CALLIHOO Newsletter ----------------------------------------------------------------- Vol. 7 No. 20 Editor: Julia West November 2, 1999 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Web page: http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/CALLIHOO/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS E-CALLIHOOt Malcolm Twigg has a delightful story, perfect for Halloween, at =Deep Outside SFFH=. Read it at http://outside.clocktowerfiction.com/Fiction/thirdstroke.shtml * * * The next CALLIHOO challenge story, due Ground Hog's Day, has the theme "rodents". Be they rats, mice, or ground hogs, whether they be protagonists, antagonists, or merely mentioned, put something about a rodent or rodents in your story. 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.) =Fantasy, Folklore & Fairytales=, "Millennium The Real Story" closes November 20, 1999. [Monthly webzine, themed, F 1500-7500 wds, pays $10-$15 on accept, E-mail subm okay, website: http://fff.fantasytoday.com/ (GLs in Vol. 7 No. 16)] 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. 20)] =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)] CONTEST =First Annual "Fantastical Visions" Contest (and anthology)= [Contest and antho, deadline 1 Dec 99, F 4000-7000 wds, 1st prize $100, 2nd $75, 3rd $50, HM « cent/wd. No entry fee] Fantasist Enterprises, "Fantastical Visions" Entries, PO Box 9381, Wilmington, DE 19809. 1) Legal Stuff: Entry must be original, unpublished, and unproduced, and not accepted by any other publisher or producer at the time of submission. Fantasist purchases the following rights in the English Language, throughout the world in and to all winning stories: Anthology and Collection, Serial, and Electronic (including Online). All federal, local, and state taxes are the responsibility of the winners. 2) Format: Stories must be of a fantastical nature. This is a broad description, but basically keep the nature of the stories magical and not technological. Entries must be no fewer than 4,000 words and no more than 7,000 words long and must not have been previously published. They must be typed or machine printed, double-spaced, on one side of 8« x 11 white paper. Do not justify right margins. The author's name, address, and phone number must appear on the first page of the entry. The name of the story and page number should appear on every page. No electronic or disk submissions will be accepted. All entries must be original and the sole work of the entrant and the sole property of the entrant. 3) Mailing: Mail all entries to Fantasist Enterprises, "Fantastical Visions" Entries, PO Box 9381, Wilmington, DE 19809. Submit each entry only once. You may submit more than one story, but only one of your entries can win. Enclose a self-addressed envelope with proper postage, if you wish the entry to be returned, those that do not will be destroyed. Entries must be postmarked by December 1, 1999. Not responsible for lost, late, stolen, postage due, or misdirected mail. 4) Prizes: One Grand Prize Winner will receive $100.00. One Second Prize Winner will receive $75.00. One Third Prize Winner will receive $50.00. All Honorable Mention winners will receive 1/2 cent a word. There will be no more than 17 honorable mention winners. 5) Notification and Publication: All winners will be notified by mail before February 1st, 2000. Prized will be mailed upon receipt of signed contract. If contract is not returned by March 1st, prize will be awarded to another individual. Books will become available by summer of 2000. [http://fantasistenterprises.tripod.com/Rules.html] MARKET GUIDELINES =Glimmer Train= [Quarterly print mag, All genres to 8,000 words, pays $500 on accept, sim subs okay, send stories in Jan/Apr/Jul/Oct, No e-mail subm.] Linda Burmeister Davies and Susan Burmeister-Brown, Editors 710 SW Madison Street, Suite 504, Portland, OR 97205. E-mail ("=no subs or queries=, info only"): info@glimmertrain.com. URL: www.glimmertrain.com. =Glimmer Train= welcomes work from established and emerging writers. Please see below for details. "The mechanics of writing can be taught, the basic rules and tools and guidelines, but as in any art, all the rest comes from doing and doing and doing. The most important part of the process is learning to trust one's own vision, to work hard at developing one's own style and voice, and then having the confidence to follow where it goes." Mary McGarry Morris "I also want to thank you both for your sense of humor, imagination, and attentiveness as editors I've worked with many editors and rarely has the process been so enjoyable." Anndee Hochman "Since winning their Short-Story Award for New Writers, numerous agents have contacted me, and that story has been picked up by two anthologies. Clearly, Glimmer