CALLIHOO Newsletter ----------------------------------------------------------------- Vol. 7 No. 23 Editor: Julia West November 23, 1999 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Web page: http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/CALLIHOO/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS Marcia and Mary Anne are taking leaves of absence from CALLIHOO for awhile due to job pressures. We'll miss them. * * * Ken Rand's story "The Waiting Game," just came out in Quantum SF (www.quantumsf.com). His story "The Nine Billion Names of Arthur C. Clarke" remains on the top-ten bestseller list (for the year) at Alexandria Digital Literature (www.alexlit.com). He also got the go ahead to do an article for =Speculations= on schmoozing. Now that's something Ken's good at! DEADLINES Check out the CALLIHOO website, listed above, for more information on these contests, magazine issues, and anthologies. (Where it says "GLs in Vol. X No. Y," these are volume and issue of the CALLIHOO newsletter.) First Annual "Fantastical Visions" Contest (and anthology) deadline 1 Dec 99. [F 4000-7000 wds, 1st prize $100, 2nd $75, 3rd $50, HM « cent/wd. =No entry fee=. (GLs in Vol. 7, No. 20)] The Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story Writing, deadline 15 December 1999. [SF/F by undergrad. students in college or university, 1,000-10,000 wds, 1st place $500, =entry fee $5.00 per story=, no limit to number of entries per person. (GLs in Vol. 6 No. 44)] =PRISM international= 15th Annual Short Fiction Contest 1999, deadline 15 December 1999. [Canadian contest, $2,000C 1st prize, 5 $200 runners-up (+pmt for pub), =$20 1st entry fee, $5 all others=, max. 25 pp. (GLs in Vol. 6 No. 44)] =Pulp Eternity= Volume 9: I Am Cat. Deadline 15 Dec 1999 or when filled. [SF cat stories, to 10,000 wds, pays 3 cents/wd. on pub. http://www.pulpeternity.com. (GLs in Vol. 7 No. 5)] =Skull Full of Spurs= anthology deadline 31 Dec 99. [SF/F/DF/H with western landscapes. 1000-8000 wds, 6›/wd. (GLs in Vol. 7, No. 23)] =Starlight 3= anthology, deadline 31 Dec 1999. [SF/F, pays 7-1/2 cents/wd., no upper word limit, (GLs in Vol. 6, No. 38)] =Writers of the Future=, 1st quarter 2000, deadline 31 December 1999. [$1000 first, $750 2nd, $500 3rd place. =No entry fee=. L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, P.O. Box 1630-JBW, Los Angeles, CA 90078. (GLs in Vol. 6, No. 10)] =Extremes: Fantasy and Horror from the Ends of the Earth=, deadline 1 Jan 2000 or when filled. [Limited edition CD anthology, F/H outside USA, pays 1/22 of profits, lwpub@aol.com, http://www.dm.net/~bahwolf/extremes.htm. (GLs in Vol. 7 No. 10)] =Midnight Galleries= first issue deadline 1 Jan 2000. [Quarterly game-based antho series, shared-world, 5000-20K wds, pays 6 cents/wd., query first, E-mail subm okay to Kaytman@aol.com. (GLs in Vol. 7, No. 16)] ANTHOLOGY =Skull Full of Spurs: A Roundup of Weird Westerns= [Weird western SF/H 1000 to 8000 wds, 6 cents/wd., no reprints, E-mail subm. okay, query first, deadline 31 Dec 1999] Editors: Jason Bovberg and Kirk Whitham Dark Highway Press PMB 117 2519 S. Shields Fort Collins, CO 80526 E-mail: bovberg@frii.com http://www.frii.com/~bovberg/DHPress.htm Dark Highway Press is now accepting weird western short stories. We're looking for Western landscapes, icons, and themes, infused with liberally strange doses of horror, noir, science fiction, or erotica. We like the wildly humorous as much as we like the crushingly dark. We like our stories fast and hard, mean and fun, grounded in tradition but out there. We're steering clear of excerpts and reprints. Titled =Skull Full of Spurs: A Roundup of Weird Westerns=, our Spring 2000 anthology will offer a strange bunch of short fiction that combines the icons of Western literature with science fiction, noir, erotica, and horror. Pay: 6 cents per printed word for first rights, plus two copies of book on publication. Length: 1,000 to 8,000 words. How to submit: Email or hard-copy, sent to addresses above. Please attach Microsoft Word or Wordperfect document to your email message. Deadline: December 31, 1999 For inspiration, please take a look at =Razored Saddles= from Joe R. Lansdale and Pat LoBrutto. Then, go to our page "About Dark Highway Press" to get a real feel for what we're looking for. Please first query Jason Bovberg at bovberg@frii.com. About Dark Highway Press We're a new specialty publisher (est. 1997) based in Fort Collins, Colorado. Creating handsome, limited-edition hardcovers, with a line of trade paperbacks on the horizon, Dark Highway is committed to printing the strange stuff shunned by the corporate publishers. There's scarce love for the written word in publishing these days. Isn't that a shame? Worse, the big houses are taking few chances. They're placing their bets on the things that have worked before. It seems to us, here at Dark Highway Press, that publishers should be doing their damnedest to print cutting-edge stuff. Books should be opening eyes wider, not boring them into REM sleep. We want to wake you up. We want you to read a Dark Highway book and exclaim. Whether a curse or a joyous song escapes your lips, we want to elicit a reaction. We crave the