very in line with the faith as it's about seeking truth at all costs... and if you pay attention, the female protagonist does pray for Truman's release and safety. So there's an in world establishment of a God or at least belief in God, that is not the producer playing at being God.

Danielle Procter Piper: One of my sci-fi heroes, Alex, has no background in any faith, yet is surrounded by people of many faiths. A telepath, he's often revolted by the fact that most people who play at ceremony and holidays do it for the material benefits...money, gifts, food, and not out of any actual belief in something greater or a need to worship. Or, they function like robots, programmed by tradition, trying to force each other and their families into old molds forged generations ago which are often impractical today and can cause more stress than gratitude and wonder. He finds all of this extraordinarily bizarre and is amazed when he meets anyone who seems genuinely convinced that what they do serves their deity of choice and benefits more than just themselves and their personal agendas. So his extra powers of observation allow him to better understand others and even manipulate them using their own ideas of how things are and what they should be. One needn't be telepathic to figure this stuff out, but it saves time and makes him more formidable for it.

Sean Taylor: To me, a religious viewpoint is one of the things that says a lot about a character. I believe it's as important as a character's race, nationality, gender, sexual identity -- all those things. It adds a dimension to them that can provide stability (when the religious POV matches their actions and words), irony (when their religious POV reveals their hypocrisy), and depth (when their religious POV reveals questioning and struggle based on their conflicts in the story. I picked this up very early from the works of Flannery O'Connor, and I've never let go of it in my own work. 

It's just another way to create a real, solid, three-dimensional world with words, as far as I'm concerned. It's like the argument for diversity in fiction. "We're here. So don't write as though we aren't." So they exist in my fiction too. Religion also exists. It's here. So it is just another element in my world-building. 

Poetry Corner: I Am

In the hallway today I passed students,
Some afraid, others emboldened,
Once sung precious—In whose sight?—
All distracting themselves with trivialities.
“Did you hear about…?”
“Are you going to…?”
“Do we have practice…?
It kept them from noticing the dreams
Of existence, of acceptance,
Of being a part of the Grand Experiment,
Kicked along the dirty floors
As they scurried to class.

Driving to work today I watched the woman
Standing in the rain,
Holding the sign,
“Out of Work Please Help,” shivering, shimmering.
Mother, sister, daughter, aunt—perhaps
Saint, sinner, harlot, sacrifice,
Prophet, poet, priest, king—
Bosses watch clocks, and we can’t hesitate,
Not in the rain, nor in heavy traffic,
It’s easy to forget after all
When there’s a man with a sign
Two blocks closer to the office.

In my newsfeed today, opinion hurled like daggers,
“Not a woman”
“Biological male”
“Sports and bathrooms”
Rainbows and flags posted support
Allies brought hammers and words to build
A place to be secure, to exist,
To know who she is, was, will be, amen.
But the damage was done,
Hateful words have barbs
And even to pry them out
Leaves scars and bleeding.

I am not them.
But I am them.
I am he, she, they, all the pronouns.
They are always in me.
The him, the her, the them,
Flow like oxygen through my lungs,
Expressed outward in his, hers, theirs,
Collectively exhaled from my open mouth
To the ground below,
Picked up by some, ignored by others,
On the way to class, driving to work,
In the anonymity of virtual life.

I am that I am, one said.
Know that I am, said another.
I am too, I proclaimed.
To be one,
To be one another,
To be.

Sean Taylor © 2024

Visit my poetry.com site.

Visceral Writing + Nostalgia = Effective Writing Every Time

Pow! Right in the kisser! 

A knife in the gut! 

Intestines spilling out of an open wound! 

Bloody bullet holes!

Those are the kinds of things that often come to mind when we think or talk about visceral writing. Gross stuff. Stuff that is painful to feel. Feelings that make a reader feel bad. 

We like to think, I believe, that visceral writing is a perfect tool for crime fiction and horror stories, but maybe not so much for regular fiction that doesn't include fistfights, stab wounds, gunshots, or the rambling undead. But is that really true?

According to Vocabulary.com:

"When something's visceral, you feel it in your guts. A visceral feeling is intuitive — there might not be a rational explanation, but you feel that you know what's best, like your visceral reaction against egg salad." Visceral comes from the word viscera, or the gut, the organs. Visceral writing is that which produces a sensation physically in a reader's body, not just in a reader's mind.

But let's be honest. Are bad feelings the only kinds of feelings we experience in our gut, in our body, in our viscera? Not for me. And I certainly hope not for you either. What a horrible way to live. 

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
(Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do)

Remember the hysterical closing scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian? Who my age doesn't? Brian hasn't had the kind of life he expected and as he is being crucified, he and the others hanging there in the hot sun still find a way to look on the positive side of their situation. 

We can do the same even though we write viscerally. We can use the same tools, flex those same muscles to create gut feelings and physical sensations that stir up good feelings and not feelings of nausea or unease.

Don't believe me? 

Try these on for size. Picture these things, but not with your eyes. 

• Grandma's fried chicken sizzling in an iron skillet and how that made you salivate, almost tasting it through your nose
• The kitten-fur softness of the flannel blanket you had as a kid and carried around so much that mom and dad had to wash it every few days
• Not only the sweet taste but the crystalline texture of the rock candy you could trace with your tongue that you only bought once a year on the way to your usual family vacation spot

Can you see them? Good, but not good enough. Can you hear them? Can you feel them? Can you taste them? Can you smell them? Now here's the real kicker... can you experience them?

Let's look at each example and see what senses they activate. 