Train has a meaningful readership." Steve Adams Please NOTE: When a deadline falls on a Sunday, a postmark on Monday is fine. *10,000 word limit. *Typed and double-spaced. *Our issues have no themes. *Please, no children's stories. *Simultaneous submissions are okay. *Send your stories during the months of January, April, July, and October. *We pay $500 for first publication and nonexclusive anthology rights. Payment is made upon acceptance. *Please include a self-addressed sufficiently stamped envelope for the return of your manuscript, or a single-stamped envelope if you would prefer we send a response only. *Single issues available for $9.95 in most bookshops or directly from us payable by check or online. "The strongest temptation is to think, Oh, but they wouldn't be interested in that. But the most ordinary parts of our lives are the very things that tie us to the human condition." Barbara Scott "All my life has been an interest in stories, forever and ever and ever." E. Annie Proulx, interviewed by Michael Upchurch "Instead of saying, 'I want to be a writer,' and then sitting around wishing I were a writer, I've been really trying to throw myself into it It's taken me a long time to get around to writing. I'm forty-one years old and this is my first collection of stories. I don't think I could have gotten to it much earlier " Kevin Canty Glimmer Train Press, Inc. 710 SW Madison Street, Suite 504, Portland, Oregon 97205 telephone: 503.221.0836 facsimile: 503.221.0837 [http://www.glimmertrain.com/glimmertrain/writguid1.html, http://www.glimmertrain.com/glimmertrain/test.html] See =Market Information= below for updates to guidelines. =Jackhammer E-zine= [Weekly webzine, SF/F/H to 2000 wds, related to Question of the Week, pays 1 cent/wd. (min. $5). E-mail subs only; no snail mail subs, sim subs okay, mult subs okay, but not for same question.] Raechel Henderson, Editor 9220 Jill Lane #2E, Schiller Park, IL 60176 jackhammer@eggplant-productions.com http://www.eggplant-productions.com/ep/index.html Please read this before submitting: I. What to submit to us Questions - Do you have a question that you would like to see on =Jackhammer=? Submit them to: jackhammer@eggplant-productions.com Stories - What we're looking for: Up to 2000 words, SF/H/F (Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror), or any mix of the three, based on the question of the week. These are stories, so please entertain us. Don't preach. Send us your best. Please use proper grammar and spelling. We do not consider stories that involve child molestation, gore for gore's sake, or pornography. You can e-mail your manuscript to: jackhammer@eggplant-productions.com. We only accept e-mail submissions. Snail mail submissions will be returned unread. Send us a clean, easily readable manuscript. Double space between paragraphs, keep line length to seventy (70) characters and send in plain text as the body of the e-mail (no attachments). If you use special characters for italics please indicate so at the top (i.e. "* denotes italics"). Please don't use ALL CAPS to indicate italics or emphasis. Place the title and your name as the subject. At the top of the message include your name, e-mail address, snail mail address, word count and the question the story is for. We don't accept general submissions. That is, all stories and articles I accept must touch upon a Question of the Week. Don't submit a story with the intention of it being a "general submission" and don't submit a story or article without indicating what question it is for. I request this for two reasons: 1) it makes my life just a little bit easier, which in turn allows me to put out a great e-zine, 2) if I don't have a question, it slows down response time. =Jackhammer= now responds to submissions within 2 weeks. Please wait at least that long before querying if I've gotten to your submission yet. If you want to hear back from me quickly, include a question with your story or article. Please, no HTML coding or URL's in the story. If you have links that go with the story, we will put them at the end of the text. If you have a web page, include that as well. We will link to it while your story is up. Reprints accepted (please indicate when and where the piece was previously published). Finally, while we accept multiple submissions, we do not accept more than one submission for an issue. Do not submit 2 stories for the same issue. Do not submit 1 story and one article for the same issue. I will reject the second submission and only look at the first. I'll try to comment on every story that comes before me. I am a writer and I hate form letters so you won't get one from me. Simultaneous submissions are okay, as long as you let me know. Articles - Pretty much the same as above. 