Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Putting Ferguson Into Perspective

Yes, what's going on in Ferguson is awful, and is causing hardship for a lot of people, most of them black. Yes, it would be better for everyone if they'd go home and get on with their lives, as Michael Brown's family has asked. But at least in this case, the people rioting have a significant reason to be angry -- a pretty clear miscarriage of justice, with an obvious racial motive. All the white people looking down their noses and crying shame on those violent black rioters for being so violent (salted with racist epithets, because of course all this violence is because that's what people of their race do) should perhaps remember all the So Much More Worthy [cough] reasons for which white people have violently rioted.



Thanks to Jason for sending me a link to this. Very telling.

Angie

Monday, November 24, 2014

"Mine, All Mine!" Said the Octopus

So my husband volunteers at the Seattle Aquarium. They've had two octopuses there for a while, in adjacent tanks. The tanks are connected by a tube about eighteen inches or so across, but since octopuses can be territorial, a screen is in place so the animals are aware of each other, but can't, say, try to kill or eat one another. Which they will sometimes do if they have the opportunity.

One of the octopuses recently started displaying reproductive behavior, pulling eggs out of her mantle and braiding them together. There are no male octopuses in the vicinity, so the eggs aren't fertile, but policy is that when an octopus looks like she wants to breed, she's released out into the sound. So Octopus Number One has moved on.

The screen between the two tanks was removed, and Octopus Number Two now has access to both tanks.

According to my husband, Number Two was positively gleeful today. She was much more active than she's usually been, exploring, spreading her legs out, jetting a time or two, spending some time up at the glass looking at people -- while he described it I could picture in my mind a cartoon octopus dancing around the newly-huge space and cackling, "Mine, all mine!" with a huge, cartoony grin.


Aquarium visitors spent a lot of time around the octopus tanks today, for obvious reasons. One pair got a surprise when they turned away for a few moments, then turned back to find that the octopus was Right There In Front Of Their Faces, legs fanned out. The animal's web (the skin between its legs, like the webbing between your thumb and forefinger) is about six feet across, then add several more feet on either side for the legs themselves. That's a lot of octopus underside to suddenly find spread out a few inches away from your head, and there were a couple of squeaks and jumps right before the cameras came up and started clicking. I'll bet those pictures are great. :)

I assume the aquarium will acquire another octopus eventually, but until then Number Two will doubtless revel in her newly expanded territory. Sounds like she's having fun with it.

Angie

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Anthology Markets

If you've just wandered in off the internet, hi and welcome. :) I do these posts every month, so if this post isn't dated in the same month you're in, click here to make sure you're seeing the most recent one.

Markets with specific deadlines are listed first, "Until Filled" markets are at the bottom. There are usually more details on the original site; always click through and read the full guidelines before submitting. Note that some publishers list multiple antho guidelines on one page, so after you click through you might have to scroll a bit.

NOTE: Temporally Out of Order opened to submissions only upon funding of their Kickstarter, and there's not a lot of lead time. It's a cool theme, though, and they're paying $.05/word, so I'm listing it for the speedy among you.

***

30 November 2014 -- Accessing the Future -- ed. Djibril al-Ayad and Kathryn Allan; Futurefire.net Publishing

Inspired by the cyberpunk and feminist science fiction of yesterday and the DIY, open access, and hacktivist culture of today, Accessing the Future will be an anthology that explores the future potentials of technology to augment and challenge the physical environment and the human form—in all of its wonderful and complex diversity. We are particularly interested in stories that address issues of disability (invisible and visible, physical and mental), and the intersectionality of race, nationality, gender, sexuality, and class—in both physical and virtual spaces. Accessing the Future will be a collection of speculative fiction that places emphasis on the social, political, and material realms of being.

We want stories from as many diverse people as possible, especially from people with disabilities (visible and invisible, physical and mental), chronic illness or mental illness, who are neuroatypical, or people who have an understanding of the institutional and social construction of disability. We welcome stories from marginalized groups within the speculative fiction community (e.g., QUILTBAG, people of colour, non-North American writers), and from anyone with sensitivity to intersectional politics.
Payment and Rights

We pay $0.06/word (six cents a word) for global English first publication rights in print and digital format. The authors retain copyright.

