CALLIHOO Newsletter ----------------------------------------------------------------- Market News for Writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Vol. 7 No. 45 Editor: Julia West May 9, 2000 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Web page: http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/CALLIHOO/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS This is the last issue of the CALLIHOO newsletter for this volume. Yes, we're entering our eighth year as a critique group! I've certainly had a fun time and learned a lot, and I hope the other members of CALLIHOO, past and present, have done the same. May all those who get this newsletter, whether in hardcopy, by E- mail, or over the web, have a satisfying and successful year! --Julia * * * One of our prolific E-CALLIHOOts, Catherine Asaro, has good news. Her novels =The Veiled Web= and =The Quantum Rose= (the =Analog= serial) are both on the final ballot for the National Readers Choice Award, in the SF category. The NRCA is sponsored by the Oklahoma Chapter of Romance Writers of America. Also, =The Veiled Web= is on the Final ballot of the Prism Award, which is sponsored by the SF/Fantasy chapter of RWA. The winners of both contests will be announced at the RWA conference in Washington D.C. this July. Also, =The Radiant Seas= is on the final ballot for the Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 1999, given by the reviewers at =Romantic Times= magazine. This is sort of the romance equivalent of the Hugo, though it's given by industry professionals rather than fans (and they have a lot more categories). That one will be announced at the RT convention in Houston, TX, in November. Congratulations, Catherine! And best of luck. * * * It's getting closer to CONduit 10: Night of the Living CONduit! (May 19-21 in Salt Lake City, Utah). See conduit.sfcon.org/ for more details. Come join the fun! 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.) =Starlight 3= anthology, deadline "summer 2000". [SF/F, pays 7- 1/2 cents/wd., no upper word limit, (GLs in Vol. 6, No. 38)] The 6th Chiaroscuro Short Story Contest--the Piggies, deadline 15 May 2000. [Contest, H/DF to 5000 words, no reprints or mult subm, only E-mail subm, First place pub in =Gothic.net= at 23 cents/wd., second place pub in =Chiaroscuro= at 7 cents/wd., third place pub in =Twilight Showcase= at 4 cents/wd. (GLs in Vol. 7 No. 37)] =Brainbox: The Real Horror= electronic anthology, submissions accepted 1 February to 31 May 2000. [E-antho, H (and nonfic tale of what inspired it) 2500-10,000 wds, pays 2-4% quarterly royalties. E-mail subm only, no mult. subm. (GLs in Vol. 7 No. 35)] =Red Work= anthology, deadline 15 June 2000. [Electronic antho, stories of professional killers 4500 - 10,000 wds, pays approx 3% royalty, no reprints or E-mail subm. (GLs Vol. 7 No. 39)] The 42nd Annual Utah Original Writing Competition, open 15 May to 26 June 2000. [Annual contest, various categories of entries (long and short fiction and nonfiction), various 1st ($1000 or $300) and 2nd ($750 or $200) prizes, =no entry fee=, must be Utah resident. (GLs in Vol. 7, No. 43)] Warner Books' First Novel Contest, deadline June 30, 2000. [SF/F novels. Synopsis + first several chapters (up to 60 pages maximum). =No entry fee.= Prizes: Publication with advance and royalties.] Waterford Reading Intervention, deadline 30 June 2000[Computer reading intervention program, SF/F 100 to 4000 wds, $100 to $500, E-mail subm only, =work for hire.= Subm to Anna Shelley at: annas@waterford.org. (GLs in Vol. 7, No. 44)] =Writers of the Future=, 3rd quarter 2000, deadline 30 June 2000 [$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)] =Cemetery Sonata= volume 2 deadline 1 July 2000. [Print antho, ghost stories 500-6000 words, pays 3 cents/wd. on pub., reprints okay. (GLs in Vol. 7 No. 39)] Eighth Annual Garden State Horror Writers Short Story Contest, deadline 31 Jul 2000. [Annual contest, SF/F/H to 2500 wds, prizes--$50 1st, $25 2nd, $15 3rd, =$10 entry fee=. (GLs in Vol. 7 No. 42)] =The Children of Cthulhu= anthology, deadline 1 Aug 2000. [Print antho, Lovecraftian, 750-10,000 wds, pays 4 cents/wd. against royalties, E-mail subm okay. (GLs in Vol. 7 No. 45)] =Chillers= anthology, deadline 1 August 2000. [Electronic