October/November
2004 
Babs Lakey describes herself first and foremost as a mother, grandmother, and wife-partner in life. She and her husband have four daughters, one son, and thirteen grandchildren. In addition to raising a family, they've owned a motorcycle high performance shop for the past twenty some years. Thanks to her husband's passion, she now loves the sight, smell, and roar of a finely tuned motor. Prior to meeting him, she worked in the car business for many years--providing lots of "car situation" foder for her writings. She also spent over ten years as a photographer and has been involved in many areas of the creative arts.
For the past ten years, Babs has published short fiction magazines- eight of those years for FMAM – Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine. Her motto for FUTURES is "fire to fly". When asked if she has always had that fire, she refers back to her love of pretending as a child, her love of theatre in junior high, and her obsession with every aspect of art and story. She doesn't labor over a story, it burns and bubbles from her soul. Yes. She has the fire!
Please join me in welcoming Babs Lakey to the Spotlight.
IC:
Why did you want to start a Mystery Anthology magazine?
BL:
Futures initially was a magazine about writing and included
everything from short fiction to political essays to articles on how to write.
I started Futures because I wanted to help writers whom I felt were
exceptionally talented. I wanted to give them a goose, of sorts. HAHAHA! that
push that tells them they ARE what they are—worthy. Because this is a horribly
difficult business to make a dime we had to learn, grow, evolve, and so we
did. I’ve a head as hard as any rock and I was determined that we succeed. We
had to appeal to the READER, not only writers, lets face it, as writers we’re
pretty poor, aren’t we? Over time we cut the articles on how to write, I felt
that we could get all we wanted of that on the Internet or from magazines like
the WRITER, great stuff that was already on the market and doing a good job. I
wanted to give the reader something they were crying for and at the same time
help these writers have a new venue for their work. We give at least 50
writers a venue each issue and more than half that many artists, too. We
evolved into FMAM – Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine. This year we’ve
added FAME. Futures Anthology MagEzine. FAME gives you short mysterious
fiction on our website – new every Friday. We hope that this taste of FMAM
gets people to buy copies or even subscribe. This is what we need to survive.
IC:
What do you think of the future of short fiction?
BL:
It’s where I’d put my money. Oh right, I have. HAHAHA! well,
that’s the truth of it. In today’s economy few of us can make it without
working two jobs, and if we are so successful that we don’t need to work all
the hours then we’ve earned the money to be able to participate in all the
wonderful things our world today offers, so we still don’t spend the time
alone we used to spend. Our lives are filled with people, be they online or in
person. A short story is just the ticket. I think it’s what readers want—even
if they don’t realize it yet. I don’t worry, I know they soon will.
IC:
What makes a story stand out from the rest?
BL:
The same thing that makes any good story stand out, be in
film, TV, or novel length. The STORY, of course, the characters, the style of
the writer. Does the writer have something to say? Does it make you feel
something? Same things we want in all venues!
IC:
Do you think writing a good short story is harder or easier
than writing novel length fiction?
BL:
The obvious answer is that it takes far less time to write a
great short story than a great novel. Simply does. Some of us feel that
because it’s short we don’t need to do the same things, but I don’t agree. I
read a LOT of short fiction and I know what’s great (you would too, that’s not
something special about me!) and you can do it in short as well as long! My
suggestion is to read a lot of short fiction. Get on some judging panels, we
always need judges, and we often need readers for FMAM. You’d be amazed what
you learn by seeing the mistakes others make.
IC:
Any suggestions on “How-to” resources for writers who want
to learn what it takes to write a “killer” short story?
BL:
One of our SinC sisters G. Miki Hayden wrote WRITING THE
MYSTERY and I’ve had many, many people tell me how much they learned from her
book. It will be coming out in the new, revised edition very soon. She follows
her own advice, she sent me two stories for DIME and I talked her into letting
me have one of them for FMAM and used the other for DIME. Another of her
stories is the first one I’ve accepted for DIME II. That says a GREAT deal, I
can only choose 15 or so stories for DIME. They have to be a cut way above.
Another book that I always recommend is STORY by McGee. I know it’s about
screenwriting, but so what. If you read that book and follow what it says
you’ll be writing award winning fiction whatever the length or genre, or
venue. There are many more, but those two books should get you off the dime.
IC:
What do you enjoy most about Futures—the magazine, the
anthologies, the contests, something else?
BL:
I enjoy most the letters that I receive from writers who
have just been published for the first time, or won a FMAM award, or won one
of our annual contests, or now been accepted for DIME. It’s knowing that we’re
helping make some writers realize they have what it takes that makes me do
what I’m doing. And while every issue for the first seven years was a
Herculean struggle financially, now it appears we’re making progress and I can
see a bright light at the end of the tunnel. We’re not there yet, I still
worry each issue, but it’s far easier than it was, and as I see our base grow,
I feel GREAT. If we are successful, as it seems we will be, that will be one
of the best feelings ever.
IC:
What has been the hardest thing about running a mystery
magazine? The most rewarding?
BL:
I think I answered that one just now! The most difficult
without a doubt is financial, and the most rewarding is making all those
writers so darn proud and happy!