Submission Guidelines

== Send your submissions to accessingfuture@gmail.com by midnight UTC on November 30th, 2014.
== Length 2500-7500 words (with a preference for 4000-6000 words).
== No reprints or simultaneous submissions.
== Attach your story as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file, with your name, the story title, and the wordcount on the first page.
== We do not require or request that submitting writers identify themselves as a person with a disability, but we respect anyone’s desire to self-identify.

What We Want:

We want stories that place emphasis on intersectional narratives (rejection of, undoing, and speaking against ableist, heteronormative, racist, cissexist, and classist constructions) and that are informed by an understanding of disability issues and politics at individual and institutional levels. We want to read stories from writers that think critically about how prosthetic technologies, new virtual and physical environments, and genetic modifications will impact human bodies, our communities, and planet. Here are some questions we want writers to think about

== How will humanity modify the future world?
== What kinds of new spaces will there be to explore and inhabit? Who will have access to these spaces and in what ways?
== Given that we all already rely on (technological) tools to make our lives easier, what kinds of assistive and adaptive technologies will we use in the future?
== How will augmentations (from the prosthetic to the genetic) erase or exacerbate existing differences in ability, class, gender, sexuality, nationality, and race?
== What does an accessible future look like?

We Will Not Accept:

== Stories of “cure” (or where disability exists as a condition to be “fixed,” erased through genetic engineering, etc.)
== Depictions of people with disabilities as “extra special,” “magical,” or “inspirational” because of their disability.
== Stories that generally reproduce today’s dominant reductionist viewpoints of disability as a fixed identity and a problem to be solved.
== Any story that addresses disability in a realistic and “positive” way but contains any element that is racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise insulting or harmful to other marginalized identities.

***

30 November 2014 -- Temporally Out of Order -- ed. Joshua Palmatier; Zombies Need Brains, LLC

While sitting at the airport waiting for a flight, I saw a phone booth with a note reading “Temporally Out of Order.” Obviously it was a typo, but the mistake takes on a whole new meaning when viewed from a science fiction/fantasy frame of mind. This anthology will take on the challenge of interpreting what “temporally out of order” could mean for modern day—or perhaps not so modern—gadgets, such as the cell phone, laptop, television, radio, iPod, or even that microwave or refrigerator!

Edited by Joshua Palmatier and Patricia Bray, it will contain approximately 14 stories with an average length of 6000 words each. The anthology will include short stories by: David B. Coe, Laura Anne Gilman, Faith Hunter, Stephen Leigh, Gini Koch, Seanan McGuire, and Laura Resnick. Additional authors will be added as stretch goals, including Jack Campbell, Jean Marie Ward, and Juliet E. McKenna. All other slots aside from the named authors will be filled by the open call for submissions following the successful completion of the Kickstarter.

[NOTE: Their Kickstarter did fund, so have at it. :) ]

***

1 December 2014 -- Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delaney -- ed. Nisi Shawl and Bill Campbell; Rosarium Publishing

Our anthology-in-progress, Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany, will honor science fiction's living legend, the author of over 20 novels, approximately as many short stories, five notable memoirs and counting, and ten essential books of genre criticism. SFWA Grand Master, Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductee, and multiple award-winner Samuel R. Delany ("Chip" to his friends) has inspired and taught many of us in the fields of science fiction and fantasy, directly and indirectly, by example and by intent. We want to demonstrate to the world the power of his work through what we write, and thank him for the grace of his existence. Would you like to be part of this anthology? Read on.

Response time: You’ll hear back from us about your submission by January 29, 2015, at the latest.

Wordcount limits: 1000 to 10,000 for prose

Pay: minimum .05/word up to $400 total per story/essay for original prose; minimum .02/word up to $160 total per story/essay for reprint prose.

Note: Acceptance, contracts, and payments will follow a successful crowdfunding campaign. Campaign will run October 1 – 31, 2014.