Grandma's fried chicken sizzling in an iron skillet and how that made you salivate, almost tasting it through your nose

Sight? Sure. Sound? Yep, nothing like the sizzling of anything being fried. The more grease the better. Feel? Yep. I remember getting too close and the leaping pings of grease finding the sensitive skin on my arm. Smell? Oh yeah, and if your Grandma was like mine, her special seasoning belonged only to her brain and the smell of the chicken cooking was different from any of your friends' families cooking fried chicken. Taste? Not the chicken. Not yet, but the taste of Crisco in the air, the thick greasy flavor that said "There's no way I can hold on until dinner." (Writing this is making me hungry.)

That's visceral right there. And there's not a zombie, a serial killer, or a crime scene anywhere in view. 

Moving on...

The kitten-fur softness of the flannel blanket you had as a kid and carried around so much that mom and dad had to wash it every few days

Sight? Again, sure, but that's the easy one, the low-hanging fruit. Sound? Not as much, but I can hear the blanket sliding on the linoleum floor or the hallway. Feel? This one is all about the feels. The gentle, soft way that blanket felt wrapped on my bare shoulders, even as a teenager. The warmth I felt quickly simply by virtue of being covered thanks to the way it trapped heat. Taste? Of course. (Like you never stuck your blanket in your mouth. Don't lie to me.) Smell? It ended up smelling like my skin where I held it, like whatever had been spilled in the floor where I dragged it, and like whatever Mom was cooking that lingered in the air. That's why it had to be washed so much. 

Next.

Not only the sweet taste but the crystalline texture of the rock candy you could trace with your tongue that you only bought once a year on the way to your usual family vacation spot

If you missed this special treat on the trips to the beach each Summer with your family, then you really missed out. There were dozens of hole-in-the-wall stores along the roads where you could get not only rock candy, but pecan brittle, divinity, pecan logs, invisble ink activity books, and plastic alligators to play with in the car. 

But enough about my childhood. We're supposed to be talking about visceral, senses-led writing. 

So... 

Sight? Yep. Red, green, blue, white, pink. Sharp and shiny. Hear? That crunch that sounds like not just the candy is breaking but your teeth also. Taste? Pure sugar, baby. Smell? It invades my sinuses with every bite. And the big one -- feel? If you can't feel the sharp points that you traced with your tongue, exploring each crevice and plain and peak before chomping down on a bite, then you're not trying hard enough. 

Have we unlearned all that we once thought about visceral writing yet? Have we tossed out the idea that it's only good for dangerous, violent, abhorrent feelings in our gut? Have we begun to see that the same tool we can use to destroy a reader's pscyhe (in the best way possible) can also be used to take them on a trip to good feelings and happy memories too? 

Wait?! Memories? What do they have to do with all this?

I'm glad you asked. 

Yesterday Once More
(Shooby doo, lang, lang)

Nostalgia. 

Merriam-Webster defines it as a noun, a feeling of longing, a "wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition." Simply put, nostalgia is memory, albeit a positive one we enjoy reliving. But at its heart, memory is what makes all visceral writing work.

Yes, even the negative usages. 

Why does that crude, iron-blood drawing on the crime scene floor turn our stomachs? Because we've smelled it before, tasted it in the air even if it was only from an injury on the ball field or falling out of a tree or getting smacked in the face by a careless sibling in a hurry. Why does that steel bar crashing into our main character's stomach hurt us too when we feel the bruises start to form with words alone? Because most of us have either felt it or watched someone else feel it and the words trigger the "ouchness" of the memory. 

Let's just call that the "bad nostalgia," the feeling of "wanting to avoid some past and completely recoverable condition."

Just like our "bad nostalgia," our classic nostalgia, or wistful yearning works together with our sensory details when we tell stories to create the ultimate form of positive visceral writing. When we reinforce our readers' nostalgia with the right details that trigger sights, sounds, smells, touch feelings, and tastes they long to experience again, we can shortcut (in effect) the rational brain and go straight for the memory centers that make them feel and experience our stories. 

It's kind of like learning sight words in school. When you recognize a word immediately, you don't have to use any brain power to apply to spelling, meaning, or context. It just is. 

In the same way, the right details partner with nostalgia. The right smell, taste, or feel word can skip the rational brain and find immediate comfort in a sensory memory that makes it identify with the scene being described. 

Now, this doesn't always have to be used in a straightforward way. Sometimes the best writers will use positive sensory details to create conflict in the gut of a reader. Let's say, for example, that the smell of the pie cooking reminds our spy of home, but she's not supposed to let anything distract her from her mission. And in spite of the pain in her ribs from the beating she took before convincing the bad guys she was on their side, the scent of the pie relaxes her. The entire experience is supposed to be something negative she won't mind putting behind her, but that damn pie and it's nostalgia gut feeling is getting in the way. Let the reader feel the emotional, gut conflict right along with the character. 

When you reinforce physical sensations with emotional sensations, that's always effective wordsmithing. And, after all, isn't that the goal?

Motivational Monday: The Only Real Answer

[Link] AI Audiobook Narrators in OverDrive and the Issue of Library AI Circulation Policy

by SB Sarah

OverDrive is the company that provides a lot of digital content to libraries. If you’ve borrowed an ebook or an audiobook in Libby,  or read a magazine in Kanopy, that’s OverDrive.

It seems there is some AI weirdness with audiobook narration on OverDrive, and the narrator is only part of the story.

On Monday, October 14, librarian Robin Bradford posted on Bluesky that she’d purchased an AI audiobook for her library system and she was really upset about it:

Robin Bradford on Blussky saying Good Morning, BlueSky. I'm annoyed at myself today because I bought an AI audiobook that sucks. Clearly, I need to pay more attention to who the narrator is, instead of just buying the title because someone wants to listen to it. Hope your Monday is going better than mine!

