Three Questions with Sue Babcock

There is an adage that goes like this: Cream always rises to the top. To me, this denotes quality, and quality always rises to the top. Whether it’s writing or publishing, the qualified work of any kind will rise. To me, this represents Sue Babcock. As our new micro-fiction editor Brandon Rucker says: Sue is MVP of Liquid Imagination.

Sue first submitted a story for the first issue of Liquid Imagination Online. I remember workshopping the story with her many times, and each time I suggested a change, Sue enthusiastically took the challenge to improve her story until it was ready for publication. Her story, Second Chance, was awesome, but it also showed how Sue constantly worked hard to improve herself.

Eventually, she joined the team at Liquid Imagination. Now she formats the entire online magazine, is my legal business partner, and acts as Liquid Imagination’s business director. That means she keeps us on a timetable, making sure we maintain our schedule. She takes the audio voice of Robert Eccles and the artwork of Jack Rogers (or herself) to enhance the speculative stories Editor Kevin Wallis has accepted for each issue. Since joining Staff, the overall presentation and format of the online magazine has increased in quality because—as I’ve said—cream always rises. One of the reasons Liquid Imagination Online continues to excel in quality is because of the tremendous staff consisting of editors, voice talent, artists and especially Sue Babcock.

Now, let’s get to Three Questions with Sue Babcock:

1)      Sue, as an insider of Liquid Imagination, where do you see us in the future?

Oh, geez, you made me sound like I’m doing this alone. I’m not. We have such a strong team at LI – Kevin Wallis, Chrissy Davis, Brandon Rucker, John “JAM” Miller, Bob Eccles, and Jack Rogers, not to mention the writers who risk so much whenever they submit their work anywhere. Every submission I read, every story and poem I help publish, I think about the writer and the risks that we all take as writers, so that others can read our work. So thank you for that very generous intro.

One of the ideas we’ve kicked around for a while is a print magazine. Because of many factors (the economy, the increasing costs of print, the increasing popularity of e-books), we’re reconsidering this idea. E-books are coming. Not everyone embraces them, but experts are predicting that we are only one, maybe two, devices away from a boom in e-readers. And with improved e-readers, exciting new opportunities for e-publishing will emerge.

I like the possibilities that exist for enhanced e-books. It fits LI’s mission – to publish a wide variety of art, including graphic, digital, illustrations, paintings, fiction, poetry, music, animations and other art forms. Print limits us to the visual arts, while e-books allow us to include music, voice and animations. These are exciting times, and LI wants to be a leader in the realm of hybridized art.

I want thousands and thousands of people to see our site, I want hundreds to submit work (music, art, stories, poems), and I think it would be awesome if this all overflowed into an e-book format.

We may someday venture into print, but I see that as a subset of the possibilities of enhanced e-books.

2)      You have a PhD in Engineering, and you’ve stated that you have an analytical, left-brained way of thinking. But you’re very creative and a dynamic writer, too. With that in mind, how does a publisher/editor combine the best of both worlds for their publication? How does an editor allow for inspiration and creativity, yet enhance and fuel that creativity with analytical critiques to tighten, improve and exceed past issues in quality?

Some days when I’m struggling with the technical details of running the site or learning new ways to improve the online experience, my right brain chokes. When I’m in this mood, I see the structure of stories more clearly, the grammar and punctuation errors become more obvious, and the actual story – that creative spark that drove the writer – sometimes fades. For this reason, I often read submitted stories at least twice, once when my analytical brain is churning at top speed, and once when I’m relaxed and receptive to my muse.

As for combining the best of both worlds in LI, that is easier. I feel I’m the luckiest person in the world – I can build a website using all the new skills I’ve learned, all the technical stuff, all the latest technology and applications, but at the same time I get to stretch the very limits of my fledgling creative powers and put together art of all types into a unique and wonderful package. These limits – both technical and creative – grow each day for me. There’s no telling where it will take me and LI next.

3)      This might be the scariest question: how many projects and publications are you involved in, and what are their names?

