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Editor Interview: Occulta Thesauri

This interview is provided for archival purposes. The listing is not currently active.

Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.

A: Stories of cool things

Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?

A: I admire the little guys who publish content because it’s important and interesting. Not because it will necessarily get the most clicks and sell ad space. But I also love the guys who got big just by doing that. Look at Messy Nessy Chic, Weird Catholic, and Cult of Weird. They all provide outlets for quirky, research-based, creative non-fiction that borders on journalism. It’s this great niche-y subgenre that deserves more attention.

Q: If you publish writing, who are your favorite writers? If you publish art, who are your favorite artists?

A: My favorite writers are all over the map. In terms of fiction, I love EL Doctorow, Herman Melville, and FOX News. I adore the writings of Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton. But I also love Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Chabon, Shakespeare, and TS Eliot. My most ardent literary pipe dream would be for Dan Brown to pen a choose-your-own-adventure book.

Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?

A: Occulta Thesauri is quite literally unlike any other publication. It’s a product of the internet age - and the modern propensity that curious people have for going down digital rabbit holes. That’s how it started. We were finding cool things at rummage sales and estate sales. I would barely be back in the car before I was researching and googling my new treasure. I would spend hours digging deeper and deeper into stories, even going from one story to another. Then one day I was like, ‘Wait - I’m a writer. It’s what I do professionally. I should write these down.’ And that’s when I found out other people were doing the same thing. So we started the site. And voila!

Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?

A: If you think you have a story, write it down. But then take a deep breath and dig even deeper. Do more research. Think about it for a few days then come back to it. Sometimes the story you imagine isn’t as amazing as the story you stumble upon by accident. And please use serial commas.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: There is no ideal submission. We totally dig Plato and we’ve read Michael Cunningham’s ‘The Hours.’ But we aren’t buying this idea of ‘the ideal.’ We just want well-written, interesting, and thoroughly-researched stories that showcase a creative flair and some personality. If you strive too hard for the ideal, there’s a good chance your writing will be flat and dry. And did we mention the Oxford Comma? Yah. Use that.

Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?

A: I think they forget to submit. We need more submissions!

Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?

A: Previous publications are fabulous! And so is making new friends and learning about others. But really, your story will say more about you than any cover letter or list of prior pubs. We are so happy for you and your achievements - but we think your story itself is the most important part of your submission.

Q: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?

A: Since we work with relatively short pieces, we always read the whole thing. We also offer a lot of feedback and help the author make the piece better. We have published stories that came to us pretty rough. But since they were cool ideas, we worked with the authors to make the story stronger.

Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go through before it is accepted?

A: We have a small editorial team that looks over the stories.

Q: What is a day in the life of an editor like for you?

A: Usually I wake up around 7 and walk the dog. Zeke is a Bedlington Terrier. If you haven’t seen a Beddy, they look like little sheep - so people often stop me and talk to me to ask why I’m walking a sheep. That can be frustrating at 7am. Next I tend to get ready for the day, go to my paying job, and sneak in checking my Occulta Thesauri email whenever I can. Sometimes I take what I call ‘online lunches’ where I sit at my desk with a day-old, warm, half-bottle of flat diet soda while editing stories. After work I usually lounge in my bathtub editing stories. Then I watch X-Files ré-runs or the latest episode of SVU while editing stories in bed. Then I walk the dog again and fall asleep. Sometimes I dream about finding and editing stories. When my alarm goes off in the morning, i eagerly check my Occulta Thesauri email for new stories - and I get up and do it all over again. It’s a pretty glamorous life.

Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?

A: Publishers have to embrace modern technology. You can be the hippest hipster in the world, banging out a story on your 1949 Smith Corona while drinking an artisanal water at your fav coffee shop, but the fact is you need technology to submit that story. And when your publisher receives that story, he needs online avenues and a digital presence to promote the story and reach a broad audience. Tradition is a myth. There is no such thing as tradition. Reality is constantly in flux - otherwise our hipster friend would be writing in cuneiform. Which would actually be super cool. Ask me about this again tomorrow. We might be on to something.

Q: How much do you edit an accepted piece prior to publication?

A: It really depends on the piece. Like I said, sometimes we edit a lot. We help the author make the story a better piece. If we make substantial edits beyond grammar and pinctuation, we do share the revised story wit the authors. But there are definitely stories just appear in our mailbox fully formed. Like some literary Athena. stepping forth from Zeus’ skull clad in kick-ass armor. We love those stories.

Q: Do you nominate work you've published for any national or international awards?

A: Since our stories are pretty unique and transcend a defined genre, we do not nominate for awards. However, we do nominate our authors as potential recipients of our boundless and unending adoration.