When Jackie Sherbow contacted me to ask me if she could buy my short tale “Detective Ellie Stone’s Nutty Halloween Murder Mystery” for the Nov/Dec issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, it was the best treat of the year for me.  I made the first sale of my fiction-writing career to Janet Hutchings with “Three Calendars,” back in 2018, for EQMM’s Department of First Stories. I’ve been trying to make a second sale ever since!

To learn more about the editor taking over the helm of my favorite magazine, I asked her a few questions. — Angelique Fawns

(This interview originally appeared on Angelique’s Substack)

Angelique Fawns: You’ve been working at EQMM for almost a decade. How has the industry evolved?
Jackie Sherbow: The core needs of the writers, publishers, and readers in the short mystery fiction industry haven’t changed much since I began: Readers need cost-effective and accessible ways to subscribe and purchase; writers need paying markets; publishers need subscribers and revenue. But the way we all address these needs has changed: New technology, changing work and consumer styles (especially since 2020); new anthology markets; online journals. The question of “Will print survive?” has stuck around, but print is still here!

AF: What kind of stories are you keeping your eyes open for? How does your taste differ from Janet Hutchings?
JS: Janet and I have similar sensibilities and both take EQMM’s founding tenet to publish quality mystery fiction of all different subgenres to heart. We also have similar tastes, but mine is informed by my point of view as a queer millennial and a poet as well as the current socioeconomic climate. Janet published many experimental stories during her tenure, and I will be looking for that too among the traditional. I’m always keeping my eye out for characters and settings that stick with me.

AF: You are also a writer! Can you tell me more about your creations?
JS: Oh, sure! I am a published poet, short-story writer, and essayist. I am also working on a novel (of course I am! Who isn’t!?).

AF: Janet Hutchings mentioned to me that the majority of writers who submit to EQMM are male. Is that still true?
JS: Yes, it is—I haven’t done any math around it, but there is a higher percentage. As we all know, others have been habitually and purposefully gate-kept from publication and the literary community in general. As an editor—a gatekeeper myself—I am trying my best to make sure authors and readers from chronically under-represented communities will feel comfortable submitting to and enjoy reading the magazine.

AF: Do you have any tips for nailing the opening of a story?
JS: There are so many hard-and-fast style rules shared . . . I think the best thing to do is see those as options. Tool around with the opening using all the different advice writers get about it (Start with an image? Start with dialogue? Don’t give details? Give many details?) and see what works best for the story. If you can, workshop it with your writers’ group. In the end, writers, pick what you think works best! Keep the other options in your idea bank.

AF: Who are your influences, and what do you read/watch when not working?
JS: Believe it or not, I read mostly mysteries when not working. I like to read series written during the time I was born and came of age (so the 1980s to the mid 2000s). I also read poetry, nonfiction (politics, true crime, philosophy, instructional texts in a variety of areas) and listen to a lot of true crime podcasts. As for movies and TV, I don’t watch as much of those as I’d like. I tend to pick a show or film and play it frequently as background while doing other things. My early influences were things like The Westing Game, The Face on the Milk Carton, The Egypt Game, YA horror, and, you know, The Baby-Sitter’s Club. I read a lot of classics at a young age and my favorite was Jane Eyre. My favorite novel is One Hundred Years of Solitude . . . wait, what was the question?

AF: What’s next up for Jackie Sherbow? Dream goal?
JS: Having a hard time answering this one, Angelique, so I’m glad you asked it! If I were ever to have a dream job, it’s the one I have now. So let’s say I want to see EQMM on every bookshelf, and I want to continue to live in strong community with those around me.