Lacuna

[Note: TL;DR version at the bottom of this post.]

It is considered bad form to speak ill of one's family in public, and as many who have known and worked with me over the past three years can attest, my feelings toward my e-zines are distinctly paternal. But over the past year—and in particular, the past six months—my struggles with Lacuna have clearly passed out of "adolescent growing pains" and into the territory of "irreconcilable differences."

I began editing Lacuna to remedy the criminal shortage of markets for short historical fiction; the market shortage remains, but it has become quite clear to me that I am not the one to remedy it. The patently pathetic submissions backlog (stories from as early as last December have yet to receive responses) and the barren Twitter account attest that I lack the time and energy, to say nothing of the interest, to edit historical fiction.

This is something I should have known from the beginning. I am a fantasy writer, a fantasy reader, and a fantasy editor. As my list of desiderata on the Lacuna guidelines page suggests, I love historical fiction best when it is flavored with fantasy, folklore, or frightening encounters. I have certainly received my share of moving, beautifully-written submissions that don't deal with speculative elements, and it has been my pleasure to publish them. But when I bring up my e-mail to read today's portion of slush, I inevitably find myself reaching for the magical, the unexpected, the enchanting submissions to Mirror Dance, rather than the more down-to-earth Lacuna.

More than that—as my "do not want" list suggests—I find that I have to steel myself before plunging into the uncomfortable mélange of clichés, stereotypes, and unfortunate implications that makes up a sizeable portion of Lacuna's slush pile. I don't mean to suggest that Mirror Dance is completely free of these, or that most Lacuna submissions contain them; but they are prevalent enough that I have begun to approach slush-reading with dread.  

That is the interest component. Now to time and energy. First, historical fiction—by, I suppose, it's very nature—tends to be long. Often too long, and many Lacuna submissions would benefit extremely from cutting 20-30%. But even the tightest, best-written 10,000 word story makes for time-consuming and eye-watering screen reading, as I have learned from considering two or three of them each week. Second, I am entering my final year of undergraduate studies this fall, with the all-important student teaching coming up in spring. It would be frankly dishonest for me to pretend that Lacuna's atrocious response times would not slip even further as my time is divided between work, studies, editing, my own writing career—and my future students, who will deserve and demand the greatest portion of my time and attention.

So…what to do about Lacuna?

I mentioned already the criminal shortage of markets for short historical fiction. While it is not my intention to continue a recreational editing endeavor that has lost most of its pleasure for me, I do not want to close Lacuna. Here, briefly, are my plans for the future of the magazine.

1. Lacuna will publish at least two (possibly three) more issues in its current format on http://lacunajournal.blogspot.com. Submissions for the October 2012 and April 2013 issues will close on August 1, 2012.

2. During the spring semester of 2013, my attention will be devoted to student teaching. Do not expect further announcements regarding the future of Lacuna from January until June of next year.

3.When Lacuna returns, it will be as a themed publication. Since the beginning, I've wanted to put out themed issues of Lacuna, but the bi-annual publishing schedule—not to mention the variety of submissions—has made that wish seem impractical. I have a few solid and many nebulous ideas for the themes, publishing schedule, and format of the new Lacuna; but since its inauguration is over a year in the future, I will publicize the complete details closer to the time when they will be useful to know. 

           3.5. One of the themes is Shakespeare. Another is Antiquarian Ghost Stories. 

                  Sorry, I can't keep a secret for the life of me. :-)

4. Mirror Dance has always been and will continue to be interested in submissions of historical fiction with fantastical, mythological or folkloric elements. Alternate history where the history is sufficiently "alternate" may also fit our needs; browse our archives and use your best discretion.

5. If you work with or are considering working with a historical fiction magazine that will be open after October 2013, please let me know so I can direct Lacuna's readers (and writers) to you. At this time, I am not looking for anyone to "take over" the operations of Lacuna, since the publication will continue with a similar flavor but different format.

6. If you are a writer with specific questions about how these changes will affect your publication or submission with Lacuna, I am happy to answer them. Please email markenberg at yahoo dot com with the subject "Lacuna Query."

I regret the disappointment and inconvenience these changes may cause. Thank you to the loyal readers, patient submitters, and talented writers who have joined me on the sometimes-rocky journey of the past three years. I look forward to meeting you again, either on Mirror Dance or a new and better Lacuna.

