Back in 2019, my spouse and I wrote a list of mini-anthology ideas we might pursue with Brain Jar Press, assuming we had a certain amount of disposable cash (approximately $1420 to $2,000 for a minimum viable product) to fund each “issue” and wanted to expand past my self-publishing interests.
The vision was simple: 4 short stories, approx 5000 words a shot, hyper-focused on a niche, designed to trigger the “what the fuck” or “oh, fuck yes,” impulse that triggers when you see speculative fiction works targeted at your particular interests or going for over the top mayhem (see also the first wave of Dinosaur Erotica, John Klima’s Glitter and Mayhem roller derby anthology, etc).
Obviously, we never went anywhere with these — they were ideas sketched out on a portable whiteboard and photographed in case we ever wanted to loop back, and then 2020 did its thing and the slow expansion of Brain Jar became a more pragmatic and responsive to the era we found ourselves in.
But the idea lingers there, in the back of my brain, waiting for a chance to flourish…