SPAWN: WEIRD HORROR TALES ABOUT PREGNANCY, BIRTH AND BABIES: INTERVIEW AND CALL FOR STORIES
26/5/2020
 Interview with Deborah Sheldon (editor) and Gerry Huntman (publisher) of Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and BabiesSpawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, edited by award-winning author Deborah Sheldon and released by renowned small press IFWG Publishing Australia, will comprise stories from Australian writers obtained via commission and on-spec callout. The commissioned writers are the multi-award-winning and bestselling authors Isobelle Carmody, Jack Dann, Kaaron Warren and Sean Williams. Submissions are now open and will close midnight 31 August 2020, Australian EST. Deborah Sheldon: I’ve wanted to edit my own horror anthology for a couple of years now. In my 34 years of professional writing, I’ve helmed various non-fiction projects—such as the script portion of SomaZone, the internationally award-winning CD-Rom on adolescent health—but never a fiction project. I thought I had a cracking idea for an anthology but my lack of hands-on experience made me hesitate to approach a publisher. Then out of the blue, Greg Chapman, president of the Australasian Horror Writers Association, invited me to guest-edit the 2019 issue of their flagship publication, Midnight Echo. Serendipity…of course I said yes! That invitation gave me the nudge I needed to find a home for my own anthology. After preparing a pitch, my first choice was IFWG Publishing Australia. IFWG champions anthologies, and has released a few of my titles such as the award-winning Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories, and the award-nominated novel Contrition. Gerry Huntman: Yes, anthologies are very important to IFWG. When we formed as a publishing company one of our drivers was the concept of assisting writers who were underrepresented in the industry. The short story platform is one such dimension, and besides, we love short fiction! We published over a number of years SQ Mag, an ezine that made a strong splash in the speculative fiction fields internationally. We have also published narrower subject matter in monograph format, such as our Cthulhu Deep Down Under anthology series including the New Zealand-oriented Cthulhu: Land of the Long White Cloud. More recently we published Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Was Not, an anthology injecting strongly into speculative fiction by having each story assume Holmes’ side-kick was a famous Nineteenth-century historical figure, or literary character. Anthologies are big investments for small press (at least to do them justice), so we throttle the frequency to one or two a year—but we will never let go of this format. Deborah Sheldon: The idea for Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies sprang from one of my more gruesome stories: “Hair and Teeth”. It was first published in Aurealis magazine in 2018, reprinted in Year’s Best Hardcore Horror #4, and mentioned in Ellen Datlow’s “Recommended List for 2019” in Best Horror of the Year. “Hair and Teeth” is about a middle-aged woman who suspects that her relentless vaginal bleeding is not due to menopause but an infestation of monsters inside her uterus. The story’s bizarre images and themes wouldn’t leave me alone. I decided that Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies would invite strange, disquieting tales in a similar vein, including both metaphorical and literal interpretations of reproduction. In July 2019, I approached Gerry Huntman, IFWG’s managing director, and his immediate response was enthusiastic. Gerry Huntman: I supported the project idea for a number of reasons, right from the start. First and foremost, Deb is a trusted creative and professional within IFWG’s stable of authors and it was a simple step to expand her role to editor. We work hard to develop strong relationships with reliable artists and technicians and trust is a natural by-product of this process. It is also no secret to those who have read our catalogue that we have a strong affinity with the horror and dark fantasy genres and sub-genres of speculative fiction, and Deb’s ideas were original and exciting. I certainly saw this project as a seed for something the market will lap up. Deborah Sheldon: Gerry’s vision for the anthology turned out to be grander than mine. He suggested that we approach and commission a few big-name Australian authors. We chose Isobelle Carmody, Jack Dann, Kaaron Warren and Sean Williams. All four are on-board and I can’t wait to read their contributions. Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies will be an Australian-only anthology because I believe that every society should have the space to tell its own stories. We have tremendous writing talent in this country and I want to showcase it! I’ve long admired the United States for its passionate commitment to telling American stories—in fiction, TV and film—and I believe Australia should celebrate its own homegrown perspectives with the same fervour. Our “cultural cringe” needs to be beaten to death, and I’ll happily wield one of the clubs. Gerry Huntman: I share Deb’s idea that this particular project should showcase Australian writing talent, and from a consumer point of view, I believe that US, UK and other non-Australian readers would also see this as positive, if not ‘exotic’. IFWG, an Australian-based publishing company, has supported Australian talent for years and this project is a logical extension of this philosophy. My idea of having a core set of prominent Australian commissioned authors was in part to set a strong base for the anthology, but I viewed these great writers as having the credentials needed to attract non-Australian readers to the anthology in the first instance. Deborah Sheldon: Gerry floated the idea of including artwork commissioned by Australian artists. Thrilling! Is there an editor alive