Todd Sanders – ‘Saving the Future’ Fiction

by Angelique Fawns

 

Air and Nothingness Press isn’t afraid to tackle some tough subjects. What happens when our world loses a critical resource? Todd Sanders’ latest anthology “We Are All Thieves of Somebody’s Future” asks that very question. The call allowed for some wild imaginings, looking into the loss of food, trees, oil, dragons, breathable air, or even intangibles like love, happiness or time.

I’m thrilled to be a part of this project with my story, “The Last Drop of Diesel.” The book is now available for pre-order at http://aanpress.com/aanorder.html#thieves.

Other included authors are Matthew Bettelheim, Sonya Carlin, Eric A. Clayton, Rodrigo Culagovski, Storm Humbert, Timothy Johnson, Julia LaFond, Roxane Llanque, Fiona Mossman, M.P. Rosalia, and Rose Skye.

Let’s find out more about this project. 

AF: What was your inspiration for this anthology?

TS: A couple of things. The actual title of the anthology comes from the song “Forbidden” by Dwson which I have been listening to, on and off for a few years now. I thought that line in the song outlined rather well how the resources we are using today are being stolen by us relative to our future descendants.

Secondly I like quirky open calls and unique anthologies, but I am mindful of authors writing stories I might decline to publish, and, afterward, having a hard time finding another market for them (perhaps another reflection of resource scarcity) so I wanted to do an open call that had a specific theme for my interests, but was broad enough that stories could be sent to other places and give authors more chances with their work.

 

AF:  You opened Air and Nothingness Press in 1997. How has your vision and product evolved?

TS: Originally the press was founded to publish my translations of the Surrealist poet Robert Desnos who did not have much translated into English until the last 5-10 years. In 2017 I was approached, after a Nebulas workshop I did on designing books, by Jamie Lackey who wanted me to look at her short story collection. Choosing to publish her refocused the press into what it is now, publishing short story collections in a wide array of genres.

AF: What other projects are you working on right now?
TS: There is an open call currently for an anthology titled “Moving Across the Landscape in Search of an Idea” which asks for short stories with obnoxiously long titles and copious footnotes/endnotes/marginalia. And I have preliminarily announced an open call for the end of the year for an anthology of stories based around a “Dying Earth” genre RPG of mine called “Our Dust Earth” (more info at – http://aanpress.com/submissions.html).

 

I am also working with twenty four invited authors on an anthology of stories using the main characters from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and have announced a new book project in the world of the Librarian for early next year.

 

AF: How has your background in architecture and graphic design helped you with your publishing company?

TS: Architecture is a wonderful education in the art of solving problems and working simultaneously with a host of different and sometimes contrary issues. After being employed as an architectural intern for several years I moved into the field of graphic design and have been a freelancer for the last 30+ years. I have the (perhaps) luxury of not needing bookstore sales as my sole revenue stream, so I am not subject to some of the standard rules regarding cover design and shelf display. I am able to take all of my experience in other design fields and apply them to the kind of books I enjoy creating. I like to say the books I publish are bespoke editions. I am most interested in limited edition, physical copies of books and do not really do much in the way of ebooks.

 

AF: Some of your calls are in shared world environments. Why is that? 

TS: Both “Polis” and “The Librarian” series of books use a shared world organizing principal (as will “Our Dust Earth”) for authors to work with. I enjoy the idea of linked short stories feeling like chapters in a novel. Though they are single author collections, Terry Dowling’s “Rynosseros” series as well Cordwainer Smith’s “Instrumentality” stories and Jack Vance’s “Dying Earth” stories use this shared world organization. With multiple authors, it lets each writer have their own voice and freedom to explore a shared world either micro or macroscopically in their own way, while having the stories linked by a common overarching narrative.

 

AF: Do you have any advice for writers hoping to sell you a story?

TS: I suppose I have rather quirky tastes. I am a voracious reader and have a good foundation in the last 100 years of science fiction and fantasy. So I like to now read things that reinterpret and remix aspects of those genres in new ways. I am not very interested in safe, mainstream stories. I hope authors who submit to me are interested in taking chances and writing things that they might not otherwise write because of the markets they generally submit to.

 

AF: If you could go back in time to when you were starting your writing career, what would you tell yourself?

TS: That you will be very surprised where it has taken you.