Anthologies I Never Got to Publish

Anthologies I Never Got to Publish 

by Rich Horton

As happens to most anyone, some books I hoped to publish never happened. I was looking back through my notes and past spreadsheets and stuff and found some interesting (to me!) details.

1. In 2007 I assembled a prospective Space Opera anthology, of the best Space Opera stories from 2006. I had Sean Wallace at Prime Books interested, and there was even a potential cover floated (seen at left), but in the end he decided not to publish the book. Here was the proposed TOC, which became a “ghost anthology” cited in the ISFDB and mentioned in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia:

Paul Berger, "The Muse of Empires Lost" (Twenty Epics)

Jay Lake, "Lehr, Rex" (Forbidden Planets)

Paul J. McAuley, "Dead Men Walking" (Asimov's)

John G. Hemry, "Lady Be Good" (Analog)

R. Garcia y Robertson, "Kansas, She Says, is the Name of the Star" (F&SF)

John Barnes, "Every Hole is Outlined" (Baen's Universe)

Brian Stableford, "The Plurality of Worlds" (Asimov's)

Alastair Reynolds, “Thousandth Night” (One Million A. D.)

Mike Resnick, "Catastrophe Baker and the Cold Equations" (Golden Age SF)

Anya Johanna DeNiro, "Have You Any Wool" (Twenty Epics)

I ought to call particular attention to the anthology Twenty Epics, edited by Susan Marie Groppi and David Moles, an absolutely fantastic original anthology from the very small publisher All-Star Stories – besides the two stories mentioned there were great pieces from Christopher Rowe, Tim Pratt, Yoon Ha Lee, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Mary Robinette Kowal, Meghan McCarron, Sandra McDonald, and others. It’s a jewel of a book, that came out of nowhere.

Not having learned my lesson, I tried again in 2008, and again Sean said no. The prospective TOC for this volume leaked also, though it’s not in the ISFDB, but John Scalzi did complain, saying he never had been asked for permission to reprint his story. Well, of course not – because the anthology never got to the point where we would ask for permissions. (John understood, of course, once that was explained.)

David Moles, "Finisterra" (F&SF, December)

John Scalzi, "Pluto Tells All" (Subterranean, Spring)

Richard A. Lovett, "The Sands of Titan", (Analog, June)

Ken MacLeod, "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" (The New Space Opera)

Charles Stross, "Trunk and Disorderly" (Asimov’s, January)

Gareth L. Powell, "Six Lights Off Green Scar" (Infinity Plus)

Jayme Lynn Blaschke, "The Final Voyage of La Riaza" (Interzone, June)

C. W. Johnson, "Icarus Beach" (Analog, December)

Robert Reed, "The Caldera of Good Fortune" (Asimov’s, Oct/Nov)

Jay Lake, "The Fly and Die Ticket", (Subterranean, Fall)

Dan Simmons, "Muse of Fire" (The New Space Opera)

I did reprint some of the stories in both of these volumes in other anthologies, including the Space Opera book I did finally get to publish, in 2014, which reprinted my take of the best Space Opera short fiction of the millennium to that point.

2. In 2009 we combined the SF and Fantasy volumes of my Prime Books Best of the Year series into one, because we had lost our mass market publisher (who preferred the shorter separate volumes) and because it seemed clear the combined book would sell better than the two shorter books together. In the process -- and because one story I'd chosen turned out to have been previously published (that is, before 2008, when all the stories for the 2009 volume were to have been from) I'd also chosen three additional stories from 2008 for the Fantasy volume. In the end, we decided not to add these stories to the final combined volume. These three stories, all excellent, were:

Jessica Reisman, "Flowertongue" (Farrago's Wainscot #6)

Hal Duncan, "The Toymaker's Grief" (Lone Star Stories, October)

William Alexander, "Ana's Tag" (Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, November)

I actually had a longer list of prospective inclusions, some from the SF volume, that either couldn’t fit, or we couldn’t get permission to reprint, so here are the others:

Terry Bisson, “Private Eye” (F&SF, October-November)

Elizabeth Bear, “Overkill” (Shadow Unit)

Ted Chiang, “Exhalation” (Eclipse Two)

Greg Egan, “Crystal Nights” (Interzone, April)

Philip Raines and Harvey Welles, “Alice and Bob” (Albedo 1, #34)

Robert Reed, “Truth” (Asimov’s, October-November)

James Stoddard, “The First Editions” (F&SF, April)

3. In 2010 I assembled another Table of Contents for a collection of stories from webzines. The previous year I'd published Unplugged, which showcased online=only stories in their first print publication, and I hoped to do that again in 2010, for stories from 2009. However, that book never got published, because by then it was clear that webzines weren't really a novelty any more. (Also, perhaps, the first book hadn't sold all that well. But I still think it's damn good!) Here's the projected TOC for the 2010 book, which would have been called Rebooted: 2010 Download.

