After four-and-a-half years, I am resigning as an Interzone co-editor.
I do not take this decision lightly, but it is what I feel I must do.
The reason is simple: like a rock band where one musician quits because she/he doesn't like the musical direction the band is taking (the well-known 'musical differences'), I am unhappy with the direction and tone the fiction in Interzone will be taking.
Make no mistake, I think that, fiction-wise, Interzone has had a very good year so far. And there are still some very good stories forthcoming (Jason Stoddard's "Monetized", Alaya Dawn Johnson's "Far and Deep", Hannu Rajaniemi's "His Master's Voice", Gord Sellar's "The Country of the Young" and Paul Evanby's "I Love the Smell of the Lotus in the Morning" immediately come to mind).
However, most of the stories the magazine has accepted this year will appear next year. And -- as mentioned above -- the tone and direction of most of those are moving farther and farther away from what I would prefer to publish. So it's time for me to say my thanks and take my leave.
I'd like to thank Andy Cox for having me all this time. I'd like to thank all IZ editors past and present. I'd like to thank everyone who has volunteered for the magazine, or helped out in any way: they've been great years, and would not have been possible without you.
I wish Interzone, and all other TTAPress publications nothing but success and the best of luck in the future. This may sound a bit strange after my statement that I'm unhappy with the direction IZ is taking, but I really do mean it.
May Interzone live long and prosper. It'll just not be my Interzone anymore.
(I wanted to post this yesterday, but was too sick and tired. Now I feel somewhat better.)
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30 comments:
Jetse,
This announcement of yours came as a shock. You were doing stellar work there and I am sad to see you leave Interzone. May you land another - lucrative, this time - editorial gig soon. Keep us updated.
Least it was an amicable parting, Jetse.
I gotta say thanks for all you've done. You pulled me out of the mire and into my first publication. I appreciate that and I have always appreciated your opinion.
There is one good piece of news.
You can get some more writing done.
Thank you, Jetse. And good luck.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Kansas City North, Missouri
Jetse:
I can't tell you how saddened I am to hear the news of your resignation from Interzone. You've done wonderful work over the past 4 1/2 years for which you should be very proud.
I also want to personally thank you for selecting "Longing For Langalana," my first significant sale, out of the slush. With respect to my two subsequent sales to IZ, you provided extremely helpful editorial input that improved the pieces.
Thank you for your passion and dedication. I wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavors as both an editor and writer.
With Deep Gratitude,
David (Mercurio) Rivera
Jetse,
Oh man, that sucks, but I know wherever you end up, your new digs will be all the better for it. I just wanted to thank you and mention that just about all my stories you sent feedback on sold to other markets. It became a good litmus test for me when I got positive notes from you, and I just knew that sucker had a chance!
Thanks!
--Clint Harris
I'm sorry to hear that, Jetse.
I'm also sorry to hear about that, Jetse, although I am hopeful that this means you'll be doing more writing yourself!
Four and a half years is quite a run, Jetse. Best of luck to you on all future endeavors, and thanks for helping to get "Two-Headed Girl" into print.
Paul Tremblay
All the best, Jetse, in whatever you go on to do.
I never got out of the slush but you always responded very positively to my stories, including giving me suggestions for other markets to try.
I look forward to seeing your name elsewhere around the genre...
All the best,
Brian
Jetse,
Sorry to hear this. Thanks for your support for my fiction over the past two email sub periods. Keep us posted should you put on an editorial hat elsewhere.
All the best,
Jay Ridler
Jetse,
As to these different directions, are you perhaps referring to the lack of the optimism in SF fiction you have blogged about in recent months?
Thanks for your comments on my submissions to IZ. Best of luck in your future endeavors, as optimists,naturally, will have!
Jetse,
Echoing the thanks of many--thank you for the thoughtful and accurate feedback that you've provided on many of my stories, and thanks for bringing more great fiction to Interzone.
I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. Hopefully we can find some way to work together again!
All the best,
Jason Stoddard
Jetse: I'm also sorry to hear that you're leaving. Thanks for all the support you've given my stories and for picking two of them out of the slushpile.
Sorry to hear you're leaving, Jetse.
Even though my poor attempts at scribbling never made the light of day you were always kind and helpful with your rejections.
Good luck with whatever you do in the future and I'll be looking out for your name in other circles where it is sure to appear.
Cream always floats to the top :)
Best,
Bob
Good luck in the Outer Zone.
des
Jetse,
Man, I actually quit a rock band partly for musical reasons. (That's always why the horn player quits, no matter what anyone says.) It was like breaking up with a girlfriend, after close to three years of rocking together.