Reprints:

We're accepting a very few reprints, and plan to include no more than five total in the book. We already have two in mind. You'll have a much easier time selling us original material.

What we're looking for: We want stories and critical essays that relate in some way to the strength and beauty of Samuel R. Delany’s body of work. This relationship can be made evident through allusions to the author himself; through allusions to his work's titles, characters, situations, settings, etc.; through evoking a Delanyesque atmosphere; or through analysis of any of these elements, in the case of nonfiction. We're hoping for essays which elucidate his important, lasting contributions to literature; and for fiction inspired by these contributions.

What we're not looking for: Please don't send us your parodies of Delany or his work. We're also not at all confident you'll impress us with your serious attempts to reproduce his style; if you must try us with something along those lines, be aware that's going to be an extremely hard sell. Further, because Delany's critical writing though rigorous, is so clear and easily understandable, we’re not at all interested in deliberately obscurantist, jargon-laden critical essays.

How to submit:

Once the submission period opens, we'll accept ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS ONLY. We’ll destroy unread anything you send before September 4 or after December 1. During that period, send your submissions as attached .rtf or .doc files to: storiesforchip@gmail.com. In your message you can include any previous publishing credits you'd like to mention, and make any statement you care to make about your connections to Delany.

How to support without submitting: Check back here this February 2015 to participate in our crowdfunding campaign.

Publication and review copies: Our press is Rosarium, noted publisher of Mothership: Tales of Afrofuturism and Beyond. We expect to publish Stories for Chip in July 2015, and to make ARCs available to reviewers in March 2015.

[Click through for some info on the editors.]

***

15 December 2014 -- She Walks in Shadows -- Innsmouth Free Press

She Walks in Shadows, the first all-woman Lovecraft anthology, will hold an open submissions period from November 15, 2014 to December 15, 2014. DO NOT SEND STUFF BEFORE THAT DATE. Keep the following in mind:

Submit short stories inspired by the work of Lovecraft that focus on a woman or female deity. It may be a character from Lovecraft’s work or someone of your own creation. You are not restricted to the 1920s as a setting. Steampunk, dieselpunk, noir, and any other sub-genre you can imagine are fine with us. Give us your best and most polished work. And yes, you must be a woman to submit. Women only.

To avoid the Asenath effect (that means every character in the anthology would be Asenath Waite), we asked the authors who are contributing stories to pick a different character from a Lovecraft story. While you are not bound to these restrictions, we suggest that if you use a character from Lovecraft’s fiction, you avoid the usual suspects (Asenath and Lavinia).

Consider interesting and novel settings for your stories. Surely, strange Lovecraftian entities haunt contemporary Nunavut or the Inca fought strange webbed monstrosities centuries ago. Anne Boleyn, evil sorceress or woman fighting the good fight against the Mi-Go? We may never know. Or maybe we will.

POCs are highly encouraged to send stories. Transgender writers: same thing.
Stories may be sent in French, English, or Spanish. We can read all three languages.
Story length is up to 4,000 words with a pay rate of 6 cents a word (Canadian $, eh). No reprints, please.

Submit your final story as a Word or RTF attachment by the deadline to innsmouthfp(at)gmail(dot)com. Use the subject line: Slush Shadows. Include a cover letter with a biography (Yes, we want to know a bit about you), word count, and your name and contact information. Please use italics as italics, bold as bold, number your pages and the like.

We’ll get back to you early in 2015 with an answer.

We’ll be purchasing exclusive English language rights for 12 months. Exceptions: You may submit the story to award showcases, best of reprints, etc. We print in POD and release e-books. Due to this, we will ask for the right to maintain your story in print for a predetermined amount of time (5 years).

We’ll send you a contributor’s copy in each format released (paperback, hardcover, MOBI, ePub).

Questions can be directed to publisher(at)innsmouthfreepress(dot)com

***

30 December 2014 -- The Lost Worlds -- Eldritch Press

Payment: Six cents a word to keep pace with the SFWA guidelines for pro-pay markets.

Story Length: Up to 17,500/ novella length stories.

Deadline: Extended until December 30th 2014.

