CALLIHOO Newsletter Market News for Writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Julia West, Editor Vol. 10, No. 18 1 October 2002 Website: http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/CALLIHOO/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- IN THIS ISSUE News Publication Notes Deadlines Market Guidelines Gobshite Quarterly (gls) Speculon (gls) Market Information Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Asimov's Beyond the Dust anthology Black Gate Cicada ----------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS PUBLICATION NOTES James Van Pelt sold a short story, "The Long Way Home," to =Asimov's Science Fiction= and a short story, "Notes From the Field" to =3SF=. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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.) BYLINE FLASH FICTION CONTEST Deadline 5 October 2002 [Short story or vignette under 1,000 words, which nevertheless feels complete. Entry fee $5. Prizes: $50, $30, $15. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 25)] SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF EARTH Deadline 30 October 2002 (postmarked) [Contest for new writers, SF/F 2,000 - 7,500 wds. $5 fee 1st entry (gives year's membership to SFWoE)/$2 fee further entries. 1st prize $200, 2nd $100, 3rd $50. No E-mail subs. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 9)]] WRITERS OF THE FUTURE, 4TH QUARTER 2002 Deadline 31 October 2002 [$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. 9 No. 1)] MOTA: AN ANNUAL ANTHOLOGY OF FINE FICTION Deadline 1 November 2002 [Annual antho, fiction to 10,000 wds (to 8,000 wds preferred). Pays $100 on pub. Mult subs and reprints okay. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 9)] OCEANS OF THE MIND WINTER 2002 ISSUE: CANADIAN WRITERS Deadline 1 November 2002 [Quarterly e-mailzine in .pdf format. SF to 8,000 words. Pays 5 cents/word & up. Themed. Prefers E-mail subs. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 7 and Vol. 10 No. 3)] BYLINE NEW-TALENT SHORT STORY CONTEST Deadline 4 November 2002 [Writer who's never won a cash prize in a ByLine fiction contest. Max 5,000 words. Entry fee $5. Prizes: $50, $35, $25, $15. GLs in Vol. 9 No. 25)] NESFA 2003 SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY SHORT STORY CONTEST Deadline 15 November 2002 [Contest, SF/F to 7500 wds, unpublished (professionally) writers only, no entry fee. Prize: $50 merchandise. No rights taken. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 14)] FIRST ANNUAL FIREBRAND FICTION/SFREADER.COM STORY CONTEST Deadline 30 November 2002 [Contest, SF/F/H 1,000-6,000 wds. No sim subs. Mult subs okay, separately. E-mail subs okay. 1st place $50 and pub, 2nd place $25 and pub, HM $20 and pub. No entry fee. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 15)] THE NATIONAL FANTASY FAN FEDERATION SHORT STORY CONTEST Deadline 1 December 2002 [Contest, SF/F/H. 1st place $50, 2nd $30, 3rd $20. Reading fee $2.00. No E-mail subs. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 1)] TOUCH OF NOIR Deadline 1 December 2002 [Antho, pulp detective/crime stories 4000-7000 wds (F/H elements okay). Pmt. percentage of royalties. E-mail subs only. RT 1-2 wks. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 14)] BYLINE SHORT-SHORT STORY CONTEST Deadline 5 December 2002 [Short story, any type or subject, to 2,000 words. Entry fee $5. Prizes: $60, $30, $20. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 25)] THE MOONLIGHT & MAGNOLIA FICTION WRITING CONTEST: SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, HORROR Deadline 15 December 2002 [Annual competition for new writers, SF/F/H to 10,000 wds. No reprints. Prizes: 1st $250, 2nd $100, 3rd $50. Entry fee $7.50 per story ($2.50 2nd and thereafter to 3 entries). (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 17)] CRUX: A JOURNAL OF SPECULATIVE FICTION 1ST ISSUE CONTEST Deadline 15 January 2003 [Contest SF/F/H to 3,000 wds. Elements for contest are: "that grape soda feeling"; "the eye of Jupitor"; and unicorns. For summer 2003 issue. E-mail subs only. Sim subs and reprints ok. 1st place $20+pub. No accept. on contest entries until after deadline. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 14)] OCEANS OF THE MIND SPRING 2003 ISSUE: WOMEN WRITERS Deadline 1 February 2003 [Quarterly e-mailzine in .pdf format. SF to 8,000 words. Pays 5 cents/word & up. Themed. Prefers E-mail subs. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 7 and Vol. 10 No. 3)] POLYPHONY: STORIES BEYOND GENRE ANTHOLOGY Probably opens 1 Mar 2003 [Biannual print antho, slipstream/magical realism. Pays 5 cents/wd on accept. First open reading period abt. 1 Mar 2003. