Jeff, I have your biography in front of me and it looks as though you've been busy both as a writer and a publisher. Some of our readers may already be familiar with your work; but for the benefit of those who aren't why don't you begin by telling us about The Ministry of Whimsy, what it is, and how it came about?

The Ministry of Whimsy is a literary organization I founded in 1984. The name was chosen as a take-off on the novel 1984 with the intent of publishing work that was not in fact "whimsical" - read "frivolous" - but serious and thoughtful. There's also a sense of play in what we publish, of course, and the name serves as a double meaning for those who remember the novel 1984 and those who do not. I started Ministry of Whimsy because I wanted to get into publishing, but I didn't want to be restricted to doing one thing. Under the Ministry of Whimsy umbrella, I've published two magazines, Chimera Connections (which published a couple of National Book Award winners) and Jabberwocky (which published early Kathe Koja, Wayne Allen Sallee, and others), and now, with Mule Press in Canada, Leviathan, which is clearly superior in every way to anything I've ever done before. Ministry has also published chapbooks, newsletters, and sponsored readings, workshops, and presentations both here in Tallahassee and in Gainesville, Florida. Some of the readings/presentations have been by such heavy-hitters as the late Judson Jerome and the NYT nonfiction bestselling team of David and Barbara Neel. [Shauna--this seems to go on too long--please feel free to cut this one especially down to size]

As an editor, what do you look for in your submissions. Of course, all editors want a "good story" but what are some specific things that you like? In your opinion, what constitutes a "good story?"

This is the most difficult question you can ask me, because so much of what I do as an editor is predicated on what I don't like. In other words, my first responsibility to the "slush pile" is to find those things I dislike or which I know are not right for the particular project I'm working on. Then I'm left with a small number of interesting manuscripts, all of which may be completely different. So any answer I give you will be by definition limiting, especially since I believe that my own strength as an editor is my ability to appreciate many different styles and schools of writing. That said--and I know I'm taking the long way around to answering your question--I generally look first for style and voice: is the writing interesting. If the writing itself on a line-by-line level is generic, then I'm not interested. And I don't mean that the writing must be flowery or gaudy--it can be stark and muscular--but it must in some way show that the writer has individuality. Next, does the story support the style; in other words, has the story substance, or is it simply pyrotechnics with no point. Depending on the type of story, this can mean do the characters engage my interest?, or it can mean any number of other things. Finally, does the story have that element of transcendence, of spirituality, that quality of otherness which hints at inspiration. (By spirituality I do not mean religion.) Of course, these elements change when you are discussing a humorous story, and I do not mean to suggest that these elements cannot reside equally in a mainstream literary story, a mystery story, or a genre story. But the absolute bedrock, the foundation, is the way a writer treats the English language and how that writer makes the language his or her own.

All right Jeff, what is it you dislike in a story and/or submissions? Do you have any pet peeves that our readers can take note of?

This is the easy question. Any genre conventions--vampires, werewolves, zombies, serial killers, fairies, elves, etc.--just bore me to death. These are pet peeves--and will lead to immediate rejection. "Immediate rejection" is when I read only one or two pages and put in a form rejection--this occurs when there are more than two grammatical errors on a page; it also occurs whenever one of the pet peeves listed above are combined with an awkward style or a hackneyed plot. I would estimate that 50 percent of the form rejections I give are due to grammatical errors (if the writer can't use language properly, there's no point in reading the whole manuscript) and another 45 percent are from hackneyed situations or sending inappropriate submissions (such as vampire, werewolf, etc. stories). The other 5 percent are divided into stories that are bad for some other reason, and stories that simply don't fit the particular project I'm working on. When I edit a project like Leviathan, I have a particular vision in my head of the final "shape" of the book, and especially when you've accepted three or four stories toward that "shape" or "architecture" it's easy to tell which good stories you're considering will fit and which will not. A certain consistency was particularly important for Leviathan where we mix mainstream and fantasy fiction. I wanted readers to be able to read all the way through without a loss of continuity--in other words, the reader should believe that all of the stories could take place within the same "world," and I mean "world" in a very general sense.