Rights Requested: Six months exclusive rights upon publication.
Cover art will be revealed soon.

Steampunk is a difficult and demanding genre to write in. Therefore we are only accepting the best stories you can bring to the plate. To be published early next year.

"The Lost Worlds" will be a anthology in the Steampunk Horror Genre devoted to the post-apocalyptic theme. Send us worlds rebuilt by steam powered engines and mechanical marvels. Send us characters we can root for as they fight the good fight.

Send us worlds our readers can romanticize about, characters that jump off the page. We want to set the Steampunk world ablaze with "The Lost Worlds." So we only want your best.

***

31 December 2014 -- Apotheosis -- ed. Jason Andrew; Simian Publishing

Apotheosis – Stories of human survival and defiance in a world subjugated by the return of the Elder Gods. Humanity struggled to grow and evolve as a species for thousands of years forever caught in the shadow of a dread threat known only to a devoted few. When the stars are right, the Old Ones will return to claim utter dominion of the world. Lovecraft Mythos stories often climax at the moment of the fateful return of the Elder Gods and the audience is left to ponder what might happen next. This anthology features stories about humanity under the reign of the Elder Gods and ancient terrors.

What do we mean by Lovecraft Mythos stories in relation to Apotheosis? We’re looking for stories inspired by the stories of H.P. Lovecraft and associated writers such as August Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard , Robert Bloch, Henry Kuttner, and Frank Belknap Long. We’re also interested in writers that inspired Lovecraft such as Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood and Lord Dunsany. We’re interested in classic mythos gods and monsters and originals that have inspired by the mythos.

Good Fiction Examples:

== " Boojum" by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette
== "A Colder War" by Charlie Stross
== In the Hall of the Yellow King by Peter Rawlik

What type of stories are we looking for? We’re looking for character-driven stories set during a time in the future where the ancient terrors that once ruled the Earth have claimed complete and utter dominion of the Earth. We’re less concerned about the strict interpretation of the Elder Gods than good stories that deal with real human concerns. How do people survive? How does life change? Will people accept their new gods or will they rebel? What will it mean to be human in such a world of gods and monsters? Surprise us. Don’t give us stories that we’ve read before. We want worlds that feel real populated by characters from different cultures, genders, and ethnicities. Avoid cultural appropriation. Do your homework.

What types of submissions should I avoid? We’re not as interested in the moment the ancient horrors return and conquer the world, but how humanity survives after the war is lost. Flashbacks are OK, but the story should not be about that time. We enjoy historical mythos fiction, but this is not the anthology for it. Stories must be set in the future. We are not looking for poetry for this anthology.

Submission Details:

== Word-count: 2,000 to 7,000 Worldwide print and e-book rights (exclusive for 6 months, non-exclusive for an additional 30 months).Exceptions will be made for stories accepted for “Best Of” anthologies. Apotheosis will be available in both Print on Demand and e-book formats.

== Submissions open November 1, 2014, and will close at 11:59 PST on December 31, 2014. You may submit at: apotheosis.anthology@gmail.com (Do not submit before November 1st 2014 or your submission will be deleted)

== Queries and questions may be sent to : apotheosis.anthology@gmail.com. (You may send queries and questions anytime.) All responses will be accepted or rejected by January 15th, 2015. Please do not query about submitted stories before then. No multiple or simultaneous submissions. Our word count limits are hard for open submissions. Reprints may be submitted, but we’re only accepting three or four at the most. (It should be clearly stated that the submission is a reprint in your cover later or this will be an automatic rejection later.)

== Please use standard format guidelines. If it is difficult to read, we will reject your story. Your story must include your name, address, telephone number, email address, and approximate word count on the first page. Your cover letter should include your complete contact information, story title, approximate word count, and a short bio.

== Payment: 3 cents per word (or 1 cent per word for reprints), paid within 90 days after publication. Plus contributor copy of print and e-book.

***

31 December 2014 -- SNAFU II: Survival of the Fittest -- ed. Geoff Brown and Amanda J Spedding; Cohesion Press

For this anthology, we want survival horror featuring soldiers.

