Urban Mythic 2 Call for Submissions

So, yes then, we're doing Urban Mythic #2!  Can I get a woohoo?  (Woohoo!)

Official Blurb!

We are seeking contemporary tales with all the magic and wonder of myth and legend, blending modern life with the traditions of folklore from around the world. Whether lurking in dark alleys or brash shopping malls, ensconced in upscale riverside penthouse lofts or humble suburban semis, we want to see the fantastic woven into the everyday. We want fiction that entertains but also pushes beyond the usual urban fantasy boundaries – action, folk tales re-imagined, mythic creatures adapting to the urban environment – be it noir, humour, dark, literary or light, there must be a recognisable mythic thread. Fully realised characters are a must and solid plots extremely desirable.

We don’t want: secondary worlds, steampunk, SF, zombies, human sacrifice, magic help-lines, paranormal romance love-triangles, erotica, religion, gore, and absolutely no poetry.

Electronic submissions only to Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber at tapboum@gmail.com. Send manuscript as an email attachment in standard manuscript format (in RTF/doc/docx). Both the email subject line and the manuscript file name must include: submissions – title – author’s name – word count (e.g., Submissions – My Great Story – Jane Doe – 5000 words). Full contact details must be included on the manuscript’s front/first page as well as in the email. Submission window closes 30 April 2014. No acceptances/rejections will be made until after this date.

We are seeking original fiction between 3,000 and 8,000 words. Payment is £10.00 for the first 5,000 words, then 0.2p per word on publication, plus a copy of the book. Payment is made via PayPal or UK cheque (overseas’ contributors must have a PayPal account).

The Alchemy Press intends to launch this book at FantasyCon in September 2014.

-x-
Right, official stuff having been said, here's the extra editor Jen bit that I said last year, and mean doubly this year.

Do not assume the guidelines don't apply to you. Seriously. The wordcount is firm (I repeat, the wordcount is FIRM.  Don't ask, just rewrite to fit.) and we're really serious about those things we don't want to see because, honestly, some of them don't apply to the theme, and some of them are things we've seen so many times in the slushpile our brains automatically shut down as soon as we see a story with them in.

So - to repeat, this is not an anthology for your poetry, secondary worlds, steampunk, SF, zombies, paranormal romance or erotica. We don't want to see human sacrifice, magic help-lines, heaven/hell as a corporation, mythic-beastie love triangles or relentless gore.

Also - do not send us fan fiction with the serial numbers filed off, main characters who spend the entire story in denial of the supernatural elements around them, anything remotely resembling a mid-life crisis, someone in the midst of writer's block (or other artist's block), anything with an obvious twist or dream endings (they rarely work). In fact, check out the Strange Horizons page on what they see too often, that pretty much covers a lot of the stuff that makes us cringe too!

And avoid anything vaguely epistolary. Due to excessive experience in multiple slushpiles, I can't read any story that's set out as letters/emails/diary entries/tweets etc.

Don't go overboard with the covering email - keep it short and to the point. If you use Word, don't forget to turn off your track changes and accept all changes before you send the doc, because it is very distracting when it all shows up. :-)

Don't waste your first page. Open strong, don't waffle, don't smack us in the face with an epic infodump on your story's version of the world or the complete history of your protagonist. We can work these things out as we read. Give us an interesting character and situation to make us keep reading.

Diversity is good.  No, scratch that. Diversity is awesome.  We're actively encouraging diversity in all elements of the anthology and are particularly interested in settings and cultures not traditionally covered in urban fantasy - just make sure they're well researched and not exoticised. Picking a location just because it looks shiny is a no-no - give us depth and a respectful understanding of the local culture and folklore. Likewise with your choice of protagonist - we're very open to diverse perspectives and hearing the stories of people who are traditionally underrepresented in urban fantasy.  See the Resources page for links to useful articles on avoiding cultural appropriation etc.

I like humour and satire and generally fun stories. A bit of subtle social commentary never goes amiss so long as it doesn't get overbearing or preachy. I like stories that are fast and to the point, with plenty of plot-related action. I like things that introduce new concepts and that mash up genres. I also like stories that are slower and create an atmosphere, things with a decent plot that are also mood pieces. I've a soft spot for a gorgeously turned phrase, though watch out that it doesn't go purple.

Mainly it's all about the characters. I can forgive a lot in a story, but if the characters are thin or cliche or generally unpleasant assholes with no story logic behind their personality, then I lose interest. I have very low tolerance for obsessively racist/sexist/homophobic characters, even if they meet a grisly end. I like characters whose choices move the plot along, characters who have a strong voice and obvious personality. I prefer characters with a bit of experience in their profession and/or with the mythic element of the story, as I've read far too many stories where a newbie is just discovering the weird things and spends the whole story having everything explained to them. 

But other than that, we're flexible.  ;-) 

The Cool Reads (and other shiny stuff) of 2013 Post

And lo, there were many funky stories read in 2013....