antho, H 1500-5000 wds, pays share of royalties, no reprints or sim subs, E-mail and mult subm okay. (GLs in Vol. 7 No. 39)] The James White Award, a Science Fiction Short Story Competition, deadline 23 Aug 2000. [SF 2000-4000 wds, new writers, no reprints or E-mail entries, =entry fee L3/$4 each=, up to three entries allowed. Cash prize and publication in Interzone. (GLs in Vol. 7 No. 45)] =On Spec= Theme Issue ("World Beat") deadline 31 Aug 2000. [Canadian print mag, theme of non-North American-based (different cultures) SF/F/H to 5000 wds, pays $50-$180C on accept., no reprints, faxed, or E-mail subs. (GLs in Vol. 7 No. 31)] =Byline= genre fiction contest, deadline September 5, 2000. [Short story that fits category: romance, sci-fi, confession, mystery, western, etc. No children's stories. 5,000 words max. =Entry fee $5.= Prizes: $50, $30, $15.] Nineteenth Annual Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Story Contest Sponsored by Science Fiction Writers of Earth, deadline 30 October 2000. [Annual contest, SF/F by unpubl authors, 2000 to 7500 wds. =Entry fee $5 for 1st ms. (gives memb to SFWoE), $2 for each other ms.= Prizes $200 1st, $100 2nd, $50 3rd. (GLs in Vol. 7, No. 33)] The Best of Soft Science Fiction Contest opens 1 Oct 2000, closes 15 Dec 2000. [Annual contest, soft SF, to 7000 wds, published or offered for pub during year, enter as many as want, =no entry fee=, prizes 1st $100, 2nd $50, 3rd $25. GLs in Vol. 7 No. 33] ANTHOLOGY =The Children of Cthulhu= [Print antho, Lovecraftian, 750-10,000 wds, pays 4 cents/wd. against royalties, E-mail subm okay, deadline 1 Aug 2000] Benjamin Adams 6200 Meadowood Mall Circle, Apartment 528 Reno, Nevada 89502 velvetund@worldnet.att.net Edited by John Pelan and Benjamin Adams Publisher: Del Rey Books Open submission call. "...not looking for the standard Lovecraftian pastiche, so please don't dive into the trunk and send us a reject from a Chaosium anthology, because that is exactly what we don't want.... Much of the fiction that has been passed off as "Lovecraftian" has contained only purple prose offered as "style" and bizarre proper nouns trundled out as "atmosphere". What's been often lacking is a true grasp of Lovecraft's vision. The stories written by Howard Phillips Lovecraft in the 1920's & 1930's were rife with a terrifying vision of an indifferent and chaotic universe, a universe populated by beings that were, in their total alienness, in fact almost inconceivable by mere humans. The cosmology fashioned by Lovecraft dealt at length with the tragic results of a frail humanity accidentally encountering these "Great Old Ones" or their minions. Lovecraft constructed a loose myth-cycle of stories, dropping names like Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth and Nyarlathotep through his tales like so many bread crumbs. But the trail of crumbs Lovecraft left for us leads nowhere. It was never meant to do so. His stories are frequently contradictory in their details about these monstrously alien beings that seeped down to Earth from the furthest depths of space and time. The myth-cycle--named "The Cthulhu Mythos" by Lovecraft's prot‚g‚, August Derleth, but more properly referred to as "Yog-Sothothery" by Lovecraft himself--is full of dangling loose ends and tantalizing hints at vast cosmic truths. Unlike an author of today, who would be more concerned with retaining rights to their intellectual property, Lovecraft had no qualms about allowing other writers to utilize his concepts and weird, alien beings. These other writers included his peers; Clark Ashton Smith, Frank Belknap Long, Robert E. Howard, and a number of prot‚g‚s such as Derleth, Bloch, Kuttner and others who became the first "Lovecraft Circle." So began a grand tradition of authors borrowing Lovecraft's concepts; in many cases, expanding upon them and adding their own spices to the fictional stew. The original Lovecraft Circle inspired others, and now there are literally thousands of stories comprising the "Cthulhu Mythos." However, many have missed the point that the true horror in Lovecraft's fiction lies in the unknowable, the mystery of a vast and infinitely strange cosmos. There have been numerous attempts to codify and catalogue the entities of his cosmology, to present a