Thank you for being here. I hope that you are feeling as inspired as I am about writing, publishing and the boundless opportunities and possibilities that an independent, traditional publishing house like Starship Sloane provides. It’s all about working the potential. Each person’s inspiration is a catalyst for achieving success in their chosen field of endeavor and this publishing company is a reflection of my inspiration and is a vehicle for yours.
Together we will pursue our literary aspirations. This is both a creative enterprise and an entrepreneurial one. Our creativity builds a beautiful ship with elegant lines but . . . sigh . . . money keeps it afloat and puts the winds in its sails. Send me quality writing — and art — and together we will set a winning course.
Almost two decades ago, I had my first story, “King of the Condors,” published by the Southern Cross Review, an online literary journal located somewhere in the magnificent Valle de Traslasierra of Argentina. I remember thinking that the editor, Frank Thomas Smith, had one of the greatest gigs ever: running a sumptuous, sophisticated, literary website — in English, mind you — while living in South America! Glasses of domestic reds and raven-haired beauties only enriched this splendid vision of winning at living that I imagined for Frank Thomas Smith, editor, expat, special agent with a license to literary. Now that was the life! I took special note of it and then tossed it into the storage bin of my mind, where it sat, collecting the dust of old brain cells and synaptic cobwebs for far too long. Until finally, I simply took the initiative and had myself committed . . . to establishing a publishing venture, that is. I recognize that it will be a long process before this website resembles something akin to Mr. Smith’s excellent site, but it will get there eventually.
You are becoming acquainted with this publishing house in its infancy and I hope that you will be one of the first writers to see their work appear in one of our online literary journals and maybe later submit a book manuscript for us to look at. Getting that first piece of work published is a great feeling and I hope that all aspiring writers get to experience it. You’ll always point to the editor that accepted your first work for publication as having strapped a jetpack of inspiration to your back and sent you soaring further upwards in realizing your literary goals and dreams.
Legendary science fiction author Frederik Pohl wrote on several occasions that his first work of science fiction, “Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna,” had been published by T. O’Conor Sloane, the editor of Amazing Stories. No matter how big you become in the literary field, you will remember where you received that first bit of recognition, a measure of validation that you have some talent. It’s very energizing. Hopefully, years from now, some of you reading this will be able to point to Starship Sloane as being the publisher that launched your literary career and for those already establishing a presence in this field, that we will have furthered yours.
Cheers!
Yours truly,
Justin T. O’Conor Sloane, editor
Starship Sloane Publishing Company, Inc.
Exploring the Literary CosmosTM
