Cutaway magazine
What can our readers expect from Cutaway magazine?
Dave- Literary combined with genre - that is - edgier subject matter mixed with quality writing style. At least that’s what we think. In the main 75 pages of pretty current, creative stuff.
Craig-With twenty-one different international contributors bringing together an eclectic range of poetry, short fiction and photography, we’re hoping that there’s a little bit of everything for everyone.
What can you tell us about the stories that you chose for the final collection?
Dave- They're short, punchy, engaging and modern. There's nothing too alternative but they are sophisticated and adult.
Craig- Well first of all we have some amazing contemporary poetry. For me this means a lack of rhyme and all that misty-eyed, wishy-washy stuff. Expect gin and pills and bottles of Wild Turkey, a ukulele, ash and cinder and gravestones fallen like leaves, Maverick missiles and a sniper with a 50-cal, a dragon tattoo from a grubby Hong Kong parlour. And cowboy hats. Oh and a little green guy called Mr Booger. He’s my favourite!
Then we have our short fiction. Here we wanted to mix up the labels that define ‘genre’ and ‘literary’ fiction, so we have plenty of each and a little that blurs the two. We have literary stories with a classical lyrical feel. And I’m particularly pleased with the stories that may (or may not) be qualified as ‘genre’. You can expect coping workshops in the afterlife, an Owl who counts spoons, lithium from Walgreens, a newb who’s a blowfish, cabbages and porn, pink ears covered in scar tissue, bears and oranges, a spaceship flying through candyfloss clouds, dolls (or are they?). More ears. Camping and errant husbands.
You both love to write, what genres or forms do you prefer?
Dave- I enjoy writing poetry, short stories and novels. I don't call myself a genre writing although there are often supernatural elements to many of my longer pieces. In stories and poetry I like things to be edgy, current and not too wordy.
Craig- I describe myself as a borderline genre writer and I’ve proud to say that I’ve had short stories published in both literary and genre publications, with one of my recent genre stories receiving a very positive review in the Guardian. My literary fiction is sometimes experimental, often contemporary. My genre fiction is either contemporary urban mythological fantasy/horror—ghosts in the city, that sort of thing—or mundane science-fiction with a dark/hard edge. I hate tropes and clichés. I love dialogue if it’s clipped and realistic. When it comes to science-fiction I have an issue with breaking the rules of physics. As far as I’m concerned writing is about people; everything else is just backdrop.
If I was to choose a form and genre I’d say I’m a ‘borderline speculative fiction novel writer’. Make of that what you will!
The collection is titled Cutaway 1, what plans are in place for a second?
Dave- I'm pretty exhausted now, with Structo magazine to deal with too and university assignments and my own blog etc. But I'm open to seeing how things lie at the end of the year, if there's an issue two it will come out about the same time next year.
Craig- Well the original plan was a one-off because we’ve seen so many magazines that promised a dozen issues and never got past issue #1. So we thought we’d approach it from a different angle by only planning a single issue. Well, we’re already humbled by the positive feedback we’ve received from contributors and readers alike, so we’ve decided to start planning a second issue. But it’s still down to our readers. If you want to see a second issue, buy issue #1!
Who are your main reading influences?
Dave- Old school ones for me, I know they'll be different to Craig’s.
I like Attwood, Sarah Waters, Du Maurier, Steinbeck, Mansfield. My favourite short story writer at the moment is Miranda July; my favourite poet has always been Douglas Dunn.
Craig- I spent my teenage years reading a lot of science-fiction, such as Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey, Arthur C Clarke. Strangely enough the only epic fantasy author I’ve ever clicked with is Tolkien (the whole shebang from Silmarillion through to the Lost Tales). Terry Pratchett for his Discworld books. Douglas Adams for his humble genius. I’ve always loved the cyberpunk sub-genre, so that’s William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan. Then there’s Iain Banks for his non-genre and genre work (Wasp Factory is of course amazing and I love the dark humour in his Culture novels). Neil Gaiman for Neverwhere, which I adore.