cosmic genealogy as it were; these attempts have for the most part been unsuccessful. These authors, not being nearly as inventive as the members of the original Lovecraft Circle, have fallen victim to the tendency to merely throw in a few Lovecraftian beasties and the Necronomicon. These pastiches are not even so much derivative of Lovecraft, but of others who followed him, such as Derleth, and as such have fallen into hidebound rhythms: Seeker after occult lore discovers unspeakable volume of ancient lore, conjures up Cthulhu and all Hell breaks loose. Many of the authors of these pastiches are not even familiar with other works in the horror field, and thus have no connection to Lovecraft's own inspirations, such as Lord Dunsany, Arthur Machen and M. R. James. For this collection we are looking for new tales dealing with Lovecraft's themes and creations. We have no need of pastiche; we need literary, forward-thinking stories told with the authors' own voices. As a touchstone we recommend authors look to breakthrough, landmark anthologies such as =Dark Forces= or even =Dangerous Visions=. Our one caveat is that heavy sexual content is not appropriate, considering this volume will be part of Del Rey's uniform set of Lovecraft trade paperbacks, and will be widely read by teenagers. Nothing more than a hard "R," if you will. We have extremely limited space for open submissions, so we can afford to be extremely picky. Do not send us something unless you are certain it is your absolute best work. Stories should be between 750 - 10,000 words in length. We are offering four cents a word for First World publication rights, as an advance against a pro-rata share of royalties. There is the possibility of a signed, limited edition which would be contracted separately. The deadline for submissions is August 1st, 2000. Submissions should be sent to: Benjamin Adams, 6200 Meadowood Mall Circle, Apartment 528, Reno, Nevada 89502. Electronic submissions are also welcome, please send to: velvetund@worldnet.att.net [DarkEcho, 4 May 2000] CONTEST =The James White Award, a Science Fiction Short Story Competition= [SF 2000-4000 wds, new writers, no reprints or E-mail entries, entry fee L3/$4 each, up to three entries allowed. Cash prize and publication in =Interzone=. Deadline 23 Aug 2000.] Award administrator, James Bacon 211 Blackhorse Avenue Dublin 7, Ireland info@jameswhiteaward.com http://www.jameswhiteaward.com/ Closing Date: 23rd August 2000. Prizes include: A cash Prize, a trophy and publication in InterZone. Winner to be announced in October 2000. 1. This aim of the competition is to highlight new writers. It is open to writers of any age and nationality, but it is not open to professional authors. 2. Stories must be in English, and must be between 2,000 and 4,000 words in length. There is a maximum of three submitted stories per author. 3. Submissions must be original, and should not have previously appeared in any publication in any language or format. Stories should be Science Fiction (though we will treat "Science Fiction" as a fairly broad canvas). 4. Two printed copies should be posted to the competition address, if you include this on a disk it would be helpful, but there MUST be two hard copies. 5. Entries must be submitted by post to the competition address. Entries will not be accepted by email, though email inquiries will be responded to. 6. Stories should be typed, in a non-proportional typeface such as Courier, between 10 and 12 points in size, double-spaced, 2.5cm margins all around, on plain white paper, one side of the page only. Pages should be either A4 (21cm by 29.7cm) or letter (21.59cm by 27.94cm). The text should be clear and legible. 7. Each story should be prefaced with a title page containing the story title, author's name, author contact details address, e-mail, word count and page count. 8. Each page of the story should have a header containing the story title and page number. The author's name should NOT appear on the page header - the stories will be judged anonymously: only the competition administrator will know the authors' names. 9. See the competition website for examples of the required layout. [I couldn't find this on the website. --ed.] 10. An administration fee is required for every story entered. 