LI Online (http://www.liquid-imagination.com/) currently is my most challenging publication. However, it may soon be surpassed in the technical challenge category by a new website and publication, Kids ‘Magination (http://www.kidsmagination.com/). This brand new site, which is still under construction, is dedicated to encourage kids, particularly elementary school aged kids, to write fiction. We may expand into poetry, as well. The site has significant technical challenges because we want to be very careful with a site aimed at children. We must protect the participants from stalkers and inappropriate content. It’s a fun site to build, and it will grow  as I learn.

Kids ‘Magination is part of Silver Pen Writing Associate (http://www.silverpen.org/), another site I help build and maintain. I’m a trustee and the vice president of SPWA, and I see so much potential with this non-profit organization, which will continue to expand as we develop new ideas.

I am the fiction editor at Silver Blade (http://www.silverblade.net/), which is also associated with Silver Pen. SB and SP were started by Karl Rademacher, and I’m very proud of the stories and poems we offer at this publication of fantasy and science fiction. I love reading the submissions and discussing with the publisher the merits of each story.

Three Questions with AJ Brown

AJ Brown is my role model. In fact, I think I can honestly say he’s the only role model that I have. Which is why we request that he write something for Liquid Imagination Online each and every single issue. Sometimes it’s fiction. Lately it’s been articles.

Who is AJ Brown? With over 150-publishing credits (short story), and having held his own as a slushpile editor for well-respected publications, AJ knows the craft of writing both behind-the-scenes as well as within the framework of the story itself. I don’t have to brag about him because I have to; I brag about him because I want to. He’s going places, folks. 

Another reason I brag about him is because he finds it difficult to brag about himself. He’s one of those strong, brooding types. Yet he’s not afraid to say what’s on his mind, despite those words not being the most popular. 

Three Questions for my Role Model, AJ Brown:

1)      In your article “Life and Death” you talk of killing stories. But you also show us how to bring stories back to life. It’s almost as if the writer is like Dr. Frankenstein in the metaphor you use.  Do stories really live and breathe? 

Dr. Frankenstein?  I like that.  I might have to work that into my name somewhere.  To answer the question:  Yes.  And this may be a long winded answer, but stick with me for a minute.

How many times have you read a story that fell flat either in character development, plot development or even in storytelling?  How many times have you finished a story and then just forgot about it?  How many times have you started a story and put it down because you lost interest?  More than once, I’m sure.  Those stories that fall flat and lose your interest may as well have never been written.  Why?  Because you forget about them.  There’s nothing remarkable about them.  Or if you do remember them, they were so bad they have embedded themselves into your soul and even losing your memory can’t make you forget about them.  

I read a lot and most of the time I find most stories to be boring.  Yeah, the books might be well written, but the characters might do things that those characters wouldn’t normally do.  Or the story is all action and no description or just the opposite, all description and no action.  It is extremely hard to impress me and, really, so many writers are cookie-cutter writers, afraid to do their own thing because they might not get published.  Therefore, they use the same old formula and the story itself suffers. 

You know when a story lives: when you feel like you’ve been kicked in the teeth when you’re done reading it, or you feel like your heart was just ripped out and stomped on.  That’s when a story lives. 
Charles Colyott wrote a story called The Steel Church.  It appeared in Volume III of The Horror Library Anthology series.  When I first read it, it grabbed hold of me and didn’t let go and when I was finished, I had to read it again.  And again.  It was chilling in its telling and simplistic in the way it was told.  It was brilliant and each word was a breath and each space between was an exhalation.  

Recently I read possibly the most alive story I have ever read.  I can’t give the name of it or the author at the moment, given that it was just recently accepted for publication, but this story, from beginning to end, felt real.  I could feel the pain and the despair of the main character and the ending… the ending left me stunned and all I could say was ‘wow’ when I had finished.  It really made me feel like EVERYTHING I had ever written sucked compared to it.  

It’s those stories that linger long after you’ve read them that make you feel something, stories that in my opinion truly live.  

2)      In your writing, what do you consider your strongest point? 

My strongest point in writing is the same as my strongest point in life, yet it is also my biggest problem:  I’m stubborn.  I’m hardheaded and I tend to not back down on the things I believe in.  I will argue with you if I think you are wrong or if I think a point needs to be made.  You and I have butted heads on projects because I see things one way and you see things another.  It is the way I am and I will not compromise that.  