Also, when I go to the book author's webpage it is....incredibly bare. I wonder if the whole thing is AI now. Books, audiobooks, everything. Well, the good news is we only have 9 audiobooks, by 3 authors, with that AI voice. The surprising news is one of the authors. The sketch news is all 3 author websites look eerily similar, and now I have more questions than answers. And I'm hungry. My list has grown to 101 titles by a group of "narrators' going by different names. I guess, on the bright side, they are at least labeling them. But I wish they didn't have them at all. And I'm going to be so much more careful about what I purchase even if people want it. 

Over 100 titles by AI “narrators” were in their catalog, and Robin was having trouble finding indications that the authors themselves are real?

Interesting.

The authors with AI audiobooks in our catalog: Blake Pierce, Molly Black, Fiona Grace, Rylie Dark, Kate Bold, Ava Strong, Jack Mars, Taylor Strk, Mia Gold, Laura Rise, Audrey Shine, Sophie Love, Ella Swift, Vin Strong, Katie Rush.

Not only is that A LOT of audiobooks, but similar to my casual foray into contemporary romance cover art, I noticed that there was an odd pattern to those author names:

• Mostly one or two-syllable first names
• One-syllable last names
• All very basic nouns and adjectives as surnames

That homogeneity is a little strange, right? Good thing I’m really nosy.

I reached out to Robin for an interview to learn more. What had brought this to her attention? What was her next step? While we were corresponding, we both searched names and author websites for more information.

This is really weird, y’all. 

Her investigation started when she received a message from a patron of her library system that there was something wrong with an audiobook they had borrowed.

Read the full article: https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2024/10/ai-audiobook-narrators-in-overdrive-and-the-issue-of-library-ai-circulation-policy/

New from Flinch Books! Plug in and turn on! THE LEMON HERBERTS WORLD TOUR is coming to your town! IT’S A PULP POP-A-GO-GO!

Hot on the heels of their chart-topping hit album, Redwing Blackbird’s Summer Solstice Tea Party, The Lemon Herberts launch themselves on their very first world tour – and straight into more danger, more peril, more sheer adventure than they ever bargained for!

In seven pulpy, far-out fables, you’ll meet drummer Ellroy, guitarists Honor and Dilly, bassist Ally, and the gorgeously fab Her Majesty – all of them trouble magnets that even their long-suffering manager, the very proper Brighton Hawks, can’t hope to contain. Just ask the Lemon Herberts’ legion of screaming fans: they’re wild, they’re wonderful, they’re simply the most!

Herberts creator Jim Beard leads a band of groovy authors in a kooky collection that will have you grooving and dancing to the soundtrack of The Lemon Herberts conquering the world one city at a time and making music to change hearts and minds around the globe!

First published in 2015 as THE LEMON HERBERTS, this collection amazed readers with its pop culture punch. Now it makes its triumphant return in this newly edited and expanded edition – available in print and ebook formats, and guaranteed to entertain a whole new generation of Herberts fans!

The Influence of Folklore on Genre Fiction

I did a panel with several wonderful, super-intelligent folks at Multiverse Con. It was so inspiring that I wanted to bring the topic over to the blog and open it up to our writing community at large. 

The panel was on folk magic/folk horror, (as evidenced by films such as Midsommar, The Village, The VVitch, etc.) but I think it applies to general genre fiction throughout as well. So, that's where we're going. 

Ready?

Folk magic and folklore began with the common people (folks), or as author Jessica Nettles put it on the panel, "As long as there are people, there is folklore." With so much emphasis in fiction having been spent on the rich or leisurely class, how has this notion of the commonplace protagonist influenced your writing?

Danielle Procter Piper: I shall admit a wealthy protagonist is not often necessary, but written as such for convenience sake. So many stories involve characters doing things while not at a regular job, that it's easiest to explain it away by making them wealthy/important enough to be free for whatever adventure the story calls for. That said, I love the new wave of stories I'm seeing where characters do have fairly regular Joe lives and there are consequences for vanishing to save the world or what have you when school or work is imperative. 

Nikki Nelson-Hicks: The first thing that comes to mind is Alan Moore and John Constantine. He said he wanted to make a magic user that was from the streets and not some lofty white tower. I’ve always loved that.

As for my work, the best examples of folk magic are in my Jake Istenhegyi stories. Jake, the protag, doesn’t use it as much as he gets used by it. The stories are set in 1930’s New Orleans so, of course, vodun, is the first thing to play with but I was able to dip my pen into Golems and Alchemy. While doing research into some of the folk tales of the swamp, I came across the Boodaddy and I used it albeit I did take some creative license with the creature.

A story I am working on currently, Crown of Feathers, is about a boy on the brink of losing his mother but, against the advice of the granny witches that live on the hill, he finds a way to snatch her from the claws of death. Although it doesn’t work out the way he plans. I’ve been doing a lot of research into Appalachian death culture and hedgewitchery.

So, yeah. Long story short, folk magic always somehow influences me.

Jessica Nettles: I feel like my characters are commonplace almost always, probably because I see myself as pretty commonplace. In that space of the commonplace there is the folklore. As a Southern woman, folklore is part of my infrastructure. We are taught it from the time we can hear stories and learn what's important. This feeling of being commonplace and being "not the lady or the Southern Belle" has made me aware of the people who farm the land and are the plain folk. I was raised not only around women like my granny, who taught me how to pick peas and read, but also around my daddy, who took me fishing, taught me to fix old furniture, and to also watch where I put my hands and feet in the woods. My characters often are those sorts of people instead of the well-off. I know those people best.

