Last year I announced my intention to make a WRONG NUMBER journal. The original model was based upon SF&F anthologies and literary journals, the driving force being fiction. However, the thought processes that transformed it from something I intended doing to something I was doing very much took into account my past experience on music magazines. Adding fuel to this was my indulgence in hauntology around that time, which gave certain genre elements more prominence with me than they normally have. I thought it prudent to involve some music writers that I knew, and in an attempt to get them on board I pitched a greater number of music pieces than I intended to include in the journal. I think that actually backfired. That and the early over-focus on horror. What it did was provide a false impression of what the WRONG NUMBER journal was about. I had to go back to the drawing board.
That's not to say that my initial blog pitch was way off. It just started to go that way soon after. Core ideas do remain from that pitch. The dangerous fictions of Christopher Priest had blasted my mind into action and I knew I wanted to try and get an interview with him to launch WRONG NUMBER in its physical form. Let's just say that that impulse certainly remains.
It was therefore more a case of recalibration that needed to be carried out. This mainly equated to stripping out some horror stuff and gutting the music. I wanted the genre stuff to be more naturally balanced to what I'm into. Horror will sit beside SF and Fantasy, but not be allowed to scare the others into submission. Music is not something that will be covered in the pages of WRONG NUMBER. I was done with covering music years ago and have no interest in going back. That's not to say that music doesn't exert an influence on me or my writing - my most recent short story Leaving This Island samples the Pastels song of the same name - but I'm not approaching it on its own. So that was all really about dealing with the non-fiction aspects of the journal. I was all too aware that WRONG NUMBER had tilted in favour of non-fiction over fiction though, which I saw as a problem. What I wanted originally was to put out an anthology of sorts.
An anthology suggested a one-time deal. That struck a chord. Here was me busy considering second and third issues, when I should have put everything into the one. Okay, no issue number. I would aim to get everything in that I wanted, no hanging around. And, vitally, I would need to go on the hunt for new fiction. I've got some great people writing stories for me as we speak, but I need to widen that net. Which is what I'm about to do. So this is me reaching out - any writerly types out there, tell me your stories!
No issue number, but the theme remains in place. It was only communicated to contributors previously, but the doors are wide open now. So, for those who don't already know, the theme is FAKERS AND FAKERY. You can thank Orson Welles for that. Think of him science fictionalised in Mark Gatiss's fantastic Invaders from Mars audio drama for Big Finish.
Of course it doesn't take Professor Brian Cox to explain that since the universe of WRONG NUMBER is expanding, then it will take more time to pull it all back together. Rather than rushing matters, I'm pretty much giving the journal 2013 in entirety. As pieces are submitted throughout the year I can get them edited. This approach means that I can also focus on my own book writing activities.
What I will say is that although there have been changes along the way and deadlines have gone the way of the big bang, WRONG NUMBER in physical form will happen. It will be a book of sorts, and you will be able to pick it up and read it. This is not going the way of Harlan Ellison's never-to-appear but never-actually-aborted The Last Dangerous Visions anthology. Christopher Priest will not be writing an exploration of its non-appearance. WRONG NUMBER will appear and at precisely the right time.
"IT DOESN'T MATTER. I HAVE BOOKS, NEW BOOKS, AND I CAN BEAR ANYTHING AS LONG AS THERE ARE BOOKS."
That's a quotation from the magnificent, life alteringly brilliant Among Others by Jo Walton, which has basically taken every award in the field. Its references to classic SF novels from the 1970s and earlier will have you rummaging through your bookshelves after finally putting it down. Dig out that James Tiptree, Jnr. collection you've been meaning to get to (I did, and I've learned what others have been saying for years: James Tiptree/Alice Sheldon was one of the greatest writers ever to have lived); hunt high and low for that Samuel R. Delany two-novels-in-one-paperback you picked up in Aberdeen ages ago; finally arrive at Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Then you will want to order up another Roger Zelazny, buy a couple of Larry Nivens and get on that Robert Silverberg tip.
With that in mind, I'll pass along a few words on Walton and Tiptree, courtesy of me on Goodreads.
AMONG OTHERS
By JO WALTON
"There are some awful things in the world, it's true, but there are also some great books." So Mori tells her diary - and us - early on in Jo Walton's miraculous novel. It's an idea that will resonate with anyone who loves books more than others would lead you to believe is healthy. Among Others speaks to those of us who filter much of our lives through what we read. More than mere enjoyment, it gets right under your skin, burrowing into your very soul.
I deeply, deeply love this book about books. The Fantasy narrative runs throughout, but acts as a framing device for the real. Jo Walton has lived these words and can communicate what that means to the reader. Mori is the most voracious of readers and her constant mention of particular SF and Fantasy books she is buying and reading is the furthest it could be from window dressing. These stories are figurative crutches she uses to understand the world around her - despite real magic being nothing like it is in the stories.
One of the finest novels of recent years and an instant classic, in the truest possible sense.
I could go on for days without getting to the heart of what makes this book so completely special. Among Others is waiting for you. Go and get lost in it.
HER SMOKE ROSE UP FOREVER
By JAMES TIPTREE, JNR.
An astonishing collection of cutting edge 1970s science fiction that loses none of its power when read today. James Tiptree, Jnr's explorations of gender and the failures of the human race may be bleak, but absolutely get to the core of us. That James Tiptree, Jnr was in fact Alice Sheldon only deepens her brilliance, highlighting certain depths within her stories. And these are stories of the very highest calibre.
THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER
Thought I would sign out as I began, on a Harlan Ellison note. I'm really quite delighted with my recently acquired Star Trek TOS tee. Artist Juan Ortiz has designed awesome retro style movie posters for each episode of the original series; welovefine.com have been making them into t-shirts. I had to get one. This is what it has on it.
Somewhere in time, Dr. McCoy has gone insane.
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