Editor’s Note – November 2010

Welcome to Redstone #6, in which your editor gets to eat a little crow.

I have consistently said that I do not prefer stories that are primarily about romantic relationships or humorous stories. So this month we are publishing a story that considers how a biotech advance could impact a couple’s relationship and and a humorous story about wrestling. There’s a reason we have gone against type with these stories – they are damn good.

Cat Rambo’s story, “Not Waving, Drowning” considers how technology that allows one partner to read the other’s thoughts would complicate a relationship. Desmond Warzel’s flash piece, “Wrestling with Alienation”, uses a barroom story by a wrestler to make us consider the “universal” nature of pop culture. We enjoyed these excellent stories and hope you will too.

For many writers (and poor, poor editors) November has increasingly come to mean NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. Thousands of writers pledge to turn out a fifty-thousand-word novel during the month, much to the chagrin of many ‘serious’ writers, and particularly novel editors & agents, who will be inundated with half-formed manuscripts by New Year’s. But novels written during NaNoWriMo have been published, and our Henry Cribbs tracked down five authors whose fifty thousand words were successfully transformed into published works. He quizzed them about how they were able to ‘live the dream’ and get their caffeine-fueled rough drafts into print and now shares with us what he found. (Hank and I are both taking a swing at NaNoWriMo this year – my id is mikeray – so find us there).

I also want to encourage you to check out our cover. The awesome photo is by Richard Newton, who is an outstanding photographer (and lawyer, and expert in all things Japan). It so reminded me of an anti-totalitarian image from a punk rock band flyer in the late’s 70’s, that I just ran with it. Give it a look.

As always, we hope that you find something here that you will enjoy.

Your Humble Servant,
Michael Ray
Editor
RSF