CALLIHOO NEWSLETTER Market News for Writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Julia West, Editor Vol. 8, No. 10 15 February 2001 Website: http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/CALLIHOO/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue Deadlines News Publication Notes U.S. Postage Changes Anthology The Bones of the World (gls) Market Guidelines Challenging Destiny (gls) Colonies (gls) The Dragonsblood Chalice (gls) Dreams and Demons (gls) Market Information Amazing Stories Bloodfetish (dead) Cemetery Dance Darkling Plain The Dragon's Scroll (dead) Gothic.net Neverworlds ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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.) Darkfire IV: The Bones of the World Deadline 1 March 2001 [Print antho. SF to 5000 wds. Pays 5-10 cents/word ($25 min.; $400 max.). May close early if fills up; check website. No reprints.] Anamnesis Poetry Chapbook Award Competition Deadline March 2001 [Poetry, SF/F/H okay, submit 20-30 pages of poems, prize $1000, reprints okay, entry fee $15US, no E-mail subm, (GLs in Vol. 8, No. 2)] Writers of the Future, 2nd quarter 2001 Deadline 30 April 2001 [$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)] ----------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS PUBLICATION NOTES Ken Rand's short story "The Grim Reaper Drops By," was recently posted on Gothic.net. Drop by {grin} and read it. U. S. POSTAGE CHANGES As of January 7th, the rate for first class stamps went up to 34 cents. So you'll probably have to buy a bunch of 1 cent stamps if you still have 33 cent stamps around. The nice thing is that second ounce (and any further ounces after the first) postage rates went down again--to 21 cents an ounce. If you have 55 cent stamps for mailing manuscripts, the rate will stay the same--you won't have to add penny stamps. However, if you have 77 cent stamps, you'll give the post office a free penny of postage. Priority mail rates also went up. It now costs $3.50 for one pound, and $3.95 for up to two pounds. So first class rates will actually be cheaper than priority rates for one-pound items. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ANTHOLOGY Darkfire IV: The Bones of the World [Print antho. SF to 5000 wds. Pays 5-10 cents/word ($25 min.; $400 max.). Opened 1 January 2001, deadline: 1 March 2001 or when full. No reprints. E-mail subm okay.] Bruce Holland Rogers, Editor 1485 E. Briarcliff Lane Eugene, OR 97404-3268 Submissions: darkfire@sff.net (plain ASCII text or rtf only) URL: http://www.sff.net/books/guidelines.html Note: These guidelines may be distributed freely to any venue. However, if you are reading these guidelines somewhere other than at http://www.sff.net/books/guidelines.html, you should check there before continuing. We reserve the right to make changes in the guidelines from time to time, and the official version will always be at http://www.sff.net/books/guidelines.html. In particular, we will post a note there when the anthology is full. Dates: Open submission starting January 1, 2001 and continuing until March 1, 2001, or until the anthology is full. Payment is 5-10 cents per word ($25 minimum, $400 maximum per story) on acceptance for First World Anthology Rights. No reprints, please. Inquire first with brief outline before submitting stories over 5000 words. Email: Email submissions to darkfire@sff.net (plain ASCII text or rtf only) Regular Mail: Snail mail submissions (include SASE!) to Mr. Bruce Holland Rogers, 1485 E. Briarcliff Lane, Eugene, OR 97404-3268 Format: Please format your manuscript using Courier or a similar typeface, double-spaced, with one-inch margins. Include your email address on the first page. Description: This volume will contain stories set in the far-distant future, when our sun is running down or the Earth is otherwise becoming unsuitable for life, and most humans have moved on to other stars or other modes of life. Stories can be about the few remaining humans on Earth, advanced civilizations coming back to Earth after millennia away, people trying to escape the dying planet, or just humans that have moved on. The successful submission will have strong characters, realistic social and moral challenges, and solutions that come from clear thinking or depth of insight. Tone and genre are open, but horror, sword & sorcery, or magic realism will be a tough sell for this book unless you come up with an extremely believable reason why these things exist in a far-future technologically-based society. If you use scientific details, make sure they are accurate (or believable extrapolations). A willful computer that "comes alive" because someone has "impressed engrams" on it belongs in some other anthology. If you don't know the