With Confessions of a D-List Supervillain ( www.amazon.com/Confessions-D-List-Supervillain-Jim-Bernheimer/dp/1461084741/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2 ) on sale since April and Dead Eye 2: The Skinwalker Conspiracies in editing with an expected August release, I'm now ready to take a stab at my next project.

Horror, Humor, and Heroes Volume 3 - New Faces of Science Fiction will be a science fiction anthology. Volume 2 has sold a respectable 655 copies as of this moment and the original is going to break 2000 total sales this month which is quite good for small/indy press.

Guidelines - I'm looking for authors who've got an original science fiction short story in mind and want to be published. This is a general science fiction antho which means no overall theme and I'm not going to be a stickler whether it is hard sci-fi or soft sci-fi. It just has to be a good story. Graphic sex, excessive gore, and violence directed against children don't interest me, because I'd like to actually sell books to the adult science fiction market.

For word count purposes, try to keep it under 5000 words.

Payment - One time payment of $50 for first world English rights to the story, in paperback, electronic, and audio formats. Reprint rights revert to the author after one year from date of publication. No royalties will be paid on this anthology. Last time, I offered $20 and a copy of the anthology. To keep things simpler, I'm just going to stick to money. If you want to order copies through me (which are discounted), that can be arranged.

Deadline - Final story selection will occur at the end of August with a publication date of late October or November in mind.

Contact me either by pm, email, or in this thread if interested.

 

Well I'm out

Seriously though, I might try to write something out for this. Time shall tell.

 

Really? That's good to know.

This was a very good writing exercise the last time, if anyone is looking to participate. Entertaining at times, as well. Heh.

Good luck with it, Jim. I've an idea I may try and get off the ground.

Just so we're clear, what is your policy on quadruple-breasted space whores?

 

Depends on what they're doing I guess.

By the way, have you done anything more with your Crystal Shores storyline?

 

Short answer, yes.

Inasmuch that I pulled back on the extreme fantasy (such as the impossible, easy magic and the sky on fire) and made it more 'real'. Sitting at around 60,000 words, probably about halfway. Same general storyline, but a lot more developed.

Not even near completion, though. Heh.

 

5000 words seems so limiting... yet, I shall give it a go.

Need to go digging through old notes, now, since I've been focussed on fantasy-type stories for about 2 years straight.

Oh, just as an aside, how do you feel about exessive swearing?

 

If it is integral to the story, then go for it. If it serves no purpose, then it won't work.

 

How do you feel about me telling you that I want your man-babies?

 

Fire makes everything better, so empty eye sockets on fire are obviously a step above just empty eye sockets.

Not into man-babies, but I'm flattered just the same.

 

Actually, since one-shots are about all I have the patience to write anymore, I think I'll give this a try. Is there any date we need to have it submitted by besides August?

 

You can get it to me whenever you feel like you have a draft. I'll give you feedback. If you like the feedback and feel you can incorporate it into the story we can go to a 2nd draft. If not, it was fun.

Last time I recruited between 25 and 30 authors. I got 13 stories out of them. Some hit a block, others lost interest, and a few others sent a story in and it didn't look like a good fit so they withdrew.

Hope that helps. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

 

Sounds like something to aim for after the current contest finishes up. I'll see what I can come up with of a Sci-fi nature.

 

It does indeed. I'll email you a draft when I get it finished. Already got a few ideas I'm bouncing around.

 

I'm not sure what Jim prefers, but last time the anthology comprised a mix of POV and included both past and present tense.

 

Tell that to Laurell K. Hamilton.

Just saying.

Okay, not exactly science fiction, but the same audience for the most part.

 

Hm...

I don't have anything for a short piece, sadly. I've been working on an Odyssey-like story for a splinter-group of aliens fleeing the destruction of their homeland, but that seems a lot longer than what you want.

 

First or third works - whichever you prefer, Jon. I typically write in 1st person, but that's me. How long is your story Hashasheen? Sometimes anthologies do well with a 20-30k novella anchoring them.

 

Haven't put any real writing down, to be honest. Still working on the concept, since I'd originally had it as part of a Charlton Comics rewrite that I ended up getting rid of. The idea was that they'd (the Droman) be survivors of a world destroyed by another alien species (the Uxerites), and colonize Mars. Captain Atom would meet with them and get the reveal of everything that went down, with Atom and a few of the Droman fighting off a scout-ship, whose crew would escape to inform their commanders of Droman survivors.:facepalm

The rewrite saw me thinking of it as something akin to the Odyssey/Trojan survivors founding Rome, with Droman survivors in a small fleet moving from system to system trying to escape their hunters, before arriving to our solar system. The focus would be rather dark for the most part, focusing characters trying to lead the rag-tag group and keep the fleet going with the parts necessary, flashbacks to the destruction of their homeworld, and generally see what was once a proud civilization devolve into little more than a group of old men, women and children trying to survive.

Edit: To be honest, I've been working more on a fantasy trilogy that I swear I thought up before ever hearing about Game of Thrones, dealing with a Deathsworn avenging his Emperor, surviving a powerful assassin, reuniting an empire and the final days of the Reunification War. I think I might put up a seperate thread for this.