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 22)] ----------------------------------------------------------------- MARKET GUIDELINES GOBSHITE QUARTERLY [Quarterly print/webzine, fiction (genre okay) short-short, short, novella, or novel-excerpt, but negotiable over 5,000 wds. Pays 10 cents/wd. on accept. Query for reprints. Submit using form on website.] Gobshite Quarterly P.O. Box 11346 Portland, OR 97211-0346 gobq@gobshitequarterly.com Submissions on website http://www.gobshitequarterly.com/] =Gobshite Quarterly= & GobQ Online publish writing from around the world. Works originally written in a foreign language will be published bilingually.... Our 1st issue premieres Halloween, 2002. Our 2nd issue, Groundhog Day, 2003. Our third issue, Bastille Day, 2003. & thereafter we'll settle into a quarterly schedule. Our 1st & 2nd issues are to feature Czech, Hungarian, French, French-Arabic, Mexican, & Argentine writing, as well as British, Australian, & American. We pay 10 cents a word on acceptance for 1st English language rights; 1st web rights are paid at 15% per annum of the original fee. Word rates for works above 5,000 words are negotiable. In certain circumstances we are interested in reprint rights. Query. Guidelines for fiction are that it be short-short, short, novella, or novel-excerpt. Genre fiction will be gladly considered if it is of such a caliber as to make genre distinctions irrelevant. Most readers, when queried about genre fiction & about what they want to read, feel that way, too. =GobQ/Gobshite Quarterly= wants poems that conform to the envelope, stretch the envelope, or shred it completely to reveal something new. =Gobshite Quarterly= wants reasoned rants, essays, journal or diary extract(s), memoirs, manifestos, credos, & open letters on any trend(s) or topics that enthuse &/or edify &/or alarm. Our mission: To honor the integrity of the author's vision & intention, & not let editorial sensibilities be ruled by considerations of sexual or political content, or by political correctness or cant in any guise. For works in visual media, we are most definitely interested, but query first. Contact us by snailmail at: Gobshite Quarterly, P.O. Box 11346, Portland, OR 97211-0346 If you would like to submit works to us, please go to the Submit section of our site. For advertisement rates and specs please send e-mail to ads@gobshitequarterly.com or by filling out the form below. To contact us by E-mail, send all mail to gobq@gobshitequarterly.com or by filling out the form [on the website]. [http://www.gobshitequarterly.com/] SPECULON [Webzine, SF/F to 5,000 wds. Pays 5 cents/wd. to 3,000 wds, $150 3,000 to 5,000 wds, on accept. No H.] Timothy A. Cooper, editor Submissions: submissions@speculon.com Speculon Guidelines Updated Sep. 9, 2002 Sept. 9, 2002: As if we needed one more thing to go wrong, some idiot (guess who?) backed up the wrong files when he reinstalled his operating system, so we've lost all submissions prior to April 30. Sept. 7, 2002: All right, I'm finally back on my feet, and starting to get caught up on stuff. The long- awaited issue should be up this weekend or so, and we can start getting caught up on submissions. Thanks all for your patience. See below for Poetry news =Speculon= publishes Science Fiction, Fantasy, and cross-genre short stories. I'm not looking for Horror or exceptionally dark fantasy. Dark SF is good, though. I'm particularly susceptible to good cyberpunk, industrial fantasy, gadget stories, and oddball premises of all sorts. I get lots of well-written submissions; having a particularly interesting idea behind your story is the best way to make it stand out. Recently I have been seeing a large quantity of fiction in the 3000-5000 word range, and not nearly enough in the lower ranges. Particularly, I don't see nearly enough fiction under 1000 words. =Speculon= does have an editorial policy when it comes to content. I will not buy any story which I believe condones hateful actions or which displays them too blatantly. For example, while a rape or an incident of child abuse can occur within a story, it should not be "on-screen" unless extraordinarily tasteful, and the rapist/abuser should have to face the consequences in a creative manner. Submission procedures: Submissions should be sent embedded in the body of an email or attached as a .RTF or .DOC file to submissions@speculon.com. Please include your contact information (mailing address, etc) with your submission. If submitting as an attachment, please include the word count of the story in your cover letter. Multiple submissions are OK, but one submission per email please. Re-submission: Should the author feel that his/her story has significantly improved through revision after its initial consideration, the author is invited to resubmit. Limited only in that if the frequency of re-submission is too great, the author may be yelled at--sending me a story back after a week is OK; sending it back every 2 hours is not. Rights: =Speculon= buys first World-Wide-Web English-Language rights, with a six-week exclusive, and one-year nonexclusive archival rights. Reprints will only be considered if the story has never previously appeared in the English