Market News for Writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Julia West, Editor Vol. 10, No. 12 13 August 2002 Website: http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/CALLIHOO/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- IN THIS ISSUE Deadlines Market Information Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Artemis Magazine Deep Outside Imaginings Anthology The Infinite Matrix Interzone Macabre Palace of Reason Wicked Hollow Wicked Little Girl ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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.) THE BOOK OF MORE FLESH Deadline 16 August 2002 [Print antho, zombie fiction 3,000-7,000 wds. Pays 3-5 cents/wd. 30 days after pub. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 4)] THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY ANVIL PRESS INTERNATIONAL 3-DAY NOVEL- WRITING CONTEST Register by 30 August 2002 [Canadian contest, novel (at least 100 typed pp.), entry fee $35C/$25US, write novel 31 Aug-2 Sep 2002. Prize: publication. No E-mail subs. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 11)] DEATHLINGS.COM "THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT" CONTEST Deadline 1 September 2002 [Use contests to submit to magazines. H/DF to 4,000 wds. Pays 3 cents/wd. E-mail subs only. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 6 & Vol. 10 No. 3)] BYLINE GENRE FICTION CONTEST Deadline 5 September 2002 [Romance, sci-fi, confession, mystery, western, etc. story. No children's stories. Maximum 5,000 words. Entry fee $5. Prizes: $50, $30, $15. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 25)] THE SECOND ANNUAL DR. MAXIMILIAN TUNDRA MEMORIAL POETRY AND SHORT SPECULATIVE FICTION CONTEST Deadline 14 Sep 2002 [Contest. Spec fic 1,000-2,000 wds. Prize: $150C and pub in journal. Hon mention pub on website and in journal. Entry fee $10C from Canada, $10US elsewhere. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 4)] UPC SCIENCE FICTION AWARD Deadline 14 September 2002 [European contest, SF (Catalan, Spanish, English, or French) 70 to 115 pp. Prizes 6,000 and 1,500 Euros +pub. No reprints or E- mail subs. Submit in contest format. No entrance fee. (GLs in Vol. 9 No. 20)] 2002 ZOETROPE: ALL-STORY SHORT FICTION CONTEST Deadline 1 Oct 2002 [Contest. Fiction to 5,000 wds. 1st $1000, 2nd $500, 3rd $250. No reprints. $15 entry fee per story. (GLs in Vol. 10 No. 3)] 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)] 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)] 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)] 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 INFORMATION ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS INFLIGHT MAGAZINE Robbie Matthews said, "Issue 2 [of =Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine=] has been printed, and will be start arriving in subscribers' hands as of the end of the week." [sff.publishing.asim, 11 Aug 2002] ARTEMIS MAGAZINE Ian Randal Strock, editor of =Artemis Magazine=, said, "After nearly three weeks on the road, I'm back in New York and nearly up-to-date (that is, I went through all 1,811 waiting e-mail messages, and I've started on the pile of manuscripts here at my foot). ". . .today I got the good news that the next issue of =Artemis Magazine= really will be carried in Barnes & Noble, and we've picked up two new distributors, which puts more than 2,700 copies in the bookstores. I'm pleased." [sff.publishing.artemismagazine, 11 Aug 2002] DEEP OUTSIDE A writer on the =Speculations= Rumor Mill said, "I've submitted two stories to =Deep Outside= so far this year and got responses back in 40 and 45 days (rejects) with no query. I have received replies to other messages, from Brian Callahan & John Cullen, many times. I can only say this: if you sent a submissions and did not format it correctly they WILL delete it with no response. That includes (especially) getting the Subject line right. It must be: Subject: [storysub] Author Name - The Title of Your Story Exactly like that, or no go." [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=291&show_all_t opics=0, 8 Aug 02] IMAGININGS ANTHOLOGY Keith R.A. DeCandido, editor of the (now closed to submissions) =Imaginings= anthology, said, "I am plowing through the pile and separating the good wheat from the bad wheat, and both those from the chaff. "If anyone's interested, the process has gone like so: Some stories start out life on my TBR pile, but the vast majority go to slush readers whom I trust very much. They pass on the good stuff, which