extreme emotional response. We want you to think about our books for a while. Dark Highway Press, along with many other small publishers, is the answer to the corporate-publishing malaise. We love good fiction. We love taking chances with something we believe in. We love readers who take chances, too. So take a ride along the Dark Highway. We want the weird. The impossible. The blasphemous. The hideous. The prurient. We crave these things. If it's just plain odd, it has a home at Dark Highway Press. Dark Highway Press, PMB 117, 2519 S. Shields, Fort Collins, CO 80526 E-mail: bovberg@frii.com [http://www.frii.com/~bovberg/Submit.htm] [http://www.frii.com/~bovberg/About.htm] MARKET GUIDELINES =Invisible Cities Press= [Novels and anthos, $500 min for short stories, 10% royalties for novels, no e-mail subm., RT 8-10 wks] Michael Grimaldi, Editor Invisible Cities Press 50 State Street, Suite #9 Montpelier, VT 05602 editor@invisiblecitiespress.com http://www.invisiblecitiespress.com/index.htm OUR MISSION We humans have always been storytellers; from the myths and hero tales of tribal societies to the sophisticated tales of the Arabian Nights, the fantastic speculations of Jules Verne, or the fables of Italo Calvino. Stories tell us where we come from and where we might possibly go. They both define and expand our understanding of self and the world. They are mirrors reflecting the soul of our species and the vehicles of our truly human gift -- the creative imagination. The modern mythologists, social and intellectual provocateurs, are often found writing their tales within a style that might be called fabulist or speculative fiction. Fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, horror, allegory -- all these genres and more move through this style. In today's literary environment, there is a reluctance on the part of large publishing companies to take a chance on promoting the new or unclassifiable writer. Invisible Cities Press is dedicated to helping correct this situation by actively seeking out and publishing both new and more established writers of imagination who are expanding the possibilities of their work beyond genre definitions. Invisible Cities Press publishes anthologies of short fiction as well as novels. We remain focused on one central ingredient -- a good tale well told. REGULAR SUBMISSIONS Invisible Cities Press is accepting submissions of high quality fiction with a speculative, mythic, or fabulist leaning. We are interested in both short fiction and novel length work. We are looking for insightful, well-crafted stories that avoid the genre cliches. Invisible Cities Press pays a minimum of $500 for new short fiction and a royalty of 10% of retail for novels for First World English Rights. Please use by the following guidelines for submissions: * Submissions should be typed, double spaced, single side of page only. * Your name and address should appear in the upper right corner of the first page. Your name should also be on each subsequent page. * The approximate word count should be placed in the upper left corner of the first page. * Be sure that the title and a page number appear on every page. * For consideration of novel length works, send a synopsis and three sample chapters. * No E-mail submissions, please. * If you want your manuscript returned, include an appropriately sized, self addressed, stamped envelope. Manuscripts without a proper SASE will not be returned. * Expect a response time of eight to ten weeks. Send your Manuscript to: Michael Grimaldi, Editor Invisible Cities Press, 50 State Street, Suite #9, Montpelier, VT 05602 Adam Sherman, Publisher Michael Grimaldi, Editor Joel Bernstein, Managing Editor [http://www.invisiblecitiespress.com/mission.htm and http://www.invisiblecitiespress.com/ submissions.htm] ***************************************************************** * A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. * * (Chinese Proverb) * ***************************************************************** MARKET INFORMATION =Analog and Asimov's= "Dell Magazines has struck a deal with Peanutpress.com to offer electronic versions of the popular SF magazines =Asimov's Science Fiction= and =Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact=. The January 2000 issues of both magazines are already available for download on the Peanutpress.com website with the same editorial content and at the same price as the print editions. "According to Peanutpress.com, customers can download the magazines in about a minute using a 28.8K connection and can then load them onto handheld computers and personal digital assistants. Dell is also offering electronic editions of =Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine= and =Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine=." Gardner Dozois, editor of =Asimov's SF=, says, "These stories are not "being put on the web." The issue as a whole is being sold as a download available to PalmPilot owners, through Peanut Press. Follow the link from the Asimov's site for details. And yes, all rights have been contracted for. "Every author is asked whether they want to appear in the Peanut Press edition of the magazine or not; if they don't, they're