Thursday, April 17, 2014

Why Needle mag exists

By Steve Weddle

Back in 2010 when we started this magazine, I solicited stories from some talented folks. Some were friends, while many were friends of friends. That was an odd process.

Cover art by Scott Morse
ME: Hey, we’re starting this noir lit mag, and I was wondering...
PEOPLE: I’m in.

And so they were.

We put the word out and the submissions started to come in from all over the world.
In 2010, we ran a long story from Chris F. Holm. He’d had a couple stories he was working on and asked which I preferred. Sounded to me like he wanted to work on the longer of the two, which seemed to me the more developed the story. “It’s kind of a long story,” he said. I said that was fine. “Like, more than 10,000 words,” he said. We made room. It was a hell of a story.

Otto Penzler and Harlan Coben thought so, as well. They selected the  story for that year’s Best American Mystery Stories, the first for Needle and Chris F. Holm, though not the last.

I’d known he was continuing to work on the story for a novel. The character is just that good. The author is just that brilliant. So he kept working on the story. This month, Holm sold the novel -- The Killing Kind -- in a two-book deal to Mulholland. Find out more at chrisfholm.com.

We love seeing these stories come through the submission machine. We love seeing them formatted for the page. We love seeing them as ink-on-paper stories when the magazine comes out. We love seeing them in anthologies. But we sure as hell love seeing them get a bigger life -- all grown into a novel and waiting there on the shelf for you.

I mean, a big, fancy novel from a story that was in this here little magazine. How great is that? If you ever wonder why we publish this magazine, that’s why.

(Needle 2014 Update: Ordered an extra round of proof copies just to make sure the new paper quality is fine. As soon as that's sorted, should be up for sale. Probably early next week.)

3 comments:

sandra seamans said...

Lulu already has the new issue up for sale, Steve. Will they be taking it down?

Steve Weddle said...

I worry about the paper quality. We'll see

Holly West said...

Yup. I'm so excited for Chris and, having loved the original story in Needle, can't wait to read the novel. You know how to pick 'em, Steve.