Kay Iscah: Far more of us are common people than wealthy. We may enjoy the fantasy of wealth, but we’re more likely to relate to people who remind us of ourselves or at least the challenges we face. However, I think there’s a distinctly rural aspect to the term folklore that implies a degree of isolation and being on the edge of nature. Particularly if you’re urban or suburban, visiting rural relatives takes on a magical aspect because you’re so much closer to the edge where you can step out of one world and into another.

In the two Before the Fairytale coming-of-age stories that I’ve written, early on the characters from humble backgrounds pass through the same forest as a significant passage in their journey, though they’re headed in different directions. The back and forth between the safety of civilization and the mystery and danger of the wilds is something believed at the heart of much folklore.

Sean Taylor: I've always preferred the common folk when I write. Even when I write Pulp stories, whose stable of heroes come from the richest and most leisurely people, I tend to want to surround them with the common folk. When I create my own, such as with Rick Ruby, it was important not to make him independent and wealthy, which is typical of a Hammett and Chandler hero, but also to put him in a culture not his own, a white guy in a black world, where every one of his preconceptions is challenged. 

I don't tend to use a lot of magic or spiritual power unless I'm specifically writing fantasy, but I love the notion of the "dark" being looming and mysterious and dangerous, and I picked that up from reading both Gothic lit and fairy tales. 

Lots of folklore comes from people who have been "othered" by those in power, for example, by race, poverty, or gender. Folklore-inspired tales give power back to those people (often for vengeance in horror, for instance). How do you use othering and the empowerment of the "other" in your work?

Danielle Procter Piper: In my sci-fi series, the hero becomes everything he despises and fears...and while many believe he has become a villain... he actually still works for good, but on a much grander scale. In a way, it suggests God doesn't do enough little things because perhaps He's busy with even bigger things...and that's not an excuse to ignore the plight of those who struggle. In my Medieval fantasy series, the hero is about to achieve something uncommon that should be beneficial...but which drives him to push his limits to overcome mockery and protect others similarly mistreated. Eventually, he must give in and become something dreadfully fearful just to save innocent others. In both cases, my heroes must learn to accept and embrace dark things that not only terrify them but completely change them in the eyes of others—even those close to or who love them, sacrificing who they are as they learn how to use these new identities for good no matter the consequences to themselves. 

Kay Iscah: Continuing with the two characters already mentioned. One is an orphan who thinks she’s been abandoned, and the other is an abandoned child who thinks he is orphaned. I’m definitely a fan of clever protagonists, so both work their way up to better positions or at least respectable work with a mix of luck, skill, and determination. But both also make decisions to walk away from situations that might have given them material gain for moral reasons. I had not intentionally set up that parallel, but I see it now. I certainly think there’s a theme of how far you’re willing to go to find acceptance. Are you willing to walk away from power, community, or comfort if it compromises who you are? They both take completely different paths. One walks away from society completely to essentially become the witch in the wilderness, and other works his way up to management and then a royal court position. I don’t think either is wrong or better, but it’s different paths to empowerment. One creates her own space, and the other moves to a position where he might be able to influence larger-scale social change.

Sean Taylor: I love to either set stories in "othered" places, like with Rick Ruby mentioned above or to look for the "other" even in characters who don't immediately seem like an "other." For example, when I wrote Agara, a sort of female Conan for Black Pulp II, I wanted her to be disconnected from everyone else. I wanted to explore someone who exists outside of community but still must live within one. A lot of super hero fiction deals with this as well, I've found. They only pretend to be part of it, but in reality, they have a unique set of problems and issues "normies" can't possibly understand. 

One of my favorite aspects is how the power balance is restored and even tipped to the "other," whether my story has genuine folkloric elements or not. Agara wins, but at the expense of community, which she remains distant from. Rick Ruby's world influences him far more than he influences it. Even in my horror tales, the true power tends to reside in those who are outside the norm. 

Nikki Nelson-Hicks: In the collection of short stories I am working on, Politics of Children and Other Stories of Revenge, I play with this idea in quite a few of them. In, "A Beautiful Thing," a Golem is able to get revenge against the murderer of his protector with the help of some furry friends. In Sweet Revenge, a witch gets revenge against the bank president who finagled the foreclosure of her candy shop.

Magic is a way for the powerless to feel as if they have some kind of say in a game that is rigged against them from day one. I am guilty of that. I have two altars in my office. One is for blessings; I keep it to the right of me, close and under the care of Bridgid. The other is way back in the left side of my office, under the care of Maeve, is where I collect my hex jars. Do I believe that these quaint little jars hold any real power? Is it all just a psychological tool to deal with life with a dose of magical thinking? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, it gives me comfort.

But in fiction, all things are possible. And I can take revenge with absolute impunity.

As for themes, folklore typically includes what DL Wainwright called (on the panel) "strangeness and wonder." In its origins, it often involved the encroachment of the dark and mysterious (often the forest or night) on the so-called normal world of the village or daylight. Does that encroachment of dark upon light weave into your work? Howso?

Danielle Procter Piper: All of my writing deals with heroes encountering and learning to function within the darkness of life. It's just a metaphor for dealing with all that life throws at you and discerning if there's anything good that may be wrought from it.

Jessica Nettles: I don't think the folklore comes from being "othered." The folklore comes from people who have their own primary cultures that are not ours so we don't understand (and in some cases don't want to understand) the importance and power of those stories to "those people over there." In Menlo Park, my witch, Deborah, has been othered because she comes from Romani roots and people fear her witchy powers (she is a VERY powerful witch). Her back story lands her in one of the asylums in New York City because no one knows what else to do with her. Her true power comes in her ability to love and believe in what she knows is true when no one else can. She's not powerful because she's Romani. She's powerful because she loves and is loved by her created family and that grounds her magic. She still believes in her folklore and the magic of her folklore, but in a way, she has created her own branch in her folklore.