11. The fee is L3/$4.Cheques/orders should be payable to The James White Award. 12. Submissions should arrive no later than the 23rd of August 2000. 13. The competition administrator reserves the right to disqualify a story should it fail to meet the above criteria. If this occurs the fee will be lost. However, the administrator may instead decide to request the author to re-submit a story. 14. Authors will be informed by mail when their submission has arrived. 15. The award will be presented in Dublin in October of this year, details of which will be forwarded to you. Entrants are welcome to attend the award ceremony, but travel to the ceremony is the sole responsibility of entrants. 16. The competition administrator reserves the right to refuse to accept or disqualify any submission: in such a case, the administrator will inform the author as soon as possible, giving the reason for refusal or disqualification. 17. The decisions of the judges are final, and discussion will not be entered into. 18. The judges may decide not to award the prize if in their opinion no entrant of sufficient quality. 19. After the competition has ended, authors will be informed by mail of the results. 20. Any tax liability resulting from the prize is the sole responsibility of the winner. 21. We regret that stories cannot be returned afterwards. Please keep a copy. Online entry form at www.jameswhiteaward.com/entry.html Dedicated to the memory of James White. [http://www.jameswhiteaward.com/rules.html] MARKET GUIDELINES =Blood Rose= [Webzine, H/DF/dark SF 1500-10,000 wds, pays $20/story on accept. E-mail subm. okay.] M. W. Worthen, editor Blood Rose Ezine P. O. Box 105501 Jefferson City, MO 65110 mwworthen@ultraweb.net members.tripod.com/~night_wanderer/bloodrose Stories Limit: 1500 to 10000 words. Payment: $20 US per story. We're looking for character-driven, well-plotted stories that show the dark side of human thought and belief, but that also entertain and catch us up in the plot. We need primarily horror and dark fantasy, but will take some science fiction, as long as it too, is dark. I especially have a weakness for 'hard' sf, particularly when it speaks to the human condition. The story must center on the characters; otherwise, please find another market. And please, no 'High Fantasy.' Unless, of course, it's really damn good. Sex and extreme violence are OK if they are integral to the story. Blood and sex for their own sake don't tell much of a story, so we don't publish it. As far as "flash" fiction goes, I'm a bit leery. I'll take it, but send it email, rather than snail. Flashfiction is so easy to screw up that I tend to reject it. If you think that yours is special, talk to me. It has to be extremely well done for me to print it. Articles Limit: 3000 to 5000 words Payment: $15 US per article We really want articles on why people enjoy horror and dark sff, what it represents, how to write it. Some scholarly papers accepted if it's readable. Also reviews of current books and movies. Short poetry Limit: 75-lines Payment: $5 US per poem Poetry is also easy to mess up, but I will accept just about any poetry that speaks to me. Give me imagery, I can see, more verbs and fewer prepositional phrases and make sure it's dark. I want to see lots of fear, pain, unfulfilled needs or desires and the like. I have a weakness for "epic" poetry, the Robert Service/Rudyard Kipling/Edgar Allen Poe kind of stuff that tells a story in metered verse while still showing some kind of downside of the human condition. If you've got one, I'd sure like to see it. If you write teen angst poetry, please submit it elsewhere. We were all young and it was hard for all of us, and we had enough of it then and don't need to be reminded, okay? We prefer manuscripts submitted by mail in standard manuscript format, but will accept email submissions in ASCII format or as attachments in WordPerfect or MS Word. Send all submissions and other correspondence to: M. W. Worthen, editor, Blood Rose Ezine, P. O. Box 105501, Jefferson City, MO 65110 or this eddress: mwworthen@ultraweb.net Oh, and Blood Rose pays on acceptance, not on publication. Updated April 7, 2000 [http://members.tripod.com/~night_wanderer/bloodrose/ guidelns.html MARKET INFORMATION =Altair Magazine and OnSpec