The Bloodless Birth of Blood & Spades: In the Words of Marge Simon
Being invited to Marge Simon’s Blood & Spades column in the monthly newsletter is, for many of us, a goal to aspire to. I’ve found many of the poets I love in her column and feel privileged to have been a guest once or twice. Here, in Marge’s own words, is how this dark poetry staple came about. This will also be my last poetry blog post. From here, Sumiko Saulson will be taking over the Dark Poetry Blog. We are in good hands. –aySmith
Marge: First off, Kathy Ptacek is to thank for my Dark Poets column. She is the only HWA NL editor who welcomed me to do one over twenty years ago. Since then, I’ve had hundreds of columns (about 288) featuring poets and their work, helping them get publicity for their latest collection, advice, and other resources related. BTW, Kathy, how long has our HWA NL been going under your editorship?
Kathy: I don’t remember how many years I did the newsletter before it went digital. It was a lot of work in those days because it wasn’t digital; I faxed the pages to proofers to be looked at, then they would fax them back to me. I loved my fax machine! I remember some of the newsletter from before I took over, and some of them were just terrible. Sometimes, they were good, and I didn’t understand why they couldn’t do that more. But the vice-president, who did the newsletter in those days, couldn’t or wouldn’t take the time
Marge: I got to thinking about those days, and I remember contacting you after you took over the Newsletter in the late 90’s. This was before the internet, before email. You were asking for columns. I’d joined HWA a bit before, and was appreciating the job you were doing — making the Newsletters consistently pro, instead of variably half-assed. I remember the “new” NL’s had interesting columns like Steve Beai’s — reviews or personal gripes about the publishing biz. Passionate, using very colorful words that we don’t see in print today. There was market news, but so much improved from earlier NL’s. Of course, you also formerly edited Gila Queen’s Guide to Markets.
Kathy: I remember when you first contacted me, besides for sharing your art, you were interested in a poetry column. However, someone in HWA–and I mean some official officer or something—had told you that no one would be interested or something like that. When you mentioned that, I said I’m interested, and I want that column. When people sneer at horror poetry and say it doesn’t belong, I saw one word: POE! c’mon, people! So Marge, your column did debut with the newsletter when I took over, and I have loved it since!
Marge: Thank you! Yes, I’d sent you lots of art, but you couldn’t scan it (nor could I — I was sending copies). And then I guess we talked about the poetry column and I was very happy about that. For a logo, I did a raven with an ace of spades — later, you lost that when you started digital and I did a slightly different version. Mr. Raven is old enough to drink wine and vote now.
Kathy: Yes, speaking of copies, I didn’t have a scanner then. Do you know how I put ads in the newsletter? I printed the pages out, and then I got the ads–which were all hard copy in those days–and I cut them down, and I waxed them and put them in the newsletter. I did this with the Gila Queen as well. I think that some people were beginning to send me the ads via email, though. I had a hand waxer that I bought somewhere and still have it … somewhere. It was very handy at the time!
Marge: What is waxing? Did you use floor wax?
Kathy: Lol, no. See, in the old days before computers, the people at newspapers and magazines did paste-up work for the pages. There were wax machines in which you would put chunks of wax, which would slowly melt because it was heated. Then you’d take an article or photo or whatever, and you would run it through the rollers; one side would be the same, of course, and the other side would have a thin coating of wax on it. Then the paste-up person would position that on the page they were working on. [For instance, when I worked on a newspaper, we taped big pages with columns onto special boards, then did the paste-up there]. With both newsletters, I didn’t have a wax machine like that. I’m sure it wasn’t cheap. but available to folks like me were hand waxers. You could put your photo or whatever down on a sheet of paper and roll the hand-held waxer over the back. It had little sticks of wax that you could stick in one end, then you would plug the thing in and wait for it to melt. As previously mentioned, at first, I didn’t have a scanner so I couldn’t scan photos and ads that people sent me. Instead, I did this for a while until people started sending photos via email and such. In time, my computer system got better, and it also helped when I was no longer on dial-up. Sometimes those photos took forever to download!].
Marge: Thanks, Kathy! I’ll bet none of our readers ever heard of that process, or realized how much was involved in putting the old newsletters together.
Marge: In closing, I must mention that our poets’ memberships have increased significantly over the years. Once we got a Stoker category for poetry, a number of writers – many who’d only casually published poems, if at all, decided to try their hand at a collection. I believe horror maestro Tom Piccarilli was well known for his writing before publishing his first poetry collection, A Student of Hell (2000) and won the first little house for Superior Achievement in Poetry. HWA continues to honor dark poetry. I want to thank Angela Yuriko Smith for her support and diligence in carrying on with the Poetry Blog and virtual readings; I also am deeply grateful to David E. Cowen for doing so much, for years, both with the poetry blog and other features related to horror poetry. Long live the Newsletter, and ditto for the Dark Poets’ Column!
Editor’s Note: Sumiko Saulson will be continuing on with the Dark Poetry Blog from this point forward.