Sean Taylor: Now this is a theme I can really get behind. My entire horror short story collection A Crowd in Babylon is based on the fuzzy line that happens where normality and strangeness & wonder meet. One of the stories went back to Indigenous Peoples legends. Another combines folk magic with the quantum mechanics ideas of M-Theory. And one of my favorites goes back to the metaphor of the crossroads and the Blues but removes the crossroads and puts the story in a dive bar in the middle of nowhere. One I'm currently working on involves a couple getting an unbelievable deal on a house... as long as they don't remove the dead squirrel in a jar in the cellar -- a sort of folkloric protection or ward. 

Nikki Nelson-Hicks: The hedgewitches in my Crown of Feathers story are representatives of the Furies: Alecto (mother), Tisiphone (maiden) and Megaera (Crone). Alecto and Meg, the Mother and the Crone) often fight about their responsibilities to help the Protag since he started the whole mess. Meg isn’t one to mess around with. She has no patience and enjoys the taste of a young boy’s flesh.

I like to entangle what might be consider Dark into the Light of my fiction. Mainly because Anger, which is always seen as somehow negative, gets shit done.

But I’ve always been drawn to the antihero.

Jamais Jochim: This is sort of what I'm playing with my Vella book. Folk stories are how we explain the weirdness in our lives while looking at the existence of the awesome and the profane, and how they are sides of the same coin.

Kay Iscah: I think I skipped ahead with my first answer, but yes. The first scene that pops to mind is young Phillip making a nest in a tree, and unable to sleep, he listens to the night noises around him. He’s very aware of his vulnerability and has a similar moment of hyper-awareness when he takes shelter with a tanner in an isolated cabin. There’s another scene where he encounters fireflies for the first time and I think it shows how nature can inspire certain myths about fairies and other creatures of folklore. If I remember correctly both of the bandit attacks that dramatically changed his life happened in daylight in an isolated place. He also encounters actual magic for the first time in daylight, so it’s a bit of flipping the script on his expectations. The girl’s story by contrast is constantly setting up tropes to sidestep them. She is a shapeshifter, the fairy, and a strange old lady who lives alone, so night does not tend to intimidate her to the same degree. She often finds comfort in it; “The stars hummed a lullaby… dreams lack all restrictions. So that night she could be small as a bug or big as a mountain.”

One of my favorite quotes from the panel comes from Dee Norman. "That's how folk magic survives -- through efficacy, not explanation," she explains. How do your magical or belief systems in your work, more commonly fantasy, horror, or some more esoteric sci-fi, line up against this notion of folk magic being more a practice than a doctrine?

Kay Iscah: In the world of Seventh Night where my examples come from, I describe magic in terms of rhythm and song. It’s based on the more scientific idea that everything vibrates, but with the more mystic idea that these vibrations can be harnessed and shifted to produce almost any desired effect. I do think this ties into common magic tropes of saying the right word or humming the right tune. There’s also an element of potion-making, which ties to understanding the potential effects of the ingredients. It’s a blend of science and art.

I do distinguish magic/sorcery and witchcraft as separate practices. The first has more to do with rhythms and is not seen as a spiritual practice by those who practice it. Witchcraft by contrast utilizes spirits, and there’s a stronger taboo against it. Laymen may confuse the two.

Jessica Nettles: Dark and light must always push and pull against one another. In my stories, there is always that element. There is the small town that seems very familiar and the people seem so nice, but there something swimming in the undercurrent you can't see, but can sense. If we're honest, this is more true than not, but most of the time, no one wants to say that out loud. My Eulaila stories explore those small spaces--those towns and areas where things seem off by about two steps, but maybe to the drive-thru tourist, on their way to Panama City, might just guess at. In my Three Sisters stories (y'all ain seen them yet) there is also this same push of darkness and light with the sisters witching their way against various dark elements that seem drawn to their small town for reasons they haven't figured out yet.

Nikki Nelson-Hicks: This reminds me of the dichotomy of Wizards and Witches in Discworld. The Wizards go to a college and spend all their time debating and studying the idea of magic. Witches just WITCH and get shit done.

I tend to waver between ritual and natural magic practices in my fiction.

In my story, "What the Cat Dragged In," the witch in that story is highly ritualistic. Her hex jars are meticulously prepared. Plus she has jars with Kabbalistic sigils on her shelf. Not something a hodge podge hedgewitch would have sitting around.

In the story, "A Beautiful Thing," the Golem has to follow strict rituals as does the John Dee Wanna-Be wizard that it has to fight against.

I prefer the more hodge podge sort of magic that my girls in Crown of Feathers deal out but that’s probably more due to my ADHD than anything else. I don’t have the attention span for ritual.

Danielle Procter Piper: My Medieval fantasy is watching "magic" struggle to thrive in a world where religion and reason fight to suppress both the average person from obtaining what they need on their own and to drive away magical beings and creatures that prove there's another way of getting what you desire that does not rely on obeisance to others. In order to control the masses, you must strip them of their ability to get what they need on their own and convince them that what you say and do is the only way to accomplish things. You introduce government, capitalism, and religion to provide for yourself and those you deem worthy on the backs of innocent others you break with rules that only work so long as you keep throwing them crumbs. The self-empowered person is considered radical and potentially dangerous for what if he or she showed people there's another way? You lose everything you worked so hard to build by letting the commoners know they had the ability to provide for themselves all along—they just needed the knowledge you've worked so hard to convince them was unsafe poppycock.

