Fiction Scribe

CALLING WRITERS AS YET UNPUBLISHED
In the Footsteps of Gilgamesh
(Edited by Mark S. Deniz)

1st April 2009 Gilgamesh Press will publish their first anthology, In the Footsteps of Gilgamesh. They want to help promote new writers – one of their company goals – by reserving a slot in the anthology for a story from a writer who is, as yet, unpublished in any fiction medium.

The anthology will concern itself with tales from Assyrian mythology, such as the creation story and the Epic of Gilgamesh. However, the stories in In the Footsteps of Gilgamesh will be interpretations or re-writes of these tales, and will come under the genre umbrella of speculative fiction.

This means that before you write, you are to familiarise yourself with stories from Assyrian mythology before coming up with a story that has one of the tales from old Mesopotamia as its base.

You may write, for example, a futuristic science-fiction tale, a fantasy short story which takes place on another world or a straight horror story, as long as there is clearly some reference to the story you are basing it upon within.

Your story should be between 3,000 – 5,000 words and must contain speculative fiction elements (such as those mentioned above).

Any questions for those unsure of the theme are welcome and can be directed to: mark.deniz@gilgameshpress.com

Submissions must be sent in Rich Text Format (.rtf), Double Spaced in Courier New font and the subject line should state ‘Submission: (your story title)’. Send your submissions to: competition@gilgameshpress.com

Your stories will be read by a panel of six judges and the winning entry will be chosen to be published in the anthology. The winner will also receive two copies of the book.

The deadline is 1st December 2008 and all writers will be notified as to the status of their story as soon after this date as possible.

Fiction Scribe Disclaimer: I in no way take responsibility for the validity of any submission opportunities. It’s up to you to use your judgment when submitting your work anywhere.

Thank you to Writers Who Blog for pointing me to Immaculate Novelist.

Hello there. How are you?

Perfection: Writing? How can you possibly write when your office is a mess, you have other work to do, you don’t know what you’re going to eat for dinner, you don’t have the right music –

I think you can see where this is going. Like many writers (writers who have a talent for procrastination, especially) I often become the victim of my perfectionist voice. The voice which is never satisfied with the surroundings, the music, the state of the world, the state of hunger…

If you have the power and determination to actually sit down and write, then you have to deal with the perfectionist voice doubting your writing voice, your ability, your talent (if you can convince your voice that you have any), and your future prospects in the world of writing among other things.

Needless to say, I don’t get a lot of writing done when I listen to the voice for too long. My two biggest problems (excuses) are the thought I have other things to do or not having a great writing environment.

Things you can do to get past your perfectionist:

*Make a goal of writing in different places.
*Don’t think about writing too long before you do it. Decide on writing and then do it.
*Freewrite before you start in on writing in your work in progress.

Do you have any other tricks to getting past your perfectionist.

Hello everyone! It’s hard to believe it is the last Monday of April already. I think I am still stuck somewhere in the beginning of March, I think.

I rather like starting the week with notes because I’m usually a bit tired and lacking a good attention span. A ‘case of the Mondays’ I have been told. I hope you all like it as well because it isn’t much use for me to do it if you don’t.

A Day in the Life

I have been ill lately, so please be patient with me as catch up on replying to comments and emails. Thank you. I shouldn’t be too long by any means. As always, it’s faster to contact me through email using the ‘contact me’ button on the right under the site description.

Scribes Blog Carnival

Instead of being posted on the first Monday of May, it will be posted on the 12th instead. If you stop by on the 5th, you’ll see why…

May 5th

If I can pull everything together in time, I will be hosting contests on a few of my sites. Be sure to stop back to see the contest here as well as get the links to the contests.

Contests and Publishing Opportunities

I have been working to increase the number of contests and publishing opportunities here on the site. Check them out just in case there is anything you may have missed.

Creative Spaces

I would like to get this part of Fiction Scribe up and going again. Check out the creative spaces category to see how you can participate.

**
I hope you all have a lovely week full of good times and productive writing time.

I say … and you think … ?

1. Thug ::
2. Slurp ::
3. Alley ::
4. Sweater vest ::
5. Targeted ::
6. Snazzy ::
7. Oy! ::
8. Jury duty ::
9. Low fat ::
10. Responsibility ::

Courtesy of Luna Nina

Hello and welcome back Fiction Scribe, Ms. Roberts. Seeing as we’ve met before, why don’t we get right to talking about the book?

That works for me. And thanks for having me back.

You’ve written the book Bikini Season. Now that’s what I call an interesting title. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

Here’s how I like to sum it up. This is a book about girlfriends, diets, chocolate and cheating. Since one of the characters is sure her husband is starting an affair with the office hottie, I’ll leave it to readers to discover whether the cheating refers to diets or husbands. :)? The book follows the adventures of four friends who wind up turning their cooking club into a diet club.

What inspired Bikini Season? Where did the idea begin?

My editor actually inspired the diet club. She though it would be fun to have a book about women who all go on a diet together and transform themselves. I was actually doing something along those lines with two girlfriends, so this sounded like a fun book idea to me.

What character do you relate to the most and why?