Survival horror says it all. Resident Evil… Silent Hill… with soldiers. Straining to make that one clip of rounds last. Making sure not to waste a single bullet. Lost in the shadows, low on ammo, only edged weapons, and/or wounded, fighting to survive, the last remnants of the mission team trying to make sense of where they had gone wrong, and how to make it out alive with next-to-no resources.

We still want military combat from any period, don’t get me wrong, but we also want fear… we want suspense and tension… we want originality in the monster/antagonist, and how they are finally overcome. To allow for this building of atmosphere and tension, we have upped the word limit to 10,000.

And then, we want something jaw-droppingly amazing.

We STRONGLY suggest you read the first and/or second SNAFU volume to see what it is we like.

SNAFU – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LNXHLJG
SNAFU: Heroes – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MSVEY2Y

SNAFU II will hold novellas by some best-selling authors, with announcements to come soon.

== Edited by Geoff Brown and Amanda J Spedding
== Payment: AUD4c/word and one contributor copy in each format released
== Wordcount range: 1,000 – 10,000 words (query for shorter or longer)
== Submission window: October 1 – December 31, 2014 (anything submitted outside of this window will be deleted without being read)
== Projected publication date: Second Quarter 2015

Please follow these guidelines when submitting to us:

1. Please put your full contact details on the first page of the manuscript top left, with word count top right.
2. Standard submission format, with minimal document formatting.
3. Courier or Times New Roman set at 12pt. Italics as they will appear. No underlining.
4. Double spaced.
5. Please don’t use TAB or space bar to indent lines. Use ‘styles’ only. If unsure or using a program that has no styles, do not indent at all. That’s still cool.
6. NO SPACE between paragraphs unless a line-break is required. ONE SPACE after full stops.
7. Please put full contact details on the first page of the manuscript (yes, I said this twice… it’s important).
8. Send your submission to Geoff Brown at editor@cohesionpress.com as an attachment (doc or docx).
9. In the subject line of your email, please put SNAFU2: [STORY TITLE]

(Replace [STORY TITLE] with your actual story title. Yes, unfortunately I do need to state this)

NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS
NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS

For a guide to standard submission format, see: http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

The only variation to this format is that italics MUST appear as they will be used; no underlining.

Anyone that fails to follow these guidelines will likely see their story gobbled up by spam gremlins.

***

31 December 2014 -- Villains Inc -- ed. Tan-ni Fan; Less Than Three Press

Villains, Inc. — An Anthology Call — Tired of goody-two-shoes? Why should those "glowing heroes of good" get all the glory? Villains! They can be antiheroes, misunderstood, or just people who love to cause chaos for the sheer madness of it all. LT3 is seeking stories where the focus is, for once, on the baddies. The badder the better!

Please note, Less than Three has a strong policy against stories with themes of non-consent.

THE DETAILS:
== Deadline is December 31, 2014 (give or take, we won’t kill you for sending it off the following morning).
== Stories should be at least 10,000 words and should not exceed approx 20,000 words in length.
== Stories may be any pairing except cisgender heterosexual M/F (trans* M/F, M/M, F/F, poly, and all permutations thereof are acceptable).
== Stories must have a happily ever after (HEA) or happy for now (HFN) end.
== Any sub-genre is gladly accepted: sci-fi, mystery, contemporary, steampunk, etc.
== All usual LT3 submission guidelines apply.

Villains, Inc. is a general release anthology, meaning stories will be sold as a compiled ebook in the LT3 book market. Payment will be $200 on acceptance of the story. Authors will receive one copy each of the ebook formats LT3 produces and two copies of the paperback compilation.

Stories should be complete before submitting, and as edited as possible. They can be submitted in any format (doc, docx, rtf, odt, etc) preferably single spaced in an easy to read font (Times, Calibri, Arial) with no special formatting (no elaborate section separation, special fonts, etc). Additional formatting guidelines can be found on the above-linked submissions page.