Sean Taylor: I avoid doctrine in my work as much as possible. I love the idea of loosey-goosey belief systems because, honestly, that's what even most of our entrenched religions were before they were voted on and codified and made safe at the state level (Constantine). And it's so much fun to play in that area where "good Christian people" will argue about a dead squirrel ward in a house for protection or a suburban family will continue to wait up on the night of a new birth in the family for the spirit of an ancestor to show up for a blessing (that's another currently in progress). It's also fun to see ardent atheists encounter something supernatural that sends their world into a spin even if it doesn't trigger any kind of faith. Just the tailspin of supernatural stuff is enough for a good story, especially if it comes from a place intrinsic to their family's past that they thought they were so far beyond having to deal with as modern people in a real, scientific world. 

Jessica Nettles: Deborah would agree with Dee. Magic is practice. It's everyday living for her. It's in her music when she plays her cimbalom between shows, or when she sings as she makes tea. She sees it in the way Thomas, her husband, smiles and his eyes light up when she teases him about the way he likes too much sugar in his tea. It's the way she and her son Seth connect over his dreams. Sometimes it just the way a meal comes together at the end of a very long day. Magic has to be practical in nature and connect to something that applies to life. Doctrine doesn't do that. Those are just rules. Practical magic is a daily, living thing.

What are stories, novels, short stories, or graphic novels, that best highlight the ideas of folkloric influence that you would recommend to others who want to learn how to include such themes in their work?

Danielle Procter Piper: Fairy tales, the ones most of us heard as children, are the best springboard for jumping into folklore as many of these stories are centuries old...but please don't write another variation on any of them. I've read dozens and dozens of variations of Snow White and Cinderella and the lot and most are drivel with very few introducing anything new. It's much cooler if you forge your own fantasy world.

Nikki Nelson-Hicks: Check out the Witches and Wizards in the Discworld series. My favorites are: Lords and Ladies, Witches Abroad, and Carpe Jugulum. For Wizards: Interesting Times and The Colour of Magic.

Graphic Novels: Hellblazer and Promethea or anything done by Alan Moore. He’s a maniac and an actual wizard. Very interesting ideas on magic.

Jessica Nettles: Start with the basics: Read your mythos. Which ones? All of them? As many as you can learn about. I started reading Greek mythology when I was very young (I look back and realize that it was probably too young). Then I learned about other mythos and read them too. Why do that? Because this gives a better understanding about what people believe and why some magic works certain ways. Read good books with strong magic systems, like Wheel of Time (okay, I'm not a huge fan, but the magic system is pretty consistent), Jonathan Strange and Mr. Morrell, the Sandman (yes, Gaiman has issues, but his magic systems are spectacular and his writing is worth studying), read Dr. Strange and some of the other Marvel titles that deal with cosmic magic (once again, somethings are problematic, but also there are a lot of really cool things that happen in this magic system that are worth studying, plus they play around a lot with mythos and their takes on folklore). Also read things from people who don't look like you. It's really easy to fall into reading information filtered through those who are part of your culture. When you do that, you miss all the nuances of the culture you are learning about. It's one thing to learn about Anasi from a very Western point of view than it is to learn about Anasi from the African or even West Indies point of view. Same with magic. If you are going to learn about magic of certain cultures--talk to the folk who practice it or find books by the folk who practice it. I recommend reading folks like Nicole Givens Kurtz, Milton Davis, Geneve Flynn, L. Marie Wood. You will get schooled.

Sean Taylor: I think there have been some amazing comic books and graphic novels exploring folkloric themes. The Writer from Dark Horse looks into Jewish folklore and mysteries. Harrow County is hands-down my favorite take on mountain haints and spellcraft. Obviously lots are drawn from folklore in The Sandman, even if Gaiman himself is a bit tarnished. Image Comic's I Hate This Place begins as a sort of homage to folk horror before sliding off into Lovecraftian themes. 

As for books, no one does this better than Angela Carter in The Bloody Chamber or Shirley Jackson in "The Lottery." 

Kay Iscah: Definitely Brothers Grimm Folklore and Fairytale collection for my work as I borrow elements of the folklore style, particularly in The Girl With No Name. But I think it’s good to read broadly. I lost my African folklore collection in a housefire, so can’t give you the title, but it’s a big influence on one of my works in progress. I make a reference to Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, which is a retelling of Nandi folklore. In Seventh Night there’s also a nod to Legend of Zelda.

A lot of folklore is retelling of older myths with a local flavor thrown in, which may be hard to recognize if you don't know the older myths. Reading The Mabinogion before rereading Brothers Grimm helped me start connecting several of the Grimm stories to older myths, Celtic, Greek, and Bible stories. I think the more you dig into mythology, the more you see the patterns as stories are told and retold.

Poetry Corner: When We Had No Flag

by Sean Taylor

When we had no flag 

There were only white sheets, hanging on clotheslines 

Flapping on windy days, 

Waving greetings like so many neighbors on so many dusty paths

White not for surrender 

But for sleeping, for rest because white was easy 

Easy to bleach our odors away, 

Dirt and sweat from one person's work, one man's labor, one woman's toil

One day we  painted bars deep red

Crimson with the blood of the people who lived here first 

But there wasn't enough

So we added more from the backs of the people we owned

And so we painted what was left blue

Blue with the bruises of our slaves and red with their stripes 

Even if we had to wrench the paint out of the whips after use, 

Twisting leather until our fingers too were as calloused as theirs

We found some white remained

But it was not for sleeping, not anymore; it was for the Virgin Innocent

Our children who would inherit a world 

Built on the paint dripped from the wounds of those we had  conquered

Perhaps it's time again

Wash day for the flag, with fresh bleach to clean away the red and blue

To allow the colors to surrender and fade

And once more flap greetings in the wind

Perhaps you, or me, 

or that woman over there, the one in all the colors of the rainbow

Or that vermin, that enemy, that animal,

Could be the bleach to get the job started

To speak the change we all should hear

Whistling in the wind

That blew when we had no flag

(c) 2024

Visit my poetry.com site.