Though I didn't read nearly as much online fiction as in previous years, recommended shorts from the year-that-was include:
Abyssus Abyssum Invocat by Genevieve Valentine - Lightspeed (February 2013)
As Large as Alone by Alena McNamara - Crossed Genres (July 2013)
The Crimson Kestrel by Leslianne Wilder - Beneath Ceaseless Skies (February 2013)
Death Comes Sideways to the Mall by William Alexander - Apex Magazine #46
Dreams of Peace by Dana Beehr - Beneath Ceaseless Skies (May 2013)
The Drowned Man by Laura E. Price - Beneath Ceasless Skies (May 2013)
A Family for Drakes by Margaret Ronald - Beneath Ceaseless Skies (March 2013)
Forgiving Dead by Jeff Stehman - Daily Science Fiction (May 2013)
From the Book of Names My Mother Did Not Give Me by Christine V. Lao - Expanded Horizons (April 2013)
In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind (part 1) (part 2) by Sarah Pinsker - Strange Horizons (July 2013)  
In Metal, In Bone by An Owomoyela - Eclipse Online (March 2013)
A Little Sleep by Melissa Mead - Daily Science Fiction (May 2013)
Mermaid's Hook by Liz Argall - Apex Magazine #46
Of Ash and Old Dreams by Sarah Grey - Daily Science Fiction (June 2013)
The Princess and Her Tale by Mari Ness - Daily Science Fiction (May 2013)
Pythian Games by Tom Doyle - Daily Science Fiction (March 2013)
Singing Like a Hundred Dug-up Bones by Alex Dally MacFarlane - Beneath Ceaseless Skies (May 2013)
Swan Song by Melissa Mead - Daily Science Fiction (April 2013)
With Tales in Their Teeth, From the Mountain They Came by A.C. Wise- Lightspeed (January 2013)
Town's End by Yukimi Ogawa - Strange Horizons (March 2013)

Anthologies:
There were some cracking anthologies published in 2013, if you haven't already picked them up, go check out:
Glitter and Mayhem, John Klima & Michael Damian Thomas (eds) (Apex Book Company)       
Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, Bill Campbell, Edward Austin & Edward Hall (eds) (Rosarium Publishing)       
Noir Carnival, K. A Laity (ed.) (Fox Spirit Books)       
Tales of Eve, Mhairi Simpson (ed.) (Fox Spirit Books)       
Terra Nova: An Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Science Fiction, Mariano Villarreal (Editor), Sue Burke (Translator), Lawrence Schimel (Translator) (Sportula) (First English translation edition in 2013)       
The Book of the Dead, Jared Shurin (ed.) (Jurassic London)       
The Other Half of the Sky, Athena Andreadis & Kay T Holt (Candlemark & Gleam)       
We See a Different Frontier: A postcolonial speculative fiction anthology, Djibril Al-Ayad and Fabio Fernandes (Futurefire.net Publishing)       
What Fates Impose, Nayad Monroe (ed.) (Alliteration Ink)       
Winter Well: Speculative Novellas About Older Women, Kay T. Holt (ed.) (Crossed Genres)       

Collections! (Because you can never have enough short stories!)
Across the Event Horizon, Mercurio D. Rivera (Newcon Press)
Conservation of Shadows, Yoon Ha Lee (Prime Books)       
How the World Became Quiet, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Press)       
Kabu Kabu, Nnedi Okorafor (Prime Books)
This Strange Way of Dying, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Exile Editions)

Artists who did beautiful beautiful art! 
Alexandra Knickel (Assorted covers, including this Lightspeed one)       
Amy Mebberson (Pocket Princesses web comics)   
Edvige Faini (assorted covers, including this Lightspeed one)
Halil Ural (this Lightspeed cover)
Julie Dillon (assorted covers - I am an unashamed fangirl of her work!)       
Mats Minnhagen (assorted covers)       
Renee Nault (assorted illustrations and web comics)       
Sarah Anne Langton (assorted covers)       
Sara K. Diesel (cover of This Strange Way of Dying)       
Sutthiwat Dechakamphu (assorted covers, including this Lightspeed one)       
Tina Marie Lane (assorted covers)       
Zack Fowler (assorted covers)       
Zsófia Tuska (assorted covers, including this Beneath Ceaseless Skies one) 

The 2013 round up post

... because why not.  ;)

Sooo (as all great blog posts are wont to start...) 2013 then.  That was a year.  Quite a good one for me actually.

I had two short stories published in two very excellent Fox Spirit anthologies:
Past Lives in Piracy - this one being a spin off of the mermaid-pirate stories I keep writing, though it's more about the human pirate that's hunting them and how that is a very bad idea... 

To Fox Tor Mire in Shapeshifters - this one being a Maddy Cain story where the sins of the mother come back to bite the daughter on the ass... (one day I will finish a novel length urban fantasy thing with my beloved fox-mage trickster girl, until then, there will be many shorts...)

Speaking of - there's another Maddy Cain story due out at some point from Elektrik Milk Bath Press in their Urban Fantasy anthology - no idea when though, probably sometime in late 2014.

With my editor hat on (it has sparkles and feathers and room for spare red pens) the big one was The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic which I'm well chuffed about. I always have a lot of fun co-editing with Jan Edwards, and Urban Mythic managed to get a fantastic line up and launched quite well too.

In fact, so well did it go, that we're doing Urban Mythic 2 in 2014!  Full guidelines will be up shortly for that!

Oh, and, Alchemy did a quickie interview with us about the anthology here.

And, not only that, but we'll also be doing a rather wicked little anthology with Fox Spirit Books towards the end of the year.  More news on that lovely thing another time...

Convention wise, there was, of course, WFC.  Which was all work.  And as mentioned previously, 2014 is going to be convention play year - I'm  definitely going to Nine Worlds Geekfest and Fantasycon (unless next-cousin-to-be-married picks that weekend for the festivities), and am hoping to get to BristolCon and EdgeLit, depending on time and finances.

With my academic hat on (extra pockets for emergency chocolate) I started my penultimate module for the history degree - Myth in the Greek and Roman worlds - which continues to be an awesome course.  Oh, and there's also the book keeping course thingy I'm doing alongside it as the family business keeps inventing new ways to challenge me and generally drive me insane and someone needs to understand the all new complicated numbers stuff...

Cool fiction read I'll cover in another post, because the short fiction list will probably go on a bit... and according to Goodreads I read 104 books last year.  ::blinks:: 

Other than that, there was little sister's wedding, of which I'm just about over the trauma of wearing a bridesmaid dress, though the psychological scars from being trapped with that many relatives in one go will likely last a while longer...  ;-P