dropped from the downloadable electronic version of that issue; they still appear in the print version, though." [Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel 15, Nov 99, and SFRT4, Cat 14, Top 4, 20 Nov 99] =Blitz-Verlag= German publisher BLITZ-Verlag is "seeking German rights for previously published English-language novels of [H/SF/F]. In their horror line, Edition Metzengerstein, they have already published works by Ramsey Campbell, Brian Hodge, Thomas Ligotti, Terry Lamsley, and will soon publish Brian McNaughton, Dan Simmons, Tom Piccirilli, Richard Laymon, and others. Since they have many horror titles, they are particularly interested in =F/SF novels= now. (=No= short stories.) Submit books and bibliography along with address, e-mail, and agent contact to address above. Purchase rights for the German language for six years. Also seeking cover illustrations. Artists can submit small jpgs via e-mail. BLITZ-Verlag, Edition Metzengerstein, Frank Festa, editor-in- chief, Hurster Strasse 2a, 51570 Windeck, Germany E-mail: Festa@Blitz-verlag.de [#] 02273/4669; Internet-Fax: 040 36031 14385; http://www.BLITZ-verlag.de/." [Speculations Online Update #15A] =The (SFWA) Bulletin= Chuck Rothman, Business Manager for =The Bulletin=, says that the magazine will have to cut payment back to 7 cents/wd. from 10 cents/wd. starting with issue #145 (#144 is already at the printer). =Century= The newly-resurrected =Century= costs $6 US. It's now quarterly. Meg Hamel is no longer affiliated with the magazine; send all correspondence (concerning subscriptions, submissions, etc.) to Century, P.O. Box 150510, Brooklyn, NY 11215-0510. E-mail Inquiries: editor@centurymag.com. Robert K. J. Killheffer: Editor/Publisher. Jenna A. Felice: Associate Editor. Bryan G. Cholfin: Design & Production. US RATES: 4 issues (1 yr): $20, 8 issues (2 yrs): $38. CANADA & OVERSEAS (US$ only): single issue: $7.50, 4 issues: $24, 8 issues: $46 A writer on Genie says that Rob Killheffer contacted her by E- mail and said that =Century= subscribers could contact him at his e-mail address (robkill@bway.net) or through the new Century web page. "All subscriptions have been extended by one issue, so if yours ended with #6 you should now receive #7 as well." [SFRT4, Cat 14, Topic 18, 4 and 18 Nov 99 and http://www.centurymag.com/] =HarperCollins/Avon= "Months-long speculation as to who and what would survive HarperCollins' restructuring to accommodate its acquisition of William Morrow & Co. and Avon Books ended [9/21/99]. Seventy-four people were laid off including Avon publisher Lou Aronica [and] HarperCollins editor John Douglas, and John Silbersack, who created the [SF/F/H] HarperPrism imprint and most recently was senior vice president and publishing director of... HarperEntertainment ...Several imprints will disappear, including recently created Avon imprints such as Bard (literary), Twilight (mystery), and Spike (pop-cultural, but also publisher of Neil Gaiman's =Stardust=.) "HarperCollins, a division of Australian media giant News Corp., bought William Morrow from Hearst in July for an estimated $200 million. The purchase made HarperCollins the second-biggest US publisher after Random House. (Sources: PW Daily, Variety, Reuters, company news release, other.)" [Speculations Online Update #15A] =Maelstrom SF= A change of address for =Maelstrom SF=: Dave Felts, Editor, 3645 Chatham Dr., Palm Harbor, FL 34684. [Speculations Online Update #15A] =Realities Escape= New magazine =Realities Escape= seeks F/SF/DF/H "to 10k words, pays from 3 cents/word. Poetry, pays $5-$40. Pays on acceptance." First issue, 3/1/00. "Include [cover letter] with credits. We are also accepting submissions of novels 65k+ words. Do not [submit novels] via e-mail. We will also consider manuscripts of 35k-50k words." Read GLs before submitting. 7-Realms Publishing Corp., Celia L. Badon, PO Box 1629, Pearl River, LA 70452; realms@fastband.com. [Speculations Online Update #15A] ***************************************************************** * A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad * * novel tells us the truth about its author. * * -- G. K. Chesterton * ***************************************************************** Looking for a Workshop? Andrew Burt, of the highly respected online "Critters" workshop, has a new service at http://www.critters.org/critfinder to help folks locate regional workshops in their area. Anyone looking for one, or having one others might want to know about, should drop by. He's also offering regional workshops free, secure (password protected) web pages on which they can exchange manuscripts or other info. In Burt's experience, this integrates well with read-in-advance workshops as an optional component, and should also be of value to read-aloud ones. A sample page is available at http://www.critique.org/sampleww. [DarkEcho, 18 Nov 99] Guidelines Website Writers Guidelines Database, http://www.mav.net/guidelines/, has over 500 (magazine) guidelines in many categories. SF/F/H is not one of the categories, but if you write anything besides speculative fiction, this is a good website to check out. ==End of the CALLIHOO newsletter for 23 November 1999==