Greetings and salutations!
How is everyone feeling? How is everyone doing on the heels of App Lit’s big announcement? It is tough, I know. Especially for you all, our loyal readers and supporters. It can be hard to let go of things we have become fond of, or accustomed to, right when we have begun to feel at home with something, and then all at once, it’s over…
Feelings and thoughts that are timely with “Anachronism,” open now for submissions. Speaking of “timeliness”, typically we like to get these thoughts out before the issue; the calendar just got away from me! I hope you understand!
Anachronism is helmed on this cosmic voyage by the fantastic Sarah Ramdawar. Sarah is not only an Apparition alum, but also has works in a variety of amazing speculative publications, making her more than qualified to help this ship begin its long journey home.
Please enjoy this blog, where Dr. Who and pop culture references abound, and learn about what will make a great submission this – Apparition’s second to last – issue:
Sarah Ramdawar (Guest Editor): “Something anachronistic fundamentally feels like it does not belong. Moving places often also means moving through time. Crossing invisible borders into a world operating under different material and temporal circumstances–who sticks out? What ideas and customs are deemed out of place? Whom does the dichotomy affect? What erupts from the abutting? How do places and people find themselves in ‘backwards time?’ I’d love to see interesting use of structure, time, and language. Jar me with unexpected juxtaposition.”
Moriam (Submissions Reader): “I think this theme will inspire some cool, chaotic pieces! I’d love to see stories that play with structure in a way that flips the typical order we might expect. Retellings told with a shuffled sequence of events would also be interesting to read. And, of course, I’d love time travel stories (both forward and back) with fresh and strange narratives.”
Tehnuka (Submissions Reader): “Anachronisms can be a way to interrogate how we think about time and our place in it. I’d like to see odd juxtapositions of objects, beings, and ideas out of ‘their’ times. How do these anachronisms alter our perception of time? How are we changed by a new proximity to past or future?’”
Amy (Owner/Senior Editor, Poetry Editor, and Webmaster): “I’m a big fan of time loop subtle horror with a hit at Lovecraftian edge, like the 2013 movie Resolution and The Endless. So I’d love to see some play around with that type of trope. Also a big Dr. Who fan, where historical events are mixed into science fiction weirdness. ‘Stranger in a strange land’ is always a fun trope to read any re-examinations with a new POV as well.”
Evelyn (Submissions Reader): “Anachronism to me always brings up a feeling of bewilderment and confusion; the sensation that something isn’t right, but whether or not it’s fixable is another question altogether. I also feel there’s an element of the absurd with anachronism–due in no small part to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. I loved reading about something so wildly out of its era as to completely disrupt the era in which it landed.”
Léon (Submissions Reader): “Anachronism reminds me of the purposeful mismatch of technologies and places like in A Series of Unfortunate Events that gives the entire series of books an almost timeless feeling to me. But I also want to see what people can surprise me with. I remember the grief of being in the wrong time and not knowing how to live that was depicted well in the first season of Dark: anachronism can be used to heighten experiences of otherness even further, or turn stereotypes on their heads, and I’d love to see some of that.”
Maria (Poetry Editor & Assistant Fiction Editor, Submissions Reader): “I think anachronism could be a genre mashup, or with poetry it could be words out of place/time/etc, it can be very conceptual.”
Clarke (Owner/Senior Editor): “I want wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff– whether that’s multiple timelines, or a unique method of/spin on time travel, or memories/the past invading or haunting the present, or being trapped in time, or the present colliding with the future and the concept of fate, or desperate attempts to turn back time…Maybe the movie Groundhog Day but make it gay? And/or make it horror? Dr. Who but make it gay(er) and/or horror? I look forward to the queer stories and the creepy, creatively dark stories. No, thank you, to cliches like ‘Should We Kill Baby Hitler?’ or ‘I Built a Time Machine and the Butterfly Effect Prevented My Birth.’”
Bonus content: here are several other pop culture references our readers and editors threw in the chat:
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
Professor Layton and The Unwound Future
The Doomsday Book/ To Say Nothing of the Dog
This is How You Lose The Time War
EXTRA BONUS CONTENT: past anachronistic Apparition pieces you may enjoy:
Infinite Clay-Tablet Memories Sung Into the Flesh of the World by Ann LeBlanc
The Grief Portal by By Aun-Juli Riddle
After Inventing Time Travel By Mary Soon Lee
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There you have it, folks! Anachronism is open now for submissions; check out our submissions page for all the details and get ready for the portal to open!
Until next time, friends!
Photo by Alex Shuper on Unsplash
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Marie Baca Villa Blogger/Submission ReaderMarie Baca Villa is a Chicana writer and artist in California. She has a master’s degree in psychology and used her education to build a long career in crime victim advocacy. As a fan of speculative fiction, she loves anything involving strange worlds, complex characters, and unexplained phenomenon. She’s a bonified cat lady, covered in tattoos, and she loves cussing, beer, and flaming hot cheetos. You can find Marie on Twitter @okay_its_marie
