Edwina Harvey's thoughts about “Light Touch Paper, Stand Clear.”

 Sorry, Edwina, Les tells me that it is indeed a wizard's hat. For what it's worth, I too thought it was a whale's tail and asked. but you and I will always see it as a whale's tail. ;-)

It's always nice when an editor doesn't have to do much work. You feel guilty. last time I had such a story, I even asked the author if SHE had any changes she wanted to make. But face it, you don't want stuff you have to edit heavily anyway. You choose stories that don't need work. So it makes sense.

Being an editor for “Light Touch Paper, Stand Clear” reminded me of that line from the movie, Forrest Gump: “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.”

Unlike working on an issue of Andromeda Spaceways, where you see the story beforehand then decide, editing Light Touch Paper was all about throwing caution to the wind and hoping like crazy it would all work out. We had no idea of what we were going to get.  While I worried over what would happen if stories were on the same theme, Simon worried over the word count and page count of the finished anthology. Turns out both our worries were unfounded.  There was as wide a diversity of subjects as word counts, and we were both astounded at the high quality of submissions we received from our authors.  From an editor’s point of view, it was a cake walk!

We gave cover artist, Les Petersen, the title of the anthology and the vaguest of briefs for the cover: “A bit SF, a bit fantasy, you know…” Simon and I must have sounded like kids in charge of the chocolate shop as we opened the cover art on our computers and chatted on the phone. Les had  nailed the cover brief! It was perfect for the anthology, and though Simon assures me that’s a wizard’s hat, I wouldn’t put it past Les to sneak a whale’s tail onto the cover…just for me. : - )

 Like a skyrocket, we think this anthology will light up the reader’s night sky with a diversity of sparks and colours.

Well, this is it, folks! You still have a last chance to enter the ebook competition, which will be drawn this afternoon Melbourne time. I have some on Goodreads, only one here.  All you have to do is click comment and tell us what format you want if you win.

See you this afternoon!