Bouchercon Panel Report: Anthologies
This panel had a bunch of last-minute switches, so I'm not sure who the moderator was or of the spelling of everyone's names. Panelists were S. A. "Shawn" Cosby, Alan Orloff, Mark Westmoreland, and Faye Snowden.
Bryan Quartermore, a white guy and a good panelist, is an author and an editor at Angry Robot.
Alan Orloff looks like he's a newer writer/editor. He's a white guy and was a good panelist. I think he was standing in for Hank Philippi Ryan, who couldn't make it due to covid and edited an anthology on revenge, This Time For Sure, which Alan had a story in. He read a statement from Hank saying that anyone who emailed her at her website would get a gift.
Alan: "My short story 'Killing Calhoun' has a huge twist in the last sentence. Hank suggested taking it out. Then I came up with a new twist. We had 20 emails back and forth, and then we ended up keeping it as is."
Shawn Cosby was an editor for the anthology Under the Thumb: Stories of Police Oppression, which I had planned to never read on the grounds that it would be soul-crushingly depressing. He's also the author of Blacktop Wasteland (fantastic) and Razorblade Tears (reading now, so far fantastic). He's a Black guy with a beard and is incredibly charismatic.
Shawn: "The intention of the anthology was not to mythologize the police. We did a blind submission process and a lot of people didn't understand the assignment, which was to take the point of view that police violence is a solvable problem. We got a lot of very nihilistic stories that were basically 'Everyone's gonna die, everyone's gonna get their heads caved in, goodnight." That was not what they were looking for. [Rachel: This convinced me to buy the anthology, because I'd thought that WAS what they were looking for!]
Shawn: "There were eight editors, so we had a lot of discussion. Some submissions we were all like, 'Well this is horrible.' A guy from Africa submitted, we had trouble with edits because there was a language barrier. His story was good, but it was a process."
Shawn: "Most people took edits okay, not everybody. A really good editor doesn't take away your voice, just makes it louder."
Faye Snowden is a mystery author I haven't read but would like to try at novel length, but unfortunately they didn't have her novels at the con. She wrote the short story "Chefs" in The Midnight Hour, which I did not read due to cannibalism. She's a Black woman and was on several panels; she's a real highlight and is very erudite on the history of the genre.
Faye: "'Chefs' was the funnest story I ever wrote. It's set in Modesto, and was inspired by a commute I used to make between Modesto, where I lived, and the Bay Area, where I worked." The drive featured a lot of pumpkin fields.
Faye: "Editing on Midnight Hour was very simple. I think I had one or two notes. But the story was very polished when I submitted it."
Mark Westmoreland is also a mystery author I haven't read but would like to try, but unfortunately they didn't have his books at the con. He edited the anthology Trouble No More: Crime Fiction Inspired by Southern Rock and the Blues.He's a white guy with a Georgia accent that is very nice to listen to.
Mark: "Trouble No More was a happy accident." He loves the Allman Brothers and Tweeted that he was going to do an anthology based on their music. Shawn Cosby Tweeted that he'd write for it, then DM'd him an idea.
Mark: "It was a joke!"
Another writer, J. B. Stevens, Tweeted, "I wanna write for that."
Mark: "I said, 'It ain't happening.' Then J. B. started emailing editors. 24 hours later, he tells me he has an offer. I said, 'The fuck you mean?'"
Next thing he knew, "I was emailing writers like I was asking girls in high school."
Shawn: "I was joking... I was just kinda fucking around... Then I wrote a story."
Mod: "What artist or group would you all want to base an anthology on?"
Shawn: "Bruce Springsteen. Right after I got dropped by my agent, I saw an interview with him on TV. He was making Born to Run, and he decided, 'I'll put everything I like in it.' So I wrote Blacktop Wasteland, and I did that too. Springsteen, when you're 25, you think, 'He's all right.' But when you're 45, he speaks to your soul."
Bryan: "My favorite genre of music is Motown, but I've got no business editing stories about that. But I'd do an anthology off the Beach Boys."
Faye: "Bob Seger. 'Row Me Away.'"
Alan: "Linda Ronstadt."
Mark: "Dolly Parton."
Shawn: "Whenever you think you're a really good writer, remember that Dolly Parton wrote "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" in the same day."
Mod: "What hold does the south have on us?"
Mark: "Like they say, if you can't set a crime story in the south, you can't set it anywhere. The whole history of the south is fucked up. I mean, Florida..."
Faye: "But still, there's something about it, something about the soil. There's something that you love, that gets in your soul."
Shawn: "People think a dark alley is scary. Let me tell you, the scariest thing is the world is an empty country road with no moon."
Shawn: "Every scrap of land that a boy with a Confederate flag marched over, a Black person bled on it, worked on it. I'll be damned if I let you take it for a four year hissy fit."
Mod: "Hank's anthology has a revenge theme. If you could, would you take revenge on those who wronged you?"
Alan: "Yes."
Shawn: "I would. I worked at a hardware store for twelve years. I decided to quit and work with my wife so I'd have more time to write. My manager kept saying, 'But you got such a good career.' I thought, 'If you say that one more time, I'm going to throw you into the thresher.' After I left, even after I published a book, he kept saying that to other people who worked there who I knew. I came by and gave him a copy of Blacktop Wasteland. I signed it, 'I don't think I'm coming back.'
Bryan: "I used to be an angry, petty, vindictive person. Recently I gave up on a book I was writing because I wasn't that person anymore and I couldn't get into that mindset."
Mod: "I haven't grown up as much as Bryan has."
Mark: "I'm with Shawn, I'm on Team Vengeance. My day job is in customer service. After eight hours, you just plot creative ways to do away with them."
