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CHIMERAWORLD FEATURED @ WRITERS BEAT
Jay Harrison was very kind enough to track me down and offer to feature Chimeraworld at the Writers Beat forum for the month of June. Here's the content of a special interview that has just been sent out in their newsletter:
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For June 2006, the showcase publication is Chimeraworld. It is
published by Chimericana, an extreme, bizarre, psycho-erotic nightmare fiction
new breed of publisher. The editor/creator is our Writer’s Beat member
Mike Philbin. CHIMERAWORLD #4 things to do in a bizarro car is to be
published around Xmas 2006. The deadline is September 2006. Here's a nice
Christmas present for you and yours. A book about car-nage. We all need
a car nowadays, right? We've all read (Stephen King's) Christine? Have
any of us read (JG Ballard's) Crash? We've all been taken on long car
journeys into unknown territory.
So, what is this year's Chimeraworld about? It's about the theme
BIZARRO and the theme CAR, hence the subtitle 'things to do in a bizarro
car'. It's about car-lust, it's about car-warfare, it's about car murder,
car revenge, car conscience... But we don't understand your guidelines
Mr Philbin, can you make them any clearer? Well, I can try. The thing I
hate about life in the twenty first century is that we're driving
around in gas-guzzling cars that are eating up the world's resources and
are, technically, the same as the Model T Ford from the start of the
twentieth century. 4 wheels. Chassis. A noisy, polluting engine. Traffic
jams. Cars are the true horror of modern living (there is no alternative).
People are born in cars, grow old and fat in them: people die in their
cars. The world passes them by; unknown, unnoticed.
If you really want an essence of what Mike is looking for, here is an
excerp from the third issue of Chimeraworld:
Quoting Mike Philbin:
Get your mad verbs, your crazy nouns and slightly skew-whiff adjectives
around this thought. You are all being controlled by BIG BROTHER. It
happened while you were asleep. You believe the hype. You buy the
trainers. You believe.
That’s how this year’s guideline went - and boy did I get some corkers.
Interview between me and Mike Philbin:
Jay (Writer's Beat): What make Chimeraworld different from most
publications?
Jay (Writer's Beat): What kind of readers does Chimeraworld attract?
Mike (Chimeraworld): Hopefully, those very same readers who're totally
bored by the modern published product with its simplistic A-C greek
narrative structures and its insistence on conclusion to the detriment of
true (anecdotal) resolution.
Jay (Writer's Beat):Who created Chimeraworld?
Jay (Writer's Beat):Does it matter if the writing style is English or
American> (for example:
colour vs. color, etc.)
Jay (Writer's Beat):What do you like to see in submissions for
Chimeraworld?
Jay (Writer's Beat):What is the publications circulation?
Jay (Writer's Beat):Advice for writers and future writers:
Final comments: I read stories from both the first and third issue of
Chimeraworld. If you like raw, in-your-face, unpredictable, refreshing
type of horror, this is the magazine for you to submit to and read. If
you get squeamish or are easily offended, I recommend you submit to and
read something milder. Mild is not an adjective that should be allowed
in the same sentence as the name of this publication..... I would like
to thank Mike for him answering the questions that I put before him.
Writers, remember the very last thing Mike said, "Write like you're going
to die tonight. Pour it all out."
June’s Publication Showcase
by Jay Harrison
################
Each month, I will choose a publication to showcase in the Writer’s
Beat Newsletter. This publication has linked back to us, and has given a
little extra effort in building the relationship with Writer’s Beat. The
editor or publisher will be contacted, and interviewed. The publication
will receive a month of being stickied, at the top, in the Commercial
Writing forum.
Misogynist, atheist, terrorist - three simple words to strike fear into
the heart of any God-fearing, society-compliant blinker-visionist.
I want belief-destroying narratives that will literally rip normal
minds from their skulls. Tell the world to wake up and smell all morning
beverages. Pontificate about the role of modern reality as you’ve never
done before. Give birth to the future of horror, push beyond sci-fi, and
send in the mysteries of the liberated universe.
Mike (Chimeraworld): That's a good opening question. And a question
that's given me a lot to think about. A better way for me to answer this
would be to say why I started Chimeraworld in the first place.
Mediocrity. I saw it all around me. Not just in the small press (though my visit
to the Horrorfind Convention in 2002 was a shocking revelation of
sloppy writing, clichéd themes, generic characters and dramatic paucity) but
also in the crap major publishers were happy to support and market and
put on the shelves of the average book shop. I hate middle ground in
all its forms - get a hairy pair, I say. Show the reader
impossible-to-dream worlds. Take him/her on the ride of his life. That's why I started
Chimeraworld, to bring the reader something he had been denied by the
dull, grey publishing machine. Something truly alive.
Mike (Chimeraworld): Well, it's mine - I 'created' it. I used to write
under the 'keyboard name' Hertzan Chimera (I mean why have a pseudonym
that's normal, right?) and he started to take over my online life, so I
killed him off. Chimeraworld is the echo of the late (and some would
say not-so-great) eponymous writing demon; non-ironically it's an
anthology of the sort of stories I wish I could find more of on the book shop
shelves.
Mike (Chimeraworld): Doesn't bother me. I think the
average-intelligence reader can handle either English or American-English in the same
book. In truth, American-English and English share some vocab but the
structures aren't always the same, so right away an American can tell it was
written by someone from the U.K. and vice versa. Chimeraworld stories
come from all over the world, not just UK and USA.
Mike (Chimeraworld): Because I try to sculpt a different 'atmosphere'
for each Chimeraworld, adherance (or at least reference to) the thematic
guidelines of each issue are of great importance to me. Initially, I
sent back most submissions with critiques like (this is not a generic
horror antho, read the detailed guidelines and resubmit something more
appropriate etc...). Now that Chimeraworld is in its 4th incarnation
(things to do in a bizarro car) the stories I'm recieving now are much more
on guidelines and I can see the writer really revelling in his artistic
freedom. As long as you don't bore me or try to write down to my level,
your story is gonna grab my attention. I'm a very hands-on editor in
that I will suggest rewrites where I feel a story hasn't fully explored
its potential - the writers have responded to this very positively.
Mike (Chimeraworld):It doesn't have a circulation ... the idea all
along was that I would run Chimericana Books as a fun thing. I didn't want
hundreds of printed copies littering my house. I wanted it to be a
totally online entity. Published through LULU on a Print On Demand basis
and sold either direct or through Amazon.com. I split any PROFITS I make
on each issue with the 23 contributors; this year I'll be offering a
$10 advance on royalties.
Mike (Chimeraworld):Write like you're going to die tonight. Pour it all
out.