who wouldn’t want original illustrations for their anthology? At this stage, we’re depicting the work by our four lead writers, and including decorative drop-caps for every story that makes it into the anthology. Gerry Huntman: Adding illustrations to an anthology is always a carefully considered option for me. For some anthologies, particularly generally-themed, it is possible that the illustrations won’t add sufficient value to the prose. In my experience, where carefully placed illustrations add value demonstrably to anthologies (and other fiction formats) is where there are strong themes, or where there is a cross section of style that can be enhanced by complementary artwork. Deb’s project has a strong literary/artistic bent to it and by attracting the right, sensitive artists to this anthology, would add cream to an already tasty pie. We don’t want to cram illustrations into this work—our usual approach is to be sparing and very effective with placement. Deborah Sheldon: Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, we planned to crowd-fund a hardback edition, which would’ve had full-page commissioned artwork for each and every story. That may still happen, but only time will tell. Due to the economic turndown, Gerry decided that IFWG would delay release of upcoming titles, including this anthology, until the marketplace is healthy again. However, IFWG intends to get its books “print ready” as if there were no delay, and have them waiting in queue for release when this crisis is over. Gerry and I have also talked about sequels to my anthology—Australasian first, then international—but these projects will ultimately depend on the robustness of the market in future years. Gerry Huntman: The publishing industry has not been robust for decades and over recent years publishers have had to adapt and settle on business models that make sense to thrive—those that don’t fall into oblivion. IFWG had worked hard to get to the right model prior to this current crisis, and fortunately is well placed to weather the storm. Our decision to delay releases of new titles until we have a good handle on what the ‘new normal’ will look like is driven by sales (our decision was vindicated by sales and return figures coming out of our largest marketplaces), but we also want to give our authors the best possible chance to earn income and get credit for their amazing work. Fortunately, this anthology was slotted from the start to be released in 2021, and it is looking like we only have to move it back several months. Deborah Sheldon: When I was guest-editing Midnight Echo #14, every submission that hit my inbox gave me a buzz of anticipation. Before opening a story, I was already on the writer’s side. After decades of selling feature articles, non-fiction books, medical writing, scripts, short stories, novellas and novels, I’ve had literally hundreds of rejections, so I know how it feels to send work into the void with fingers and toes crossed. Honestly, I wanted to love every submission. It pained me to deliver rejection emails, but the editor’s job is to be ruthless. Pitiless. (Even though doing so gave me sleepless nights.) My master is the Reader, who quite rightly deserves high-quality writing and doesn’t care a fig about the disappointment and hurt that rejected writers may feel. So, potential contributors be advised--Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies will set a high bar. Aussie writers, bring your A-game! How to submit:Full submission details are on the IFWG Publishing Australia website: https://ifwgaustralia.com/2020/04/30/taking-submissions-spawn-weird-horror-tales-about-pregnancy-birth-and-babies/ Send on-spec submissions to Deb at spawnsubmissions@gmail.com Submissions will close midnight 31 August 2020, Australian EST. DEBORAH SHELDON Deborah Sheldon is an award-winning author from Melbourne, Australia. She writes across the darker spectrum of horror, crime and noir. Some of her titles include the novels Body Farm Z, Contrition and Devil Dragon; the novellas Thylacines and The Long Shot; the collections Figments and Fragments: Dark Stories, and the award-winning Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories (Australian Shadows “Best Collected Work 2017”). Her short fiction has appeared in many well-respected magazines such as Quadrant, Island, Aurealis, Midnight Echo and Dimension6. Her fiction has been shortlisted for numerous Aurealis and Australian Shadows awards, long-listed for a Bram Stoker award, and included in “best of” anthologies. She guest-edited the 2019 edition of Midnight Echo. Other credits include TV scripts such as Neighbours, feature articles for national magazines, non-fiction books, stage plays and award-winning medical writing. Visit Deb at http://deborahsheldon.wordpress.com GERRY HUNTMAN Gerry Huntman is the Managing Director of SQ Mag Pty Ltd, trading as IFWG Publishing Australia and IFWG Publishing International. He has over a decade of professional editing under his belt (a full member of Editor’s Australia) and is also an author himself, with over 50 short fiction sales, and has a two-book deal with Meerkat Press in the US for a middle grade novel series. His personal site can be found at https://gerryhuntman.com. IFWG PUBLISHING AUSTRALIA IFWG Publishing Australia, and its US-oriented imprint, IFWG Publishing International, are based in Melbourne Australia and has been operating for 10 years. The Australian imprint’s releases are distributed through Novella in Australia and Gazelle in the UK and Europe. Most Australian publications are co-released through the International imprint and distributed through Chicago-based IPG, to our North American and Latin American readers. The Australian/UK imprint website: https://ifwgaustralia.com THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR PROMOTIONComments are closed.
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