Ancient Wonders

So, you may or may not have noticed that I have a bit of thing for stories about ancient sites (no, it's not just tomb raider fangirling. Although any kind of archaeological adventuring is always fun... ;-P ) Therefore, being asked if I wanted to do an anthology on ancient sites with Jan Edwards for Alchemy Press was a bit of a no-brainer. It's called The Alchemy Press Book of Ancient Wonders and is set for publication around late September and we are open for submissions, right now. (Yes, now!) ;-)

Soooooo, the necessary blurbage:

The Alchemy Press Book of Ancient Wonders

Standing stones, burial mounds, ruined castles or sunken settlements, the ancient sites that litter our landscapes have a mysterious appeal which cannot be denied.

Think myth come to life; old folktales updated; the consequences of tomb raiding; hidden guardians and secret civilisations; from archaeology to tourism; mysticism and myth; folklore to the fantastical. Take us on a journey around the esoteric and enigmatic places that cannot fail to fire the imagination. Intrigue us, thrill us, make us wonder about the where, the what and the who.

We are interested in fantasy, sf, weird and horror tales of all kinds. (No erotica, romance or poetry.)

The nit-picky official guidelines and other techy details can be found on the Alchemy Press website here

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Now the official bit's done, on a personal note and in case it needs saying - we welcome stories from anyone and are looking for stories involving ancient sites found anywhere on this world, secondary fantasy worlds or other worlds, with well rounded active characters of any age, race or orientation. Make sure your settings and cultures are well researched and not exoticised and be wary of cultural appropriation (see here and here and here and here and here for more on that).

Co-editor Jan will likely be putting her own preferences up on her blog at some point (will link as and when), for me, personally I'm a fan of the type of stories found on Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clarkesworld and Expanded Horizons so stories with that kind of feel are going to make me happy. I also skew more towards the fantasy and SF end of things and particularly want to see stories set in or crossing over to other worlds. Also stories where actual archaeology occurs. Especially if the site in question doesn't get destroyed at the end of it. ;-) And fun pulpy romps that don't commit crimes of cultural appropriation (as mentioned above). Ooh, and dystopian/post-apocalyptic fic. And space ships. Can we get an ancient site on a space ship? (Actually, an ancient crashed/buried space ship does technically count as an ancient site...) Do the fae get annoyed when people hijack their standing stones for riding ley lines? What happens when the local community object to a gold-digging chancer kicking over their heritage?

There's bundles of possibilities for interesting stories so bung 'em over to us.