Ellen
Datlow and Terri Windling have formed an incredible editorial team over the
years. There isn’t a writer in
the genres of horror, science fiction or fantasy that doesn’t secretly dream
of at least landing on the honorable mention list at the back of their yearly
anthology. They haven’t
just worked together on the Year’s Best series, but on beautiful
collections of retold fairy tales such as Snow White, Blood Red and Black
Heart, Ivory Bones, Sirens and A Wolf at the Door.
Separately, they’ve accomplished a pretty daunting list of things.
Datlow is currently the editor of SciFi.com, and has edited several
anthologies, including Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex, the Omni
anthology series, Little Deaths, Vanishing Acts and more.
Terri Windling is a talented artist and folklorist, and is the author The
Wood Wife, The Winter Child (with illustrator Wendy Froud) and many
short stories and essays on myth. These
two ladies have opened the doors for many of us, giving us worlds to explore,
sometimes familiar, as all things mythic are, sometimes scary, and sometimes
alien. Today they’re taking us off the path...and into the
backstage area, to give us an entirely new perspective on this well loved
anthology series, the creative process, and themselves.
Cindy:
Looking at my copy of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror,all I can think
of is, how do you guys do it? It seems like a mind-boggling amount of work! Can
you tell us about the process? Do authors send you stories? How do you decide
what to keep and what to put on the honorable mention list...or leave out all
together? What magazines do you look in the most? Do you find a lot of
overlap...stories that you'd also like to use for another anthology?
Datlow: Basically, I read short horror fiction throughout most of the
year, although I take a brief month or so break during the time I hand in my
horror half and begin reading for the next year. I prefer to have publishers
send me magazines, anthologies, collections, and printed out web stories. The
only reason a writer should send me her own story is if it's in an obscure
publication that I can't get or access.
I look at every genre and non-genre magazine (other than literary journals) that
run dark, horrific material. This ranges from Analog (which I try to get a
reader to look at, as it rarely has anything that could be construed as horror)
to The New Yorker and including larger circulation magazines such as F&SF,
Cemetery Dance, and Asimov's SF Magazine to miniscule
circulation small press magazines that might include horror. If a venue contains
horror I want to see it. However, most of my choices come from original
anthologies or collections. There are very few professional horror magazines in
existence today.
As I read, if I like a story I will put it on my honorable mention list. The
stories I am most impressed with get an asterisk so that I can go back and
reread them when I'm ready to make decisions. Once in awhile I'll like a story
so much on the first reading that I'll decide immediately that the story will be
included in the book.
Since I only edit original anthologies (aside from the YBFH) and the
stories we read for it are all reprints, the question about
using reprints for a different anthology doesn't really apply to what
either Terri or I are doing.
Every year I try to find a volunteer reader who will slog through the material
least likely to provide anything I can use. Examples are Analog, which
mostly publishes hard sf, or amateurish horror magazines that might
possibly have a gem embedded somewhere in their pages. But it's difficult to
trust a reader. I want my reader to pass on material that could be considered
dark--and I have a broad definition of dark material.
Windling:
This is a reprint anthology, so only stories that were professionally
published in the previous year are eligible. Generally we receive review copies
of eligible magazines and story collections directly from the publishers.
Authors need only send us material themselves if it has been published in an
out-of-the-way place that might otherwise get overlooked.
Because fantastical stories also appear outside the genre, I read many literary
journals, mainstream collections and anthologies and children's collections each
year as well as the standard genre publications. It makes for a lot of reading
-- and you're right, it is a mind-boggling amount of work.
As you
know, I've retired from Year's Best as of this year, but here's how I've
done it in the previous 16 years:
When I'm reading during the year, any story that truly impresses me gets put
onto one of three lists: Definite, Maybe, or Honorable Mentions.
It takes a rare story to immediately go on the Definite list, which
consists of stories I know I'll definitely use for the volume. Most stories that
I like a great deal go onto the Maybe list, which gives me time to think about
them. Stories that I like, but that aren't quite exceptional enough to end up in
the volume, go onto the Honorable Mentions list.