1000 word, $10 (U.S. Currency) limit. Relevant HTML coding and URL's can be included in the article and are encouraged. Although I'll look at opinion pieces and essays, I want more informative articles. I like links, especially ones that help readers learn more about a particular topic on their own. Things that are important to me in articles are structure, flow and good grammar. I'm seeing too many articles that read like rants and too many articles that wander with no real sense of where the author is headed too. Take some time to make sure that your article gets your point across. Writer's Duet - Occasionally we run a writer's duet, in which two writers work on a story all week long, each posting parts of the story. If you would be interested in working on such a project, e-mail us and submit a few samples of your writing (so we can match you up with another author). We pay each author $20 for participation and we post the results of the duet in its entirety the next week. II. Rights First Worldwide Electronic Rights - We buy First Worldwide Electronic Rights for pieces that have not appeared anywhere on the web before including print reprints. Rights revert back to the author 90 days after publication, and we ask that accepted submissions do not appear elsewhere on the web until after this time expires. Worldwide Electronic Rights - We buy Worldwide Electronic Rights for web reprints. Again, rights revert back to the author 90 days after publication, and we ask that accepted submissions do no appear elsewhere on the web until after this time expires. Stories and articles will be available on =Jackhammer= for 1 month. III. Payment 1 cent per word with a minimum of $5 (US Currency) for both stories and articles. Payment upon publication. Unfortunately, we can not pay for questions of the week (we'd definitely be poor then). The most we can do for the question submissions is to put your name in lights. Payment will be made with a personal check. In those cases when the author is outside of the US and Canada we will be happy to make payment through other means to avoid the high cost of cashing a personal check at the banks. These other means include payment in US stamps, payment with a US Postal International Money Order (in this case, we will have to subtract the cost of the money order from the payment) or any other type of payment that we can work out. If an agreement cannot be reached, the default payment will be a personal check. I try to get payment out on Monday each week. Due to pressures from work, school, life and the universe payment might be delayed as long as Friday. Payments do go out during the week that the issue is up. Also, due to time constraints I no longer send out confirmations. Upcoming Questions Question Deadline Are there alternatives to war? 11/10/99 What are the new myths of the technological age? 11/17/99 We pause for these important messages from our sponsors . . . 11/24/99 Closed to stories. Education: Development of the individual or sociopolitical indoctrination? 12/1/99 Nostalgia: Were the good ole days really all that good? 12/7/99 Are you a head or a heart person? 12/14/99 Individuality vs. community: how does we find a balance? 12/21/99 Is art necessary? 12/28/99 Closed to stories. Have we managed to totally remove ourselves from nature? 1/6/00 What makes you laugh? 1/13/00 Closed to stories. What is prophecy? 1/20/00 What happens when the gods get personal? 1/27/00 Is there too much information? 2/3/00 Is man an apex predator, or just another herd animal? 2/10/00 Closed to stories. What is it that truly makes us human? 2/17/00 Is love stronger than death? 2/24/00 How much pleasure can one individual stand? 3/1/00 Closed to stories. Is the world real, or a consensual hallucination? Or something else entirely? 3/8/00 Parents and Children: Is war inevitable? 3/15/00 Are heroes a thing of the past? 3/22/00 Whom do you trust? 3/29/00 Can modern humanity live in harmony with nature? 4/5/00 In today's society is the Good Samaritan a thing of the past? 4/12/00 When the meek inherit the Earth, what will they do with it? 4/19/00 How will they come? 4/26/00 Closed to stories. Cyberbiology: Are computers intelligent beings? 5/3/00 When is ignorance not bliss? 5/10/00 Can we really commercialize space? 5/17/00 Does might make right? 5/24/00 Closed to stories. Is destiny just a theme for the story books or does it work in our lives? 5/31/00 What's your concept of time? 6/7/00 Reincarnation: Dream or Nightmare? 6/14/00 What are you passionate about? 