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| Nicole Murphy – Photo by Cat Sparks |
You edited the anthology The Outcast: An Anthology of Exiles and Strangers. Can you tell us about the experience and if you would jump into an editing role again if the opportunity came up?
I would love to edit again – I’ve got plans, but it just requires time and money. But I will definitely edit again.
Working on The Outcast was fabulous.
I really do get as much joy from other people’s achievements as I do from my own, and it was fabulous to get the opportunity to work with other people to help them polish their stories.
Some of those stories went through a lot of work – Rowena Cory Daniells and I passed her story back and forth several times in order to nail the ending and it really did work. Others, such as Kaaron Warren’s award nominated ‘Woman Train’ didn’t require any touch-up at all. I will never forget the moment I first read that story – it was EVERYTHING that I wanted for the anthology. I was so pleased that other people loved it as well.
I was really pleased with the anthology. One of the things I loved most was that every time someone posted a review or listed their favourite stories, it was a different list. I loved that I seemed to have found something for everyone. And I loved that it was gender balanced, and that there was a range of cultures represented and that it got to look at lots of different ideas of the term ‘outcast’. It’s not a perfect anthology – I doubt anyone’s first book of ANYTHING is perfect – but I’m still proud to stand up and say it’s mine.
Working on The Outcast coincided with me editing my one and only edition of Andromeda Spaceways as well – Issue 25. The fun with that one was getting the second Red Priest story from Dirk Flinthart – I’d worked on the first story as an assistant editor with Edwina Harvey and was so happy to publish the second.
The entire experience really did help me in my own writing – learning to break story down and work on it.
Even if you don’t want to edit, I’d really recommend getting into critiquing other people’s work. It trains your brain to consider things objectively and so you’re then better able to edit your own work.
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