Magazine= Rob Stephenson says, "=Altair Magazine= and =OnSpec Magazine= are to collaborate on a story swap for an upcoming issue of each. Three Australian stories will be selected by =Altair= and published in =OnSpec= and visa versa. "An interesting and quite exciting project." [www.speculations.com/rumormill/topic291.htm, 4 May 2000] =Bloodsongs/Implosion Publishing= David G. Barnett says, "I have recently been getting a lot of letters from writers concerning their submissions to =Bloodsongs Magazine= published by Implosion Publishing. I served as fiction editor for the magazine when Implosion bought it from the original Australian owners well over three years ago. I had hoped I could disappear from my relationship with Implosion quietly, but due to the influx of emails and letters I need to address the situation. I have not been associated with =Bloodsongs= or Implosion Publishing since August of 1999. "I had determined that Implosion Publishing was no longer capable of publishing their magazines on a timely basis if at all, due to their taking on too many non-publishing projects with their production company. That combined with their lack of respect for paying customers, writers, artists and others associated with the production of the magazine left me less than confident in the continuation of =Bloodsongs= or their other titles. I have not been in touch with Cynthia Conlin or Dave Bauer since August and do not anticipate doing so again. Those of you who were told by me that I wanted to publish your story should contact Implosion Publishing either by email or mail them: Implosion Publishing, 1921 E. Colonial Drive, 2nd Floor, Orlando, FL 32803, 407-898-7573, bloodsongs@implosion-mag.com "I handed over all the stories I accepted and the submissions I hadn't gotten to them a long time ago. If you haven't heard from them, it's no surprise. I would suggest pulling the story and continue trying with other publishers. I apologize for what has happened and the fact they haven't seen fit to address the problems with the magazines. I do not know if they plan on doing another issue. It seems unlikely this will happen any time soon, if at all. "It is a shame that =Bloodsongs= has fallen by the wayside as it was a great magazine. It had very high production values and I was working on getting a lot of bigger name writers in each issue while keeping it a venue for newer writers. However, I could not continue to have my name associated with a magazine that simply didn't exist any longer. It was a waste of my time and the time of those submitting to the magazine. That said, the stories that I had accepted, I feel, were exceptional and I feel you should be able to find another publisher. I know it is hard to find a publisher interested in the harder horror material, but they do exist and I wish you the best with your story and future writing goals. "Please note that Implosion Publishing is in no way associated with my companies: Necro Publications, Bedlam Press or Fat Cat Design. My companies are still very much in existence and continually producing books." David G. Barnett, Necro Publications/Bedlam Press, PO Box 540298, Orlando, FL 32854-0298 407-839-0463 necropublications@earthlink.net http://www.necropublications.com [DarkEcho, 20 Apr 2000] =Darkness Within= On the website for print magazine =Darkness Within= there is this note: "DW is OPEN for submissions. Some of you may have heard thatI was closed to subs. That is false information. I'm open and am reading for issue 5 and beyond." [http://redrival.com/darkwithin/news.html, updated 9 May 2000] =DNA Publications= Warren Lapine, owner of DNA Publications, says, "We just registered dnapublications.com. We'll be changing the address to our site in the next week or so. We're looking into the best ways to redirect traffic and then we'll go forward with it and really start to beef up the number of places we're register with. That should hopefully help increase the traffic to our web page." [The transfer doesn't seem to have taken place yet as of today. --ed.] [sff.publishing.everythingelse, 27 Mar 2000] =Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine= It's official. =Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine= is as good as dead. The website says, "MZB's FM to