difference between a SCSI port and a teapot, leave those bits out and submit a story about people instead--you'll have a much better chance at selling your work. Of course, if the first thing you think of when someone says "brown-black-yellow" is a 100K resistor, then you can probably enhance your story by including technical details--as long as the story remains focused on the people using the technology rather than on the technology itself. Keep in mind that this far into the future, a lot will have changed. If you limit your thinking to the sort of incremental changes seen in near-future SF, then you're missing out on the potential of SF set billions of years from now. Think big, in the tradition of Olaf Stapledon. The trick is to blow the reader's mind with the scope of change, but to keep the story interesting with characters that are human enough for us to identify with them. Beyond the Last Star, Edited by Sherwood Smith, Volume V in the Darkfire Anthology Series, will open for submissions in January or February of 2002. Guidelines will be posted here when available, probably in November 2001. Please check back [at the website listed below] for more details as they become available. [http://www.sff.net/books/guidelines.html] ----------------------------------------------------------------- MARKET GUIDELINES CHALLENGING DESTINY [Canadian quarterly print mag. SF, F 2000 to 10,000 wds. Pays 1 cent/word (Canadian). No E-mail subm.] Dave Switzer & Bob Switzer, Editors R.R. #6 St. Marys, Ontario Canada N4X 1C8 E-mail (No subs, info only): csp@golden.net URL: home.golden.net/~csp We're a quarterly magazine that publishes new science fiction and fantasy short stories. What's our definition of science fiction and fantasy? It's as broad as yours is, so if you think it's sf or f then we guarantee we won't reject it because it doesn't fit our definition. We're not looking for straight horror stories at this time. What kind of stories do we want? Good ones, of course. We're interested in stories where violence is rejected as a means for solving problems. We're also interested in stories with philosophical, political, or religious themes. We're not interested in stories where the good guys kill the bad guys and then live happily ever after. =Challenging Destiny= is a Canadian magazine, but we publish authors from all over the world (well, Canada, the US, the UK, and Japan so far). We encourage first-time authors to send us their stories. We buy first North American serial rights, and currently pay authors 1 cent (Canadian) per word plus 2 copies of the magazine upon publication. Normally stories we accept are between 2000 and 10,000 words, although we will consider shorter or longer works. As for the format, any readable format is fine. Send us your stories by mail. We do not accept email submissions of stories. We're not considering poetry at this time. Illustration Guidelines =Challenging Destiny= is a magazine that publishes new science fiction and fantasy short stories. If you're interested in doing some illustrations for us, just send us a small portfolio of your work. Or if you've got some work on your web site, just send us the address. Note: If you want to increase your chances of getting a commission from us, send us a small portfolio in the mail. We get lots of email, but our pile of portfolios from artists is relatively small. We commission 1 or 2 black & white pen & ink-type drawings to go with each of our stories. We currently pay $10 (Canadian) per illustration, plus 1 copy of the magazine upon publication. We commission a colour cover illustration for each issue. We currently pay $50 (Canadian) for a colour cover illustration, plus 2 copies of the magazine upon publication. If you would like to illustrate a story or a cover for a future issue of =Challenging Destiny=, contact us by email or at our mailing address below. Our email address is csp@golden.net, and our mailing address for all correspondence is Dave Switzer & Bob Switzer, Editors, Challenging Destiny, R.R. #6, St. Marys, Ontario, Canada N4X 1C8 We usually respond in 1-4 weeks, depending on how busy we are. Note to non-Canadian writers: If you're sending a SASE, do not send a stamp from your country. They are useless outside your country. Send an International Reply Coupon instead. Last modified: September 19, 1999 Copyright (c) 1998 by Crystalline Sphere Publishing [Ralan Conley's market list, http://www.ralan.com/] Colonies [Quarterly print British magazine. SF 1000 to 10,000 wds. Pays œ5/1000 words (8 cents/wd.) on pub. First Brit. Serial Rts. E- mail subm okay.] John Dunne, Editor Regent Publications 14 Honor Avenue Goldthorn Park Wolverhampton WV45HH, UK tel/fax: 01902 652999 E-mail (subs & info): john@voyage99.freeserve.co.uk