Clarkesworld Anthology 2012 (121 page)

Editor’s Desk:
Getting off the Roller Coaster

Neil Clarke

As those who have been reading my blog or prior editorials know, 2012 has been a roller coaster year for me. Between the heart attack, kidney stone, deaths in the family, defibrillators, award nominations and still being alive, I’m never quite sure what to make of things. Shortly after writing my previous editorial, Hurricane Sandy struck and left my family without power, heat, phone and internet service for nearly ten days. Several large trees crashed down around our home, but we safely weathered the storm. After the temperature dropped and our batteries died, we gave up, packed our suitcases and hit the road.

I was able to spend part of the time in Toronto (at the World Fantasy Convention) and the rest with family as they regained power in their homes. It was reassuring to be in the company of friends and family, but we missed home and were very happy to return. It’s hard to rest when you are displaced and while inconvenient, we didn’t suffer nearly as much as people who lived closer to the coast. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to our readers that were and continue to be impacted by this storm.

Shortly after recovering from the hurricane, the roller coaster took another plunge as I lost my job. Much to my regret, I don’t currently make my living from
Clarkesworld
. It’s an obtainable goal for which we continue to strive but I still need a day job to provide healthcare coverage and money to pay the bills.

What happened next was incredible. Once again, the genre community bent the tracks and leveled things out. People subscribed or donated to the magazine, started sending me information about new jobs, and made a serious effort to get word of my situation out there so that others could help too.

I owe a great deal of thanks to many people, but I need to single out Kate Baker, John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, and Weightless Books. They amped up the signal and said some very kind things that made a big difference to me both financially and emotionally. By the time Thanksgiving rolled around, I had much to be thankful for and the confidence that everything would be ok.

I can happily say that thanks to everyone’s efforts, November provided our largest single-month gain in the history of the magazine. A big welcome to this month’s new subscribers! As a whole, you’ve made a significant difference and will continue to do so over the next year.

I consider my time with this magazine to be one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. It seems only appropriate that I continue to soldier on and this kind of support greatly encourages me. I hope that some of you will take the time to email me your thoughts about how we’re doing. We’re always looking for ways to improve the magazine and reader feedback has played a significant role in all our plans.

Despite all of 2012’s bad things, I can’t call it a bad year. There were just too many good things that helped offset the unpleasant. For me, 2013 is a new opportunity, a gift, a year I wasn’t supposed to have. I don’t know how I’ve managed to stay positive through all this (ok, not through it all, but definitely now), but I intend to ride it into the new year. From all of us at
Clarkesworld,
we wish you and yours all the best as we approach 2013. Stay tuned. The best is yet to come.

About the Author

Neil Clarke
is the editor of
Clarkesworld Magazine,
owner of Wyrm Publishing and a 2012 Hugo Nominee for Best Editor (short form). He currently lives in NJ with his wife and two children.

• Clarkesworld #64 - 2012/01
  
  • Scattered Along the River of Heaven
    
  • What Everyone Remembers
    
  • All the Painted Stars
    
  • The Future Sounds of Yesterday: A Sequence of Synthesizers in Science Fiction
    
  • Things You Will Never Understand: A Conversation with Robert Jackson Bennett
    
  • 2011 Reader's Survey
    
  • Rockman
    
• Clarkesworld #65 - 2012/02
  
  • And the Hollow Space Inside
    
  • A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight
    
  • All the Young Kirks and Their Good Intentions
    
  • From Farm to Fable: Food, Fantasy, and Science Fiction
    
  • Everything's Surprising: A Conversation with Lev AC Rosen
    
  • Wendigo Waistcoat Spyglass and Other Words with Lisa L. Hannett
    
  • 2011 Reader's Poll Results
    
  • Pilot
    
• Clarkesworld #66 - 2012/03
  
  • Sunlight Society
    
  • The Bells of Subsidence
    
  • From Their Paws, We Shall Inherit
    
  • The Romance of Ruins
    
  • The Biker Chick Who Rides Her Own Bike: A Conversation with Nathan Long
    
  • Writing Is Magic: A Conversation with John R. Fultz
    
  • And Now for a Few Short Words from our Editor
    
  • Dead Space Girl
    
• Clarkesworld #67 - 2012/04
  
  • Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes
    
  • Draftyhouse
    
  • The Womb Factory
    
  • The Latest Apocalypse: Popular Music and the End of the World
    
  • Passing Through Each Other: A Round-Table Discussion of Speculative Fiction and Academia
    