then gets added to my TBR pile. Those the slush readers reject go onto End Pile #1 (see below). "I've been going through my TBR pile (which wound up at a bit over 100), and putting each story in one of the five End Piles. Here, I'll spell them out.... "END PILES #1: Form Rejection. The too-few-hours-in-the-day pile, as it were. I did get 450 submissions, and I *=can't* do a personal rejection for all of them (much as I'd like to). Most of the 450 will go into this pile. #2: Rejection letter. The almost-but-not-quite pile, for stories that are good but have a fatal flaw or three. These folks will get a personal letter from me explaining what went wrong (and, in some cases, how I think they might fix it). #3: A-List. Stories that are going into the book no matter what. I have three in this pile right now, though only two of them are actually going in. See, one author sent me two stories, and I simply cannot choose between them--yet. The two stories are totally dissimilar, so I'm going to see how the rest of the anthology shakes out, and see which of the two fits in better. #4: B-List. Stories that will almost definitely go into the book. If A and B add up to more than ten, the stories that will be pruned will come from this pile. #5: C-List. These are stories that didn't grab me, but I can't point to anything in particular that's wrong with them. These are the backups. If A and B add up to *less* than ten, the anthology will be filled out by stories from this pile. "Another 104 form rejections will be mailed out tomorrow. "Seven more are in the rejection-letter pile awaiting me to sit down and write the rejection letters. "There are 77 still out with first readers, which I'll get all of back by next Thursday [August 8th]. I have 84 in my TBR pile, leaving 11 in the A, B, or C lists." [sff.publishing.albe-shiloh, 1 Aug 2002] He went on to add, "At this point it's looking like the C-list and the Reject Letter list are going to be combined into one, as the A- and B-lists combine for nine stories at present. "The C-list has ten stories in it (and honestly, those ten would make a fine anthology, and it pains me that they're almost definitely going to get rejected), with 14 more in the Reject Letter list. The first readers still have 70 more manuscripts, which I will get back on Thursday. Some of those will be passed along to my TBR pile, which I have, as of 2.15am EST on Saturday 3 August 2002, whittled down to (whimper) 65. "The plan is to read through the weekend, then take a break until I get the rest of the manuscripts back Thursday night. It is my fond hope to have an almost-final list by mid-month, with the formal release of the table of contents to happen at WorldCon (which is fitting, since I announced the anthology's existence at last year's WorldCon....). [sff.publishing.albe-shiloh, 3 Aug 02] A few days later, he said, "I've updated the =Imaginings= web site (www.albeshiloh.com/imaginings) with the following info: "As of this date, 70 are still with first readers and will be returned to me (either for rejection or for me to consider) on 8 August; beyond those 70, 11 are in the running for the anthology, 32 more are good-but-not-quite-good-enough (and some of these are excellent stories, but just didn't work for one reason or another; these authors will be informed personally as soon as I have a minute to compose the letters), and there are still about 50 or so in my TBR pile (this is counting the likely pass-alongs from the 70 I'm getting back on Thursday). The rest have been mailed back to the authors, including about 125 or so that were mailed on either Friday 3 August or Monday 5 August." [sff.publishing.albe-shiloh, 5 Aug 2002] As the month moved on, and the piles got shorter, he said, "The TBR pile has been whittled down to 19. "There are 15 in the A-list and B-list, which means that at least five are going to be cut from the B-list. "The C-list and reject letter piles combine for 43. "Gettin' into the ol' home stretch...." [sff.publishing.albe-shiloh, 12 Aug 2002] THE INFINITE MATRIX Eileen Gunn, editor and publisher of webzine =The Infinite Matrix=, said, "If you are trying to access =The Infinite Matrix= and are getting a DNS error message, don't panic. We're changing some domain records and there seems to be a lag in getting the system up correctly." [sff.publishing.infinite-matrix, 13 Aug 2002] INTERZONE A writer on sff.net, during a discussion of the long return time for stories sent to British print magazine =Interzone= (one of which was published without the writer ever