August 14, 2012

Factors in Arranging The Lion and the Aardvark

Ordering the stories in a fiction anthology is always an exercise in multi-level thinking. The Lion and the Aardvark, the upcoming book of modern fables I am editing for Stone Skin Press, adds some new wrinkles to the task. In addition to the usual matters of mixing tones and voices, I have to equally space the stories we’ve chosen to have illustrated (by the perfectly cast Rachel Kahn.) Ideally I’ll find the right rhythm of the personal political, the funny and poignant, the affirming and the disturbing. That’s all par for the course, too. But for the first time I also have to avoid clusters of:

  • cats
  • dogs, wolves, coyotes & foxes
  • birds
  • fish
  • bugs
  • dragons
  • scientists
  • zombies