Patrick Swenson is the publisher and editor of Talebones Magazine, as well as Fairwood Press. Talebones has been publishing quality short fiction since 1995 and just released issue #37. In 2000, Patrick started Fairwood Press and has so far published 30 titles. He lives in Auburn, Washington, is father to his six-year-old son, Orion, and finds there are never enough hours in the day to get everything done. Still, somehow he does. I am pleased that Patrick was able to answer a few of my questions for The Fix.

You’re a high school English teacher by day. Tell us about that.

I’ve been in the classroom now for 24 years. My early years were spent teaching music, mostly band. I switched to full-time English about nine years into my teaching career. I teach now in Auburn, Washington. At the moment, my schedule is quite full. I teach every period of the day, and the classes are all different: Creative Writing, Science Fiction, Advanced Placement Lit., Honors Sophomore Lit., Newspaper, and Journalism. I also advise the school literary magazine.

How did Talebones come about?

In the early ’90s I was helping out JC and Barb Hendee with Figment magazine, a well-respected small press magazine of SF and fantasy. Mostly I was writing a music review column for them. We became good friends, and after they folded the magazine I started thinking: “Hey, that was kind of fun. I think I’d like to give it a try myself.” They gave me plenty of helpful pointers, and in 1995 the magazine was off and running. The magazine name comes from a chance encounter with my roommate and his girlfriend after they’d bought mountain bikes. The girlfriend needed a different bike seat for hers, and the seat they bought came from a company called “Tailbones.” Right that instant, I knew the name would stick (with the alternate spelling of course).

Tell us a bit about Fairwood Press. What are a few of the areas you’re trying to cover?

I had Fairwood Press as an umbrella company for Talebones when I started the magazine, with the idea of doing a few book projects in the back of my mind. The first was a writing reference chapbook that has become one of Fairwood’s bestselling books: The 10% Solution by Ken Rand. A few other chapbooks appeared, and then in 2000 I incorporated that end of the business to start doing books more seriously. I’d say 90% of the books Fairwood has done have come from writers who’ve been in Talebones, and the other 10% are folks I’ve met along the way.

How has Talebones changed over the years?

When issue #1 appeared, it had a black-and-white card stock cover, was saddle-stapled, and the interior pages came right out of the laser printer. By issue #8 we moved to color covers, and by #18 we started perfect binding. Through it all, Talebones has remained a digest-sized magazine. We sell four times the amount of magazines as we did in the early years, but the number is still considered pretty small compared to the pro magazines.

When going through the slush pile for Talebones, what are you looking for? How does the selection process work?

I have a love/hate relationship with the slush pile. I’m the only reader, and these days it can get backlogged a couple months. Then I sit myself down and plow through, with the thought of getting most of those manuscripts back on their way to their creators. At the same time I’m looking for the next best thing. Stories really do have to grab me in the first page or so, and it doesn’t really matter if the stories are SF, fantasy, dark fantasy, or horror, as long as there’s an intriguing character or problem, or evocative writing. Talebones had a darker tint during its earlier run, but these days it has more of an eclectic mix. In 13 years, submissions have never closed. I don’t stockpile stories for issues beyond the issue I’m reading for. I buy for one issue at a time, and often I have to pass on stories that on any other read-through might have made the cut.

Like most small press ventures, it’s an uphill battle to keep a publication going. What led to the Save Talebones campaign two years ago?

What led to it was a dwindling subscription base and virtually no renewals coming in. It was dismal. I didn’t see any way I could keep the magazine going. At the same time, I knew it would cost a lot to shut it down, because I knew I would have to pay back most of the subscription fees. It was Ellen Datlow who emailed me and said, in so many words, “Talebones is a vital part of SF short fiction, and I hope you reconsider.” Well…how could I argue with that? I sent an email to my address book and posted on my blog, saying in essence that it was do or die time, and the power of the ether did the rest. My notice spread like wildfire and the magazine received enough new subscriptions and single copy orders to keep rolling. Those subscriptions have now come up for renewal, so we’ll see what happens next.

Tell us about Talebones Live!

Talebones Live! is a two-hour reading that takes place every year at Norwescon in Seattle. If a writer’s been in Talebones and is present at the convention, he’s welcome to sign up to read. The idea of TBL is to keep the individual reader under ten minutes. In between readers, door prizes are given away. There’s always a big crowd—more audience members than most readers will ever have for a reading—and we have a lot of fun. I think it’s been going on over a dozen years now.

You were a 1986 graduate of Clarion West, so I assume your first interest in the field was as a writer. Do you still find time to write fiction? What are you working on now?

Yeah, I wish I could tell you I’ve been writing great guns these days. But you know, I had many editors tell me I could say goodbye to my writing if I was going to edit and publish. They’ve been right. I do have a couple of novels that I go back and forth on, but about the only time I really get any decent writing time in is during the summer, when I’m off from teaching.

Between teaching, publishing, and family life, do you have any other interests?

I wish I had more time for other interests. I really do. There’s always something to do with the “big three.” My son Orion is in first grade this year, and a lot of time and effort is spent on his well-being and happiness. I watch very little TV, see a few movies from time to time, and once in a blue moon I even get to do some of my own pleasure reading.

What’s ahead in the future for you? For Fairwood Press? Goals? Aspirations?

I just finished doing seven books this year, the most I’ve ever done. As a one-man show, it can be quite the struggle. I’ve already got five books lined up for 2009, and a few other projects are sliding into 2010. Really, I can’t do much more than five titles a year without expanding the business, or hiring help, and I’m not in a position to do either. I just aim to put out the best books I can by the best writers I can get. I don’t foresee this business ever paying the bills and allowing me to stop teaching. Even if it could, I’m not sure I’d give up the teaching gig in order to pursue that possibility. I enjoy the kids too much to think about doing that.