I have recently been working on editing a chapbook of poetry celebrating the poets who read regularly at the International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts. There are nine poets besides myself. Each submitted two pages of poetry for consideration. It was invitation only from a small group of highly published poets. In terms of editing, this is pretty easy. No slush piles. All people I know.

What surprised me in doing this was the completely different frame of mind I had to get into to work on this, even when it was mostly cutting and pasting. I would work for an hour or more on the project and time seemed to go very fast. But I also noticed that when I was working on this, it was much harder to get back into writing my own work and being creative. The mental processes are just that different, at least for me.

So hats off to the editors out there, putting together the journals and books and chapbooks. And if you are being both a writer and editor, more power to you.