You've been published in Asimov's SF Magazine, Worlds of Fantasy and Horror, and other professional markets. What advice would you give an aspiring writer who is trying to break into the market and finding it difficult?

My sales to Asimov's especially have been unusual to say the least. I've sold the editor material which only has a hint of fantasy, or none at all. The editor, Gardner Dozois, will sometimes take material that is not clearly sf or fantasy, but in fact material that is teetering between genre and mainstream. This is pretty symptomatic of all my sales--I sell stuff too weird for mainstream and too mainstream for weird to those magazines willing to take a chance, sometimes literary markets, sometimes genre markets. I sold a mainstream relationship story to the anthology Dark Terrors in the U.K., for example! My main advice would concern tenacity. I sent around 15 submissions to Asimov's before they took one. If you really believe in your writing, keep banging your head against the brick wall until the wall breaks or your head does.

I know there are some poets reading this, but I'm mainly asking this one for personal reasons. :) Tell us about how you won the Rhysling Award for poetry? And do you have any tips for the poets reading this?

I used to write lots of poetry--it's how I started--but I found I like narrative, telling a story, more than capturing an emotion or a moment in time, which I feel is the job of the best poetry. However, I was stuck on a short story called "Flight Is For Those Who Have Not Yet Crossed Over" which is from the POV of a guard in a South American prison for political prisoners. So to unstick myself, I wrote a poem of the same name about one of the prisoners, whose dreams are so powerful (he was an artist on the outside) that he literally wills himself to fly while dreaming, but still cannot escape the prison because he can't fly through the bars. The Silver Web published it--it is the ONLY poem I've written in the last four years--and Marge Simon, bless her heart, nominated it for a Rhysling and it wound up winning (tying actually with a poem by Bruce Boston) and will be in the latest Nebula Awards anthology. As for advice for poets, I'm uniquely unqualified to give advice in this department--I consider myself a failed poet. However, I would say that anyone thinking of confining themselves to writing sf/fantasy/horror poetry should think again--and should read mainstream poets, not poets known for their genre work exclusively. Most of them stink in comparison.

Tell us about the novel that will be coming out soon. What's it called? What's it about? And how we can get a copy?

Dradin, In Love is about so many things--I threw in everything but the kitchen sink, frankly--that all I can do is quote from the ad copy: "In a city that has never existed, in a world that never was, the missionary Dradin pursues his love, and in his pursuit embarks upon a journey that will forever change him. A baroque, unforgettable work of memory and imagination." I will add only that it's fun, bawdy, colorful stuff, and to quote from the blurbs in the ad again (shamelessly, I know): "A remarkable novel of the obscure objectification of desire" - David Griffin, Carnage Hall; and "A true masterwork of imagination, skill, and creativity" - Mike Olson, fiction editor, Year's Best Fantastic Fiction. You can get it from Buzzcity Press, a cool independent publisher, for $11.50 postpaid, at POB 38190, Tallahassee, FL 32315 (same publisher that does The Silver Web). It's a really great-looking limited edition with just incredible pseudo-Victorian collages by Michael Shores. Perfect bound, colored endpapers--the works. I'm very happy with the presentation.

Do you find it easier or more difficult to write a novel rather than short fiction?

It's really more a question of how the short story or novel is created. Dradin, In Love (admittedly a rather short novel) came into my head one night all of a piece--I knew almost every detail and I just got up, wrote the first five pages and then in a torrent of words got the rest down over the next week--about 35,000 words. The novel I'm working on now, Mapping the Beast, is longer, admittedly, but the main reason it is harder work is because I started out not knowing the ending. So it's been a long, hard road via perspiration to get where inspiration had gotten me on Dradin so much more quickly. And, in this case, it is frustrating not to have a completed rough draft in a few weeks. You feel as if you are stuck out in limbo land and are unsure you'll make it to the other side and safety. But some short stories have taken literally years to write between the first idea or image and the final draft.

