Dimension6 is the new baby from Keith Stevenson’s Coeur De Lion Publishing and will launch on April 4.
The inaugural table of contents will feature stories by Charlotte Nash, Jason Nahrung and Richard Harland, and I’m running interviews with each of the authors this week.
Today, publisher and editor Keith Stevenson answers a few questions about this new project.
1. So what was the inspiration behind Dimension 6? 
A lot of different things coming together led me to Dimension6. The last couple of projects I’d worked on – Anywhere But Earth and Pyrotechnicon – both took a couple of years from start to finish I was after a bit of instant gratification for a change 🙂 The whole process for Dimension6 from initial read to publication only takes 12 weeks!
I’d also had a lot of fun in the past with the Terra Incognita Speculative Fiction Podcast (www.tisf.com.au). This was a series of podcasts by authors reading their published stories. TISF was about archiving and preserving short stories that are – by there very nature – transitory: they’re published then they’re gone. Doing a podcast meant they were preserved and available (hopefully) forever, and the show is now part of the National Archive so that may actually happen.
The other aspect of TISF I liked was the fact it was free. This was about promoting Australian authors and writing without a paywall. That really appealed to me, ensuring maximum access to author’s work. It’s also true (as Cory Doctorow would tell you) that giving stuff away for free is a good tactic for an author. It increases the chance of being read and it increases the chance that people will seek out and potentially buy something else you wrote, because they are predisposed to you. Dimension6 is about promoting the authors who appear in it and, by extension, coeur de lion. Making it free is the best way to do that.
2. What are you looking for in the submissions pile?
Pretty much what every other editor is looking for: good stories with a strong voice. Stories that tell us something. Stories that live in our inner world long after we read the final word.
3. What in particular drew you eye about the stories you selected for Issue 1?
Firstly they’re all very well written, they establish their worlds vividly and economically, they have characters we care about, and they take us to exciting places. There’s also a good mix here. One story is set in World War I Australia, one is in a future dystopia and one in modern-day Sydney.
4. You’ve been at this editing gig for a while now: what keeps you going?
I love finding exciting and well-written stories. I love being able to help authors get those stories out there. Sometimes I can make a suggestion through an edit that really helps an author take their story to the next level – that’s the best feeling of all. And I genuinely feel we have a unique writing voice and style here in Australia. It’s something worth supporting.
5. What can you tell us about upcoming issues of D6? What can readers expect?
My initial reading period in January really took me by surprise and I was able to fill the first three issues from the submissions I got. So I know for sure that the next two issues will bring you stories from Dirk Strasser, Cat Sparks, Rob Hood, Robert Stephenson, Alan Baxter and Steve Cameron. With Richard Harland, Jason Nahrung and Charlotte Nash in issue #1 that’s one hell of an impressive line-up for our first year! After that, I’ll continue to source the best stories I can find from new and established authors. With only three stories an issue, I can afford to be choosy.