TL;DR version: Regretfully, I lack the time, energy, and interest to continue editing a broadly defined "historical fiction" e-zine. Lacuna will publish an October 2012 and April 2013 issue in its usual format, submissions to which will close on August 1, 2012. Lacuna will return in late 2013 as a themed publication in an as-yet-unspecified format and publishing schedule. 

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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

editing, editing Lacuna, historical fiction, Lacuna

Wiscon 36

Despite being a lifelong Wisconsin resident, I hadn’t made it out to Wiscon until this year. I know, I know, where are my priorities? The convention was capital-A Awesome. Getting the program was like being handed a menu where every entrée is chocolate, or a course catalogue where every literature syllabus includes M. R. James. Unfortunately, due to that work-thing that pays the bills, I could only stay for Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

If you were there and are wondering if you saw me, I was the young woman with long, very straight brown hair, wearing a waistcoat and carrying a black-and-gold brocade bag. My companion, the other young woman with long, very straight brown hair, was my sister, novelist Therese Arkenberg.

The first panel we attended was “Considering the Female Villain,” which discussed such varied issues as sexuality and sexualization, maternity, mental illness, and the all-important motive and motivations. The panelists hit on pretty much everything that an author has ever done to annoy me with their (mis)handling of a female villain: tracing her villainy back to some man who had done her wrong, overseuxalizing her, redeeming her through her relationship with the (male) hero. Allison Moon raised the excellent point that a female villain’s sexuality makes her less dangerous, since it offers the male hero a way into her affections, while a male villain’s sexuality (if it ever occurred—outside of the fandom-generated “Draco in leather pants” phenomenon, I can’t think of many sexualized male villains) would make the villain more dangerous, since the accompanying threat of sexual violence would be, in Moon’s words, “capital-S Scary.” Why, in this equation, female sexuality is seen as humanizing while male sexuality is violent and de-humanizing is another topic to consider.

The only academic panel I made it to was “Theorizing Vulnerability in Feminist Science Fiction” (Kathryn Allan) and “The Tribe of the Maiden and the Tribe of Monsters: Reconfiguring the Monstrous Feminine in Cathrynne Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales” (Suzanne Boswell). Both panelists were wonderfully articulate. The first paper dealt with a number of cyberpunk texts, a bit outside my area of interest, but the second offered an astute reading of Valente’s reimagining of the maiden/monster spectrum (not dichotomy!) and reminded me how badly I need to reread The Orphan’s Tales.

Saturday evening was the Tiptree Auction with the hilarious Ellen Klages: highlights included Ellen auctioning off her own shirt and Mary Robinette Kowal’s erotic reading of an early twentieth-century children’s book. Then off to the Outer Alliance reading, where Therese read a passage from her epic fantasy The Last of the LesserKings; Catherine Lundoff read from her werewolf novel (with a mature adult protagonist!) Silver Moon; Julie Andrews read a story about an alien robot invasion; Julia Rios read a modern extension of Hansel and Gretel; and Keffy Kehrli read an awesomely disturbing story about suicide. The reading went to well past my bedtime. At the end of it, I seem to remember turning to Rose Lemberg, brilliant poet and editor of Stone Telling, who happened to be seated next to me, and mumbling something inarticulate like “totally love your magazine.” At least, that’s what I meant to say. It probably came out “askdlfjlsStoneTellingyay!”

Sunday morning, I got up bright and early (well, definitely early—your mileage may vary on “bright”) and attended “Steal Like an Artist” for a spirited discussion about influence, fanfiction, deconstruction and cultural appropriation. No one actually mentioned the Anxiety of Influence, but that was definitely an undercurrent in the discussion: when all art participates in a dialogue with previous art, how do artists assert their originality? Highlights included Alexandra Erin’s concise rebuttal to the obnoxious “there’s only three/seven/fifteen/four-hundred-eighty-six-point-three stories in the universe” accusation/defense: “If you squish everything down to a nutshell, it’s going to look like every other nutshell.” Also, did you know Fifty Shades of Gray was originally Twilight fanfiction? I didn’t, because every time I get within thirty feet of a copy, the hair prickles along the back of my neck and greenish waves of nausea wash over me like the tsunami that will one day herald the rise of Cthulhu. (To be fair, similar waves of nausea washed over me when I saw there was a panel on rape fantasies at Wiscon. The whole topic of male-dom/female-sub is a Cthulhu-sized squick for me, in the classic and non-moral sense.)