receiving an acceptance letter), says, "No need to check with spies, as Greg Egan keeps a fairly up-to-date index of Interzone's contents here: http://www.netspace.net.au/~gregegan/IZ/index.htm "David Pringle [=Interzone='s editor] is notoriously bad about communicating, responding to queries, etc. Which is odd because on the whole he's a very personable guy. What I tend to do is only send them material that =Asimov's=, =F&SF= etc. have already declined, but isn't something I want to shop around the smaller semiprozines here stateside. I know in advance that if it piques David's interest it'll be out of circulation for a year or more, and that's fine, since it'd be in a file in my office otherwise. If an attractive antho opens up the story may be suitable for in the interim, I submit it. Odds are that any antho will accept it or reject it before Interzone does. In which case I can always send a prompt withdrawl email to David. Note that Interzone is the only pub I have this policy for, simply because I'm very familiar with their response time tendencies. "But it's an attractive market that's always treated me well, and I recommend it to anyone interested in submitting--but I always warn them what they're getting into first." [sff.writing.response-times, 6 Aug 2002] MACABRE and WICKED LITTLE GIRL Christina Sng, editor of =Macabre= and =Wicked Little Girls= (http://www.allegrapress.com/macabre.htm and http://www.allegrapress.com/anthos.htm) said, "I've caught up with =Macabre= and =Wicked Little Girl= submissions this evening save for a handful of stories and poems that I am holding for further consideration. I'm still looking for cover art." She added, "The Allegra Press site was down for a while. It uses a host in the UK and is occasionally down but not for a long time so that's fine with me. "Yes I am still looking for subs for =WLG=. Both =WLG= and =Macabre= are about half full now. "RTs will be a bit longer (within a week to ten days) as more and more subs are coming in and I'd like to give each due consideration." [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=291&show_all_t opics=0, 10 and 11 Aug 2002] PALACE OF REASON Francis W. Porretto said, "Last night, the =Palace of Reason= [http://palaceofreason.com]'s doughty Fiction Editor, Pat D'Artagnan, suffered a dislocated hip as a result of a martial- arts mishap. Her sparring partner fell on her in the most unfortunate possible way. I keep telling Pat that a seventy-year- old woman ought not to spar with men three times her size, but she's determined to keep on. "So, if you have a story "in the pipe" at the =Palace=, it might take a little longer than usual for it to get Pat's attention. I have to set up a computer at her home--something she's resisted up to now--and arrange for Internet service for her. "We're proud of our response time record. I wouldn't want anyone to think we were falling down on the job, if you'll pardon the choice of words!" [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=291&show_all_t opics=0, 9 Aug 02] WICKED HOLLOW Jon Hodges, editor of =Wicked Hollow=, said, "This is nothing dramatic, but I just wanted to mention that I've gotten to a point where I respond twice as fast to postal submissions to =Wicked Hollow= as I do e-mail submissions. I usually have responses to postal submissions back out that week if not the following day, whereas e-mail submissions are running about one month right now. One month isn't a huge deal, especially compared to a lot of other markets, so I haven't mentioned this yet in the online guidelines, but just thought a few people here may be interested to know." [http://www.speculations.com/rumormill/index.php?t=291&show_all_t opics=0, 11 Aug 02] ***************************************************************** * "On writing--a matter of exercise. If you work out with * * weights for 15 minutes a day over a course of ten years, * * you're gonna get muscles. If you write for an hour and a * * half a day for ten years you're gonna turn into a good * * writer. . . . In a way I'm in therapy every day. People pay * * $135 an hour to sit on a couch. I'm talking about the same * * fears and inadequacies in my writing. . . . I write for that * * buried child in us but I'm writing for the grown-up too. I * * want grown-ups to look at the child long enough to be able to * * give him up. The child should be buried." * * --Stephen King, =Time= magazine, October 6, 1986 * ***************************************************************** ==End of the CALLIHOO Newsletter for 13 August 2002==