My dad has always told me that if you stand up for what you believe in, you will be fine.  You might not get it your way, but folks will know where you stand, and believe me, folks know where I stand on things.  And this is a good thing in that respect.  

It’s also a negative thing in that I will not compromise the way I write to get someone to publish my story.  I’ve lost a few sales because an editor here or there asked me to make wholesale changes to stories to fit what they wanted.  Basically, they didn’t want what I had written.  In that case, I prefer just getting the rejection and getting it over with.  Don’t let that confuse you:  I will and have made changes to stories.  Edits are fine.  Significant edits are fine.  I get that, but it’s one thing to ask for rewrites or to edit a story and it’s another thing to change a story all together to make it fit a publication.  That’s not being true to the story or the story’s intent.  That’s not me and if folks choose to not publish one of my stories because of that, then I deal with it.  

I could really go on for hours about this, but I think I’ll stop here.  

3)      When is your novel(s) coming out? 

Novel?  Maybe never.  

I have no desire to write a novel. I’ve written three novel-length stories and I hate two of them.  The other one is okay and has some really memorable scenes—one of which made me sick to my stomach after writing it.  I wrote these three novels with the idea that I needed to write a novel-length story.  Honestly, I think that’s why I hate two of them.  

Let me say this:  I don’t write short stories and I don’t write novellas or novels or even flash fiction and micro fiction (or anything that involves a set length or word count).  What I write are stories.  Period.  I don’t go into a piece thinking this story will be five-thousand-words long and not a word more.  I go into a story with the idea of telling the story—or, rather, letting the story tell itself.  If that means the story is a thousand words, then fine.  If it means the piece is a hundred-thousand-words, then so be it.  

As far as sitting down and telling myself I am going to write a novel, not going to happen.  The story gets lost with the concept of ‘writing a novel.’

 The Semi-Official AJ Brown Website: Type AJ Negative

 

Three Questions

“Three Questions” will be a short interview process for those appearing in Liquid Imagination Online. Currently I’m about to interview AJ Brown, writer extraordinaire who has been my inspiration for years. His fiction has appeared in Liquid Imagination Online, and we publish one article from him each issue. His latest article is called “Live or Die,” and among all the concepts of writing, it absolutely rocks. AJ Brown may be a lot of things, but one thing he is NOT is BORING! AJ Brown will not do is let you down!

The Genius Dream

by John “JAM” Arthur Miller

 

Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

 

          -Friedrich Nietzsche

I gazed into the abyss. Something looked out. A large eye the size of our sun, glaring with hostility. Who dares? it demanded. I smiled and said, Just me… just me. It became confused and blinked.

Each time it blinked the light of the universe went out; a total darkness of the soul seethed with an icy chill that permeated and enveloped all. Stop blinking, I cried. It laughed and shouted, Stop confusing me. But I couldn’t stop confusing it because I couldn’t stop asking it questions. My finite intelligence, although genius among my own kind, was far below its infinite epiphanies; the finite was too much for for the infinite. I crippled it when I informed the beast from the abyss about love. Love? What is love? it cried.

The beast from the abyss slid back into its sludge of bile. Nietzshe rolled over in his grave, and the sun became a new day’s dawn somewhere back in physical reality.

I remained where I hovered, at the edge of the abyss in the bubble of a dream. Aren’t you going to wake up now? the monster from the abyss demanded, its giant eye permanently opened, unblinking.

I smiled and said, But I have more to teach you.

Then I leapt into the abyss, splashed within the bile, felt cold logic slip up my flesh and cover my head. Black, cold vomit slid into my mouth. I swallowed down jagged little pills. The monster screamed in agonizying joy, shouting, It’s too much… too much!

It was just enough – just enough because now I shared the secrets of the abyss. Nietzsche was right: the abyss met my gaze. But more besides, for the abyss crept inside my face, inside my mind even as my essence seeped into it. I sucked in wisdom it had vomited out, and it coddled me by the cold embrace of eternity.

Together we become one, the finite and infinite—organic flesh and the cold kiss of graveyard soil.