Every few years Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, an organization that supports commercial fiction writers in Colorado and beyond, publishes an anthology of short stories. The latest edition is just now available, and one of the editors, Angie Hodapp, sat down with Electric Spec to give us a behind-the-scenes look into the new collection. Note: I (Nikki) was a copy editor for a final pass before publication, and I believe this year's anthology is one of the best ones yet.

What's the anthology about and how did you decide the theme?

This year's anthology is called False Faces: Twenty Stories About the Masks We Wear, and it explores what happens when we conceal ourselves behind carefully constructed identities: Why do we hide, what are we afraid to confront, and what happens when at last the masks come off?

However--fun fact!--when Warren [Hammond] and I sent out the call for submissions, the title we put out there was False Faces: Tales of Fakes, Frauds, and Facades. (What can we say? We’re suckers for alliteration.) But, as with many anthologies, the final lineup took on an identity of its own. Every author in this collection presented a unique, creative interpretation of the theme, and we wanted to honor that. Hence, a new subtitle and cover concept were born.

Our number-one priority in choosing a theme was that it would inspire stories from writers working in all genres. RMFW's mission is to support, encourage, and educate writers seeking publication in commercial fiction, so it was important to us that the theme be as open and inclusive as possible. With that in mind, we developed titles and back-cover copy for two different themes. We sat with them awhile. Discussed potential marketability. Ran them by the RMFW board, who liked them both and said it was up to us. So in the end we picked the idea we were personally more enthusiastic about and ran with it.

How is this one different from the anthologies that came before?

One of the best things about RMFW is that when a volunteer steps up to take on a job, especially a rather big job like editing and publishing an anthology, the rest of the board pretty much steps back, hands you the reins, and cheers you on. So I love that each RMFW anthology is a reflection the editors' tastes and sensibilities. In general, Warren and I dig morally gray characters, darker tones, atmospheric settings, and less-than-optimistic endings (though you will still find a fair share of good humor and optimism in False Faces). So the submissions that scratched that itch caught our eye right away.

Where we differ is that Warren values sparse prose and unambiguous endings above all else, while I am more likely to be seduced by lyrical prose--as long as it serves the story's milieu and doesn't sacrifice clarity or get purple. I'm also okay with a bit of ambiguity at the end--the thought-provoking kind, not the head-scratching kind that makes me suspect the author didn’t know how to end the story. So what you’ll find in False Faces is, I believe, a meeting of our minds...a good balance of our two literary appetites.

Were there any surprises in how authors interpreted the theme?

"Steamboat Annie" by Mark Stevens is told entirely in online reviews, so not only the story itself but also the story's structure speak to the ease with which we as individuals in our modern society slip behind fake online personas. It's so meta! "A Snake in the Martin House" by Steven LeRoy Nelson might seem comfortably domestic, but a careful read reveals some surprising cogs and gears at work below the surface. Even the title is a double entendre. And "Not a Mother" by BJ Eardley delivers a masterful twist that ties itself back to the themes of both main character’s inner journey and the anthology itself. Really, no two stories present the theme in quite the same way.

How did you select the stories that made it in? Was it easy -- clear winners? Or hard, lots of excellent ideas?

We put out a call to RMFW members to volunteer for our editorial board. Twenty-two members stepped up, which was awesome! Next we surveyed them to find out which genres they preferred to read and which they preferred not to read. We wanted to be sure to give each story the fairest shake possible, and someone who does not read or enjoy, for example, high fantasy may not give a high fantasy story its most informed evaluation.

Once all 73 stories were in, we distributed them among our readers. Every story got four reads: one from Warren, one from me (yes, the two of us read and evaluated each story independently of each other), plus two anonymous reads from ed-board members. Warren and I reserved the right to decide the final lineup, but our ed board's feedback was pretty much spot-on. We couldn’t have done this without their help.

Have you learned anything acting as an editor that has changed you as a reader or an author?

Since I work as a fiction editor in my day job at Nelson Literary Agency, the developmental and line-editing piece were pretty second-nature. That said, Warren handled the lion's share of the editorial process, and I took on the production and publication stuff. So what I learned is that editing and publishing an anthology alone would be really hard, and also that Warren and I make a great team. Which I already knew.

Beyond that, I think working in an editorial capacity is a sure-fire way to make any writer better. First, it improves your craft because it forces you to not only articulate why a sentence, scene, or story isn't working, but also to articulate what might be done to improve it; if you can hone the skill it takes to do that for others, you're more likely to be able to do it for yourself (though every writer needs an editor!). Second, it makes you more learn to step back and respect the writer's original intent. You, as the editor, can believe in your heart of hearts that a particular story would be much improved if only the writer would do X, Y, or Z to develop a character further or twist a plot. But the bottom line is, the story belongs to the writer, and if X, Y, or Z fall too far outside the writer's initial vision for the story, the editor needs to respect that. After all, the editors shouldn't have accepted the story in the first place if they didn't believe it was already of publishable quality.

Where and when can people get the book?

False Faces is available in both paperback and ebook through Amazon and Ingram:

Amazon Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/False-Faces-Twenty-Stories-About/dp/0976022575/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535400774&sr=8-1&keywords=false+faces

Amazon Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/False-Faces-Twenty-Stories-About-ebook/dp/B07GNV8C63/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535400774&sr=8-1&dpID=316kylQwQ5L&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=detail

False Faces is a fund-raiser for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers (RMFW)