At the end of the year, I generally have five or six stories on the
Definite list, and a very long list of Maybes. I read all the Maybes over again,
often several times, and make the hard decision about which to move up to the
Definite list and which to move down to Honorable Mentions.
I look
in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy,
Asimov’s, The New Yorker, Harpers, and Lady
Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. On the web, SciFi.com and Strange Horizons.
For poetry, small literary journals are my best source for good material, and I
read everything from The Chicago Review to Poet Lore.
Year's
Best is a reprint anthology, and all our other anthologies use original
material only. Sometimes, however, it works the other way around and we'll pick
up something originally published in one of our other anthologies for Year's
Best.
Cindy:
How did you guys meet and start working together? You've worked together so
much...how does a partnership like this work? Does the fact you both live so far
away (Terri Windling divides her time between England and Arizona, while Ellen
Datlow lives in New York) effect your partnership?
Windling: Not a bit. E-mail
keeps us in daily touch. Before e-mail, we used phone and fax.
Jim
Frenkel, the creator and packager of the Year's Best series, asked me,
when the series began, if I'd edit the fantasy half of the book, and he asked
Ellen if she'd edit the horror half. We knew each other socially (I still lived
and worked in New York then, and people in the sf/fantasy field tend to know
each other), but we'd never worked together before. In fact, however, we don't
work in tandem on Year's Best. I don't get involved with the horror part
of the book, and Ellen doesn't get involved with the fantasy part. Occasionally
we'll talk about what we've been reading or recommend things to each other, and
occasionally we'll chose a story together if it falls into the realm of dark
fantasy (between fantasy and horror). But otherwise our work for Year's Best
is quite separate.
Soon after the Year's Best project began, Ellen and I decided to
collaborate on another anthology, Snow White, Blood Red, consisting of
adult retellings of fairy tales. We liked the partnership so much that we kept
going and have edited many other anthologies together now. For these other
anthologies we work together more closely. We both read all the submissions, and
discuss them, and only chose stories that both of us like. Ellen's a better
line-editor (in my opinion), so she tends to do any line-editing required on the
stories in these anthologies (which are originals, rather than reprints). I
enjoy writing more than Ellen, so I generally write the book proposals and
introductions. There's a lot of discussion between us on all aspects of each
book, generally by e-mail, sometimes by phone, and occasionally over dinner when
I'm passing through New York.
Datlow:
As Terri says, Jim Frenkel approached us and suggested we work on the YBFH.
I'm not going to repeat everything she said but we've found working together
very easy. We don't really work on the YBFH together, although we'll
occasionally confer and decide to "share" a story --ie each use half
the wordage in our respective sides and
both initial the introduction to the specific story.
But working together on our original anthologies has been very satisfying. We
each have our particular strengths and divide the work equally. As far as
choosing the stories we both have to like a story in order to buy it. One or the
other of us will work with the author on various rewrites--depending on the
author and how much time we have.
Terri does the overall intro to each anthology. Terri puts together a further
reading list. I work with the authors on their bios and afterwords. I generally
do the final line edit on each story. We edit each other's intros and bios. I
think mostly Terri has decided on the order for stories, although I go over it
and make suggestions. I handle the financial arrangements.
We've always had a fine time working together—e-mail makes it easier than
ever.
Cindy:
The dedication for the book makes it sound like you guys are passing on the
torch? Why is this your last anthology? How were Kelly Link and Gavin Grant
picked to succeed you? Are you putting aside editing for a
time, or will you both still be co-editing projects?
Windling:
I'm the only one leaving the project -- Ellen is staying. Kelly and Gavin
will be editing the fantasy half of the book starting with Volume 17, and Ellen
will continue editing the horror half.