Cease Publication. The Marion Zimmer Bradley Living Trust plans to cease publishing =MZB's Fantasy Magazine= with issue 50 in late autumn 2000. "Subscribers who have paid for issues beyond #50 will have their money refunded on cessation of publication. "The magazine is closed to submissions." [http://www.mzbfm.com/] =Pulp Audience= =Pulp Audience= is a new Australian print magazine that will publish science fiction, fantasy and horror up to a maximum of 10,000 words. Payment is 5c/word for fiction, 3c/word for non-fiction ($AU). First issue will be out in September. Jamie McGraw: Editor 25 Graves Street North Mackay QLD 4740 Australia Ph: (07) 49 577 885 email: mcgrawhirst@orion-online.com.au [http://locusmag.com/2000/News/Announcements2000_04.html] =Romance and Beyond Magazine= The magazine's reading period is now open (April--November). "Thanks to the continued support of talented writers, our loyal subscribers and advertisers, and consistently good reviews, our pay rate has increased to 1/2 (one-half) cent per word. We hope to see more science fiction romance and fantasy romance this year, though all types of paranormal and speculative romance short stories and poetry are welcome. Please read our magazine--or at least our guidelines!--before submitting." Mary Tarver, Editor Briada Press, Inc. PMB 9; 3527 Ambassador Caffery Pkwy; Lafayette, LA 70503-5130 Rbeyond@aol.com www.RomanceandBeyond.com [DarkEcho, 20 Apr 2000] =Scifi.com= Editor Ellen Datlow reports she no longer needs novellas. She's booked for at least a year with them. [DarkEcho 20 Apr 2000] =Space.com= Scott Martin, fiction editor of webzine =Space.com=, says, "=Space.com= is now buying short works (about 1,000 words per segment) that explore the borderland between the great wide In Here and the great wide Up There. If you ever have a bit of work that touches on other planets, satellites, or anything else of that nature, please consider us. "Rates are slightly above competitive. The 1,000 word limit isn't hard and fast, by he way -- we can go up to 2 or even 3,000 words without straining things too much." smartin@space.com http://www.space.com/spaceimagined/books/ [DarkEcho 20 Apr 2000] =Sword and Sorceress anthologies= Along with the demise of MZBFM, the =Sword and Sorceress= anthologies edited by the late Marion Zimmer Bradley will be ceasing. There are three more volumes planned (one a year until 2002), but the stories for them have already been chosen, so this is no longer a market. [dm.sfrt.publishing.market-news, 4 May 2000, sff.publishing.daw, 5 May 2000] HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR CHARACTER? As well as an interesting article on writing characters, this website also has a ten-question quiz you can give yourself to "find out" more about your character. You're not limited to the quiz's multiple choice answers--if your character would say or do something different, fill it in! webcom.com/wordings/artofwrite/feature.html STEERING THE CRAFT Kathleen Woodbury says, "[I've] been reading Ursula K Le Guin's =Steering the Craft= and while there is good stuff in there for beginning writers, it seems even better for writers who have been writing for a while. "She talks about the sound of writing, and the importance of listening to your own words. She talks about rhythm, how varying the complexity and length of sentences helps with that, and how repetition of a word in a paragraph or on a page is not necessarily a bad thing. (All of this is stuff writers need to pay attention to--it shouldn't be done unconsciously or without understanding the effects or reasons.) "Also on repetition, she talks about not just word repetitions, but also sentence structure repetitions and theme repetition (along with the repetition of structural patterns). "She discusses five kinds of point of view and how they work. "She also gives a much better discussion of present tense and why it really doesn't give immediacy (one of the main arguments for using it) than I've run across in any other book on writing. "She has a chapter on how to sneak information into a story without creating expository lumps, and a chapter on pacing. ". . .Please consider it highly recommended." [sff.people.dalton-woodbury, 7 May 2000] ==End of the CALLIHOO newsletter for 9 May 2000==