About the production meeting

We, the Editors of Electric Spec are working hard behind the scenes on the February 28, 2015 issue. Recently, we had our production meeting for this issue. Thus we are in the process of emailing all the authors with stories in hold-for-voting with a yea or nay. Yea authors also get a nifty contract which they need to email back so we can start editing their stories. Let me reiterate something I've said before: if your story was in hold-for-voting it was publishable. Writing is a tough business so you have to appreciate small victories. You should pat yourself on the back.

Some totally unbusinesslike impressions of the meeting... We met for the first time at an Asian restaurant which seemed to have only one waiter working. Thus, we had less liquor than usual. :( Editor Dave also said the scotch and soda he ordered was the oddest he'd ever tasted. I do wish I had a picture of his expression when he tasted it. However, my beers were good and my sushi was good, so I'm not complaining.
We invented a new game. When the fortune cookies come, instead of adding 'in bed' at the end, add 'in my novel.' Thus, here are our novel fortunes:

• The axe soon forgets, but the tree always remembers in my novel.
• Take time to relax especially when you don't have time for it in my novel.
• Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it in my novel.

Here are some more interesting/relevant impressions from our story discussion:

• Length was an issue. Very short, flash, pieces are tough; it's hard to write an entire plot in less than a thousand words. Longer pieces (over 5,0000 words) were not popular. None of us seemed to want to edit those.
• Don't worry about political correctness. We had a story with a Muslim protagonist doing some unusual things and we discussed if we should worry about offending people. Bottom line: No worries. Send us your politically incorrect stories.
• Telling is not a hit with us. If a story has a lot of telling, i.e. summarizing of the story, rather than showing the story, it was less likely to be chosen. To be clear, none of the stories were all telling--such a story wouldn't have made it into hold-for-voting.
• Story epilogues weren't popular. One editor said why would a short story need an epilogue? Put the whole story in the story.

That's about it for the behind-the-scenes. I won't tell you about seeing Editor Betsy and Editor Dave 'talking' in the dark and deserted parking lot. Under the full moon. I won't tell you how their ears seemed much larger and hairier, or their hands looked much claw-ier, or their teeth much bigger and sharper. I will tell you I got out of there quick!