Interview with Richard Scott McCoy
by Sue Babcock
Who is Richard Scott McCoy? What are the most important aspects of your life?
My family is the most important aspect of my life. They are both my motivation as well as my support.
Next would be my writing followed by my publishing. While I like my day job, it isn't my passion. Some people have hobbies they love, but writing for me is more than a hobby. I have tangible results and evidence that I am improving in my craft.
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You are the founder and head editor of Necrotic Tissue, a horror magazine that pays semi-pro and professional rates for horror stories. As such, how many people do you have working on NT? Do you have "reading editors" to help sort through the slush? Do you have people behind the scenes?
There is no one behind the scenes, everyone that works to get NT in the mail four times a year is listed on our Staph page. Currently we have two associate editors that help me with the submissions, John P. Wilson and Daniel I Russell. John is also our Technical Editor. Lee Pederson is a proofreader when we have a draft ready to review. Dan Barter does the entire layout for the magazine as well as the website. He also did the first seven covers, all of the interior NT art ad the banners and ads. We use two freelance artists regularly, OD and Patrick McWhorter for some cover art and story art.
As fo9r the editorial staph, we share the workload evenly, dividing it into thirds.
Our process is that we each keep a running "Short List" of stories, no more than twelve. NT has four categories of stories, the 100-Word Bites, Flash fiction, Short fiction and the larger pieces that are 3,000-5,000 words. We try to keep a good balance with the most stories being 1,000-3,000 words. We have about 40,000 words of new fiction in every issue, so depending on which stories we take, we could accept anywhere from 20 to 24. At the end of the month, we go into a lock cage and battle it out over which stories make the final cut.
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Tell us more about NT. What makes it different than the other magazines out there? Do you feel NT is evolving? Where will it be in ten years?
One difference is the amount of fiction. 40,000 words are a lot fiction, and certainly more than most. Being a digest of short horror fiction was a goal from the beginning. We don't have a regular review or interview section, or many other non-fiction sections. The ones we do have are either to benefit writers, such as out Help section, or as a venue for me to rant. Our two other goals when we started were to give a fast and personal response. We wanted to give the writers more than a form rejection letter, since we are also writers and know how it feels.
NT is evolving, both in quality and pay. We started out as a free ezine, but even then we paid. Since then we have been steadily increasing pay and went to print in July 2009.
Wow, ten years is a long way off. My hope is that NT will still be alive and kicking, offering quality horror fiction while helping writers. Issue #9 will be out by mid January and Issue #10 is coming together nicely. Most magazines never make it that far, so I feel pretty good about what we've accomplished. We have no goals of taking over market share, crushing competition etc.. We are writers and both want and need other markets to thrive. We just want to keep putting out a product people enjoy and continue to treat writers well. We don't expect anyone to kiss up to us and we don't want to deal with prima donna writers either. We have this crazy idea that we can treat each other with mutual respect and courtesy and both gain from the exchange.
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Where do you think the literary world will be in ten years, and what do you see as the future of horror and NT?
I wish I knew. The movement toward electronic media is undeniable, but there are enough readers that enjoy the tactile sensation of reading that I don't think there is any danger of paper magazines disappearing, especially in niche markets like genre short fiction. It's not like any of us have a subscriber list of 5,000,000 people. Even if we did, the trade-off between cheaper subscriptions is offset by not paying for printing or shipping. We may actually grow once we offer a Kindle version.
Right now, all of the Staph has day jobs and it is enough work putting out a print magazine on time four times a year. I do see us offering an electronic version sometime in 2010. The future of horror is cyclical. It will rise and fall at least once in the next ten years if not twice. As far as NT, if we are still around in ten years I see us doing more novels. I don't see any sense in abandoning print to go completely electronic. Even among the younger generations, there will always be a small segment that rebels and demands paper.
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I noticed your "start small and slowly build" philosophy with respect to NT. How did you decide to use this model, and has it worked for you?
We decided to start small because we had no idea if we could do it. As writers, we know the irritation and pain caused by new markets folding and if we were going to fold we wanted it to be as a low paying ezine that few would miss. Writers are a jaded bunch, but whether they like to admit it or not, they rely on proven markets. When one folds, the shockwave is bigger than a market that never printed its first issue. Now we know we can do it. The question is how long will we do it? No clue. We still love it, so unless something changes, I think we'll be here for awhile.
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You have said that small press horror revitalized your writing ambitions. Tell us about your love of horror, what attracts you to it, and how your stories have changed over the past three years.
That's true. I wanted to be a writer since 5th grade. I gave it a serious try five times, each time giving up in frustration and failure. My mistake was two fold. First, I was always told that you have to have an outline. My brain doesn't work that way and never has. I would get frustrated with the process and even when I could get one done, I fell victim to my second mistake. I had no idea how to write and was trying to write a novel. Some writers can only write short stories and some writer only novels. The skills are different, but similar enough that if you can do it, I recommend starting with short stories.
I read Stephen Kings's On Writing, and felt like I was being given permission to break the rules and writer Organically. This does not work for everyone, but it is the way my brain works. I'd never heard of it before. There was also a writing exercise in the back of the book, a short fiction exercise. I hadn't written a short story since the 5th grade (when I fell in love with writing). It just never occurred to me because except for very famous people, I never saw short fiction in the local book stores. I also listened to the advice (or stern admonishment) of my father and got a "Real" job. Not bad advice considering I may never be able to make a living with writing, and I do like having a house and food in the refrigerator.
Hopefully, my stories have improved over the last three years. I do get more acceptances, but still plenty of rejections. My first novel FEAST, started out as a short story. When I got to 14,000 words and was not quite 1/3 of the way done, a light bulb went off. "Hey, this might be a novel". 45K is only novel length by traditional definition. 70-80K is standard and I have no idea if I will ever writer a story that long. My second "novel" is The White Faced Bear, and it is around 54K, so who knows.