Nikki Nelson-Hicks: Opening a Vein of Anger

In second-grade, Nikki was tagged as being gifted when she attempted to check out a book on bats and it was discovered she read at a fourth-grade level. The truth of the matter was that she believed bats could turn into people.

When Nikki was in sixth grade, she wrote and performed a play, The Hunt for Bigfoot, and later created the Monster Hunter’s Club which entered a cryptozoology exhibit, the first of its kind, in the annual school fair.

It won an honorable mention.

After that, things started to get weird. 

Meet Nikki Nelson-Hicks.

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

Since 2022, I have been working on a collection of short stories that circle around the theme of revenge titled, Politics of Children and Other Stories of Revenge. These stories range from the black and white vision of children in Politics of Children, to justice being meted out by the desperate in Brother Marvel’s Old Time Revival, to how the vengeance of a protector can last eons in A Beautiful Thing to a modern retelling of Poe’s Cask of Amontillado in Black Cherry. There’s also a quick bit of body horror in Sweet Revenge that I threw in there for fun. If the editing process continues for as long as I fear it will, I might also add the story, What the Cat Dragged In, that was published in 2023 by St. Rooster in the horror comedy anthology, Razor Blade in Fun Size Candy.

Hopefully this will come out sometime in 2024.  Sometimes, persistence is more valuable than talent in this game. 

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?

Years ago, a writing teacher told me during a review that everything I write has a vein of anger in it. “If you wrote about kittens, they’d be angry kittens. What’s up with that?”

So, yeah. There’s a lot of anger in my work. Also, loneliness, isolation and injustice.

Just like the real world which, let’s face it, is a shitshow.

SO, as the Creator of my own little worlds, I like to dispense justice as I see fit. Call me an Agent of Nemesis. In my stories, the bad get gutted and the good get what they deserve.

Oh, and monsters because they are fun. 

What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer? 

My therapist told me that most people who survived a childhood like mine ended up either as an alcoholic, a drug addict, or a prostitute.

I took another path. I became a reader. 

I read as a form of self-defense. I shielded myself in fantasy and story to survive. 

That’s why I write stories. To give people that sort of shelter and diversion to help them cope.  I write stories to give people distractions for when they need one, say, at the doctor’s office, riding the bus or on the toilet. It’s a lofty goal.

What inspires you to write? 

I’m not sure how to answer this. 

If you mean, “What inspires you to sit down, tap on the keyboard and write stories?” I guess it would be the simple answer of  “To maintain my sanity.” When I don’t write or pour myself into something creative, I tend to go dark and that isn’t good for anyone.

If you mean, “What inspires my stories?” Well, that is hard to answer cohesively. Many of my stories that are out there so far were created because I was challenged by a publisher to do them. 

“Give me a story about a fairytale creature versus a historical Wild West person.” The Problem at Gruff Springs 

“Take two cryptids and make them fight.” Rumble 

“Write me a pulp detective story that involves chickens.” A Chick, A Dick and a Witch Walk Into a Barn (The first of the Jake Istenhegy stories)

OR

I’ll read something and have a question: “Why do all the women in Poe’s life die?” The Perverse Muse

OR

A few years ago, my son popped his head in my office and asked, “Hey….if rats ate a golem, would they become the golem? Like a flesh golem made of rats?” Well, HELL! That story rolled around in my brain and I’ve been working on it ever since. It’s the core root of my story, A Beautiful Thing, that will be in the Politics of Children and Other Stories of Revenge. 

In the end, I must blame this compulsion on either poor mental health or just a stubborn competitive edge. 

What would be your dream project?

I don’t really have a dream project. I start every story as if it were my Breakout Work. So far, it’s not happened but, who knows….maybe the next one will be it. And if it’s not. Oh well. Keep on trucking. 

But, if we’re going to dream, let’s dream big.

My favorite daydream is where, out of the blue, I get a phone call from Mike Flanagan. 

“Hey, Nikki, this is Mike Flanagan. My brother, Jeremy, met you last year at Authorcon and was so impressed by you at the panel you two did together (editor’s note: this part is true. Jeremy Flanagan and I were on a panel together and I made him laugh. Twice. It was the highlight of the weekend for me.) that he bought all your books and, well, I read them and, damn, girl! You are good! Want to team up and make some movies from your books?”

We’d make movies that would be blockbusters and we’d become BFFs.

The end.

If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do?

It’s the Creator’s Dilemma, isn’t it? You look back on past work and see nothing but faults and how you’d do it better now because you’ve grown and changed since the time you created that story.

When I got all the rights back to my Jake Istenhegyi stories, I spent a year rewriting and recrafting that world. Trying to make it better and more polished. 

I suppose the same could be done for all my stories but…that’s okay. I like them to stay the way they are. They show my growth as a writer. 

They are all my babies, lumpy and imperfect as they are, and I love them.

What writers have influenced your style and technique?

Terry Pratchett, Flannery O’Connor, Stephen King, Rod Serling, Sharyn McCrumb, E.A. Poe, Octavia Butler, Josephine Tey (The Daughter of Time…excellent), Neil Gaiman, et al. 