IMPORTANT: This anthology is being coordinated and edited by one of LT3′s senior editors, Tan-ni Fan. To submit, please send your manuscript to tannifanpw@gmail.com. Include the following in your email:

== Put SUBMISSIONS in the subject line! Emails without this subject line run the risk of not being seen or read, so please, do not forget this!
== Your real name, pen name (if you use one), and preferred email address.
== The approximate total length of the completed story.
== A brief summary of the story, not to exceed approximately 200 words in length.
== Attach the complete manuscript in .doc, .docx, or .odt format.

Any questions/concerns should be directed to the Editor, Tan-ni Fan at tannifanpw@gmail.com (or you can ping her on twitter @tannifan).

[NOTE: Less Than Three is a romance press, and is looking for romance stories. Romance presses often assume you know this without being told.]

***

31 December 2014 -- A Collection of Untimely Hours -- Dark Recesses Press

Dark Recesses Press is now accepting short novella length submissions for A Collection of Untimely Hours. Between four and six stories will be selected for this themed anthology.

The theme is time. The genre is dark fiction. A broad spectrum, we know, but what we mean by this is truly the dark spectrum – from horror to supernatural, to slipstream – and all points in between. That said, Splatterpunk and Bizarro fiction are probably not the right fit for this gathering. This is also not the venue for high fantasy or hard sci-fi, but if you have a shadowy urban fantasy or a dark tale that happens to take place upon a space freighter, that’s fine. Just make sure there’s no need to learn a new language in order to read the story. Seriously.

The key here is to offer our readers a cool creep, a sense of dread, and the tension of time from which they can’t escape. It’s your world. Build it, and drag the reader through it with the seconds ticking at their heels.

Of course we have the standard caveat of Gore for Gore’s sake and overused tropes are not going to fly. But you’re professionals and you don’t see a need to resort to cheap parlor tricks, or taking the easy road to reach nirvana.

One more important NO : No Sexual Abuse of Children, direct or implied. Period. It’s not a flexible point. If you’re unsure, query at info@darkrecessespress.com and we’ll be happy to clarify and save you time or frustration.

Now for the nitty-gritties:

Submission deadline: December 31st, 2014Subs2

Word count: 15,000 – 25,000 firm

Pay: 3 cents / word

Reprints: No

Rights: First North American Serial Rights (FNASR) and Electronic Rights to distribute the text in multiple print and electronic formats for twelve months from publication, and a three-year non-exclusive worldwide license from the date of publication to continue to publish your work in other formats as part of the anthology volume in which it was first published without extending the license term and without constituting a new publication, and to keep that discrete anthology available in our salable inventory throughout that term.

(For example, we can re-publish the same anthology that includes your work in a cool new techno-format that comes along, but we can’t publish your work as part of a different anthology. Also, no matter what new format is added during the license term, our right to publish still ends three years after initial publication unless we re-negotiate with you.)

Format: Standard Manuscript Format with the following noted requirements.

== Scene breaks marked with ##
== Special formatting (italics, bolds, underlines) set up exactly as you want it printed.
== DO NOT USE TABS OR SPACES for Indents. I cannot stress this enough. DON’T Set the indent under your document paragraph settings, or just don’t indent.
== Do not use special quotes
== Saved as .doc, .docx, or .rtf format.

Send submissions to: submissions@darkrecessespress.com

Subject line: "UNTIMELY HOURS – "

***

31 December 2014 -- The Time It Happened -- Third Flatiron

World-altering events. It should be the kind of thing everyone has a memory of. A time travel story or two may be okay under this theme.

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times."

Stories should be submitted in either Microsoft Word (using double spacing), RTF, or plain text. They should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words. Flash humor pieces (Grins and Gurgles) should be short, around 600 words.

Please don't send simultaneous or multiple submissions. If a story has been rejected, you can then send another.

Submit by email to flatsubmit@thirdflatiron.com either as an attachment (Word) or in the body of the mail (text).

In the Subject: line of the email, please put flatsubmit:Title_of_Your_Work to avoid being deemed a canned meat product based on ham.

If the work is for the humor section, please note that in the body of your email. A brief bio and a one- or two-sentence synopsis in the body of your email would also be helpful to us.