Forrest Aguirre, "The Non-Epistemological Universe of Emmaeus Holt", Farrago's Wainscot

John Barnes, "Things Undone", Jim Baen’s Universe

Catherine Cheek, "Voice Like a Cello", Fantasy

C. S. E. Cooney "Three Fancies from the Infernal Garden", Subterranean

James Enge, "Fire and Sleet", Pyr.com

Eric Gregory, "Salt's Father", Strange Horizons

Kij Johnson, "Spar", Clarkesworld

Richard Kadrey, "Trembling Blue Stars", Flurb

Helen Keeble, "A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by H.M.S. Ocelot, as Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, D.Phil, MSc; or, A Lullaby", Strange Horizons

Lucy Kemnitzer, "Wink", Hub #86

Mary Robinette Kowal, "First Flights", Tor.com

Richard A. Lovett, "Carpe Manana", Abyss and Apex

Sandra McDonald, "Diana Comet", Strange Horizons

Holly Phillips, "Thieves of Silence", Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Tim Pratt, "A Programmatic Approach to Perfect Happiness", Futurismic

Ken Scholes, "A Weeping Czar Beholds the Fallen Moon", Tor.com

Rachel Swirsky "Great Golden Wings", Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Lavie Tidhar, "The Dying World", Clarkesworld

Catherynne M. Valente, "The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew", Clarkesworld

Elliott Wells, "This Must Be the Place", Strange Horizons

4. In 2022 I definitely intended to continue my Best of the Year series. But the 2021 book had been delayed, and was electronic only, because of pandemic issues, both personal (on my part and on the publisher’s) and more general (skyrocketing paper costs, long wait times at printers, etc.) By the time that was straightened out, my publisher had decided (for reasons I definitely understand) to discontinue the anthology series. That’s a darn shame, but it’s life in the publishing business, and I’m by no means the only anthologist to have similar issues. (That said, if any publisher is interested in resuming my series, by all means contact me! 😊 )

However, I had already assembled a list of stories I’d have liked to have in the 2022 volume (stories from 2021.) And looking at this list adds to my disappointment – there were some wonderful stories that I’d really have loved to reprint! So, I’m going to go ahead and list the stories I was considering. Keep in mind – this wasn’t a final list, and I certainly hadn’t received permission to reprint any of these stories.

These first 11 are the Top Ten list I posted at Locus in my year end essay, and I definitely would have wanted all of those in by Best of the Year book, except probably not the William Gass story, which is think is great but not really SF or Fantasy – I listed it only because that issue of Conjunctions was excellent overall (and had a fair amount of SF/F) and because I liked the Gass story so much.

P. Djèlí Clark, “If the Martians Have Magic”, (Uncanny, 9-10/21)

William H. Gass, “The Pattern of a Proper Life”, (Conjunctions:76)

José Pablo Iriarte, “Proof by Induction”, (Uncanny, 5-6/21)

John Kessel, “The Dark Ride”, (F&SF, 1-2/20)

David Moles, “The Metric”, (Asimov’s, 5-6/21)

Sarah Pinsker, “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather”, (Uncanny, 3-4/21)

Cat Rambo, “Crazy Beautiful”, (F&SF, 3-4/21)

Karen Russell, “The Ghost Birds”, (The New Yorker, 10/11/21)

Sofia Samatar, “Three Tales from the Blue Library”, (Conjunctions:76)

Alexandra Seidel, “January House”, (Not One of Us, 1/21)

Fran Wilde, “Unseelie Brothers, Ltd.”, (Uncanny, 5-6/21)

These are the other stories that were in my spreadsheet as candidates – I couldn’t have fit them all, so I’d have had to cull the list a bit, but I never had the opportunity to do that (agonizing!) work because the anthology was cancelled.

