Ranks of the Rejected: Avily Jerome (Havok Magazine)
Today it is my privilege to present an interview with Avily Jerome, the editor for Havok magazine. Avily is an accomplished editor and writer, and she has great advice for authors who want to publish in Havok (or publish in general). She also knows a thing or two about rejection and how to deal with the inevitable reality of “not for us.” My own association with Havok is pretty simple. They’ve published two of my stories, including one in the issue releasing today, which means I’ve twice had the pleasure of working directly with Avily and the rest of the Havok team.
Make sure to check out the latest from Havok, including the April issue, and the guidelines for the annual contest issue Rampage! Monsters vs. Robots, coming in July (more info on that below).
1) Tell us what Havok Magazine publishes in 50 words or less.
Havok publishes speculative flash fiction. 1000 words or fewer, in a variety of speculative genres. We’ve done everything from steampunk to dinosaurs to straight sci-fi, and everything in between, including some pretty spectacular mash-ups. Content-wise, we’re family-friendly, so no excessive violence, language, or sensuality.
2) How do you come up with Havok’s themes? What are some of your favorite past themes?
Every year we have a brainstorming session with Splickety (our parent company) staff members and throw around ideas until we find the ones we like. We try not to do anything too similar to something we’ve done in the recent past, and we try to make the themes broad enough that multiple genres can fit within the same theme.
Favorite themes… that’s a tough one. I love our Halloween horror issues. Some of my personal favorite stories have been in the horror issues. The Dinosaurs issue was a lot of fun. Probably one of my top picks is our Literary Mutations issue, where we made classic stories into speculative stories.
3) Since Havok publishes flash fiction, in your opinion, what are the benefits and challenges of writing at 1,000 words or fewer?
One of the best benefits for writers is that it really tightens your writing. You have to decide which information is vital and which is extraneous. You have to cut out every bit of fluff and every unnecessary word.
One of the biggest challenges is fitting a full story arc and creating compelling characters in such a short amount of space.
4) What advice can you give writers submitting to Havok? Which stories have the best chance at publication?
We accept stories up to 1000 words, but I only have room for two or maybe three 1000-words stories per issue. Most of the stories I publish are about 700 words, so if you can stick to 700 words or fewer, your odds are better.
As for story itself, if you can make me feel, whether it’s humor, sadness, love, nostalgia—you have a higher probability of catching my attention. I also love twist endings, complex world building (although again, this is hard to do in a flash story), and hard choices.
5) Take us behind the scenes. Describe Havok’s evaluation process for a story.
I have a pretty multi-faceted process for choosing stories. First, of course, I look for writing quality and story arc. Even if the story is one I like, if the writing is poor, or if it’s going to take too much effort on my part to edit it and get it ready for publication, then I’m probably going to pass on it. Conversely, if the writing is clean and flows but the story isn’t engaging, then I’m not going to try to work with it.
Most of the submissions I receive fit these criteria, so after I’ve narrowed it down a bit, I look for several different components. Story arc is a big one for me. I’m okay with open endings, as long as there is some resolution and some emotional satisfaction for the reader. Too often, I read stories that feel like prologues. It’s okay if it’s part of a bigger world, but the story has to be self-contained. Along the same lines, the world can’t be too big or require too much explanation, and there can’t be too many or too complex of characters. I don’t want to be pulled out of the story or feel like it ended too soon because there were too many unanswered questions or because I couldn’t keep track of all the characters.
Beyond that, there’s some personal preference involved, and there’s also what does or doesn’t fit within the rest of the issue. If a story is too similar to either the staff feature or the featured author, I’ll pass on it because I want to have a variety. I also try to have a mix of dark and light, so if I have a really good story that’s tragic or violent, I’ll try to balance with one that’s humorous, and so on.
6) Well, this blog is called Rejectomancy, so I gotta ask. What are the top three reasons Havok rejects a story?
Top reason—I just don’t have room to publish all the fantastic stories I receive. #2, it doesn’t fit with our submission guidelines for either word count, theme, or content, and #3, the story is flat and doesn’t hold my interest.
7) You’re an accomplished writer as well as an editor, so you understand rejection comes with the territory. Any pro tips for dealing with it?
Don’t take it personally. Just because you receive a rejection doesn’t mean I (or any other editor) didn’t like it. I try to offer at least a little feedback on every story that makes it through the initial screening, with something I like and something to work on, so take that for what it’s worth—one editor’s opinion—and keep writing, keep submitting, and keep going.
8) Last question: what new and exciting things are headed our way from Havok magazine?
The single most exciting thing coming is our annual contest issue, coming in July. The theme this year is Rampage! Monsters vs. Robots. The theme description is on our website. The Grand Prize includes an Amazon gift card and a bunch of ebooks and other goodies. And don’t forget to check out all the other themes from Havok and from Splickety’s other imprints for this year.
Avily Jerome is a writer, the editor of Havok Magazine, an imprint of Splickety Publishing Group, and a book reviewer for Lorehaven Magazine. Her short stories have been published in multiple magazines, both print and digital. She has judged several writing contests, both for short stories and novels. She is a writing conference teacher and presenter, a new-author mentor, and a freelance editor. In addition, she enjoys speaking to local writers’ groups.
Her fantasy short story serials, The Heir, and the sequel, The Defector, are available on Amazon, and book three, The Silver Shores, is coming soon.
She loves all things SpecFic, and writes across multiple genres. Her writing heroes include Joss Whedon, Robert Jordan, and J.K. Rowling, among others. She is a wife and the mom of five kids. She loves living in the desert in Phoenix, AZ, and when she’s not writing, she loves reading, spending time with friends, and experimenting with different art forms.
To contact Avily or to find out more about her mentoring and editing services, please visit her website at www.avilyjerome.com
5 Comments on “Ranks of the Rejected: Avily Jerome (Havok Magazine)”
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Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 
Great interview, from a venue I like a lot! Thanks!
Thanks. They’ve been a delight to work with. 🙂
“Delightful” is definitely what I’m going for! 🙂 Thanks so much for having me!
Aeryn, I couldn’t let this article pass me by without comment. As Steph indicated above, Havok (and, really, the entire Splickety publishing group I’ve had the good fortune to come into contact with) and Avily are the gold standard of magazine and, more specifically, speculative fiction publishing, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve submitted several times, and although I’ve not (YET!) figured out the formula to break into Havok (or the other imprints), for every single submission I’ve sent, Avily or one of the editors has taken the time to give me a god’s-honest critique, with what worked and didn’t, from diction to overarching or important themes. There’s no boilerplate rejections with Havok (in my experience). I have seldom (I would say never, but there’s one instance) found this level of professionalism but, not only that, compassion in publishing. On the one hand, I hate to feel that I’m burdening an editor, a human being, with extra work, but on the other, I will continue talking them up whenever I can and submitting to them if I think I’ve got something fitting. They’re a market I hope continues on and on and on, whether I ever get onto their pages or not!
That’s great to hear, Leigh. I’ve worked with them twice, and it has been a pleasure each time. It’s so awesome they give feedback in rejections; that stuff is invaluable to writers.