A book like this takes an enormous amount of reading, research, and writing time
each year. Unlike Ellen, I'm not a full-time editor - I divide my time between
editing, writing, and painting, and I've reached a point where I need more time
for the latter two areas of my life. I love Year's Best and have been
quite happy working on it for 16 years, but I've decided it's time to let
someone else take over so that it no longer dominates my schedule. Ellen, Jim
Frenkel, and St. Martin's Press allowed me to hand-pick my successors, so I know
the book will be in good hands. I chose Kelly and Gavin because I've been
impressed by their editorial work at Small Beer Press, and because I know that
their literary tastes are similar to mine. The "flavor" of the book
won't change. The fact that Kelly and Gavin will be able to split the work load
between two people is a plus. It's fairly overwhelming otherwise. Also, Kelly
and Gavin live in the U.S. year 'round, whereas I live in England for half of
every year. It made it a particular
challenge to keep abreast of U.S. publications each year while being so far
away. My U.K. mailman is already grateful that he's not lugging book packages to
my door all the time. Mind you, I'll miss all those free review copies....
Cindy:
Why do you think short stories are such an important medium? What are the trends
you see cropping up in short stories now? Do you think by reading the trends in
short stories, you can see what's going to
happen in the genre as a whole? Are short stories and anthologies being
changed by the internet?
Datlow: Horror short stories are the lifeblood of the genre. There are
far more classic horror stories than novels. I think supernatural horror
particularly (in contrast to terror tales and psychological horror) is more
effective in the short story or novella form than the novel. This is partly
because so much of horror is atmosphere and that's more difficult to sustain the
longer you go on. Also, I feel that the supernatural is more difficult to pull
off because it is by it's nature illogical. So the author must work harder to
maintain consistency, suspense, and a suspension of disbelief in
the reader. This is easier in the short form than in the novel
form. (in my opinion).
Are you talking about horror short stories specifically? I don't read enough in
the novel form within any genre to make judgments regarding trends.
There seems to be a rebirth of the ghost story, as written by Glen Hirshberg,
Terry Lamsley (who seems to have disappeared) Terry Dowling, Jack Cady...and the
continuing resurgence of the cross-genre writer who writes sf/f/h equally well.
I've been talking about and praising these writers for several years now:
Elizabeth Hand, China Mieville, Graham Joyce, M. John Harrision, Jeffrey
Ford, Kelly Link, Andy Duncan, Nicholas Royle, Kim Newman, Paul McAuley, Carol
Emshwiller, Conrad Williams, Pat Cadigan. There is a whole generation of
brilliant cross-genre writers in the UK.
Windling:
There's been a dwindling market for short fiction every since the heyday
of magazine fiction began to wane in the middle of the 20th century. Since I
personally love short stories, I enjoy being able to support the writers of
short fiction by providing a market for their work, and by presenting it to the
public in volumes that readers seem to enjoy. Trends in fantasy short fiction?
It's very difficult to find good short fantasy fiction of the "imaginary
world" variety, perhaps because it's hard to build convincing secondary
worlds in just a few pages. I'm personally intrigued by all the good
'interstitial fiction' we're seeing these days, by which I mean fiction that
falls into the interstices between genres and categories, or that crosses
borders between genres. You'll find good examples of this in the New Fabulist
issue of Conjunctions (#39), or the Polyphony anthology series.
Cindy:
Terri, I’ve been admiring some of your artwork, as well. What do you
think the parallels are between creating with paint and creating with words are?
Have you ever done...or would like to do...any of your own covers?
Windling: I find them to be
very different skills, and very different creative processes. That's what
interests me in doing both. They use different parts of my brain. Writing is
quite intellectual for me, whereas painting is more spontaneous, nonverbal,
almost trance-like. It's good to go into the studio and give words a rest.
I've done covers for other people's books and found I didn't much like doing it.
I'm not temperamentally suited for cover illustration - which involves pleasing
a publisher's marketing department, not the book's author (who almost never has
any say over the cover), the book's editor, or the book's potential readers. I
prefer doing work for gallery exhibition, which is more personal, more
spontaneous.
Cindy:
Why do you think some writers are brilliant short story tellers, but lousy
novelists, and vice versa? Why do you think some people can do both? What are
some of the mistakes you see first time writers making?
