In July 2013, I served as the “editor-in-residence” for the Codex Writing Group, which meant basically I was asking a month-long AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) interview. With Codex’s permission, I’m re-posting the Q&As here on my blog. The questions were all provided by members of Codex.

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What’s your editing ritual? Do you squeeze a dozen rubber duckies before sitting down before the slush pile? Do you have a hundred interns bow down before the inbox? Surely it can’t be anything banal…

My only real ritual is that I get myself trapped in this cycle of:

1. Email
2. Twitter
3. RSS Feeds
4. (repeat)

So you get up, read and respond to email, then move onto Twitter, then move onto RSS feeds, and then by the time you’re done with all that, there’s more email, and more twitter, and then more RSS feeds…

Otherwise, my process is fairly chaotic, depending on what my deadlines are looking like and what I feel like working on. I keep telling myself that I need to make a schedule so that I’m sure to get certain things done on a more regular schedule, but making that schedule is just one more thing on my todo list that I haven’t gotten to yet.

When I read submissions, I read them on my iPad Mini, using the Kindle app. The Moksha Submission System we use has a feature that will forward all recommended stories to my Kindle (or in this case my Kindle app), so I just open up my Kindle app and all my subs are in there. The system renames them for me, so a story will look like this on my Kindle:

LS – Keyes – 5500 – Flowers For Algernon

Unfortunately, Kindle doesn’t let you really reorganize your library in any useful way (except you can sort by date or alphabetical); you can’t create folders and sort subs that way, for instance.

Usually when I’m settling down to read, I’ll sit on the couch in the living room, or lay in bed, or most often I’ll use the chair I have in the closet in my office. The closet doubles as my podcast recording studio. These days I’ve taken to standing while recording, but previously I had been recording while sitting, so I got a nice comfy chair that fit in the closet nicely. Now it’s basically just my reading chair.

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From October 1 – October 31, I’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!, an anthology of improbable, futuristic, magical, & alternate-world crowdfunding projects. Please check it out, consider backing it, and, if you’re so inclined, spread the word!