I'm still contributing to the CSFF blog tour featuring DKA Magazine (Dragons, Knights, and Angels). I've interviewed Mirtika Schultz, assistant editor of DKA, f*i*fer, and blog buddy about the nuts and bolts of DKA. Look for how you can submit a story for moolah and the latest space missionary saga!
1. How did you come to be involved with DKA?
I won The Sword Review's fiction contest in 2005, and that got me involved with the TSR site. DKA and TSR are sister publications, both thriving under the banner of Double-Edged Publishing. I had an active blog over at TSR for a while, and I posted in the forum. From my presence there, I was asked to be an editor. I said, "Sure." I hang out much less at TSR, even though I won their recent poetry contest. I spend most of my time and energy at DKA.
2. What is its purpose?
Our purpose is to provide a place for the publishing of Christian science fiction and fantasy short fiction and poetry. We want to offer the CSF community the best we can of the material that's submitted to us. We always hope to get better and better quality creative work to publish.
We also seek to nurture new talent. We offer critique and the chance for some writers to revise and improve. We sometimes publish student work that shows promise. The next generation of CSF writers needs to be encouraged.
I refer anyone who is curious about our "vision" to read the Vision Statement written by Johne Cook and available at dkamagazine.com. Just click on "vision" in the sidebar.
3. If I want to submit, do I have to have a dragon, knight, or angel in the story?
No. In fact, we tend to be glutted on stories with those elements. We crave good science fiction. However, we always will publish good stories with those three titular elements. One of the best of our recent offerings is a pure angel story with a special plot twist called "Damage" by Jane LeBak. Coming up in December (maybe January, I forget) will be a more experimental, odd tale with a space missionary that features a human and a quantum computer.
As long as the story fits our Vision Statement and is not patently offensive to Christians or disrespectful of Christian doctrine, we're happy to look at it. We welcome submissions across the wide spectrum of fantasy and science fiction classifications.
What don't we want? We don't want stories that merely exist to preach. Give us good prose, good characterization, conflict, resolution--the usual craft elements. And don't use the elements in tired, trite ways. A knight off to kill a dragon, and not much more going on but angst and fiery breathing, well, that's a story that will bore us and earn a decline.
The level of religious "preaching" that we tolerate correlates precisely to the level of craft involved. Write a compelling story, and we are less likely to gag at sermonizing.
4. How many submissions does the site typically get in a week/month (whatever time frame you choose)?
I don't know. Honestly, Selena Thomason is the managing editor and the Keeper of the Numbers. Nothing is "usual." Some months we're swamped and can barely keep up. Last month was like that. Some months are dry and we start putting the word out that we need subs.
If you have something good that fits our Vision Statment, then I urge you to send it to us. This is one of our slower weeks, possibly due to so many CSF-ers gearing up for NaNoWriMo and the holidays.
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Check back tomorrow for more questions with Mirtika. Be sure to check out the site and some of the others from the CSFF blog tour, listed below. And Mirtika has a special offer for any who comment at her blog Mirathon, and I will extend the same offer: Those who leave a comment saying "enter me in the review drawing" will win a chance to receive a free critique from Mir. She isn't just a pretty face, but she has judged a lot of writing competitions and has a keen eye for what makes a good story. She will critique a poem or the first five pages of a story. So leave your comments if that interests you!
Jim Black
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Leathel Grody
Karen Hancock
Elliot Hanowski
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Joleen Howell
Karen and at Karen¹s myspace
Oliver King
Tina Kulesa
Kevin Lucia
Rachel Marks
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Caleb Newell
Cheryl Russel
Mirtika Schultz
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Frank Creed
Christina Deanne
Lost Genre Guild
John Otte
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This is very interesting. I wonder if Mir knows what the average readership of DKA is? (And no, she cannot critique the grammar of that sentence.)
ReplyDeleteCorrection: If someone comments that they want to enter the drawing will have a SHOT at winning a five-page critique (first five pages of a story or novel or, if one prefers, a short poem).
ReplyDeleteJust wanted that cleared up.
Thanks for the interview, Jason.
As to Rebecca's question: I have no idea. :) We get hundreds of hits a month, and only a very small percentage of those hits ends up posts in the forum (ie feedback). I don't ask their ages. It does seem as if the ones that do post include young (teens and college types) and the not-so-young (30's to 50's) Sorry that I cannot be more specific. Since we're a "read for free" site, we don't require readers to register and give demographic info..
Mir