Anthology Call

I ran across this anthology call, "Fantastic Stories of the Imagination" over at Ralan.com. The pay is excellent at 10cents a word with a $250 cap and 2cents a word with a $100 cap for reprints. The word count is mentioned in the comments and the editor prefers stories to be more than 1000 words with probably a 10,000 word top count. You can find the details here http://warrenlapine.livejournal.com/35917.html

And for the but...I'd never heard of Wilder Publications but in checking it out, I found that the editor, Warren Lapine, while having a fairly good track record as a publisher has been in some difficulties the last two or three years. You can read about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Lapine or do a search for both Wilder and Lapine. There's also a boycott page on Facebook for both of them.

I have no clue if any of this will affect the anthology but thought you ought to know and be able to check things out for yourself before submitting.

Oops

I also received a great link from Brian Lindenmuth yesterday which I almost forgot to post. http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/7+Things+Ive+Learned+So+Far+By+Stephen+Graham+Jones.aspx

Market Notes

From friend of the blog, Albert Tucher, comes word that New Word City has opened to fiction submissions. There are no submission guidelines on the site, if you're interested in submitting you have to query first. Al has a story up there and I asked him if they were a paying market and he said yes, they pay royalties on the net. http://www.newwordcity.com/

The D F Underground has closed to submissions. Not sure if this is a permanent thing or just temporary.

And if you're being a good writer and doing the write/submit on a regular basis, Michael Bracken has sent a link to an essay by Alison Janssen with tips on how to keep your writing consistent. http://heydeadguy.typepad.com/heydeadguy/2011/03/8-fiddly-things-you-can-do-to-your-manuscript-to-make-your-editors-day.html

The Drowned Man by Joe R. Lansdale

I'm a regular reader over at the Mulholland site, but I especially love the days when Joe R. Lansdale posts. His posts remind of my childhood and young adult life even though I didn't grow up in Texas as he did. His essays are a thing of beauty, today's especially. I learn so much reading his words. Thanks for sharing your writing journey, Mr. Lansdale! http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/2011/03/29/the-drowned-man/

A Question

For all you romance writers out there and anyone who wants to chime in. I just had a story rejected, and, no, I'm not upset, that's a common occurrence in this genre. But I keep trying. What I don't understand is this comment by the editor:

"there's too much "real people, with real problems"" The quotation marks around the real parts are his.

Ummm, aren't we supposed to write about real people who have real problems? This was a married couple and the wife had quit her job and opened a shop which her husband wasn't happy about. The editor did add that there wasn't enough conflict but unless they're beating each other up or shooting one another, how do you insert conflict into romance aside from arguments, slamming doors and stretches of silence as they work through their problem?

Now, in all fairness, I did add a touch of paranormal to the story and the resolution comes through the paranormal occurrence. So, I'm wondering if in mixing the two, maybe the reality got in the way of whoo-whoo?

I'm beginning to think that I'm never going to crack the romance market because I just don't "get" the type of reality they're looking for. For the most part when I read contemporary romance shorts I have this overwhelming urge to give the women a Gibbs smack to the head.

Linkage

Wendy Wagner has an excellent post about embracing your inner writer over at Ink Punks http://www.inkpunks.com/2011/03/25/why-creepy-is-my-thing/#content For those of you thinking about going the self-publishing ebook route, you should read this post by Robert Gray over at Hell Notes. For the first time since I've started reading about all this ebook hoopla someone has finally sat down and punched a few calculator buttons. Quite the eye-opener. http://hellnotes.com/gray-matter-the-new-writers-rejection-zero-purchases/

Demolition is Back

For those who might not have heard, "Demolition" is back. Bryon Quartermous was the old editor and I expect, though it's not said on the site, that he's the one in charge. This is a non-paying crime short story market. And they're open for subs. You'll find the details at http://demolitionzine.wordpress.com Take a stroll through the archives also. I can't remember the title, but Todd Robinson had a bruiser of a story in one of the issues. Demolition published some great stories back in the day. Okay, so it was just a few years ago, but hey, go read!