Of course, being well-traveled isn’t prerequisite to writing good speculative fiction. Famously,
Jules Verne wrote some of the greatest adventure stories despite the fact that he’d never ventured outside of Europe. And, far as I know, none of us have been to Tycho or Tau Prime. But even those of us not fortunate to be able to backpack through Europe or go on a photo-safari in South Africa should spend the time reading and learning about customs, mythology, and every day life of different cultures.
When I do travel, writing is actually a breeze. You’re stuck on the airplane with no internet and few pleasant diversions that can keep you from writing.
Your short blog bio states that you played a card game for a living. Like you were a successful gambler? Or were helping test a card game out before it went out and became a nation-wide best seller?
I played
Magic: The Gathering trading card game professionally for a few years. There’s a Pro Tour and Grand Prix circuits, and being successful at this game is what allowed me to travel to so many parts of the world. It’s not gambling like Poker or Blackjack, but a strategy game that requires quick thinking and considerable preparation. I played for several years in late 90′s and early 00′s and won over $100,000 in that time. For a long time I held the world record for most high finishes on the Grand Prix circuit. In fact, I have a Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_ShvartsmanIt pains me that no one has bothered to add anything about my writing to this page, and I respect Wikipedia’s rule about not updating one’s own entry. Perhaps some reader of this blog might be interested in updating it?
I haven’t played Magic seriously in over a decade, but I still keep up with the game. I also co-designed other games (such as Vs System TCG based on Marvel and DC Comic book licenses) and continue to work in the gaming industry. I accepted a GAMA Award for excellence in Organized Play for my company, Kings Games, in 2011.
You are the editor on the recently published Unidentified Funny Objects. Please tell us how this project came about.
This was a project born out of my frustration to find quality, pro-paying markets that accept humorous speculative fiction. There are some excellent humorous stories being published, but when you take a careful look at the list of
SFWA-qualifying markets you’ll realize that many of them don’t even consider humorous stories, and the ones that do might only offer one such piece occasionally. As a writer, I love writing funny stories, and I know for a fact that this frustration was shared by many of my peers.
I’ve been wanting to try my hand at editing/publishing, and this seemed like a perfect project. I researched it and found that no similar anthology has been produced in the 21st century. There are some much older volumes of humorous fantasy and themed anthologies (such as Deals with the Devil), but nothing that attempted to collect a great sampling of contemporary humorous SF/F.
The community agreed. Despite my obvious inexperience as an editor (first attempt at it, and all) and lack of any sort of clout in the field, I was able to get some truly awesome writers on board as they saw value in this sort of project. I ran a
Kickstarter campaign which raised $6000 from over 200 contributors. When the submissions opened for this project, I received over 900 stories during the 3 month window. In the end, I collected 29 stories and the book released in December. It enjoys favorable critical and reader reviews — so far no one threw any rotten vegetables at me.It was also very important to me to treat writers well. Despite this huge volume of submissions we responded to all subs within a few days (and often within a couple of hours!). Only the stories held for final consideration had to wait longer than a week, and those authors were kept in the loop on what’s happening every step of the way. I had a group of associate editors that read all round 2 stories anonymously (so the unpublished writer had the same chance with them as an award winning one; only the story itself mattered). I also tried to provide at least a little feedback with as many of the rejections as possible.
I spared no expense to make this the best possible book I could. That meant hiring professional illustrator, copy-editor, typesetter, etc. So, despite the money raised via Kickstarter, I’m still pretty far away from breaking even. But I’m glad I did it: the book looks great and people keep asking me when the second volume will come out. So I must’ve done something right with this.
UFO is currently available from
Amazon,
Smashwords,
Kobo, and
Barnes&Noble. But you can also order it directly from
www.ufopub.com — there are also free sample stories you can read at
ufopub.com. One one of those stories appears in the book itself. The rest are bonus content, something I was able to offer thanks to the money raised via Kickstarter. But if you like those, it’s a good indication that you will like the book. One story I’m especially proud of posting online is
Jake Kerr‘s yarn told through a Twitter feed. We coded the page to look like Twitter and posted it online:
www.ufopub.com/twitter
Of course I must pry: What current writing projects are on the table for you that you’d like to share?
In January I finished writing a steampunk/adventure/humor story where
H.G. Wells, who is a Bond-like secret agent, goes on a mission to Russia, teams up with
Anton Chekhov and together they set out to foil an assassination plot against
Prince Nicholas Romanov. Many other historical personages make appearances in this story and I have a ton of fun with cultural references, strange history tidbits, and my characters saying some of their own historical quotes via dialog. This setting was too much fun to waste on just one story, so I’m already plotting out a pair of sequels.
In addition to the H.G. Wells stories there are three other fictional universes in which I’ve written at least two stories each and plan on writing more this year:
“
World Burner” is a series of space opera politics stories set against the background of total war. The characters are diplomats, not fighters, and often have to find creative solutions to recruit various alien races to their side of the conflict. “
The Dragon Ships of Tycho” was published in the
Galactic Creatures anthology last year and I’m currently shopping around the sequel.
And my current favorite is “
The Magic Pawn Shop” stories. Think the
“Pawn Stars” series on the History Channel, except in a shop that deals in magical items, with a healthy dose of snark, humor and sarcasm added in. I finished two stories so far and think they’re some of my best work written to date. They haven’t sold yet, but I’m probably more excited about them than about any of my other unpublished stories.
For anyone who’s interested in my writing, I’d say “
A Shard Glows in Brooklyn” is the best place to start. If you like that, chances are you will enjoy much of my other stuff.
Please welcome Alex Shvartman, editor of Unidentified Funny Objects, a collection of 29 humorous SF/F short stories by a number of authors. He is also a multilingual world traveler, a Magic: The Gathering Pro, and an entertaining and talented author in his own right. There is currently an on-going, read at your own speed, read along of UFO on Goodreads, if you want to join in the fun.
Of course I must pry: What current writing projects are on the table for you that you’d like to share?
Very interesting interview. I like the sound of the Conrad Brent stories – sound just like my type of read. I only cracked UFO open last night – the twitter story is great so hopefully its a taste of things to come.
Plus – I love the cover.
Lynn
The cover was a big draw for me too! I read the twitter story last night and it elicited more than one giggle….mostly because I enjoy Nickleback.
I didn’t know you could play Magic professionally. Interesting.
Yeah, that was a surprise for me too. What a crazy cool way to travel!
[...] recently made appearances on two blogs. Susan J Voss was kind enough to interview me on her blog, Deb of Darkness and I wrote a mini-essay about the slush-reading process for Unidentified Funny Objects for Anne [...]
So much interesting stuff here. I’m hopping over next to read Alex’s story at Galaxy’s edge.
I know all about UFO anthology ‘cos I’m in it, and Jake’s story is great. I thought that the slushing protocols were very cool.
That’s an interesting point about podcasts, I haven’t really done as much as I can in that area.
And as for the Wiki entry. Yes it’s a travesty. I shall have to see what I can do about that.
Thanks for stopping by. I have a post of the first 5 stories coming up soon. Fun stuff!
That’s great you can take a look at the wiki article. I have never added to one – probably a skill I should take on sometime.
Great! I look forward to that.