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COPPERFIELD REVIEW QUARTERLY
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SUMMER 2021
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Welcome, Dear Readers As I write these words, more than 20 years have passed since I came up with the crazy idea of putting together a magazine that focused solely on historical fiction. The concept for The Copperfield Review came by accident, as most good things tend to happen to me. I was writing my first historical novel and thought I would try to get the word out by publishing a few pieces as short stories in literary journals. Much to my surprise, I couldn’t find one literary journal that published historical fiction. Around this time I was teaching creative writing classes at Learning Tree University in Southern California. As I read the LTU catalog I noticed a class about how to create an ezine, a fairly new concept in 2000. The class sounded interesting so I signed up. Before the six-week course was over, I knew I wanted to create an online journal of historical fiction. I even had a name—The Copperfield Review, yes, named for Dickens' novel. I commissioned a website, I created the logo, a drawing of Dickens' hand holding a quill, and I set about finding writers to contribute. I also landed interviews with two of my favorite historical novelists, John Jakes and Jean M. Auel. "Who is even going to read this?" I asked myself as I pieced the journal together. But Copperfield, which I refer to as the Little Journal That Could, had become important to me. I sensed that there were readers and writers who loved historical fiction as much as I do. I believed that there was a place in the literary world for The Copperfield Review, so I pressed on despite that nay-saying voice making noise in my head. I love that we’re featuring an interview with the beloved historical novelist Steven Pressfield in our inaugural edition of Copperfield Review Quarterly. Pressfield is also known for his books The War of Art and Turning Pro. Both books are essential reading for writers. In his books, and in his interview in CRQ with Brendan Carr, Pressfield talks about the concept of Resistance, a creative block that every artist has to deal with in one form or another. Whenever you feel as if you’re giving into fear-based decision-making, whenever you stop yourself from trying or creating something new, you’re struggling against Resistance. Man, have I struggled with Resistance over the years. In my initial conception of The Copperfield Review, I thought I would use the e-zine format until I could find a way to make bound copies. I had a lot of plans for Copperfield, and even as the journal gained in popularity (within a year we were receiving far more submissions than we could ever publish) I held back on growing it too much. I had excuses galore, some of which were legitimate, and some of which were pure Resistance. The years passed and The Copperfield Review continued to grow in popularity. The truth is, we have a strong reputation because of the writers we’ve been lucky enough to publish. Crazytalented authors and poets have sent their work our way, for which I’ll always be grateful. Even the works that we don’t publish are special in their own ways, and it’s a privilege to read them. Fast forward to 2019. I wanted to do some fun things in 2020 for Copperfield’s 20th anniversary. And then. I don’t need to explain what the pandemic did to all of our lives. We’re still coming to terms with what it meant and what it still means. Some of us were sick, some had friends and family who were sick, others lost jobs, and too many lost loved ones. Even though I'm writing about the pandemic in the past tense, COVID-19 is still very much here and more waves are rising every day. We have some soul searching to do as we make sense of this volatile disruption of what we knew to be true. While some artists were prolific in 2020, I know others, who, like me, spent weeks staring at the wall. It took a good few months of living through the pandemic, especially when we were in the strictest lockdowns, for me to find my creativity again. I also did a lot of thinking about my life and where I was putting my attention. What did I really want? I asked myself that question countless times throughout 2020 and into early 2021. Really, what did I want? The answer came back that first, I wanted to devote more time to my own writing. While I have had a wonderful career as a writer, I know there is more I can do. Perhaps I hadn’t been giving my writing the attention it deserved. Photo Credit: Henry Be