Therese persuaded me to accompany her to the panel on “Writing the Singularity,” which is something I’ve never done but something she is interested in doing. I entered with no idea what the Singularity was or how I would go about writing it; I left with a slightly better idea of what the Singularity is and a very long reading list. *Adjusts Monocle-of-Fantasy-Writing* I say, what funny things you science fiction writers come up with!

My last panel of the convention was “It’s Actually Quite Hard to Rip a Bodice,” a panel on research and historical fiction lead by Vylar Kaftan, Lucy Adlington, Ellen Klages, Elizabeth Bear, and Alex Dally MacFarlane. (Side note: MacFarlane’s ““Numismatics in the Reigns of Naranh and Viu” in The Mammoth Book of Steampunk was perfect. You should go read it. Yes, now. I’ll wait.) The panel addressed the proper use of research, the challenge of stopping research, how to record and map out one’s research, and the difficulty of bodice-ripping. Conclusion: research is considerably more seductive than the ripping of bodices.

Next year I’ll hopefully be able to make it down for the full three-day weekend. I’ll also hopefully remember to bring a notebook so I can jot down and remember all the clever things people say at eight in the morning when I’ve been up until one the previous night. My human frailties aside, it was a fantastic, enlightening experience.

Now, off to find everything this weekend has added to my reading list.... 

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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

conventions, feminism, historical fiction, outer alliance, publishing, queer fiction, research, writing

The Gales of November

I'm in a slightly foul mood as I type this, having spent the last four hours trying to catch up on Lacuna slush and failing miserably. I'm very frustrated with the tendency of some authors to use nationalities or--God forbid--"race" as a shorthand for characterization. Russians are Russians, some stories seem to say; surely you know everything you could possibly want to know about Nikolai when I refer to him as "the Russian"? And let's not get started on the bull I see white authors pulling with Native and African American characters. Guys, guys, I thought we'd figured this out by now: stereotypes are harmful. They are evil. They are not literary.

So, yeah. Bit put out about that. And then there's this weird thing going on this submissions period with simultaneous submissions. Now, I may not be the sharpest banana in the rain forest, but when I send a rejection letter at 5:00 Monday afternoon, and you send me a reply at 7:00 Monday evening to say, "Oh, too bad you didn't like the story, it was just accepted by [insert magazine title here]," I know damn well you sent me a simultaneous submission. It's even worse if I sent you an acceptance at 5:00 on Monday. So, simultaneous submissions; don't do them.

Oh, and if you do need to withdraw your story from consideration because you submitted it simultaneously? Don't send the same withdrawal notice to me and twenty-three other editors. You know how I feel when I see twenty-four e-mail addresses on the sendee line? Not pleased, sir. Not pleased at all.

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Thursday, November 11, 2010

editing, editing Lacuna, Hall of Shame, historical fiction, Lacuna

Issue 3 of Lacuna, and Kephalopods!

Issue 3 of Lacuna is now online! This is our fullest issue to date, and hopefully it's got something for everyone.

My story "Hieronymus" appears in Issue Two of Basement Stories. This one's a tough bugger to categorize; a secondary-world weird tale with a healthy dose of environmental conciousness. If, you know, your environment includes unspeakable creatures of the dark and damp...

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Friday, October 15, 2010

historical fiction, Lacuna, publishing, weird fiction, writing

Deluge!

The floodgates have opened, and Lacuna is once again accepting submissions.

I've made a few small changes to the guidelines for this reading period.

Firstly, previously unpublished stories are now being given priority over reprints, so your reprint submissions will have to be even more exceptional.

Secondly, I would like the word count of all submissions to appear in the cover letter.

Thirdly, the reponse process has changed drastically. I will try to reply to all stories and poems within a week with either a pass or a hold notice. Stories may be held for up to three months before final acceptance or rejection. Hopefully, this will keep your stories out of circulation for the shortest time necessary.

As always, questions about submissions may be e-mailed to me (markenberg[at]yahoo[dot]com) or posted as comments on this post or Lacuna's main guidelines page.

Bring on the stories!

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Tuesday, October 05, 2010

editing Lacuna, historical fiction, Lacuna

Open Question

Why has the submission volume for Lacuna increased about fifty bajillion percent over the last two days? I've gotten five submissions in the last hour, and Sunday is normally slow.

