People Eating People - A Cannibal Anthology

Update #5 06/01  some more advice with a month left to go

Update #4 5/18 new blog post with acceptances and advice

Update #3 4/28 - Still lots of open space. Only 2,000 words of accepted work so far. Have had some strong submissions that just weren't a good fit and others that weren't so strong.

One thing I'm not looking for is the cannibal twist-ending. That's where a character is revealed to be a cannibal at the very end. This might work for some anthologies, but when the theme is 'cannibals' then no one will be surprised.

Update #2 4/24 - Some have been querying about reprints. Just go ahead an send them in with a note about where it was published.

Update 4/24 - Minimum word count 2,500 - Deadline 6/30/14


This will be a very small project. Many of the stories will be solicited from friends of mine, both IRL and online. That doesn't mean they aren't accomplished authors. So, there aren't many open spots.

This idea was born as a reaction to an editor's complaint about the volume of cannibal submissions he received through Apex's slush pile. With large markets, themes and tropes tend to come in waves. Apparently that wave includes cannibals right now. So some of his friends, and mine, started joking about starting a cannibal-themed anthology. Well, here we are.

What are we looking for? Cannibals, obviously. But we aren't looking for the same tired stories that feature inbred hillbillies capturing college spring-breakers and serving them up for lunch. You see it in film even more than fiction; The Hills Have Eyes, Dying Breed, Wrong Turn etc... Give us something fresh. Sexy cannibals. Philosophic cannibals. Lawyer cannibals. Quiltbag cannibals. Cannibal angels. Cannibal steampunk. Alt. History with cannibals. A cannibal family drama.

What we are not looking for. Rapey cannibals. Hillbilly cannibals. Racist cannibals. Tribal cannibals. There's always exceptions to the rules, but if you use any of these things it better be a damned good story.

Poetry - Query, you never know.

Word Limit: 2,500 - 15,000 - Query first if outside this range.

Format: Standard Manuscript Format http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

Response Time: 2 weeks or less, depending on volume.

Pay: Even split of net profits between Editor, Authors, and Illustrator. Paid quarterly. Fewer authors = more money. So I'll be favoring longer stories, though won't rule out shorter ones depending on the quality and other factors.

Publisher: Self published in Kindle Format and possibly Createspace depending on interest.

Please send submissions to HardBoiledDimension@Gmail.com using "Submission" in the subject line. Use this address for queries as well.

Deadline: 6/30/14 - If you can't make the deadline, but have a work-in-progress, just send me an email and let me know. This page will stay updated. If it's not, feel free to query.

Editor: Dusty Wallace @CosmicDustMite

New Covers and Artwork

For sale now on is "Altered America" featuring "End of the Rainbow" by yours truly. It's an alternate history anthology but my story is set in modern America. It's fantasy with a noir-ish tone.

 

Tomorrow, April 7th, I have a piece of experimental fiction appearing on Mad Scientist Journals. Here's the artwork that will accompany it.

In the May edition of KZine I have a novelette titled "Witchcraft 2.0". Here's the cover for that.

Finally, here's the artwork for the Apokrupha anthology "Vignettes at the End of the World".  This will be out soon, but I'm not sure of an exact date. I have a VERY short story titled "Try, Try Again" in this one.

New Interview

I actually did an interview today as an author. It was in connection with a upcoming anthology I've contributed to. Details on the anthology and how you can pre-order are available with the interview. And there's plenty of details about me.
http://martiningham.blogspot.com/2014/03/author-interview-dusty-wallace.html

Recent Successes

Today I got an acceptance from "Vignettes at the End of the World" an upcoming anthology by Apokrupha. It's about a 250 word story that really is better described as a vignette. I'd give you a synopsis but it would probably be longer than the story. Technically, it's a pro-rate sale. But I only made 20 bucks so I can't go joining Codex or SFWA yet. If you're interested in this book keep an eye on Apokrupha.com.

Just after Christmas I got an acceptance from Mad Scientist Journals. Now this is a weird one. They usually publish stories written as diary entries from mad scientists, which is pretty darn cool I think. The story I submitted is actually written as a pamphlet for the Milky Way Zoo (which is also the title).  There's no characters, dialogue, or exposition, but once you get to the end of this one page pamphlet you get an idea of what's befallen our pale blue dot. I've been fooling around with experimental stuff and this is the first piece that's found success. This piece will appear at http://madscientistjournal.org/

The Big Adios announced that they are closing their site and reopening as a quarterly zine after February. I'll have one of the final pieces to appear in the original format. My story, "Grave Frontier" is about a frontier merchant who's conflicted over his sexuality. When a pioneering stranger comes to town that internal conflict becomes external and bullets fly. You can find that story on February 11th at TheBigAdios.com.

I also had a poem accepted this month called DNR that will appear on MysticNebula.com at some point. I haven't got a date yet. This is my second poem for that market. The first can be found HERE. I should note that the two poems are completely different. So if you don't enjoy one it doesn't mean you won't like the other.

Other anthologies on the horizon that I'll be appearing in include Altered America and Existence on Mars. Plus, in may I'll have a novelette in KZine. And a poem in next month's edition of Song of Eretz E-zine.

A Worthy Kickstarter

Michael Knost is a good ol' West Virginia boy (not far from me in Southwest Va) who also happens to be an accomplished writer. He's working on kickstarting Weird West anthology that will feature one of my favorite authors, Laird Barron, as well as Joe Lansdale. $10 gets you an ebook copy. Consider donating.

Long Title - Great Story

It's awards season and this story from Ken Schneyer deserves consideration. It's got my vote for any award it's eligible for, but my vote means nothing. It's from Clockwork Phoenix 4 and the editor has released it for free so that people with real votes can read it. What does that mean for you? Terrific free fiction. It's experimental and original and mind-blowing.

Enjoy

Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer

My favorite market resources.

I'll be working on blog roll in which both of these will be included, but for now I thought I'd just post them here.

First is "My Little Corner" at http://sandraseamans.blogspot.com/ . Sandra lists new markets and reopened markets before I see them anywhere else. She does her homework on them too and often puts them in perspective. And sometimes she posts writers-beware warnings when I market is up to something shady.

I also like that she doesn't stick to one genre. She focuses on crime, but you'll find plenty of horror, sci-fi, humor, and even romance markets posted. And she updates often.


The other one I recommend is The Horror Tree at http://horrortree.com/. Obviously you're going to find horror markets there but you'll also see sci-fi and dark fantasy posts. Anything that horror can be threaded into really. They also offer some encouraging series to motivate the young writer. The best part of their system is the calendar where you can see deadlines for upcoming periodicals and anthologies.

As this site grows I'll have a list of more resources and writer's blogs in the sidebar.