Where would you rank writing on the "Is it an art or it is a science continuum?" Why?

Writing is a form of magic. Almost necromancy, in a way. I can talk to dead people, hear their voices in my head when I read their work. So, it’s a dab of art and a dash of science.

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process? 

Getting out of my goddamn way.

Did you know, neuroscience has found the Sweet Spot of Creativity? And, yes, it includes alcohol. 

They found that a BAC 0.075 was the magic number when it came to creativity. Why? It was *just enough* to lower inhibitions, shut off your temporal cortex enough so it quieted the inner editor but left you still cognizant enough to actually create something worthwhile. 

AMAZING! 

How do your writer friends help you become a better writer? Or do they not? 

Healthy competition is a wonderful thing. However, more than not, my writer buds have talked me off the ledge more times than I can count. Writers need a special kind of tribe that keep them encouraged and strong enough to put up with the shit we get from publishers, critics and general trolls. 

Plus, it’s good to be with people that understand the struggle. They get how hard it is to create a world from nothing. 

What does literary success look like to you? 

When I was a kid, the idea of getting published was the cherry on top of everything. HAHAHA! Sweet summer child.

Now, as a grizzled old fart, I’d really like a royalty statement that has more in the front of the decimal than the back. 

Sure, I crave external validation, awards and opportunities but, but, in the end, it comes down to writing a story that you believe in, and you know, in your heart of hearts, is a *good* story.  

Although having someone give me the thumbs up is nice too. 

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?  

No, Politics of Children and Other Stories of Revenge is taking up a lot of 2024. I really want this collection to be good. Maybe even Stoker quality good. Aim high!

I’m not doing too much in the con circuit this year but I will be at Authorcon in Williamsburg, VA from April 11-14. 

OH! I am the Co-Chairperson for the Horror Writers Association, Tennessee Chapter and if anyone in the Tennessee would like to become a member, reach out! We are a new branch with 20 people strong and would love to add more members. 

For more information, visit: 

• My website www.nnhbooks.com
• Sign up to my newsletter, I Don’t Want To Be Here at Substack for FREE! I give away swag every so often and I promise to try not to be boring -- https://nikkinelsonhicks.substack.com/
• Contact me at my email: nikkinelsonhicks@gmail.com

Nikki's Altars:

Hecate

Bridgid

Maeve

Motivational Monday: Art Goes To Work

Read Banned Books from the Brooklyn Public Library

For context: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/oklahoma-revokes-license-of-teacher-who-gave-class-qr-code-to-brooklyn-library-in-book-ban-protest/

[Link] Centring Marginalized Voices and Decolonizing My Bookshelf

by Heather Plett 

At the beginning of 2016, I made a commitment to read only books by authors who weren’t from the dominant culture. My intent was to broaden my education and stretch myself by staying away from books written by white able-bodied cisgender heterosexuals. Books have always helped me make sense of the world, and I knew that if I wanted to catch glimpses of the world through lenses that were different from mine, books would help me get there. Though my bookshelves reflect some diversity, I knew there was much more I could do.

It was harder than I expected. It’s not that there aren’t plenty of books by other voices – there are, but I had to dig harder to find them. It became clear, early on, that few publishers and booksellers are willing to bank on books by marginalized voices. They don’t invest in them as often and don’t put them front and centre in the bookstores. Walk through almost any bookstore (or at least those that I’m most familiar with, in North America), or browse through Amazon, and you’ll see fairly quickly what types of books get the most space and attention. Those voices that feel most “safe” for the average bookstore shopper will sell the most books, and I think it’s fairly safe to say that the “average bookstore shopper” is expected to be a white person with privilege.

That was one of my first realizations in this year-long quest… It is far more challenging to find a publisher and make a living from your writing if you do not fit the dominant paradigm. Other voices have to work twice as hard just to get a spot on the bookshelf. Like any other space ruled by capitalism, the bookstore centres those with privilege.

It was easiest to find books by marginalized voices in the fiction section, so I started there. Friends gave me lots of recommendations and my nightstand quickly filled with borrowed books. I started with Indigenous authors (in Canada, those are the voices that are often the most marginalized) and moved on to people of colour from the U.S., Africa, and Southeast Asia. Many of those books were gritty and challenging, and some of them brought up my white guilt. There were moments when I questioned why I was putting myself through this. Reading was starting to feel more like a chore and less like a pleasure. 

Though I enjoy fiction, I don’t read nearly as much of it as I used to, and soon found myself searching for the kinds of books I lean toward – memoirs, books about the human condition, cultural exploration, leadership books, and other non-fiction. These became increasingly more difficult to find. Memoirs were fairly plentiful, once I started digging deeper than the typical bookstore shelves (and I found some great ones by writers who gave me a new perspective on what it means to be gender non-binary, what it’s like to be raised by a residential school survivor, etc.), but hardest to find were the non-fiction books I tend to read that are relevant for my work.

I’m not sure how to define the books I most love to read, because they don’t tend to fit bookstore categorization. I read a lot of “ideas and culture” books – on leadership, spirituality, feminism, trauma, engagement, facilitation, personal development, etc. When I turned my attention to these books, my quest became the most challenging. Very few of these books are written by people who aren’t from the dominant culture.

And this was my second major realization in this quest… While we may be willing to read fiction, and sometimes memoirs by people who don’t look like us, we very rarely will accept as experts anyone who doesn’t fit the dominant paradigm.

Read the full article: https://heatherplett.com/2017/03/centring-marginalized-voices-decolonizing-bookshelf/