This week we put our five questions to For Want Of A Horse editor Evey Brett.
- Would you like to introduce yourself as an editor (or writer, or any other hats you also wear…)
For Want of a Horse marks my editorial debut, but I've written lots of queer SF/F, romance and erotica and have gone to workshops like Clarion, Taos Toolbox and the Lambda Retreat for Emerging LGBT Writers. I have a Lipizzan mare named Carrma, although I don't necessarily call myself a horse person. See, I wasn't horse crazy as a kid and didn't know anything about them until I met Carrma in 2009. Yet somehow she decided I was the perfect sucker--er, human--to pamper her in her later years, so she arranged the universe so that I'd be her main provider of carrots and walks around the barn. Since then, she's been a contributing factor for many of my books and stories. - Summarise your latest book from Lethe in five words!
Magic horses, old and new. - Was there a specific kind of story – a feel, a style, a character, etc. – that you were looking for when choosing stories?
The easy answer is that I was looking for tales featuring magic horses. Beyond that, I needed a balance; some were fairy tales (and I had to be sure they didn't all have the same general plot,) some were more modern, some fantasy, some horror, and one SF. For the four more recent reprints, I wanted stories that both complemented the stories I already had and offered something new. - Is there an elusive story somewhere that you’d love to find but never quite have? (In other words, what’s the perfect recipe to get into the next anthology…)
Next time, when I'm not doing an anthology with a very limited call for a limited number of reprint slots, my ideal stories are what I look for when I read magazine slush: good prose, depth of character, a plot that's not straightforward, has something unique and is not a trope I see over and over. There's no one specific ideal story I have in mind; I'll know it when I see it. - In your reading, did you come across any new names (whether they are included in the anthology or not) that are ones to watch for the future?
Beth Cato ("Red Dust and Dancing Horses") has been producing some excellent books and stories in her Clockwork Dagger universe with more to come. Renee Carter Hall ("Horsemen") has several works that run the gamut between children and adult. Deborah J. Ross ("The Hero of Abarxia") is continuing the Darkover series under that name and creating original works such as The Seven-Petaled Shield series under her married name, Deborah Wheeler.
For Want Of A Horse is out now from Lethe Press. Check it out.
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