But like so many had said, you have rocked hard. Thanks for dusting off the story you so kindly mentioned in your post, and for your advice and thoughts on the others, which resulted in one being published somewhere else, too. And believe it or not, I'm not the only person who's been inspired to try write something optimistic every once in a while...
Here's looking forward to whatever you do next. Bright and shiny and vertically ascendant and all that!
Jetse---
I think you did good work at IZ and really helped define the post-Pringle Andy Cox era of the magazine. I hope you got as much out of it as did the writers with whom you worked.
---Gordon V.G.
You'll be missed, Jetse. Your Herculean shifts in the email submission months are already the stuff of legend. I'll resist saying which Herculean task it must have felt like at times. I don't know how you managed it.
I couldn't tell you about the direction that Interzone is heading in fiction-wise but the other editors have posted a piece about the story selection policy as they see it. It's here: http://ttapress.com/513/jetse-leaves-interzone/
Taking a Panglossian spin on all of this: does this mean that we're going to see more of your fiction in the future? I certainly hope so. But, whatever you decide to do, I wish you all the best.
Good luck to you, Jetse. Your rejections were always helpful and encouraging. Perhaps you can reject me somewhere else in the future. ;)
Jetse, thanks for your hard work. Like so many others, I very much appreciated your comments on my submissions.
--Chris Willrich
Hi, Jetse.
I'm not the first person to say so, and I'm sure I won't be the last, but I'm sorry to see you go and I'm grateful to have had the chance to work with you. Selling "The Star Necromancers" to Interzone was one of my proudest moments as a writer... and then you bought "The Shenu," and I realized it wasn't just a one-time fluke.
That said, even if you'd never bought a piece from me, you were still fast, professional and gracious in rejection letters, and that's worth plenty of praise.
Best of luck in your next endeavours.
-- Alex Freed
This is disappointing news. I always liked your feedback on my stories; I felt that you were really engaged with them and not sloughing them off like so many other pro markets. I am certain that you will have success in your future writing and other endeavors.
Many, many thanks for all the very kind words, people.
I will aways remember my time at Interzone as a very good one (even if the rest of the editorial team and I drifted apart in the end), and am very grateful to Andy Cox for having me all this time.
Also, it would not have been possible with all the help, encouragement, advice, interaction (both professional and social) with all the people I met in the field, of which you all form an important part.
Keep up all the good work you're doing, and help move the genre forward!
I am working on future projects, on which I will make announcements if and when they come to fruition.
But for the upcoming week I'll be trying to do something crazy like writing (actually finishing a few that have been put on hold for a while) some fiction myself.
Breaking with Interzone was one of the most difficult decisions in my life, but I have not broken up with SF and the genre at large. I intend to keep contributing my small part in keeping SF alive and well, or -- hopefully -- move it forward.
I will not expand on the reasons for my departure: as Steve Murphy mentioned, I wish to keep this an amicable parting. Looking back in anger is not my style: I wish to look forward in hope.
And I certainly hope that I can bring good news in the future. Stay tuned...
Finally, thanks again for all the support and kind words: all the commenters here, the people who emailed me, and the others that I might have overlooked (unintentionally, I assure you!).
Let's face the future with a smile.
Jetse--
Sorry to hear that you are leaving Interzone.
I've been really impressed by your willingness to go the extra mile while an editor there--handling the email submission times was truly a Herculean task, and I really appreciated your reading and responding to my submissions.
I've been enjoying your recent short story output and hope to see more in the not-to-distant future.
--Eric Schaller
Good for you, Jetse.
Yeah, umm, I'm not the best example for partings in this field. They seem to be rather turbulent and nasty. Then again, it sounds like the Good far outweighs the Bad.
Get some writing done. And thanks again for everything you've done.
I'm so sorry to hear this, Jetse. I know for a fact that I wouldn't have sold two stories to Interzone without you there, and "Third Day Lights" is easily the story I most love to show other people. Good luck with whatever your future endeavors might be, and perhaps at some point some other publication will be lucky enough to have your talents.
Just heard this, Jetse... four and half years is a long-time within the indie-press: I should know!
I hope you'll still be going to Cons? Hate to think of you missing the *occasional* pint of beer and a curry? :)
Good luck with any future venture.
Jetse,
I can't thank you enough for your support and advocacy for my stories, and hope it didn't contribute to your leaving Interzone.
I look forward to hearing about and from you in other venues.
Hi Jetse -
Only just caught up with your news! Like so many others, very sad to see you leaving, very grateful for your support over the years, very excited by the thought of more of your fiction getting out there, and very intrigued to see what you get up to next...
Best,
Al
Just caught up with your news. I have enjoyed your work in Interzone. Sorry to see you go. All the best with your new projects. You're a hell of a writer and editor.
All the best for the future, Jetse. I hope I see you in an SF convention bar before too long...
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