Your story must be original work, with the digital rights unencumbered. Accepted stories will be paid at the flat rate of 3 cents per word (U.S.), in return for the digital rights to the story for six months after publication. All other rights will remain with the author. We no longer offer royalties. If your story is selected as the lead story, beginning July 1, 2014, we will pay a flat rate of 6 cents per word (SFWA professional rate), in return for the permission to podcast or give the story away as a free sample portion of the anthology.

Third Flatiron will price and market your story to various e-publishing venues. We will format the story for the most popular electronic readers and platforms. You agree that we may distribute a sample (portion of the story) to potential customers.

For non-U.S. submissions, we prefer to pay via PayPal, if you have such an account.

Authors selected for publication will also be entitled to one free online copy of the anthology.

***

15 January 2015 -- Second Contact -- ed. Mike Rimar and Hayden Trenholm; Bundoran Press

Science Fiction is our conversation with the future. But what if we're talking with alien voices? Bundoran Press Publishing House will open for submissions from September 15th, 2014 to January 15th, 2015 for a new anthology of science fiction stories to be edited by Mike Rimar and Hayden Trenholm.

Second Contacts seeks stories which explore what happens fifty years after first contact, for us, for them, for our shared future. The possibilities are endless — conquest, collaboration, assimilation, or, even abandonment. On Earth, in space, or on alien planets, what will happen to individuals and societies after two generations or more of staring into alien eyes?

Payment for first world English rights (print and digital) will be $0.02 a word to a maximum payment of $130.00 (all figures Canadian dollars). Our preferred length is 3500 to 6500 words. We will accept stories of any length to 10,000 words but the maximum payment will remain $130.00. A limited number of reprints (please query before submitting) may be purchased at a flat rate of $50. Payment on publication.

Please submit in .rtf, .doc or .docx format.

***

31 January 2015 -- Dreams from the Witch House -- ed. Lynne Jamneck; Dark Regions Press

I will be editing an anthology of Lovecraftian fiction written by women, to be published by Dark Regions Press in 2015.

We have already solicited a selection of established authors to contribute work to the collection. As of 1 October 2014, I am officially accepting unsolicited submissions for an open call period that ends 31 January 2015.

The only set requirement for the anthology is that all submissions must be written by women. Submissions from international, multi-cultural and LGBT/GSD perspectives are encouraged, as this collection will aim to present the diversity of voices within the field of Lovecraftian fiction. All stories must be submitted in English.

There is no restriction on setting, so don't feel like you have to remain within the 1920's/1930's - far future stories, contemporary, steampunk, psychological, horror, fantasy/sf and, of course, historical settings are all welcome.

I am open to a wide interpretation of 'Lovecraftian', but I'm not looking for pastiche work. Nuanced weirdness welcome, as is the overtly strange.

Word count for submissions is set between 2000 and 10 000 words. If you would like to submit something shorter or longer, please query.

No simultaneous submissions or reprints.

Payment for accepted stories will be 5c per word up to 5k, then 3c per word over 5k.

Email submissions in Word .doc or .rtf file, formatted to standard manuscript specifications to:

witchesdreams AT gmail DOT com

***

UNTIL FILLED -- The Lost Worlds -- Eldritch Press ** First Posted August 2014

Please refer to the Submission Guidelines page for information on how and where to submit.

Include in the subject line of your submission Sub_The Lost Worlds_authors name

Updated Payment: Eight cents a word.

Story Length: Up to 20,000 novella length stories.

Rights Requested: One year exclusive rights upon publication.

This will be released in paperback, Limited Hardcover and E-book format.

Cover art will be revealed soon.

Steampunk is a difficult and demanding genre to write in. Therefore we are only accepting the best stories you can bring to the plate. To be published early next year.

"The Lost Worlds" will be a anthology in the Steampunk Horror Genre devoted to the post-apocalyptic theme. Send us worlds rebuilt by steam powered engines and mechanical marvels. Send us characters we can root for as they fight the good fight.

Send us worlds our readers can romanticize about, characters that jump off the page. We want to set the Steampunk world ablaze with "The Lost Worlds." So we only want your best.