Last Wednesday, I was fortunate enough to spend an hour and a half talking to the good folks over at the Book Cave podcast. Foremost in the discussion was Planet Stories and Before They Were Giants, the new Planet Stories anthology collecting the first stories of famous science fiction and fantasy authors alongside new interviews and writing advice from the authors themselves. But as it turns out, I can do a lot of rambling in an hour and a half! If you ever wanted to listen to me sound off about writing, the significance of classic science fiction, the new Michael Moorcock/Joe R. Lansdale super-team double feature, or weird anecdotes involving famous authors, this is a prime forum. (As for any babbling on my part—I'm going to blame the flu shot Sean and Cosmo convinced me to get ten minutes beforehand...)
They say you always hurt the ones you love, and now that Before They Were Giants is shipping from the warehouse to subscribers and bookstores everywhere, I've looked back over the last few months of the blog and realized that I've only blogged about it once. Which is astonishing when you consider that this might just be the coolest product I've ever worked on in my life.
Illustration by Kieran Yanner
Allow me to elaborate: With Planet Stories, we've published a lot of science fiction and fantasy that we felt was both fun and significant to the history of the genre. Which is why, about two years ago, I went to Erik with a proposal: what if we got together 15 of the coolest, most important SF authors alive—with an admitted bias toward the folks at the top of my own bookshelf—and convinced them to let us publish their first-ever SF short stories. In addition, we'd get new interviews from all the authors in which they would critique their own work, explaining what they know now that they wish they'd known then about writing, and giving advice for aspiring authors. It would be both an insightful look at the origins of my favorite authors (appealing to the fanboy in me) and a treasure trove of invaluable authorial advice (for which I remain a total sucker). Without question, it would be a lot of fun to put together. The real question was whether or not it was possible.
As it turns out, it was possible. Within a few weeks of beginning my quest, the anthology had expanded into an absolute powerhouse roster. While we already had good relationships with a few folks—preexisting friends of Paizo like China Miéville, Ben Bova, Nicola Griffith, and Piers Anthony—I was amazed to find just how generous and enthusiastic many of my favorite authors are. Cory Doctorow? Larry Niven? Mr. William "Invented-Internet-Culture" Gibson? Just seeing their names in my inbox was a childhood dream come true.
And now here's the result: an anthology full of advice and encouragement for writers, as well as rare early stories from your favorite authors—many that you may never have seen before, as they've lain fallow in out-of-print magazines. (For instance, when I first asked China to join the anthology, he sent me back not "Looking For Jake," which I had expected, but a bizarre post-apocalyptic short story that had been published when he was still just a kid, and which as far as my Internet research was concerned did not exist. That's the sort of discovery that can really make an editor's day.)
But I've rambled long enough. Below is the full table of contents, and I couldn't be prouder of it. If you decide to pick up a copy, be sure to head on over to the product discussion and post about it—I can't wait to hear which stories (and interviews!) are people's favorites!
Look what advance copies happened to arrive in the office today, just when our indolent Fiction Editor, James Sutter, decided to fly the coop and go on vacation!
After almost two years of work, Before They Were Giants is finally away to the printer, and I couldn’t be more excited about it!
Illustration by Kieran Yanner
If I haven’t already filled your ear about it on the messageboards, the story behind the book is as follows. Back in the early days of Planet Stories, I came to Erik with a proposal for an anthology: What if we could get 15 of the biggest living superstars in science fiction and fantasy to give us their first published SF stories, along with interviews in which they critiqued their own stories, discussed things they know now about writing that they wish they had known then, told anecdotes surrounding the stories’ publication, and offered general advice to aspiring authors? Erik took the bait, and so began the long march toward the collection that would eventually be known as Before They Were Giants.
By far the most astonishing thing about working on this book was discovering how open, friendly, and approachable many of my favorite speculative fiction authors are. When the dust settled and I looked around, I was positively flabbergasted by the caliber of authors who were willing to sign onto the project, from Ben Bova and Cory Doctorow to China Miéville, Nicola Griffith, and William Gibson. And while I confess that the final author list directly reflects my own literary tastes, every author in the book is a master of the genre in one way or another, and reading through their interviews and advice—not to mention their maiden efforts, which run the gamut from humorous magical realist vignettes to post-apocalyptic satellite repair—is precisely the sort of thing that I always find fun, educational... and most importantly, inspiring.
As we get closer to actually shipping the book to subscribers and bookstores, I’ll probably be posting more about the project, including select excerpts from stories and author interviews. But for now, I just wanted to crow a little bit about what is, for me personally, the most exciting Planet Stories book to date. (Well, that and to show off the absolutely phenomenal cover by Kieran Yanner!)
Working at Paizo is awesome—there can be no question about that. Most days—those days when I'm in my happy-hippie, all-is-right-with-the-world mood—I show up to work and think, "Wow, we're all so lucky to be editing RPGs all day! How did we ever get so lucky?" That's most days.
And some days, we *&#@ing earn it.
Last Saturday was one of those days. Every year around this time, we start to reach the mission critical phase on our Gen Con products, and it's all hands on deck trying to get them out the door in time for the do-or-die ship date which will allow them to be at Gen Con. This year is no exception, and while most of the big products (such as Dave Gross's Prince of Wolves—more on that soon!) have already been put to bed, the Advanced Player's Guide is still in the last, messy phases of its birth. Thus it was that Saturday found me, Rob McCreary, Judy Bauer, Sarah Robinson, Wes Schneider, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona in here for more than 11 hours on Saturday to try and get things handled. (It should be noted that Chris Carey was in his Fortress of Editorial Solitude, having been saddled with the final proofing of Before They Were Giants, and Sean was busy moving. I'm pretty sure Jason was in a coma somewhere.)
Even with most of the Editorial Pit on hand, weekend workdays still feel different than normal ones. Everything's a little looser, and what professionalism we cultivate tends to get abandoned (though I did not, as originally planned, wear my jammie pants).
All of this is necessary to explain the photographs, I promise.
You see, when we moved into our new office last September, it was immediately noted that the otherwise normal-looking office building is bordered on two sides by a big field of brambles (reportedly haunted by vagabonds and feral corgis) and a big grassy ridge. At several points since the move, Wes and I have looked up at the ridge and wondered what mysteries might lie, Narnia-like, just over its crest.
Around 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, having just finished editing chunks of the classes chapter of the APG until my eyes were ready to bleed, I decided I needed something stronger than caffeine to keep me going, and stormed into Wes's office.
"Wes," I said, in my most inspiring voice, "It is time. We're going over the mountain."
Wes looked at me for a moment.
"Yeah, okay," he said.
Thus it was that everyone save Erik and Sarah (who had left for the evening) and Jacobs (who's too old and wise for such things) trooped outside on our Voyage of Discovery. Leaping over the drainage ditch, we scrabbled up the steep, grassy rise and came out into a magical wonderland!
Photography by Rob McCreary
Well, okay, maybe it was a gravel pit. But the point was, we had gone over the mountain! And for what it's worth, the gravel pit was pretty cool. Wes and I spent a few minutes running up the mountain of rubble to get a view of the surrounding countryside, then noticed the idling dump trucks and realized it was an active gravel pit—one which might not appreciate a bunch of trespassing nerds—and beat a hasty retreat to recommence editing.
And there you have it—the wild excitement of a Saturday at the Paizo offices!
(EDITORIAL NOTE: Sutter and Wes would like any authority figures to know that the preceding anecdote is entirely fictional; that they in no way condone trespassing, accidental or otherwise; and that they're both too pretty for jail.)
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