6/21/00 [http://www.eggplant-productions.com/ep/index.html] =Winedark Sea= [Australian print mag, surreal/fantastic, pays 2 centsA/wd. on pub, no reprints or sim subs; mult and E-mail subs okay] Anthony Fordham, Adrian Tan, editors The Editors Winedark Sea PO Box 367 Southgate Sylvania NSW 2224 Sydney, Australia editors@winedark.com http://www.winedark.com/rhome.html =Winedark Sea= is the pretentious title of a very new Australian journal of the surreal, the fantastic, and the magically real. We're interested in the absurd, the uncanny, the gothic, the grotesque, the inexpressible, the unexplained, the inexplicable -- among other things. We keep copies of Poe, Kafka, Calvino, Borges, on our bedside tables. We hang Dali and Escher on our walls. Volume one to be released in January 2000. Material for Issue One must Be Received by Friday 3rd December, 1999 Subject Matter We'll consider anything you send us, but we'll invariably work with some sort of definition. We might be very interested if: *You think it could be called surreal or fantastic or magically real. *You have places where the logic of your world fails or is stretched; you have the feelings of the uncanny, the impossible, the inexplicable; or you have elements of the supernatural or paranormal. *It's entertaining. *It doesn't accord with everyday experience. *It's got anything to do with the following words: absurd, fabulist, fantastic, folklore, ghost stories, gothic, grotesque, magic(al) realism, metafiction, metaphysics, sublime (in the philosophical sense), surrealism, weird, outre, out there -- and supernatural and paranormal and anything un-, in-, and im- we've been using so far. *You've been reading too much: Isabel Allende, Murray Bail, Jorge Luis Borges, David Brooks, Italo Calvino, Peter Carey, Angela Carter, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Julio Cortazar, Russell Edson, Laura Esquivel, Carlos Fuentes, Philip Hammial, M.R. James, Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera, H.P. Lovecraft, George MacDonald, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Henri Michaux, Edgar Allan Poe, Francis Ponge, Salman Rushdie, to name a very small number. Many many many (many many) writers have employed, in one way or another, what we'd understand as surreal, fantastic, or magically real (which raises the question of whether to call these categories "genres", "attitudes", "modes", or simply "forms of expression"). We might not be interested if: *It's a mechanical exercise. *Your tenth level magic-user hath mistakenly cast cloukill on a ghoul. *It accords with everyday experience. *Your armies of cyborgs were bested by low-tek space pirates. *It's intentionally didactic. *It contains the words "Klingon" or "Ewok." but there are always exceptions. By no means do we think that the fantastic can't take place in space or Narnia, or that it requires the supernatural. We consider the type of work we're interested in to share borders with, but to be distinct from, sci-fi, fantasy, sword and sorcery, horror, myths, legends, satire, and parody. It depends on your definition, but we hesitate to use the label "speculative fiction", because the sorts of works we have in mind aren't necessarily based on the "what if" -- aren't simply about the elaboration of an idea (though sometimes the idea can be fantastic in itself). We're less interested in works that simply posit an alternative world and enact a drama there. It doesn't have to be "literary" -- we don't know what the word means. And your piece: *certainly can be humorous; *doesn't have to have conscious or unconscious plot, character, narrative, theme; *doesn't have to have a title; *but should be entertaining. If it's a little warped, by all means send it. We publish articles, poetry, prose, prose poems, reviews, comment pieces, commentaries, opinion pieces, essays, interviews, translations, short plays, lectures, speeches, jokes, quips, anecdotes, vignettes -- what have you got? We'll also publish "hypertext". We're interested in market news, publishing news, and news about current or upcoming events related to our subject area (but we won't pay for it). We are unable, at this stage, for the journal proper, to accept freelance artwork. And that goes for musical scores as well (just in case). But we're very prepared to showcase artwork on this website. Reviews should preferably be of recently published books, though if you send us a review of, say, =Gulliver's Travels=, we won't reject it out of hand. We're particularly interested in literature, but articles can focus on anything surreal, fantastic, or magically real -- art, music, film, or anything else. We welcome non-fiction that challenges any of our ideas and assumptions. If you quote anything, please check your sources. We're prepared to print novel extracts, and there's an outside chance we'd serialise longer works, but they'd better be worth it. Rights and Payment At the moment, for most pieces (apart from commissioned work), we offer glorious payment at the