Language. New: =Speculon= is now also buying one-time non-exclusive e-anthology rights. This carries additional reimbursement of a pro-rated share of 50% royalties (the lack of an 'of' there is not a typo) on the sale of the ebook. The new contract will be posted here in a couple of days once I get it written. Payment: =Speculon= pays 5 (five) cents per word US for stories up to 3000 words, and a flat rate of $150.00 US for stories between 3000 and 5000 words. We do not buy stories above 5000 words, and that limit is firm. Payment on acceptance. Most non-fiction is produced in-house. If you have an idea for an article, interview, or review, please query. However, there is currently no payment for non-fiction. We do NOT buy art. Is that clear enough? If you were reading the magazine, you would have noticed this. Fiction submissions should be directed to submissions@speculon.com (No poetry submissions, queries, etc. to this address please) All other correspondence to editor@speculon.com Poetry Guidelines: Sept. 7, 2002: =Speculon= is closed to poetry submissions. All outstanding submissions should be considered lost. Previously accepted poems will be published. It is uncertain whether =Speculon= will be reopening as a poetry market. I apologise for whatever inconvenience this may cause you. [http://www.speculon.com/guidelines.html] ----------------------------------------------------------------- MARKET INFORMATION ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS INFLIGHT MAGAZINE Robert Hoge, one of =Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine='s editors, said, "It's official. "=Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine= has just received its 1000th submission. "Rhysling Award winner John Grey from Providence, USA made the 1000th submission with a poem earlier this week. The Science Fiction Poetry Association gives the Rhysling Awards out every year. Mr Grey won for best short poem in 1998. "So far the magazine has received more than 2,000,000 words worth of stories and poems. It has provided close to 100,000 words worth of fiction and non-fiction to readers. "Issue one came out in June. Issue three is due out early next month. "Visit =Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine= at: www.andromedaspaceways.com" [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=291&show_all_t opics=0, 12 Sep 02] ASIMOV'S It looks like there's been a slush-reading party at =Asimov's=. Many people report rejections (and several acceptances) in the acceptances/rejections newsgroup on the =Speculations= Rumor Mill in the last week. BEYOND THE DUST ANTHOLOGY A writer on the Rumor Mill says the editor of the =Beyond the Dust= anthology doesn't like multiple-POV short stories. [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=201&m=13368&sh ow_all_topics=0, 21 Sep 02] BLACK GATE In an interview with =Black Gate= editor John O'Neill on SFReader.com, he said, "We are light on adventure fantasy. I wish we had a lot more of it, but I couldn't buy what we didn't receive. It's pretty much all I'm buying at the moment, and we're heavily overstocked on everything else. "We're getting a better mix of fiction nowadays, but of course in our earlier issues I didn't have nearly as much leeway in selecting fiction as I do today. I couldn't afford to turn down Cory Doctorow's superb, "Beat Me Daddy (Eight to the Bar)", two years ago, for example, even though it's more science fiction than fantasy. I was thrilled to get a piece of that caliber, believe me. I've been criticized for that in some places, but I'd much rather buy a superbly written piece that's a little outside our mandate than the reverse. "As we establish ourselves more firmly in the marketplace, we've been able to start focusing more and more on adventure fantasy, and I have some really terrific pieces in inventory now. I think the next few issues will put everyone's concerns to rest. "Surprisingly, not too many critics have picked up on this--SFReader excepted--but I do get some feedback from readers about it. What it tells me is that there's a genuine hunger for this type of material on the market and, as much as we publish now, readers would still like to see more." Answering the question, "Can you give us your definition of adventure fantasy?" O'Neill said, "Sure. To many people, "adventure fantasy" equates to "Conan the Barbarian," which may explain a lot of the thud-and-blunder submissions I get. Sword & Sorcery certainly has a home at =Black Gate=, but it's by no means the definition. "To give it a definition, the epic fantasy I'm looking for is gritty and realistic, peopled with real characters, and set in a colorful and believable setting. When asked to select the great classics of Adventure Fantasy of the past decades, I point to Barry Hughart's =Bridge of Birds=, Roger Zelazny's =Lord of Light=, Richard Adams' =Watership Down=, and Stephen King's =The Mist=. That's hardly a complete list, but it gives