They've posted a bunch of photos taken at my workplace on Facebook. We're all working hard to get Guild Wars 2 ready to hit the shelves!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150940960479209.428428.114036714208&type=3

1. How do we pay writers more?


2. How can we do an anthology that shines a spotlight on women horror writers without leaving men writers behind?

These were the two big questions we asked ourselves when we were planning our anthology.

Oh, by the way, we're doing an anthology of short horror stories. It's called Deep Cuts, and we're having a blast with it. (See very unprofessional mock-up of the cover, at right; amazing art by German artist Anja Millen). We've put out the call for submissions (see link below), and we've kicked off our Kickstarter (link also below).

This whole Kickstarter thing is seductive. The more I pledge to projects, the more hooked I become.

Kickstarter is the answer to Question #1 above. If our Kickstarter is successful, we will increase how much we pay the writers we select for the anthology. Writers are notoriously underpaid, especially short fiction writers. The anthology will fly even if the Kickstarter tanks. Ah, but if it doesn't, then we'll do the anthology in style and set a new trend!

True Anecdotal Evidence
20 years ago, when I first started writing professionally, a pro rate was US$0.05 per word. For a 5k-word short story, that is $250. If you estimate that it takes about 24 total hours to do right by a story and produce something good, then you're getting a little over $10/hour. That was in 1992, when maybe some of you weren't even out of high school yet. Back then, that wasn't too shabby.

Now, it's 2012, and the pro rate is STILL THE SAME! It's the rare short fiction market that can afford to pay more than that, and if they can, they don't, because pro rates "are good enough."

Writers need to get paid for the amazing creativity and time spent creating fiction that curls your hair and makes your heart beat faster! If you'd like to help make that happen (it only takes $5 to be a superstar!), then visit our Kickstarter page. If nothing else, go see the silly video I made. LOL. I'm a book editor, Jim, not a film editor.

The book will come out during Women in Horror Month, so we're asking all submitters to include a recommendation for a short horror story by a woman writer that knocked their socks off.

This is the answer to Question #2. Any gendered or non-gendered person can submit to the anthology and get in (if the story is good enough and fits). But, each and every one of them must recommend a short story by a woman horror writer that floored them. In this way, we're not only giving readers a book full of terrific horror, but we're giving them a map to find the awesome stories they may have missed along the path (the deep cuts of the horror world).

I'll stop talking now, but come check out what we're doing! I welcome any comments and suggestions. If you feel like spreading this project around your social networks, I'll be ever grateful, and if you find it in your heart to help out these poor starving writers (of which I am not one, btw -- the editors will not have a story in the book), then I know they and I will be ever so grateful!

• Our website and submission guidelines


• Submit a story!


• Check out our Kickstarter (and mock my video!)

Love!
Angel...

Hi, everybody!
I'm looking for a cool cover artist for a book I'm going to be putting out with a horror theme. Can you recommend someone who might do a piece that you'd like to have on a Tshirt or hanging on your wall?

:)

Thanks!
Angel...

I've been quiet for some time, primarily because about 7 months ago (God, has it really been that long?!), I took on the role of Webmaster for the Horror Writers Association and proceeded to dive headlong into it.

I don't regret it one bit. It's been fulfilling, and I've met some awesome people as a result.

However, the president of the HWA has informed me that the time has come when I need to delegate more of the menial tasks so I can focus on the broader picture. And, he's absolutely right.

I haven't written more than a thousand words of my fiction since I took on the job (for 7 whole months), and I'm jonesing so bad to write that I'm losing sleep. I lie there, thinking about how I wish I were writing, but knowing that if I don't get any sleep, I'll feel like crap the next day. I end up not sleeping anyway, and wake up feeling like crap.

So, I need to get the writing back in my life, and that means delegating.

Does anyone have any nuggets of wisdom about how to delegate? What works and what doesn't. How much I have to micro-manage and what risk management steps I need to take.

Delegating does not come naturally to me. I'm a take-it-all-on-myself kinda girl.

Woo hoo! An anthology containing one of my stories is on the final nominees list for a Sir Julius Vogel Award. These awards are given to works published in 2012 by New Zealand publishers and authors.

The publisher of Tales for Canterbury (Random Static) resides in New Zealand. It was edited by Cassie Hart and Anna Caro.