rate of two Aussie cents per word (rounded to the nearest five dollars) if your piece is five hundred words or more. And you get a complimentary copy of the issue your work appears in. If your piece is less than five hundred words, payment is $10. If we accept several short pieces of yours, and publish them in the same issue, and, together, they add up to less than five hundred, payment is $10. If we accept several short pieces of yours, and publish them in the same issue, and, together, they add up to more than five hundred, payment is at the usual rate. We request first Australian serial rights, and the non-exclusive rights to publish the story electronically (for the purposes of display at our website). All other rights will remain with the author. The electronic publishing part is open to negotiation (except for hypertext!). Hypertext payment is $10 per piece + a copy of the next print issue, for the non-exclusive rights to electronic publishing. All rights to letters will be treated as unconditionally assigned for the purposes of copyright and publication. (If we publish them, we might well edit them, but we'll try to preserve your meaning and intent.) Payment will be made shortly after publication of the issue your piece or pieces appear in. Hypertext payment is made on acceptance. Manuscript Format You're welcome to send by e-mail, but we may also request a hardcopy version. For e-mail subs, basically follow the hardcopy guidelines as much as possible. Include cover letter and cover sheet in the body of your e-mail, and attach each piece as a separate file (unless you have several short pieces, in which case send them in the same file). Also, please put your name, and the name of your piece, in the e-mail's subject field. For hardcopy, unless you've got a good (e.g., poetic) reason not to, please send your manuscript: typed, single-sided, in a readable font, double or one-and-a-half spaced, with at least 2.5cm of margin on all sides, consecutively numbered in the bottom right, left justified, stapled in the top left, with the word "ends" (or some variation thereof) at the close of your manuscript, and with your name and a keyword from the title in the top right of each page. If possible, and practicable, please include a 3.5" diskette -- PC-compatible text, rich text, or MS Word format. Include an appropriate-sized SSAE with the appropriate postage -- for the return of your manuscript and/or disk, and for your notification of acceptance. Cover Sheet and Letter Please provide a cover sheet with: -- your name, phone number, e-mail address, snail mail address; -- your pen-name, if you want a pen-name; -- the title or titles of the piece or pieces; -- and a word count (include your title in the word count, and feel free to take each hyphenated word as two words). In your cover letter, please include: -- a description of what you're sending; and if you've enclosed a disk, mention that you've enclosed a disk; -- a short bio, 100 words maximum; it doesn't have to describe you in the third person, and your first name and surname don't have to be the opening words of it; -- a notification of whether you're willing to consider editorial suggestions, or whether you want us to accept/reject your work purely on the basis of the form in which you've sent it; -- a notification of anything else you think we absolutely need to know (for instance, deliberate non-standard punctuation or spelling); -- and a date, and your signature. If we accept your piece, we'll send you a form to sign -- it'll say you're offering "first Australian serial rights", give you the option to offer "the rights to non-exclusive electronic publishing", and declare that, to the best of your knowledge, you haven't breached copyright. Other Stuff There are no limits on the number of submissions you can make at the one time. Prithee let thy contributions be original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere. -- No reprints, no simultaneous submissions (and isn't "submission" an awful word, by the way?). We don't necessarily object to imitative works, but preference may well be given to the new idea. Please accompany queries with a stamped self-addressed envelope (unless you're e-mailing us). Authors will be consulted on most changes to their work -- if we want to correct the spelling, fix a typo, switch to Times New Roman, we might not ask you; if it's not a typo and we want to change or relocate a word, we will consult you. Our e-mail response time is around two or three weeks. Our s-mail response time is around two months from when we get it (depending on where you live). Please don't be discouraged if, for whatever reason, we turn down a piece -- it's just our subjective, and conceivably idiotic, opinion. You have our word of honour