URL: www.zyworld.com/voyagemag/ Colonies.htm "Dateline July 21 2299: Mankind has expanded to occupy all the vacant plots in the Solar System. Travelling from Earth to Mars or the Jovian moons is no more newsworthy than a flight from London to New York or Melbourne. People still have everyday concerns about mundane things, only the date, place and scope of human experience are different. In early issues the scope of your story is wide open to your own interpretation of what the year 2299 will be like, but once published these stories will become a part of the 'history' which will shape all future issues. Contributors should familiarise themselves with several issues in order to avoid contradicting stories which have already been published. In time we will create a future, with a history as complex as that found in either Star Trek or Babylon 5. But do not be misled by those programmes. In =Colonies= there are no warp drives, no transporters, and no jump gate technology. Mankind has yet to voyage beyond the limits of our own solar system, except for a few deep space probes and space stations (although there's no stopping one or two alien races stopping off here for one reason or another). =Colonies= has been designed to produce the sort of stories which might one day form the basis of a new TV epic. It is accompanied and promoted by a web site where the stories, environments and characters created within its pages can be explored and experienced by a world wide audience. (Also wants) "Stories From the Early Days of Colonisation". One story in each issue will be devoted to an event or character from between 2050 and 2250 which can provide some of the background on which stories from the current (2299) level of colonisation is based." E-mail subs OK. John Dunne, Editor, Regent Publications, 14 Honor Avenue, Goldthorn Park, Wolverhampton WV45HH, UK; tel/fax: 01902 652999 E-mail (subs & info): john@voyage99.freeserve.co.uk URL: www.zyworld.com/voyagemag/Colonies.htm [Ralan Conley's market list, http://www.ralan.com/] Dreams & Demons [Canadian print mag, F, pays $2-5C per story. Deadline 1st issue 1 Feb 2001.] The Dragonsblood Chalice [Webzine, F, pays $2-5C per story.] Editors: Rebekkah Patriarche and Amanda Bennett 1751 Haultain St. Victoria, BC, Canada, V8R 2L1 E-mail: phantasy@home.com. =Dreams & Demons= is a print magazine; The =Dragonsblood Chalice= is our online counterpart, always accepting submissions. Deadline for first publication of =Dreams & Demons= is February 1, 2001, with magazine to be published in March. All genres, focus on fantasy. Payment $2-5 per story, poem, or drawing; contributor's copy included. For this issue of =Dreams & Demons= we would specifically like to see stories that centre around TEMPTATION. Stories of seduction, of the attraction of the dark side of the soul and of magic. Erotica acceptable as long as it is tame, but no gratuitous graphic scenes, please. For internet (text) submissions, please submit as an attachment in word or rich text format (*.doc or *.rtf). All submissions please put your name, address, and approximate word count on the first page, and have the title (or suitable abbreviation), your name, and a page number on all pages. Specify and include appropriate postage if you wish your manuscript/artwork returned, and include SASE even if the submission is disposable. [http://www.geocities.com/area51/quasar/9643/content/subs.html] ----------------------------------------------------------------- MARKET INFORMATION =Amazing Stories= The deal with GalaxyOnline, to have =Amazing Stories= replace its fiction section, fell through. At this point we don't know what's happening with =Amazing Stories=. =Bloodfetish= Webzine =Bloodfetish= is dead; do not submit manuscripts to this ex-market. [Ralan Conley's market list, http://www.ralan.com/] =Cemetery Dance= Submissions to =Cemetery Dance= magazine are very backlogged and the editor is very slow to respond, if at all. You may wish to think twice before submitting your work here. =Darkling Plain= The next reading period for semi-annual print magazine =Darkling Plain= has been tentatively set for 1 June to 15 July, 2001. [Ralan Conley's market list, http://www.ralan.com/] =The Dragon's Scroll= Webzine =The Dragon's Scroll= is definitely dead. The domain name now belongs to a non-fantasy business! [Ralan Conley's market list, http://www.ralan.com/] =Gothic.net= Horror webzine =Gothic.net= has raised its pay rate to 5›/word (1 cent/wd. for reprints). =Neverworlds= People sending submissions to bi-monthly webzine =Neverworlds= are experiencing longer return times due to an increase in the number of submissions. [Ralan Conley's market list, http://www.ralan.com/] ==End of the CALLIHOO Newsletter for 15 February 2001==