Hi, World. Sorry I’ve been away so long. I’ve been going non-stop since Spain in April and haven’t even had time to post. I think I already mentioned the editing, the writing, the editing and the writing, not to mention grant applications, oh, and regular work.
Mary Beth Griffo Rigby, Flickr
Ursula Pflug and I finished our selection and edits of the stories for The Playground of Lost Toys. We’re now discussing cover art with the publisher but none of us can agree. Still, we’re looking at a November release from Exile Editions. Initially we were worried because people did not seem to be expanding their imaginations when it came to thinking about toys or games. We wanted unusual. Too many creepy doll stories have been done to death, and we did get a few. Then there was the stuffy barrage, and oddly enough bunnies more than bears. People seemed stuck in the same old tropes and there was little that excited us. I began to worry but I should have known better. When a submission period opens, people will often pull out their trunk stories, ones that have been languishing without a home, and send them in.
Some may be suitable and others are a stretch. We received several very good stories from authors but there was either no toy or game, or there was no speculative element and we had stipulated that both were required. The speculative element had to be integral to the piece. Otherwise, if you can remove it and the story still runs, then you have a story that is not fantasy or science fiction. I figured with the topic that we would have a majority of fantasy stories. In the end we ended up with 22 stories, 8 or 9 of them SF, depending on how you interpret that. We have 12 women and 10 men so not a bad split in gender. They are all Canadian writers, except for Rhonda Eikamp. The mandate was that 90% had to be Canadian, due to funding rules.
The tales themselves: yes, there are two doll stories and one bunny stuffy tale. There are also stories about chess, wooden games, time travel, parallel times, dragon toys, trains, compasses, daggers, puzzles, dice, rattles, nursery rhymes, hide and seek, and show and tell, transforming toys, swings, make-believe, online games and godly games. It’s a good mix, which involves everything from nanotech and police procedurals to ghosts, magic and wishful thinking. We have a range that Ursula and I are pleased with. They’re funny, thoughtful, poignant and terrifying. Over the next few months I hope to do short interviews with the authors and post them here.
Here is the table of contents:
- FUN THING FOR AGES 8 TO 10
- Chris Kuriata
- THE COMPASS
- Joe Davies
- HIDE AND SEEK
- Catherine MacLeod
- SHOW AND TELL
- Kate Story
- THE DIE
- Meagan Whan
- THE FOOD OF MY PEOPLE
- Candas Jane Dorsey
- CHAYA AND LOONY-BOY
- Rati Mehrota
- THE GHOST RATTLE
- Nathan Adler
- THE GARDEN OF OUR DECEIT
- Rhonda Eikamp
- HACKER CHESS
- Robert Runté
- AND THEY ALL LIVED TOGETHER IN A CROOKED LITTLE HOUSE
- Linda DeMeulemeester
- BALERO
- Kevin Cockle
- LESS THAN KATHERINE
- Claude Lalumière
- GOODBYE IS A MOUTHFUL OF WATER
- Dominik Parisien
- TREASURE
- DVS Duncan
- OF DANDELIONS AND MAGIC
- Christine Daigle
- WHAT NOT TO EXPECT IN THE TODDLER YEARS
- Melissa Yuan-Innes
- WHEN THE TRAINS RUN ON TIME
- Shane Simmons
- MAKOUR
- Lisa Carreiro
- WITH ONE SHOE
- Karen Abrahamson
- WHEATIESFIELDS IN FALL
- Geoffrey W. Cole
- BETWEEN THE BRANCHES OF THE NINE
- Alex C. Renwick
My next posts will be another writing update but also about the urban archeology adventure I did in April, for my birthday. Happy Reading!
Colleen Anderson 