In July 2013, I served as the “editor-in-residence” for the Codex Writing Group, which meant basically I was asking a month-long AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) interview. With Codex’s permission, I’m re-posting the Q&As here on my blog. The questions were all provided by members of Codex.

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This isn’t so much a question as a writer to an editor, but wondering if your TON of reading has given you insight:  Have you seen any particular threads in recent SF/F stories, as far as themes or literary motifs, that strike you? Cultural shifts? In how the speculative elements are handled, for instance.  Things that, looking back, you see are emerging in the SF/F scene of literature since you started editing?

Well, I detect resurgences of themes in the slush pile all the time; that’s one of the ways I identify what theme anthologies to pursue.

Otherwise, I’m not sure how to answer that without, like, doing Doctorate-level research into the last 10 years of my career or something. That kind of complex critical analysis isn’t really my forte, which is one of the reasons I hate writing introductions so much!

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