Eleanor Arnason, “The Graveyard”, (Uncanny, 7-8/21)

Tony Ballantyne, “Tail Call Optimization”, (Analog, 3-4/21)

Elizabeth Bear, “A Blessing of Unicorns”, (Asimov’s, 9-10/21)

T. J. Berry, “My Heart is at Capacity”, (Asimov’s, 5-6/21)

Maurice Broaddus, “Babylon System”, (F&SF, 5-6/21)

Octavia Cade, “The Women Who Didn’t Win Nobels, and How World Trees Are Not a Substitute”, (Fusion Fragment, 5/21)

Adam-Troy Castro, “The Silence Before I Sleep”, (Analog, 9-10/21)

Charles Q. Choi, “By the Will of the Gods”, (Analog, 1-2/21)

Greg Egan, “Sleep and the Soul”, (Asimov’s, 9-10/21)

Meg Elison, “The Pizza Boy”, (F&SF, 3-4/21)

Jen Fawkes, “The Story Within”, (Tales the Devil Told Me)

Gregory Feeley, “The Children of the Wind”, (Asimov’s, 7-8/21)

Karen Joy Fowler, “The Piper”, (F&SF, 1-2/20)

Carolyn Ives Gilman, “Nanobojou and the Wise Men”, (Galaxy’s Edge, 6/21)

Alexander Glass, “A Hollow in the Sky”, (Interzone, #290-291)

Liam Hogan, “Six Coins”, (Curiosities, Winter/21)

Nalo Hopkinson, “Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story”, (F&SF, 11-12/21)

Alex Irvine, “Glitch”, (Asimov’s, 3-4/21)

Kathleen Jennings, “Gisla and the Three Favors”, (LCRW, 6/21)

Naomi Kanakia, “I Didn’t Buy It”, (Asimov’s, 1-2/21)

Benjamin C. Kinney, “Conference of the Birds”, (Analog, 1-2/21)

Rich Larson, “The World, a Carcass”, (F&SF, 5-6/21)

Jonathan Lethem, “The Crooked House”, (The New Yorker, 3/8/21)

Megan Lindholm, “A Dime”, (F&SF, 11-12/21)

Marissa Lingen, “Beyond the Doll Forest”, (Uncanny, 1-2/21)

Jim Marino, “Acting Tips for Remaining Unknown”, (LCRW, 6/21)

Premee Mohammed, “Those Who Walk on Currents of Earth”, (Alternate Plains)

Lisa Morton, “Antonia and the Stranger Who Came to Los Feliz”, (Speculative Los Angeles)

T. R. Napper, “A Vast Silence”, (F&SF, 11-12/21)

Ray Nayler, “The Shadow of His Wings”, (Analog, 3-4/21)

Yukimi Ogawa, “Her Garden, the Size of Her Palm”, (F&SF, 7-8/21)

Chimedum Ohaegbu, “And for My Next Trick, I Have Disappeared”, (F&SF, 7-8/21)

Heather Osborne, “Groven”, (Seasons Between Us)

Mark Polanzak, “How You Wish”, (The OK End of Funny Town)

Lettie Prell, “Uploading Angela”, (Analog, 5-6/21)

Ranylt Richildis, “Sainte-Noyale”, (Fusion Fragment, 6/21)

Madeleine Robins, “Mannikin”, (F&SF, 3-4/21)

Karen Russell, “The Cloud Lake Unicorn”, (Conjunctions:76)

Erica L. Satifka, “Act of Providence”, (How to Get to Apocalypse)

Bianca Sayan, “Extrasolar Redundancy in the Nova Tortuga Model of Preservation Dermochelys coriacea”, (Analog, 9-10/21)

Priya Shand, “The Yoni Sutra”, (Fusion Fragment, 9/21)

Michael Swanwick, “Huginn and Muninn – and What Came After”, (Asimov’s, 7-8/21)

Rachel Swirsky, “Thirteen of the Secrets in My Purse”, (Uncanny, 5-6/21)

Molly Tanzer, “In the Garden of Ibn Ghazi”, (F&SF, 3-4/21)

Lavie Tidhar, “The Egg Collectors”, (Interzone, #290-291)

Catherynne M. Valente, “The Sin of America”, (Uncanny, 3-4/21)

Caroline M. Yoachim, “Colors of the Immortal Palette”, (Uncanny, 3-4/21)

Marie Vibbert, “The Unlikely Heroes of Callisto Station”, (Analog, 7-8/21)