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What will become of old-fashioned genre fiction?
As GenX folks like myself continue to write, the lines of traditional genre boundaries will continue to blur. We grew up reading very clearly delineated genres, but what we write is so often mixed. Te traditional genres won't go away, but what is considered "Literature" 20 years from now will actually be cross genre.
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Do you, as an editor, ever get totally blown away by a story--having obviously read so many? How often does that lightning strike? Do those make all the slush worthwhile or do you find yourself becoming jaded?
Yes to all of the above. Becoming jaded is unavoidable. After 2,000 stories, it just happens. I do still get blown away every submission window and it happens at least three times. Reading submissions is what we asked for, and editors that are open to unsolicited submissions need to remember that. Without the writers, there would be no short fiction magazines, and you need to take the good with the bad. It also helps to remember some of the crap I sent out (and may still send out) when I started.
I do think that all writers would benefit from taking a turn as an assistant or associate editor for a short fiction magazine. I know it has helped my own writing and for that, I am grateful.
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When you go back and read the stories you selected for a particular issue, does it make you feel good, like you know they all work and you love re-reading them. Or do you look at some of them and say, why did I select that one?
Once an issue is out in print, I never re read it. I have reread each story at least four times up to that point and the joy is gone. When I look at the Proof copy though, I do look over the TOC and I do get a big warm fuzzy because I know that not only do the stories work, but also the order is solid. We spend a lot of time trying to determine the balance of an issue. We know not everyone will like every story and that's great, because we want to appeal to the widest possible audience. I never second-guess a story that makes it that far, even it isn't my favorite, I know it will appeal to someone else more. That is the benefit f having John and Daniel on staff. We all love horror, but our tastes vary.
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What are some of the biggest turn offs in regards to stories submissions you've received? Things that if you notice it in the writing, you're less likely to even finish reading it, much less publish it.
I always read every story to the end, so that I'm able to give feedback. A big turn off is always writers that don't read our guidelines. We have perhaps the easiest guidelines out there. We don't reject for grammar or punctuation, since we attempt to help new writers. It's all about he story, and if there is a great story there, we work with the writers. But when the content is clearly outside our guidelines, then I do get irritated. The story never stood a chance and the writer wasted their time and mine.
What are some examples of stories you adore?
This is a tough question. I have my "Editor's Pick" in every issue. This is what I believe is the best story of the issue. Something about them strikes a cord with me more than the others. They are all different, so I can't define a specific characteristic, except perhaps they are stories I wish I were good enough to write.
Do you feel editing has made you a better writer?
Definitely. Although unfortunately it hasn't made me a better self-editor. I still need another set of eyes to point out what doesn't work or can be improved. I have a few trusted readers, other writers that I trade critiques with. I rely on them heavily.
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I think when one follows inspiration, there is a bit of chaos that flows into one's life. Sometimes it seems one can follow a river, until it becomes a waterfall, and you don't know where it's taking you; you just know you need to let go and follow it. I wonder if this is true for you?
Twenty years ago I would have said not just no, but hell no. Since I was fifteen, I have always had a plan. The plan gets modified as I go since things never worked out the way I envisioned them. Regardless, even now I have a plan, it's just the way I'm wired. Fortunately, I have also been able to take advantage of opportunities that were never in my plan, so I'm not rigid. Now, at 43, I have the wisdom to see that it has been inspiration and beautiful moments of clarity that have given me the most joy and success in life.
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Tell us about your novel Feast. Did you have a structured process during the writing of it, or did you use a more free flowing method? What are its themes, and what drew you to them?
Free flowing baby!! Totally organic and had no idea that it was going to be a novel until I hit around 14k. I don't plan out themes, but they are the ones that I always have with me. They come out regardless of whether or not I plan them. I believe in good and evil, though the lines for me are not as clear-cut as I was told growing up. Extreme evil is as rare as extreme good, and most of humanity lives in the large grey middle. Redemption is always possible if it is genuine, and corruption is always one bad decision away.
Life drew me to them. I've been fortunate to have many interesting and unique experiences. I have failed magnificently, been overwhelmed by doubts and fears and managed to endure. I've also succeeded and overcome my fears and redeemed my failures. I've learned that pretending you aren't affected by events is fruitless and that admitting to faults and failures makes you stronger, not weaker.
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What projects are you currently working on? What else would you like to tell us about yourself or about Necrotic Tissue?
My publishing company is called Stygian Publications. We have our very first Graphic Novel coming out in the spring. Bad Billy is based on a series of short stories by John P. Wilson that appeared in NT and the art is by OD. Samhane is Daniel I Russell's novel that was previously published electronically and Stygian Publications is going to put it into print. As with the magazine, we are going to take it slow and will not be open to unsolicited submission in 2010.
As for my own writing, I am looking for a home for The White Faced Bear, which is a different set of characters that FEAST. I am currently working on the follow up to FEAST, tentatively called Famine. I also have a solid idea for the follow up to The White Face Bear and I'm about 10K into it. I am also working on a few short stories as always.
R. Scott McCoy was born in Kodiak Alaska and raised in Bemidji Minnesota. He currently lives in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities with his family. He's had more than twenty short stories published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. His 1st Novel, FEAST, was released from Shroud Publishing in September 2009.
Scott is the Publisher of Necrotic Tissue, a quarterly horror magazine and is an Affiliate Member of the HWA.
You can get in touch with Scott via his MySpace page or email rscottmccoy@necrotictissue.com
Please check out the Necrotic Tissue Site and Necrotic Tissue on MySpace
