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.
Table of Contents
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
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
Table of Contents
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