we'll take the best care we can of anything you send us -- but, as per the standard disclaimer, "we can't accept responsibility for loss or damage to manuscripts in transit or otherwise". And good luck with your writing! Excerpts from the Winedark Sea FAQ Are you an e-zine? Yes and no. It depends on your definition. We're basically a print publication, but, *we'll display extracts from past issues at [the] website; *we pay for, and will display, "hypertext"; *we'll display struggling artists' artwork. What will the journal look like? Frankly, details haven't been finalised. It will be perfect bound, around one hundred pages (though it's looking to creep to one fifty), about A5 size (about 8" by 6"), and definitely a collector's item. Circulation? We're planning a 1000-copy print run. What if I don't want my story displayed at your website? Then it won't be displayed. We changed policy on this recently. Our copyright form now gives you the option of granting us "the non-exclusive rights to electronic publishing". And even if you do tick the box, we'll ask you first before we display your piece. Should I send a query letter? For fiction it's not necessary. For non-fiction, you may if you wish. E-mail submissions okay? Of course! No limit on the number of pieces I send at the same time? None. But, a) we'll read all of your work before we reply to you, so it might take some time; and b) we probably won't publish more than one piece of yours in the same volume (unless they're short pieces, or poems). How many reads will my writing get? At least two. Often more. What sort of feedback do you give? Usually not much, for four reasons. Firstly, time constraints. Secondly, because we're very conscious that we're not exactly universal arbiters of "good" and "bad". Thirdly, because we don't like being school-ma'ams. Fourthly, because there's an issue of "interfering in the creative process." If I ask for feedback, will you give it? Certainly! But it'll only be a few sentences or a paragraph, trying to point out our general reactions. And it'll invariably be subjective. It's not as if we don't bring ideas of "good" and "bad" to the decision process. You can point out objective features of a text, but the significance of those features is always subjective, always ultimately "like" and "dislike". On average, how many submissions do you accept? At the moment we're receiving four or five a day, and accepting two or three a week. [http://www.winedark.com/rguidelines2.html] MARKET INFORMATION =Darkling Plain= New magazine =Darkling Plain= wants literate SF, fiction powerful in the beauty and sophistication of its language, which informs the reader on the experience of being human. Wants unclassifiable stories that blur the boundaries of standard genre designations. 3›/wd to 8000 words. 4804 Laurel Canyon Blvd. Box 506, Valley Village, CA 91607. SF/F/DF/H. [Speculations Online Update #15] =Eternal Twilight Magazine= New horror magazine =Eternal Twilight Magazine= wants weird, horrific, darkly mysterious fiction, stories that intertwine the strange with the reality of everyday life, themes explored in the Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits, no excessive gore or sex, unless integral to the story, no splatterpunk, no H. P. Lovecraft imitators, no tired plots involving vampires, werewolves, or psychotic children, send cover letter and publishing bio. To 5,000 words, 2-3›/word on publication. Alfred W. Abrao, PO Box 337, Rodeo, CA 94572-0337. [Speculations Online Update #15] =Glimmer Train= Literary magazine =Glimmer Train= has updated its guidelines: "All genres. Quarterly print, with 16k circ.'...[B]asic need is an emotionally stirring story written with clarity. Especially encouraging to new, unknown, and unpublished writers. Stories with heavy dialect, story fragments, poetry, children's stories, or nonfiction are not accepted. [They're also not keen on SF.] Novel excerpts should be able to stand alone, feeling like complete stories. No e-mail subs or queries. Simultaneous submissions OK. Length: up to 8,000 words (but will consider longer)." Linda Burmeister Davies and Susan Burmeister-Brown, Editors 710 SW Madison Street, Suite 504, Portland, OR 97205. E-mail info@glimmertrain.com. URL: www.glimmertrain.com. [Speculations Online Update #15] =Skull Full of Spurs= Western SF/F/H anthology =Skull Full of Spurs= wants western landscapes, icons, and themes, infused with liberally strange doses of horror, noir, SF, or erotica, likes wildly humorous as well as crushingly dark. Jason Bovberg, Kirk Whitham, and Darin Sanders, PMB 117, 2519 S. Shields, Fort Collins, CO 80526. SF/F/DF/H. 1k-8k words, 6 cents/word. Deadline Dec 31, 1999. [Speculations Online Update #15] ==End of the CALLIHOO Newsletter for 2 November 1999==