Also, one of the things that writers...especially unpublished
ones...often talk about is the sort of Catch-22...where, it's hard to get people
to notice your short stories if you're not published as a novelist, but it's
hard to get a book published if you don't have any short story credits. Have you
found this to be true, or is it just a bunch of silliness?
Windling:
They are different art forms. Some artists can paint, some artists
can sculpt, and a few are blessed with the ability to do both - yet an inability
to do both in no way lessens the achievements of other painters and sculptors.
So it is with writing short stories and novels -- or poetry, screenplays, or
nonfiction. They are all different art forms, with
different technical requirements.
Lately,
because computer technology has made self-publishing an easier and less
expensive venture, I'm getting a lot of review copies of amateur books by
writers who would be better advised to hone their craft before committing it to
print. The best thing you can do as a beginning writer is to write, write, write
- and read, read, read. Concentrating on publication prematurely is a mistake.
You don't pick up a violin and expect to play Carnegie Hall within the year -
yet somehow people forget that writing also requires technical skills that need
to be learned, practiced, honed. If I had a dollar for every person I've met who
thought, with no prior experience, they could sit down and write a novel and
instantly win awards and make their living as a writer, I'd be a rich woman
today. It's unrealistic, and it's also mildly insulting to professional writers
who have worked hard to perfect their craft. Of course, then you hear stories
about people like J.K. Rowling, who did sit down with no prior experience and
write a worldwide best-seller...but such people are as rare as hen's teeth.
Every day I work with talented, accomplished writers who have many novels in
print and awards to their name and who are ‘still’ struggling to make a
living. The thing I often find myself wanting to say to new writers is: Write
because you love writing, learn your craft, be patient, and be realistic. Anais
Nin said about writing, "It should be a necessity, as the sea needs to
heave, and I call it breathing."
In the
fantasy field, a really great story will get published, whether you're a new
writer or not. Editors like Gordon van Gelder at F&SF and Shawna
McCarthy at Realms of Fantasy are thrilled to discover great new writers.
Shawna in particular publishes a lot of emerging writers in her magazine. We
regularly publish stories by unknown writers in Year's Best -- this year
there's a brilliant fairy tale retelling by Theodora Goss, which is her very
first published story. No editor that I know of ever says, "Wow, this is a
great story -- but I'm not going to publish it because I'm unfamiliar with the
author." It just doesn't happen.
What does happen is that good stories get turned down every day, simply because
the competition is fierce. You have to be more than good, you have to be
exceptional. If your work isn't yet exceptional, you need to keep on working on
it until it is - or else think about another career. Writing is an art, but
publishing is a business. It's competitive, and if you want someone to pay you
professionally for your work, you need to reach a fairly high level of
expertise.
Datlow:
Writing stories and writing novels take different sets of skills. Some writers
are "naturals" in one form or the other. Others, like Robert
Silverberg and Barry Malzberg, can do both equally well.
It's not at all hard to get people to notice short stories--or are you talking
about unpublished ones? If the story is good it's going to be noticed--by an
editor and then an audience. I published Ted Chiang's first story in OMNI
and it won the Nebula Award. I published most of William Gibson's short
fiction--it never won awards but they've been reprinted over and over.
It's easy to get a short story published... but published well is a
different issue. I believe writers should be paid for their work--they should
not give it away for free. New writers should not write to market. They should
write about issues they feel passionate about. If you feel strongly about an
issue it will show in the writing. This doesn't mean to be pedantic. The best
fiction has a point to make and does it gracefully, within the confines of good
storytelling and believable characterization.
Cindy:
What is the best part of being an editor? What are some of your career
highlights? What would you say to someone who wanted to become an anthology
editor? What are some of the aspects of the craft that you could live without?
How is being an editor different from being a writer?
Datlow: Finding a wonderful
story in my submission pile and working with a writer to make her story as good
as it can be.
I love editing and since I'm doing exactly what I love doing--both at SciFiction
and on anthologies-- right now is my career highlight.