IC:
Where can people go to read some of your own writings?
BL:
I’ve a series of psychological thrillers that I forget to
talk about. They can be purchased through www.grizzlybookz.com or on my own
website www.suspenseunlimited.net or amazon.com and the usual online stores.
If I might boast a bit, here’s a recent quote on my books from Warren Murphy.
I have such respect for his writing that this is a thrill for me. He’s read
all three of the books in my series.
"Babs Lakey is that rarest of
commodities -- a born writer and she proves it over and over again with the
Spirit books. The words, never forced, never artificial, come rushing
out in a wave of emotions and truth that will send shivers up your spine and
have you double-locking the front door. Noir? Forget Noir; that
was yesterday. Babs Lakey is the voice of the new Noir for the new
century. Books don't get any more powerful than these." -- Warren
Murphy, two-time Edgar winner.
I’ve a short story published in several
anthologies, and I’m currently spending my spare time efforts (yeah, sure!)
writing screenplays in the hopes that I can get my Straightedge Spirit series
into film. I’ve written a screenplay (optioned by the son of the writer who
did the first five Hitchcock films) that is sitting in copyright hell and very
likely always will be. I love the story and may use my characters in another
series.
IC:
Can you tell us about your psychological suspense novels?
BL:
They are what I hope are new twists on the good vs evil
stories and I wrote them to make those who have been abused feel avenged. I
want to give them strength. The writing has been called Hannibalesque and I
guess it has that tinge of horror, but it had to. It is about a woman, Elsie,
and what could make her give up all the usual things women want to devote
themselves to, to rid the world of evil. Here’s a quote that sums it up. She’s
called Avenger-Woman. "I don't think of myself as an avenger, Samson, please,
don't you think of me that way either. " Her voice was serious. It was
important to her that he understand. "It's more like this: I study the evil in
a person and use it to set a trap. It is a trap for them to kill themselves.
If they would stop killing, they'd live. Get off free as a bird. But, if the
bile, the disease inside them, is so strong that they continue, my trap will
snap and bite them in the butt. I'm the sting of a deadly spider that waits
for you in a place where you should never be in the first place. If you go
there--it'll get you."
IC:
Besides Futures, what do you enjoy reading?
BL:
Every kind of book written about writing and words. I LOVE
word books! And every subgenre of mystery, thriller, suspense, PI, whatever
you want to call them, as well as literary. I love books!
IC:
Where can people find Futures?
BL:
Well, the best place for you to buy FMAM is online
www.fmam.biz That’s where I make the most money, and of course I need that to
keep them coming! You can subscribe on line or buy single copies. If anyone
who belongs to SinC wants to subscribe they can email me and get info on
sending me a check and I’ll give them a price of 24.95 for 1 year. There is an
online price of 39.95 right now. The cover price in the stores is 9.95. Our
distributors have Futures in bookstores all over the US. We have a lot of them
listed on our website but not nearly all of them. Our most recent distributor
is doing a good job in Canada, too, and working on the International market
now. To date distribution has cost us plenty. I hope it starts to pay
something soon, but it’s expensive. I do it for the writers and artists! Not
much fun to be in a magazine that can’t be purchased. We’re also available on
amazon.com but again, if you want to buy online go through the FMAM website!
we really appreciate those of you who enter our contests too. We give some
great prize money, and now the two top FMAM contests, the ‘fire to fly’ and
the Slesar Twist, have the first place winners published in DIME. The first
annual DIME will be released in paperback May 28, and in audio soon after
(they are working on it right now). Quiet Storm Publishing is our publisher
and you can see their TV ad on their website now at
www.quietstormpublishing.com and hit theater and look for the DIME cover! You
can preorder copies right now at 20% off until August sometime through Quiet
Storm or through me at babs@fmam.biz write me and I’ll give you details if you
don’t see it on our website. This book is killer!
IC:
Can you explain how the themes in Futures work?
BL:
Well, I generally pick some themes for several issues out
front, and we use the theme to give those who want or need a topic to get
their mojo started! It also gives the artist something to think about when
doing the cover art! But keep in mind that we only use a half dozen of the
fifty or so stories in every issue based on the theme, so don’t let a theme
keep you from submitting. We want great short mysteries. That’s the size of
it! we don’t care if they are short or not so. We’ve published 50 word stories
and 15,000 word stories. Keep in mind that publishing your short fiction gets
your name out to the public and that will help you sell BOOKS. It’s the
cheapest advertising you can come up with!
IC:
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
BL:
FMAM is having a difficult year, harder than last, and just
when we thought we were moving up! We KNOW that the magazine is better every
issue, but we also know that the economy is bad, so who knows. We are doing
our best to think of things that will help to bring in funds, if you have any
special kind of fund raising ideas let me know. Whatever you hear about any of
this we will never fold without giving that final year notice so that
subscribers and submissions are not hanging in the wind. But, it’s scary right
now, things are tough out there! Too many exciting things happen to writers
and artists who get their start with FMAM, we can’t let it stop now as we go
into our eighth year, can we? NO!
This interview was conducted for SinC-IC
by Lori Devoti.
E-mail Cindy E-mail Lori
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