It all starts with an idea…
My husband once told me that the thing he loves about me is I get these ideas that I won’t let go of until I do something about it, usually right away. That’s why I’ve paid to put girls through school in countries where girls don’t go through school, helped run a charity that helps women in Uganda live stable lives, run a huge fund drive to put books in schools in a ton of undeveloped nations in Africa….
I’m that kind of person. I get these ideas, and they won’t let go until I do something about it.
Perhaps I’m premature with this, but I’m a believer that, if I have a way to reach out to people and get the most information possible while putting forward the least amount of effort (I’m lazy, and I have a two-year-old), then I’ll do it.
Every year I run a series called Special Needs in Strange Worlds, which I am moving over to SF Signal to run on a bi-weekly basis. I do this because disability in SFF has nearly no voice, and gets absolutely no attention. It’s such an important topic that touches so many people so profoundly that running this column and series is one of the most important things I do.
Earlier today I was doing research on an article I’m writing about short stories, their market and whatever else, also because that’s an aspect of publishing I know nothing about, and that never gets talked about.
That’s how I roll.
Anyway, doing this research, and preparing to launch my SF Signal column, gave me this idea:
Why doesn’t someone put together an anthology celebrating disabilities in the genre? And why doesn’t someone donate 100% of the money to an applicable charity?
I put that on Twitter, and the internet exploded on me (in a good way). I’m honestly SHOCKED by the HUGE level of excitement that I saw within five minutes of posting my question. I mean, wow. You people are hungry for an anthology like this, and that makes me feel really warm and fuzzy inside.
So, I saw all these comments and I graduated from, “why doesn’t someone” to “Why don’t I put together an anthology…”
The problem? I’ve helped edit exactly one anthology, and I wasn’t the person who got the stories or pitched the anthology to authors, so I have no idea what I’m doing, but I am more determined to do this than I’ve been about anything since I beat cancer and delivered a healthy baby despite all my life chaos.
This IS going to happen. Right now I’m doing massive amounts of research, and emailing people that have been suggested to me as Founts of Wisdom I can tap into.
What I’m asking from you is more tips, suggestions, various wisdoms you can give me before I really, really launch this thing. This anthology was literally thought of about an hour ago and so this post is very, very early, but I’d be a fool not to tap into the network this blog has created for me. Please, please tell me who to contact, what sites I should look at, anything else I should know that I am not thinking of (which is a lot).
And thank you so much for the gigantic swell of support I got about this idea. I’m so damn excited I can hardly stand myself.