Faye: "I tell myself everyone's just doing the best they can. Of course, we're all human, so sometimes people do get to me. But I think success is the best revenge. They see my books, they can eat their livers."
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Bryan Quartermore, a white guy and a good panelist, is an author and an editor at Angry Robot.
Alan Orloff looks like he's a newer writer/editor. He's a white guy and was a good panelist. I think he was standing in for Hank Philippi Ryan, who couldn't make it due to covid and edited an anthology on revenge, This Time For Sure, which Alan had a story in. He read a statement from Hank saying that anyone who emailed her at her website would get a gift.
Alan: "My short story 'Killing Calhoun' has a huge twist in the last sentence. Hank suggested taking it out. Then I came up with a new twist. We had 20 emails back and forth, and then we ended up keeping it as is."
Shawn Cosby was an editor for the anthology Under the Thumb: Stories of Police Oppression, which I had planned to never read on the grounds that it would be soul-crushingly depressing. He's also the author of Blacktop Wasteland (fantastic) and Razorblade Tears (reading now, so far fantastic). He's a Black guy with a beard and is incredibly charismatic.
Shawn: "The intention of the anthology was not to mythologize the police. We did a blind submission process and a lot of people didn't understand the assignment, which was to take the point of view that police violence is a solvable problem. We got a lot of very nihilistic stories that were basically 'Everyone's gonna die, everyone's gonna get their heads caved in, goodnight." That was not what they were looking for. [Rachel: This convinced me to buy the anthology, because I'd thought that WAS what they were looking for!]
Shawn: "There were eight editors, so we had a lot of discussion. Some submissions we were all like, 'Well this is horrible.' A guy from Africa submitted, we had trouble with edits because there was a language barrier. His story was good, but it was a process."
Shawn: "Most people took edits okay, not everybody. A really good editor doesn't take away your voice, just makes it louder."
Faye Snowden is a mystery author I haven't read but would like to try at novel length, but unfortunately they didn't have her novels at the con. She wrote the short story "Chefs" in The Midnight Hour, which I did not read due to cannibalism. She's a Black woman and was on several panels; she's a real highlight and is very erudite on the history of the genre.
Faye: "'Chefs' was the funnest story I ever wrote. It's set in Modesto, and was inspired by a commute I used to make between Modesto, where I lived, and the Bay Area, where I worked." The drive featured a lot of pumpkin fields.
Faye: "Editing on Midnight Hour was very simple. I think I had one or two notes. But the story was very polished when I submitted it."
Mark Westmoreland is also a mystery author I haven't read but would like to try, but unfortunately they didn't have his books at the con. He edited the anthology Trouble No More: Crime Fiction Inspired by Southern Rock and the Blues.He's a white guy with a Georgia accent that is very nice to listen to.
Mark: "Trouble No More was a happy accident." He loves the Allman Brothers and Tweeted that he was going to do an anthology based on their music. Shawn Cosby Tweeted that he'd write for it, then DM'd him an idea.
Mark: "It was a joke!"
Another writer, J. B. Stevens, Tweeted, "I wanna write for that."
Mark: "I said, 'It ain't happening.' Then J. B. started emailing editors. 24 hours later, he tells me he has an offer. I said, 'The fuck you mean?'"
Next thing he knew, "I was emailing writers like I was asking girls in high school."
Shawn: "I was joking... I was just kinda fucking around... Then I wrote a story."
Mod: "What artist or group would you all want to base an anthology on?"
Shawn: "Bruce Springsteen. Right after I got dropped by my agent, I saw an interview with him on TV. He was making Born to Run, and he decided, 'I'll put everything I like in it.' So I wrote Blacktop Wasteland, and I did that too. Springsteen, when you're 25, you think, 'He's all right.' But when you're 45, he speaks to your soul."
Bryan: "My favorite genre of music is Motown, but I've got no business editing stories about that. But I'd do an anthology off the Beach Boys."
Faye: "Bob Seger. 'Row Me Away.'"
Alan: "Linda Ronstadt."
Mark: "Dolly Parton."
Shawn: "Whenever you think you're a really good writer, remember that Dolly Parton wrote "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" in the same day."
Mod: "What hold does the south have on us?"
Mark: "Like they say, if you can't set a crime story in the south, you can't set it anywhere. The whole history of the south is fucked up. I mean, Florida..."
Faye: "But still, there's something about it, something about the soil. There's something that you love, that gets in your soul."
Shawn: "People think a dark alley is scary. Let me tell you, the scariest thing is the world is an empty country road with no moon."
Shawn: "Every scrap of land that a boy with a Confederate flag marched over, a Black person bled on it, worked on it. I'll be damned if I let you take it for a four year hissy fit."
Mod: "Hank's anthology has a revenge theme. If you could, would you take revenge on those who wronged you?"
Alan: "Yes."
Shawn: "I would. I worked at a hardware store for twelve years. I decided to quit and work with my wife so I'd have more time to write. My manager kept saying, 'But you got such a good career.' I thought, 'If you say that one more time, I'm going to throw you into the thresher.' After I left, even after I published a book, he kept saying that to other people who worked there who I knew. I came by and gave him a copy of Blacktop Wasteland. I signed it, 'I don't think I'm coming back.'
Bryan: "I used to be an angry, petty, vindictive person. Recently I gave up on a book I was writing because I wasn't that person anymore and I couldn't get into that mindset."
Mod: "I haven't grown up as much as Bryan has."
Mark: "I'm with Shawn, I'm on Team Vengeance. My day job is in customer service. After eight hours, you just plot creative ways to do away with them."
Faye: "I tell myself everyone's just doing the best they can. Of course, we're all human, so sometimes people do get to me. But I think success is the best revenge. They see my books, they can eat their livers."
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