Everyone thinks they can edit an anthology. They can't. It isn't just reading
and buying every story submitted. It's deciding which stories to buy, turning
down those that aren't right for the anthology, whether by a big name or
not--and editing the stories chosen--or working with the author to make the
story good enough to buy for the anthology. Editing is a hands-on process from
buying a story to its publication. It's the anthologist's job to shape the
anthology. Shaping an anthology involves giving it a context, with an
introduction (short or not, author bios, sometimes an afterword). I hate
anthologies that have no author bios--they feel sloppy, unfinished to me.
I know of a few people who edit anthologies for a living. I don't believe one
can do this and produce consistently good anthologies. Putting together a good
anthology takes time and thought. I feel very strongly about this. If too many
bad anthologies are published it damages the credibility of all anthologies.
This is what happened with the Roger Elwood anthologies in sf. They became a
joke, saturating the anthology market which went into decline for a number of
years after Elwood moved out of sf. Editors have a responsibility to readers to
publish the best they can.
I know this will sound silly, but I dislike having to write out 20 royalty
checks at a shot for the anthologies that stay in print and earn out (it's a
boring job but someone's gotta do it).
Windling:
It's always a thrill to be able to say to a never-before-published
writer, "I want to buy your story" or "I want to publish your
novel," and to share their excitement.
That's why it's a mistake to think that editors are prejudiced against
new writers. We love to discover new talent. Mind you, its easier to buy stories
than novels from new writers, because publishing houses have to invest such a
lot of money in publishing a novel, and it's often hard - in bad economic times
- for an editor to convince the bean counters at his/her company that taking on
a new, untried writer is a good idea. But editors generally ‘want ’ to do
this if they possibly can, and if your book is good enough, they'll often find a
way.
Career
Highlights? Publishing the first
stories and novels by writers like Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, Midori Snyder,
Charles de Lint, Patricia Wrede, Pamela Dean, Sheri Tepper, Steven Brust, Megan
Lindholm (aka Robin Hobb) and many others who have gone on to successful careers
in the fantasy field. Putting art
by painters such as Thomas Canty and Robert Gould on fantasy books for the very
first time. Convincing Jane Yolen to write adult fantasy, and Joyce Ballou
Gregorian to finish the Tredana trilogy. Meeting and working with some of my own
heroes, like Fritz Leiber, Evangeline Walton, and Patricia McKillip. Working
with Ellen Datlow. Forming the Endicott Studio. Being called "the Angela
Carter of America" by an art critic in France. He was wrong of course -- I
have a long way to go in the "adult fairy tales" field before I'm even
fit to shine her shoes, but it was a thrill nonetheless.
Winning awards is nice form of validation too, of course.
I agree
with Ellen that editing anthologies is not as easy as it looks. Editing, like writing, is a skill that takes time to learn,
and I find anthologies put together by amateur editors are often painful to
read. As Ellen notes, books of that type can put people off reading short
fiction, which does our field a disservice. The best anthology editors are those
who have had professional editorial experience in the sf/fantasy/horror field --
who have been book editors or magazine editors first. If you were really serious
about a career as a fantasy editor, then I'd recommend moving to New York and
spending some time working in the editorial department of one of the major sf/fantasy
publishers there. That's how I did it, at any rate. I spent many years as a
full-time editor in New York before it was feasible to be a part-time editor
located elsewhere. When I tell people this, they often balk at the idea of
moving to New York -- but honestly, if you're truly serious about being an
editor in the field, New York is where the heart of our industry is located.
Rejecting
stories or novels is always hard and unpleasant. I'm not a mean person; I don't
like turning people down.
Editing
and writing are completely different jobs, completely different skills.
Cindy:
How has being editors effected your writing? Do you think your careers
would be different? How does what you edit...your tastes in what you generally
work with...reflect on your own work? Or is it a totally different animal? Is it
hard to exchange one hat for another?
Windling:
On the down side, it takes time away from writing. On the plus side,
it's made me a more critical reader, which is always a good skill for a writer
to have.
As an editor, particularly for Year's Best, it's my job to recognize and
publish good stories even when they're not entirely to my personal taste.
As a writer, I'm free to follow the dictates of my own taste.