I'm not complaining; it's lovely, just inexplicable. If you have a theory, please share.

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Sunday, February 21, 2010

editing, historical fiction, Lacuna, updates

A Work out of Progress

I vaguely remember writing these three hundred words or so sometime last spring, but for the life of me I can't remember what the story was about (aside from, clearly, la bête du Gévaudan). Perhaps posting the not-story here will jog my memory; if not, I hope you enjoy not coming along for the ride as much as I do.

* * *

We did not learn of it in the usual way.

On September 20, 1765, a black carriage shuddered to a halt outside my family’s house in Langogne. The final rain of summer fell in warm gossamer sheets, washing black Languedoc mud from the coach’s wheels and the shoes of its occupants. My sister Antoinette emerged, dressed outlandishly as usual with travel-stained lace and ropes of damp fox-fur at her cuffs; if it weren’t for the black ribbons and grave expressions her companions wore, I would never have known something was amiss.

“Mélisande!” Antoinette opened her arms to me as I flew down the brick steps, her white clock flowing off her shoulders like cream. The rain sheeted over her sharp cheekbones and caught, pearl-like, on her eyelashes and crisp red curls.

“Bienvenue, sister,” I said hesitantly, holding her out at arms’ length. All around us, footmen vied with the family servants to get her luggage in out of the damp. None of Antoinette’s men would meet my gaze. “Where’s Michel?”

At the sound of her husband’s name, my sister pursed her lips in a sharp, familiar gesture of despair.

That was how we learned that our protection from la bête du Gévaudan had run out.

* * *

“And what, pray tell, is so damn hard about writing a letter?”

“Père.” Antoinette frowned, her long fingers loosening the clasp of her cloak. A slow puddle spread across the parlor floor at our feet. “Do you mean to say you aren’t pleased to see me?”

“Don’t needle him,” I whispered. Antoinette’s only answer was to shove her cloak into my arms and hiss at me to hang it up.

Papa leaned back in his chair. His dark eyebrows—the only spots of color in his face—met in a straight line over his crooked nose. “You should be in Paris, Antoinette.”

“There’s nothing for me there.”

“Célestin Charbonneau is there.”

“As I said.” She folded her hands at her waist, resting her elbows on her hips. “Nothing for me.”

* * *

Apparently, that's as far as I got. Your guess is precisely as good as mine.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Cthulhu fhtagn, historical fiction, horror, weird fiction, writing

First Issue of Lacuna Published Today!

Visit the first issue of Lacuna: A Journal of Historical Fiction, and don't forget to check out our first issue review contest!

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Thursday, October 15, 2009

editing, fiction, historical fiction, Lacuna, reading

Lacuna Updates

I'm beginning to send out the first acceptances and rejections for Lacuna this week; I must admit, I wasn't prepared for the high number and quality of submissions for the magazine. I could easily fill four issues just with what I've received so far this month!

On the flip side, there are a number issues I'm encountering for the first time with a historical fiction magazine. For example, several submissions have included unsavory racial or ethnic stereotypes. Not cool. There's also a strangely large number of submissions with no definite historical content. While I love seconday world fantasy (see Mirror Dance above), it doesn't belong in a historical fiction journal.

Keep those submissions coming!

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Tuesday, June 09, 2009

characterization, editing, historical fiction, Lacuna, updates

Paradox Closes Its Doors

Paradox was one of the few print magazines I found consistantly awesome enough to subscribe to. I'm very sad to see it go.

With the closing of the Willows earlier this year, I suddenly find myself very low on historical/pseudohistorical reading material. I don't know about the rest of you, but Lacuna can't open to submissions soon enough!

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Sunday, May 17, 2009

historical fiction, reading

Carpathia at EDF

Check it out!

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Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Every Day Fiction, flash fiction, historical fiction

New Webzine

Those of you who know me probably think I've flipped my lid, and you're probably right.

Nevertheless, the lack of e-zines dedicated to historical fiction has bothered me considerably for the past several months. To remedy this situation, I've started a new, biannual e-journal of historical fiction and speculative/alternate history.



Submissions open in June. The first issue will be published on October 15.

Spread the word! Send me a story! Pray for my soul! I'll probably need all of the above by the middle of August.

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Tuesday, March 03, 2009

editing, historical fiction, insanity, Lacuna