Who are some of your favourite authors (be they established or up-n-coming)?

Angela Carter, Angela Carter, and Angela Carter, first of all. Her novels The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman and Nights at the Circus are magnificent, as is most of her other work. Others I particularly enjoy are Mervyn Peake, Edward Whittemore, Vladimir Nabokov (his Collected Stories is not just great fiction, but a great fiction workshop--arranged chronologically, they are a story of stops and starts, learning new technique and using it awkwardly at first, using plots that were clunky and then later seamless; any writer can learn a great deal from this book), M. J. Harrison (unjustly under-rated), Alasdair Gray (especially Lanark and Poor Things), Mark Helprin (A Soldier of the Great War is one of the best books I have ever, ever read), A.S. Byatt, and the list goes on. Most of my favorites are individuals--they belong to no school of writing, they appear out of nowhere, and their works are eccentric masterpieces. Oh yes--and we can't forget Bulgakov and his marvelous Master and Margarita. As for contemporary writers (or up-and-coming), I'd have to say first and foremost there's Stepan Chapman. He has a novel, The Troika, which no one will publish, that is one of the great fantasy works of the decade. Absolutely magnificent. And his short humor/satire pieces are unique. A master stylist. Also good is a writer named Nathan Ballingrud. He's had one story in F&SF and one in The Silver Web, but spends most of his time just writing down in New Orleans in a tiny apartment, his days spent as a bartender. He's 23, I believe, and his work is fantastic. Mark the name, because I can tell you right now that he will write some of the great works of the early 21st century.

What do think (hope) the future holds for the Ministry of Whimsy? How about yourself?

The Ministry will start publishing a line of No Frills Chapbooks in August which will highlight new and established writers in an inexpensive format. The first one scheduled is of Stepan Chapman's work--see, I put my money where my mouth is!--and is called Danger Music. We also intend to collaborate on the second volume of Leviathan with Mule Press. The theme will be simply novellas, and we'll look at any work over 10,000 words. However, we aren't reading yet--we will probably begin reading in January of 1997. As for myself, I have a short story collection coming out from Dark Regions Press in August called The Book of Lost Places and I'm currently finishing a long novella called "Quin's Shanghai Circus" which has been a very pleasant experience. I also have short stories forthcoming in The Silver Web, Dreams From the Stranger's Cafe, BBR (both in the UK), and many others. I also have a nonfiction column in Fantastic Worlds. And I'm going to London for two weeks this summer--first time out of the country in seven years!

Is there anything you'd like to talk about that I neglected to ask? If so, the floor is all yours.

Oh--I run a critique service which is rather unique. I don't take repeat clientele. I expect that one critique of a short story or novel will teach the writer enough that he or she doesn't need to come back. Anyone interested should write to me care of Leviathan. My rates are reasonable because I love editing.

For those writers looking for good writing books, I cannot recommend highly enough Revising Fiction by Madden. No other book can match it.

Jeff VanderMeer
LEVIATHAN
Vol. No. 1
Into the Gray

"This is one of the best collections of quality fiction at any level that I've seen in years. Not since the early volumes of Damon Knight's Orbit series has such a consistently well-written set of stories appeared under one cover." - James Murray, Tangent.

Ten journeys into the unknown by superlative storytellers from the mainstream and genre ranks. Stories of adventure, relationships, psychological suspense, the metafictional, and the metaphysical, by such writers as Mark Rich, Stepan Chapman, Ursula Pflug, and Doug Rennie. For the eclectic reader who craves the new, the strange, the different. Unlike any anthology currently published in its coherent mix of writing styles and subject matter. Cover by World Fantasy Award winner Alan M. Clark.

160-page trade paperback, only $8.50 postpaid ($9.50 foreign) from: Leviathan, POB 4248, Tallahassee, FL 32315

Copyright © 1996 by Shauna Skye. All Rights Reserved.