Brenda Clough
What is the name of the story?
My story is titled “The Red-headed League”
What was your motivation in writing it? Does it have special meaning?
I wrote an entire trilogy, three SF novels, about Jack Wragsland and his difficulties with time travel and multiple universes. This story is actually about one of his other, less successful selves.
Bio:
Brenda W. Clough is the first female Asian-American SF writer, first appearing in print in 1984. Her latest work is a novelette, ‘Clio’s Scroll’, which appeared in Clarkesworld in July 2023. A historical novel A Door In His Head won the 2023 Diverse Voices Award. Her novella ‘May Be Some Time’ was a finalist for both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and became the novel Revise the World. Marian Halcombe, a series of eleven neo-Victorian thrillers appeared in 2021. Her complete bibliography is up on her web page, brendaclough.net.
What draws you to write short stories?
Not all ideas are suitable for novel length. Some ideas just insist upon being shorter. This particular one had no intention of being long, and I listened to it.
When did you write your first story, unpublished and then published?
Oh, I wrote short fiction in high school for English class. As I recall, my teachers were bemused. My first published short story may have been in ABORIGINAL magazine, in the 1980s.
Where have you previously been published?
My first novel THE CRYSTAL CROWN came out from DAW Books in 1984. My best known novel may be HOW LIKE A GOD, which came out from Tor in 2000.
What is one piece of advice you would give to new writers?
Bookmark Writer Beware, the SFWA crimefighting organization. They combat scams that prey upon new writers.
Where can your readers find you? (website, social media)
My website is brendaclough.net. I can also be found on Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/brenda.w.clough
What is the name of the story?
My story is titled “The Red-headed League”
What was your motivation in writing it? Does it have special meaning?
I wrote an entire trilogy, three SF novels, about Jack Wragsland and his difficulties with time travel and multiple universes. This story is actually about one of his other, less successful selves.
Bio:
Brenda W. Clough is the first female Asian-American SF writer, first appearing in print in 1984. Her latest work is a novelette, ‘Clio’s Scroll’, which appeared in Clarkesworld in July 2023. A historical novel A Door In His Head won the 2023 Diverse Voices Award. Her novella ‘May Be Some Time’ was a finalist for both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and became the novel Revise the World. Marian Halcombe, a series of eleven neo-Victorian thrillers appeared in 2021. Her complete bibliography is up on her web page, brendaclough.net.
What draws you to write short stories?
Not all ideas are suitable for novel length. Some ideas just insist upon being shorter. This particular one had no intention of being long, and I listened to it.
When did you write your first story, unpublished and then published?
Oh, I wrote short fiction in high school for English class. As I recall, my teachers were bemused. My first published short story may have been in ABORIGINAL magazine, in the 1980s.
Where have you previously been published?
My first novel THE CRYSTAL CROWN came out from DAW Books in 1984. My best known novel may be HOW LIKE A GOD, which came out from Tor in 2000.
What is one piece of advice you would give to new writers?
Bookmark Writer Beware, the SFWA crimefighting organization. They combat scams that prey upon new writers.
Where can your readers find you? (website, social media)
My website is brendaclough.net. I can also be found on Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/brenda.w.clough
Body 2
Body 3
Carol Gyzander
1. What is the name of the story?
My story is “Time for Adventure”!
2. What was your motivation in writing it? Does it have special meaning?
It’s actually been in my head for years, so much that it’s been a running joke of mine: “I firmly believe that every book should come with a small token that allows you eight hours in another time dimension to read said book!”
3. Bio
Bram Stoker Award® nominee Carol Gyzander writes and edits horror, weird fiction, and science fiction—frequently with strong women in twisted tales that touch your heart. Carol Co-Chairs the HWA NY Chapter and co-hosts their monthly Galactic Terrors online reading series. MWA, SFWA, Active HWA.
4. What draws you to write short stories?
Short stories help with focus, IMHO. Rather than tackling an epic adventure or topic with room for plenty of side plots, short stories make me hone in on what I’m planning to say in order to set up the premise, make the reader care about the character, show some sort of character change or resolution, and close it up.
5. When did you write your first story, unpublished and then published?
I remember writing some stories from prompts in middle school, but the key one I remember was written in a creative writing class in college. It featured a high school gymnast on the school bus listening to the cheerleaders talking about how one of them was injured and how they needed a skilled replacement.
My first published story was a cyberpunk Macbeth novella for Writerpunk Press, a cooperative Press I helped found and run to benefit no-kill animal shelters. Fun side note: my first publication was SA Cosby’s second publication! I could tell right away he was a fabulous writer, and I wasn’t wrong – he’s now a huge bestseller.
6. Where have you previously been published?
I have short stories in magazines such as Weird Tales 367, the cosmic horror issue, and Weird House Magazine. among other anthologies, I’m in Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign (that was my Bram Stoker Award® nominated story, “The Yellow Crown”); Cat Ladies of the Apocalypse; and Across the Universe: Tales of Alternative Beatle. I’m also a co-editor and contributor to A Woman Unbecoming and two anthologies releasing fall of 2024, Discontinue if Death Ensues: Tales from the Tipping Point (Flame Tree Publishing) and Dark Spores: Stories We Tell After Midnight 4 (Crone Girls Press).
7. Do you want your readers to know anything specific about you?
I like to say that I write twisted tales that touch your heart—often from a feminist perspective. Also, I’m certified as one of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leaders.
8. What is one piece of advice you would give to new writers?
Write the story that suits you, but don’t submit it anywhere without getting other eyes on it first. We all know what we think we’re saying, but sometimes it doesn’t come through that way to the reader!
9. Optional-what do you do in real life? (more than bio)
Before the kids came along (now grown), I was an IBM consultant in the NYC financial group. This meant I got to run meetings, for example, with VPs of Big Eight accounting firms (back when there were still eight of them—sort of like publishing houses) to determine their project requirements, then design the project and work on implementing it. Then, I was a huge school and Scouting volunteer. Now that I’m working full-time on my writing, some of these same skills turn out to be useful for participating in conventions and managing anthology projects! I am the queen of the color-coded spreadsheet.
10. Where can your readers find you? (website, social media)
My website is http://www.CarolGyzander.com and I can be found on social media @CarolGyzander