I don't find it hard. The only thing I find hard is having enough time for both
of them, and for painting too.
Cindy:
Ellen, you do a huge amount of work for SCIFI.COM...do you have any plans
for your area of the website? What are the pros and cons of having an online
magazine versus a print one?
Datlow:
Editing Scifiction for SCIFI.com is my full time job. I’m
thinking of some things to take up the slack when Michael Swanwick's Periodic
Table of SF is done--which is quite soon. I might commission themed
short-shorts, something I did successfully at OMNI over a period of ten
years. Or see if Michael wants to do another (but shorter) series. We'll see.
The
pros are that it moves much quicker than print and we can fix an error even
after the story is live. Also, the length of a story isn’t ever a problem as
there’s infinite space in an online webzine. The con, of course, is that you
don’t have a magazine in-hand.
Cindy:
When you actually get to read for pleasure...no strings attached...what
or who do you like to read?
Datlow: I often read
suspense or hard-boiled mystery novels. I recently read Gibson's Pattern
Recognition for the pleasure of it.
Windling:
I love fantasy, I read it for pleasure, even after all these years. Pat
McKillip, Ursula Le Guin and John Crowley are my favorite writers in the field,
in addition to all the writers in the Endicott Studio group - but there are many
others I also admire. In children's fantasy, I'm particularly keen on Philip
Pullman, Donna Jo Napoli, David Almond and Jane Yolen - though my favorite
novels recently were Midori Snyder's Hannah's Garden, Holly Black's Tithe,
and Neil Gaiman's Coraline.
I read a lot of mainstream fiction as well - I particularly love Alice Hoffman,
A.S. Byatt, Sara Maitland, Sarah Waters, Sebastian Faulks, and Elizabeth Knox.
There's also a great deal of terrific fiction by Native American authors being
published these days - Louise Erdrich's Antelope Wife, Alfredo Vea Jr.'s Maravilla,
Linda Hogan's Power, and Susan Power's Grass Dancer are a few
favorites.
I'm a big fan of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, and Anthony
Trollope - I re-read Jane Austen's novels in particular every year.
Other fantasists say they read Tolkien every year, but for me it's
Austen. I adore biographies,
particularly biographies of artists and writers (and particularly those written
by Michael Holroyd). And I love books that explore the philosophical side of
art, such as Lewis Hyde's The Gift, Carolyn Heilbrun's Writing a
Woman's Life, or David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous.
Cindy:
Ellen...it seems to me that you are drawn more towards Science Fiction
than to Fantasy...is this so, and why? What
is it about these genres that work for you?
Datlow:
It's true to a degree that I've worked professionally at science fiction
magazines/webzines. But I've always published a lot of science fantasy--that is
fantasy that reads like sf and sf that reads like fantasy.
I grew up reading sf/f/h my whole life. If someone gave me a fantasy magazine to
edit, I'd do that. I dislike romance fiction and naturalistic mainstream fiction
(except for hardboiled mysteries). I prefer reading oddball fiction like that by
Jonathan Carroll (one of my two authors at Tor as consulting editor there)
Stewart O'Nan and Harry Crews.
Cindy:
If you're not working, what are we most likely to find you doing?
Datlow: At the movies, running errands, having meals with friends,
shopping.
Windling:
Reading. Recharging my 'creative batteries' with good music. Walking in
the desert (during the part of the year I live in Tucson), or walking in the
woods (during the part of the year I live in England) - I firmly believe that
down-time is as important a part of the creative process as work-time.
Traveling. Hanging out with artist and writer friends ‘talking’ about work.
Getting a good night's sleep because tomorrow is another workday.
(Was it Faulkner who said, "I only write when I'm inspired. Fortunately,
I'm inspired at 9 o'clock every morning?)
Cindy:
Someone offers you each two deeds, one is for a luxury Condo, one is for
a Gothic castle...which would you take?
Windling:
A gothic castle, for sure. My house in England is only a wee cottage, but
it's 400 years old and has a thatched roof.
Datlow: Condo because I know
it'll have heat and hot water. And I know the Gothic castle will have neither.
