Neon Hemlock's 2024 Novella Series
Fifth Kickstarter campaign from indie publisher, Neon Hemlock, is live right now and I sit down with their managing editor for a few questions.
Happy Friday folks!
I wanted to share a Kickstarter campaign that went live today #notanad. Neon Hemlock has launched their fifth Kickstarter and I got a chance to sit down with dave ring, the managing editor. There’s a short interview below, plus a link to their campaign that I hope you’ll check out.
Next week, I’m sitting down with T.T. Madden, one of the novella authors for this Kickstarter, and having a chat with them as well as revealing the cover of their novella.
Neon Hemlock's 2024 Novella Series
Neon Hemlock is a Washington, DC-based small press publishing speculative fiction, rad zines, and queer chapbooks. They punctuate their titles with oracle decks, occult ephemera, and literary candles, and were called “the apex of queer speculative fiction publishing” by Publishers Weekly.
From their Kickstarter page:
Neon Hemlock is excited to bring you our fifth year of novellas with the 2024 Novella Series! This series we'll again be publishing six books plus a short story collection. The titles won't all actually be coming out this year—at least two will be coming out in early 2025.
Interview
AP: Hey dave! So glad you could join me for a moment, I know how busy you are at all times, even when not launching a Kickstarter campaign! It's great to see another one from you, Neon Hemlock's 2024 Novella Series. Can you tell my readers a bit about it?
dave: Hey AP! I’m glad you’re looking forward to it. It’s our fifth year of slinging novellas into the world (I just counted on my fingers to double-check), and our third year publishing a collection. So we can’t really say we’re “getting our feet wet” anymore but there are still plenty of surprises out there.
Our books are all over the SFFH map, leaning both pulp and literary, unafraid to explore both vibes and plot—and I’m really excited to share them with folks.
AP: It has been wild seeing the books NH has been putting out over the last few years and I’m always so impressed by the range of stories and artists you’re able to gather up. Tell us a little bit about the creatives you're working with this time.
dave: Let’s see. We have one returning author from our inaugural Novella Series, Caitlin Starling, who brings us a story of both arranged marriage and horrific death. Not quite romantasy, but some overlap perhaps, and it almost scratches a queer Beauty and the Beast itch.
I had the pleasure of reading a story by Ursula Whitcher for another project, but it wasn’t quite the right fit. I was delighted to have the opportunity to publish it anyway in this collection, alongside five other linked short stories and novelettes that evoke the best of Le Guin for me.
T.T. Madden’s novella is an electric feeling of self-recognition alongside mechs, kaiju, and a condemnation of the dirty mechanisms of the military-industrial complex. T.T. has a strong sense of the phantasmagoric, and I think the story will appeal to both horror and science fiction readers.
I read A.D. Sui’s contribution to the novella series while creating a Covid fever dream. It’s a headfuck of a book, visceral and twisty. I also was lucky enough to publish Anna’s short story “The Succubus and the Store Clerk” at Baffling last year. It’s currently on the Locus Recommended Reading List.
Sharang Biswas is becoming a frequent collaborator. I love the ease with which he moves from the sordid to the erudite—unsurprisingly maybe, his book in the series is a heavily footnoted story of an academic dating a superhero.
Ann LeBlanc is another Baffling Author, but in addition to that she’s also editing the first anthology from Neon Hemlock that I haven’t directly edited or co-edited. That’s Embodied Exegesis, coming out this fall.
And finally Dominique Dickey is a local game designer and writer whose novella might have made me wince the most while reading. They have a way of writing unflinching gore that completely disarms me.
AP: What a list. It’s fun seeing some classic NH authors working with you again. Now, with this being your fifth campaign, I’m sure you’ve had more than your fair share of lessons. What are some of the obstacles you've had to face as an indie publisher using Kickstarter? What's gotten easier and what's gotten harder?
dave: Money is a hungry beast, that’s the heart of it. Getting started in this business means unexpected fees and unplanned costs, and it is more challenging than you’d think to figure out the rhythms of the industry. Kickstarter is the only reason we’re still here, I think. Our direct sales aren’t nothing, but we really rely on the Kickstarter push to fill our coffers and pay all the authors and artists who contribute to our books. Maybe someday I’ll make enough to pay myself, but we’re not there yet.
AP: I hope that reality is around the corner for you. The amount of work you and the NH team has done over the years is heroic and you’ve made the SFFH landscape a brighter, more exciting place with your publishing. What are some of your favorite moments from previous Kickstarters?
dave: I love loot. Two of my frequent art collaborators, Matthew Spencer and Aun-Juli Riddle, are even now whipping up rad art and enamel pins to add to Neon Hemlock’s incessant swag. I also have the luck of being married to an occasional chandler, so being able to put out candles inspired by books we publish is also cool.
AP: Your Kickstarter goodies are legendary. Not only do I have several NH books on my shelf, but I’ve also got NH swag sprinkled around my office. No other publisher comes close. With all this work you’re doing, and all the D&D you’re DMing (maybe we’ll leave that for a future interview), I have to hope you’re spending enough time recharging and refilling your well. What's a song, book, game, piece of art, or media that's been living in your head rent-free lately?
dave: Some things giving me joy and solace right now, in no particular order: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, The Zone by Raph D’Amico, Priya Ragu music videos, and the poetry of queer Palestinian poets like Rasha Abdulhadi, Mejdulene Bernard Shomali, and George Abraham.
AP: Thanks for sitting down with me. I look forward to NH hitting all their stretch goals and for this to become easier and easier. Thank you for all your hard work and for putting out such beautiful pieces for people’s bookshelves.
*dave ring is a queer editor and writer of speculative fiction living in Washington, DC. Find him at www.dave-ring.com or @slickhop on Twitter.
If you’d like to learn more about the Kickstarter and pledge, check it out here. Don’t forget to come back next Wednesday for T.T. Madden’s novella cover reveal.
Until next time…
Be well, stay safe, and love each other.