you the flavor. In terms of modern films, it's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Lord of the Rings."" Answering the question, "Are there any types of stories you're not seeing enough of from writers?" he said, "As an editor looking for quality fiction, and as a publisher trying to sell his magazine, I'm not looking specifically for any one kind of fantasy, as long as it's exciting and fun. Having said that, it is critical for a small press magazine to establish an identity in the marketplace. You have to give the buyer a reason for her to pick you over the competition. "What that means is that as an Editor I strive to get the most diverse range of fiction possible, and as a Publisher I try to package that as something a potential buyer can quickly understand and appreciate. In other words, be daring in content, be traditional on the cover. "Our submission guidelines are published, in great detail, at www.blackgate.com, including examples of the kind of fiction we see a bit too much of. I don't want to waste space going over that here, but I will repeat that we are always buying quality adventure fantasy." When asked, "So, what SF magazines (dead or living) would you cite as influences on your own editorial vision? What magazines do you like to read?" he answered, "Great question. The concept for =Black Gate=, as I related at length in our first issue, grew from my great love of pulp magazines, especially =Astounding Stories= and =Amazing Stories= of the 1930's. Despite their rather strident, pro-science editorials, pulp magazines of this era had little in terms of real editorial vision beyond bringing the reader back, issue after issue, for the latest pulse-pounding, laser-firing installment. The prose was awful, yes, but there was so much vigor to many of those tales. =Astounding Stories= in particular captured a whole new generation of readers and held them faithfully for a lifetime, up through the decades. "I began to wonder what kind of magazine could do that today-- capture the imagination of a twelve year old and hold his attention his whole life. I love much of the work going on in the field today, but frankly I can't imagine =Analog= or =Asimov's= grabbing kids like that. They both speak to a mature audience with an established grounding in SF, and we like them that way. "The other thing that fascinated me was the heft the old pulp magazines had. That's a big part of their charm--you really felt like you got something for your 25 cents! They published novellas, even entire novels, and some very lengthy serials. The only thing that compares to it today are the annual double-issues of =F&SF=, =Analog=, and =Asimov's=, and they only come out once a year. The memory of that certainly influenced me when I began to design =Black Gate=." To the question, "Can you describe a typical business day for you as Editor of the magazine?" he answered, "Sure, but I think you'd be disappointed. =Black Gate= is a small press magazine, and I don't draw a salary from it. I currently work full time as a Director of Business Operations for a telecom company here in Chicago. "I work pretty long hours during the week, and have three children under eight waiting to leap on me when I get home, so consequentially I do very little =BG= work Monday through Friday, other than check e-mail every few days. =Black Gate= is assembled almost entirely on the weekends. "As Editor, I'm currently reading all of the fiction. We've had several fiction readers help out in the past, but now that more of our production is streamlined I've taken on all that responsibility. Reading submissions is actually one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job. I read and respond to every sub, and try to be as constructive as possible in my feedback. I don't use form letters. I hated getting them as a writer, and can't imagine anyone enjoys them. "I'm still naive enough to think that the feedback I give is useful. About half of the fiction I buy for =Black Gate=, I buy after a rewrite. And I've been at it long enough now to see a few manuscripts that have evolved from a very rough state into something I'm willing to buy. In the face of that much author determination, it's hard to tell myself I can't take sixty seconds to jot notes down on every submission. "As Publisher, I'm responsible for everything else, from layout to advertising to distribution. That takes up far too much time, and I'd give it up if I could. Todd McAulty has taken on some of the recent duties as Webmaster, and that's been a significant help." Read the entire interview at http://www.sfreader.com/interview005.asp CICADA A writer on the Rumor Mill said that a note on a manuscript, from editor Deborah Vetter of =Cicada= magazine, said they are looking for SF with a coming-of-age feel to it. [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=201&m=13288&sh ow_all_topics=0, 17 Sep 02] ==End of the CALLIHOO Newsletter for 1 October 2002==