Raymond Carver for his clipped style. Kazuo Ishiguro for Never Let Me Go. I also have to mention the greats: JG Ballard, Aldous Huxley, Alfred Bester, Anthony Burgess, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury. I remember a raised eyebrow from my high-school English teacher when I told him I’d already read 1984 several years before but I didn’t mind reading it again. Neal Stephenson for Snow Crash, which is pure genius. More recently, a big cheer for China Miéville for mixing it up in the genre world. Paolo Bacigalupi for Windup Girl. I’ve also developed a recent taste for Chinese stories: Lu Xun for The True Story of Ah Q, Timothy Mo for Insular Possession, Chan Koonchung for The Fat Years.
What did you learn from the experience of developing this magazine?
Dave- Its time consuming and engaging, and exhausting - but also interesting and in this day and age anyone can publish something worthwhile using the internet and engage with a community of similar minded individuals around the world.
Craig- That it takes a lot of time and planning! I completed the first draft of a Chinese/Colonial historical-fantasy novel last summer and it’s being lying dormant on my hard-drive for the last few months. Can’t wait to spend this summer editing it into shape.
What would you do differently if you had your time over again?
Dave- Nothing, it went perfectly.
Craig- Life or the magazine? Either way, not much.
Life: I can’t say I have many regrets. I believe in getting out there and experiencing life, especially as a writer when it comes to research. As I’ve already mentioned I’m working on a novel set in China, so a couple of months ago I flew out to Hong Kong and travelled across the border to Guangzhou. Just do it!
Magazine: I’m struggling to think of something to say here. A couple more photographs? I’m overjoyed at how it turned out. I did the Snoopy dance in my kitchen when the first copies arrived.
For those readers looking to submit, what advice could you give them after looking through hundreds of submissions to set theirs apart from the rest?
Dave- First lines have to be punchy, also not too wordy, grammatically perfect and be smooth and easy to read, the first lines clinch it. As for the rest just make sure you've put it through a couple of drafts, make sure you've got a good plot and get your formatting right.
Craig- You know the same old advice that all the other magazines and writers give out: standard formatting, spelling, punctuation (especially around dialogue)? Yeah, that. And read the submission guidelines. We asked for literary or borderline genre and we received a few killer-robot-mothership-in-orbit stories that just weren’t suitable.
Avoid clichés. Avoid twist in the tale. Avoid front-loading exposition. Get down to it! Read Stephen King’s On Writing (whether you like reading Stephen King or not).
Be yourself, be unique.
How has this experience affected your attitude towards a career in writing?
Dave- There's a world waiting out there to engage with writers, for sure. Whether that involves making any money, I don't know, but it’s pretty fun to be part of something.
Craig- The first few lines of a story are even more important than I had previously suspected. Perhaps not as a cheap trick for tantalising the reader, but certainly to establish clear voice and for not bogging down the reader with unnecessary exposition.
How hard was it to choose the final pieces?
Dave- There were a few strong pieces in out shortlist which we struggled to reject, ones that didn't grab us but were well written. Apart from that the 21 contributors we accepted all grabbed us by the throat and demanded to be put in.
Craig- Would it be bad if I said this was easy? The pieces that worked for me launched themselves right out of the screen. With only a couple of exceptions Dave and I pretty much agreed on everything.
Dave Schofield lives in Manchester, is a published poetry and prose writer and a photographer and artist. As well as Cutaway he is on the editorial team for Structo Magazine and blogs at www.manchestersartisticson.com
Craig Pay writes borderline literary/speculative fiction and has been published in a number of different magazines. He won the NAWG David Lodge trophy in 2011 and his short story Incarnate (featured in the Rocket Science Anthology) received a very positive review with the Guardian in April 2012. Craig is also the co-editor for Cutaway Magazine and he runs the Manchester Speculative Fiction Writers’ Group. Craig is currently finishing a borderline literary/speculative fiction novel set in 19th century Colonial China. He blogs at http://craigpay.com/.
Interview by Lucy Walton