This is the benefit anthology put together as a fund-raiser to help those people affected by the terrible earthquakes in New Zealand last year. I contributed "Pipsqueak," one of my favorite little urban fantasy stories.

Other contributors to the anthology include: Neil Gaiman, Gwyneth Jones, Juliet Marillier, Helen Lowe, Jeff Vandermeer, Jay Lake, and many more!

Dan Rabarts took first place in the Wily Writers/SpecFicNZ short story contest. His science fiction short, entitled "Crucible," had to work very hard to beat its competition, but it did it!

Wily Writers podcast the story, using the rich voice talent of Scott McGough. Give this wonderful story a listen.

After millennia spent crossing the galaxy, spawning new worlds out of barren wastes, meteorologist Cyran considers himself no longer a man, but a god. But when his lover Kayla betrays their ship, the Crucible, Cyran must choose between love and immortality as the life he has known spirals into chaos. [28mins]

Debbie Cowens was the runner up, with her incredible noir fairy tale entitled "Upon a Star". Philip Pickard did a fantastic reading of it. Go listen!

In a city where Prince Charmings can’t be trusted and getting what your heart desires can be deadly, a string of murders leads PI Robin Goodfellow to the Blue Fairy night club. Noir meets Fae in a tale of lust, betrayal, corruption and broken dreams.

SpecFicNZ is a writers organization dedicated to speculative fiction writers in New Zealand.

Occasionally, I get people who ask me questions about my job, and I know others may also be interested. One bright young woman just sent me a bunch of questions, so I thought I’d share my answers here as well.

They're on my professional blog, here. Feel free to comment there or here, either place, if you'd like. :)

Don't forget to vote for me every day! It would mean so much!

Vote here! Search for "angelmcc".

Thank you!
Angel...

Angel's Adjectives: terrifying and twisty

A Bram Stoker Award winner, Greg Lamberson is making his mark as one of horror's new forces. This is his second novel and the first in the Jake Hellman series (of which the second book is also out). It introduces coke-snorting police detective Jake Helman, a man whose life goes from Not Too Bad at the beginning to Complete and Utter Shit by the end of the book. At every turn, Lamberson turns the thumb screws on his poor protagonist. It's like watching a horrid car wreck, in slow motion, with the volume on high and splatter effects turned up to the max.

The way Jake Helman's life falls apart is terrifying to watch. You get the impression early on that he doesn't always make the best decisions, and then--blammo!--he's knocked for a major loop. At first, it's hard to feel too sorry for him, because he's brought it all down on himself, but as the book progresses, and as Jake learns his lessons, he becomes more and more sympathetic. Unfortunately, his circumstances grow increasingly more precarious at the same time.

Lamberson did a great job of gradually building the tension in this book, using plot twists to keep ramping up the stakes. I said, "Holy shit!" several times as I was reading it, whenever something unexpectedly took a turn for the worse. By the end, as Jake made his bid to overcome odds that were way over his head, I was biting my nails. I won't tell you the ending, but I will say that Jake was not a "winner" in this struggle. He was, however, a survivor.

If you don't mind horror with lots of gory descriptions, heads exploding, and bodily fluids, then you'll enjoy this book. Part of the joy of reading it is to discover just how bad Jake's life can get. Believe me, it can and did get worse. I'm looking forward to reading Desperate Souls, the next in the Jake Helman Files. My morbid curiosity just won't let me look away.

Description from Amazon.com:

Jake Helman, an elite member of the New York Special Homicide Task Force, faces what every cop dreads—an elusive serial killer. While investigating a series of bloodletting sacrifice rituals executed by an ominous perpetrator known as the Cipher, Jake refuses to submit to a drug test and resigns from the police department. While battling a cocaine addiction, Jake starts a high-pressure position as the director of security at Tower International, a controversial genetic-engineering company. Beneath the polished exterior of the corporate identity and the CEO—who has a reputation as the frontiersman on the cutting edge of science—is a deranged mind. As Jake delves deeper into this frightening laboratory, he discovers much more than unethical practices performed in the name of human progress. Sequestered in rooms veiled in secrecy is the worst crime the world will ever see—the theft of the human soul. Horrifying and gruesome, this is a gripping, suspense-filled novel that offers intense arguments about science, ethics, and human life.