Interview with Magazine Editor

Tina Smith and Lezli Robyn edit Heart’s Kiss magazine.

Lezli Robyn is an Australian multi-genre author and Assistant Publisher of Arc Manor, living in the US with her mini-Dachshund/Chihuahua, Bindi. Her love of books led to her meeting her future collaborator, Mike Resnick, on eBay. Since that serendipitous event, Lezli has sold to prestigious markets around the world and is in the process of finishing two more small press books while writing her first two novels. Known for her bittersweet and heart-tugging writing technique, she has been a finalist for several prestigious awards, including the 2010 Campbell Award for Best New Writer. In 2011 and 2014 she also won the Catalan Premi Ictineu Award for Best Translated Story. You can find her at www.lezlirobyn.com.

Tina Smith is being interviewed by me. She grew up in a small community in Northern California that proudly boasts of having more cows than people. She raised guide dogs for the blind, is dyslexic, and can shoot a gun or bow and miraculously never hit the target (which at some point becomes a statistical improbability). Tina also writes science fiction and fantasy as Tina Gower and steamy contemporary romance as Alice Faris. She has won several awards among them, the RWA Daphne du Maurier Award for Mystery and Suspense and was a finalist for the RWA Golden Heart. You can find out more about her writing at: www.tinagower.com 

Question: What is the title and genre of your magazine?  Why did you select them?

Heart’s Kiss is a romance fiction magazine and we publish short story to novella length in all sub-genres of romance (paranormal, contemporary, historical, suspense) as well as a variety of heat levels (sweet, steamy, hot). 

Question:   What inspired this magazine? How did it come about?

Our publisher Shahid Mahmud loves genre fiction. He’d started a science fiction and fantasy magazine, Galaxy’s Edge several years ago that has done well and always intended to branch out and start more. He spoke about it at conferences to writers who also wrote romance and eventually decided to take the plunge a few years ago. 

Question:   What are you working on now?

Every other month the magazine gets ready to go to press. We are currently working on material for the April and June issues simultaneously in hopes to get ahead this year. 

Question:   What made you start working as an editor?

Honestly, I was talked into it by Lezli Robyn my co-editor. I’m a writer first (writing award winning romance as Alice Faris and SF/F as Tina Gower). They needed someone to fill the role for a short time and I agreed. I saw it as an opportunity to create a space for voices that are often less heard, like romances that center disabilities, cultures, and lifestyles we don’t see as much of in mainstream—but hopefully we will see more! I already notice the tides turning in the industry and it’s a very exciting time. 

Question:   What advice would you offer to those who are currently writing?

Keep at it. Learn all there is to learn and take workshop opportunities as they come. Get used to never feeling that you’ve “made it” because there will always be another hill to climb.  

Question:  Where and when will readers be able to obtain your magazine?

We have all the links to each issue on Amazon, Kobo, Nook, plus more on our website: www.heartskiss.com

Readers, your comments and or questions welcome here!