Although I'd much rather have a Victorian house with good heating and hot water
than either of the above.
Cindy:
Ellen, what do you like the most about New York? Do you think it's given you an
edge? Have you ever considered leaving New York?
Datlow: I love New York for so many reasons.
Because there's always something to do, somewhere new to eat, some place new (or
old) to check out.
It's a beautiful city--if you take the time to stop and look up, there are
lovely old buildings in every style with ornamentation and new imaginatively
built skyscrapers. There are parks, tree-lined streets (I live on one),
mini-gardens all over the city (if I ever retire I wouldn't mind doing a little
gardening in one of them).
Each area of the city is a different community with different textures. I can
get excellent bread in a bakery or greenmarket here, a myriad of exotic cheeses
and olives in a store there, great meat at the specialty butcher, go to an
Italian store that specializes in mozzarella, or an English store that has
incredible shortbread cookies, or to the Indian markets for nuts and dried fruit
and halvah.
I'm pretty much in love with New York City and can't imagine living anywhere
else. However, I do love visiting other cities and countries to see friends. I
go to London every year for a couple of weeks, to Maine for a week, and other
places. But my home and heart are in NYC.
Cindy:
Teri, since you live in such entirely different places...Tucson Arizona, which I
picture as hot and desert like, and Devon, England, which is cooler, greener in
the common imagination...I was wondering if it colored your work?
Do you find yourself saving writing or art for one place or the other?
Do you feel that one place is more mythic than the other?
Windling: Yes, particularly
my art. My color palette changes according to which landscape I'm in.
I do both in both places. But I like writing about the desert when I'm in the
green hills of rural England, and I like writing about England when I'm in the
desert. It's a way of keeping them both close.
Because I'm an ex-New Yorker, I find that I also need the creative stimulation
provided by large cities, in contrast to the slow pace of life in either Tucson
or Devon. So I try to spend a little time every year in New York, London, or
Paris in order to keep my creative juices flowing. Then I go back to the country
or the desert in order to actually get work done.
Not at all. Southwest England is a land soaked in myth and folklore of course,
but so is southwestern America. In Arizona, there is a large Native American
population (consisting of several different tribes) and a large Mexican
population. The myths of those cultures mix with the transplanted folklore of
numerous immigrant groups from Europe and elsewhere, making for a rich tradition
of stories.
Cindy:
Terri, please tell us about Endicott Studios?
What made you decide to take the project online?
What about the charities it supports? Has
it been hard to gather such a fabulous cast of contributors?
Windling: It's a non-profit
arts organization I started way back in 1987 to support art and fiction projects
in the field of Mythic Arts. Readers can find out more about it on the Endicott
Studio web site: www.endicott-studio.com
Since the writers and artists involved with the Endicott Studio are scattered in
locations across the U.S., England, and Canada, the internet gave us a 'virtual
studio' in which to meet, and a means of sharing our work with others interested
in Mythic Arts.
We raise money on the site for organizations working with abused and homeless
children in my U.S. home community of Tucson, Arizona. Child abuse prevention is
a subject I feel passionately about. If your readers are interested, they can
find more information on our charities on the Endicott site, on the Kids Need
Our Help page. (http://www.endicott-studio.com/helpKids.html)
No, not at all. All of the writers and artists on the site are friends of mine,
and most of them are people I've been working with for many years. They're all
good people, and everyone has been very generous with their time and their
contributions. We all have a strong belief in the goal of the site, which is to
support the works of "mythic artists" of the past, of the present, and
of the future.
Cindy: Why are you drawn to myth
and folklore?
Windling: That's too large a
question to answer quickly! I loved fairy tales as a kid, I studied mythology in
college, and the fantasy I love best today is that which is clearly rooted in
fairy tales, folklore and myth. For a longer explanation, perhaps your readers
would be interested in an essay I wrote called “Transformations,” published
in Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy
Tales. A copy of the essay can be found on-line as part of a tribute to
fairy tale illustrator Adrienne Segur at this URL: http://www.endicott-studio.com/jMA03Summer/segur.html