  • Suitably Strange: A Round-Table Discussion of World-Building
    
  • Another Word: Reading as Performance
    
  • Place to Ponder
    
• Clarkesworld #68 - 2012/05
  
  • Prayer
    
  • Synch Me, Kiss Me, Drop
    
  • All the Things the Moon is Not
    
  • The Fairy Tale in the TV Age
    
  • Straightforward & Unadorned Adventure: A Conversation with Michael J. Sullivan
    
  • Another Word: Dear Speculative Fiction, I'm Glad We Had This Talk
    
  • From the Editor's Desk
    
  • Sci-fi Farmer
    
• Clarkesworld #69 - 2012/06
  
  • Immersion
    
  • If The Mountain Comes
    
  • You Were She Who Abode
    
  • Energizing Futures: How SF Fuels Itself
    
  • Neither the Billionaire nor the Tramp: Economics in Speculative Fiction
    
  • Another Word: Assimilation, Multiculturalism, and Me
    
  • Editor's Desk: Clarkesworld by the Numbers
    
  • Target Detected
    
• Clarkesworld #70 - 2012/07
  
  • Astrophilia
    
  • The Switch
    
  • Iron Ladies, Iron Tigers
    
  • Life After Quatermass: Hammer Films' '60s Science Fiction
    
  • To Save Ourselves: A Conversation with Nancy Kress
    
  • Another Word: The Exceptional Smurfette, or Being One of the Guys as a Superpower
    
  • Launch Day
    
• Clarkesworld #71 - 2012/08
  
  • Mantis Wives
    
  • Honey Bear
    
  • Fade to White
    
  • The Spell of History: Magic Systems and Real-World Zeitgeists
    
  • In a Carapace of Light: A Conversation with China Miéville
    
  • Another Word: Plausibility and Truth
    
  • Editor's Desk: Finding the Good in a Dark Day
    
  • Space Journey
    
• Clarkesworld #72 - 2012/09
  
  • The Found Girl
    
  • Robot
    
  • muo-ka's Child
    
  • Between a UFO and a Hard Place: The Real-Life Science Heroics of Dr. Omond Solandt
    
  • The Satirist's Progress: A Discussion with Nick Mamatas and Paul Tremblay
    
  • Another Word: Super Duper Sexual Spiritual Black Woman: The New and Improved Magical Negro
    
  • Editor's Desk: Professionally Speaking
    
  • Awe at Thistledown
    
• Clarkesworld #73 - 2012/10
  
  • A Bead of Jasper, Four Small Stones
    
  • England under the White Witch
    
  • The Battle of Candle Arc
    
  • The Future, One Thing at a Time
    
  • A Germ of an Idea: An Interview with John Varley
    
  • Another Word: Practicing Dissatisfaction
    
  • Editor's Desk: Six and Counting
    
  • Breaking Through
    
• Clarkesworld #74 - 2012/11
  
  • (To See the Other) Whole Against the Sky
    
  • Aquatica
    
  • Everything Must Go
    
  • Foundation and Reality: Asimov’s Psychohistory and Its Real-World Parallels
    
  • The Art of Brutal Prose: An Interview with Mark Lawrence
    
  • Another Word: It Gets Better with SFF (but SFF has to Get Better, too)
    
  • Editor’s Desk: I, Cyborg
    
  • New World
    
• Clarkesworld #75 - 2012/12
  
  • Your Final Apocalypse
    
  • The Wisdom of Ants
    
  • Sweet Subtleties
    
  • The Corpse of the Future: Jane C. Loudon's The Mummy! and Victorian Science Fiction
    
  • A Thousand Words You Can Hear All at Once: An Interview with Todd Lockwood
    
  • Another Word: The Echo Chamber
    
  • Editor's Desk: Getting off the Roller Coaster
    
  • The Lost City