Probably Kizzy, the woman who loves to cook and has a very indulged appetite. That’s me. I have a very hard time saying no to my taste buds. Also the scary diet pill adventure that Angela has in the book was taken from my own experience. I learned that there is no shortcut to fitness.

What is your favourite part of the book?

Probably the scene where Angela pole dances for her husband a la Jamie Lee Curtis in true lies. Not so racy though, and definitely funnier.

What are you working on now?

Actually, I’m just finishing up my third book for St. Martin’s Press, called “Love in Bloom” about three women who meet at a community garden and become friends. It’s full of gardening tips and should be a fun read.

What are your dreams for your writing?

I want to follow in the footsteps of my two friends and mentors, Debbie Macomber and Susan Wiggs. I admire those two women greatly. Not only are they successful writers, they are humble and down-to-earth.

When you’re not writing novels, what do you do? How do you find time to write?

Fortunately, writing is my only job, so I don’t have to juggle it around other work. That helps a lot. My life is busy. I’m active in my church and community. We built and moved into a new house this last year and I’m to my eyeballs in landscaping. But I can always find time to play. I love playing games and going dancing, hitting the movies and reading a good book. As writers, I think it’s very important that we support our industry. Buy books!

What would you say to writers who want to have your same successes in writing?

Read a lot and study the writers you admire. Read books on writing and take classes. Never fall into the trap of thinking you’ve arrived. We’re all learning. Always.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thanks so much for having me. It was a pleasure to visit with you.

I have asked these before, but I think they’re worth asking again.

1. Do you write novels, short stories, poetry, fiction, non-fiction?
2. When did you start writing stories?
3. Did you start with fan fiction or your own creations?
4. What is the first story you ever wrote? (How long, what’s it about…)
5. From all the books you’ve read, who is your favourite character?
6. Who is your favourite character from your stories?
7. Are you/will you actively pursuing a job in the writing/publishing industry? (Other than writing books and hoping to get published.)
8. What is your greatest ‘Achilles heel’ as far as grammar goes?
9. Are you published in any way (paid or not)?
10. What are your dreams for your writing?
11. If you could talk to any author, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
12. What inspires you?
13. Why do you write?

Check out my other Thursday Thirteens at Write Anyway, Long Relationships, and The Book Stacks

Closing Date: July 1st 2008

Sounding Science Fiction will be an edited collection that examines the way that sound, in all its aesthetic and technological forms, is deployed to audio-sense a science fiction encounter, world, or universe.

The collection will be concerned with sound design and sound signification, and with affect and feeling, so that questions of form, style, narrative, authorship, production, subjectivity, and embodiment, will all work their way into the book. Science fiction film and television, live cinema, music video, computer games, advertising, weblogs, digital art, mixed media installations, radio, and music, are all potential sites of investigation and analysis.

The questions that energise this call for papers centre on:

* How does one sound science fiction?
* How do the sounds of science fiction affect/move/interpolate audiences?
* What semiotic, ideological, spatial, phenomenological, psychoanalytical relations are in play when one sounds science fiction?
* What is the relationship between science fiction sound and image, or sound and space, or sound and exhibition context?
* When one hears (but does not see) science fiction, what images are brought to the mind, what feelings of the ‘future’ are created?

Essays could take any number of approaches to the topic, but could include:

* Otherworldly sounds
* Hearing the uncanny
* Sound as prophecy and enlightenment
* Alien sounds and otherness (sex, race, gender, class)
* Sound design (and full future world immersion)
* Sound effects/affect
* Composition/composers
* Sounding future weapons/warfare/cities/movement/travel/invasions/space
* Sounding Global (catastrophe)
* The interiority of science fiction sound (existential sound)
* Sound as trauma, loss, dystopia
* Sounding science fiction paranoia
* The carnality of science fiction sound
* Posthuman sound
* Sounding cyborg
* Contrapuntal music and the science fiction image/artefact
* Sounding scientific/rationalist (in dialogue, speech, voice-over)
* Live science fiction sound
* The sound image
* The ‘moment’ of sound (close textual analysis of a key sequence)
* Authoring science fiction sound: key auteurs of sound design Cultish science fiction sound

Sounding Science Fiction’s multi-disciplinary and multi-site focus will build on the work done in single case studies such as William Whittington’s Sound Design and Science Fiction (2007), and on edited collections such as Philip Hayward’s Off The Planet: Music, Sound And Science Fiction Cinema (2004), which take film/cinema as their central/sole text.

Proposals of approximately 500 words can be sent electronically,preferably as a word attachment, to:

Sean Redmond
Senior Lecturer in Film Studies,
Victoria University of Wellington,
New Zealand

Thank you to Girlie Jones for the heads up. She is chasing up the contact email address.

Fiction Scribe Disclaimer: I in no way take responsibility for the validity of any submission opportunities. It’s up to you to use your judgment when submitting your work anywhere.

Submissions for the next CSFG Publishing anthology, Masques, are welcome between 20 April-31 October 2008.

Masques will be edited by Gillian Polack (who writes for Food Past here on the 451 network) and Scott Hopkins. Stories may be any length up to 5,000 words. All approaches to the theme are welcome, as long as they are by nature speculative.

Payment will be contributors’ copies plus $10 for stories under 1,500 words and $25 for all other based on published word count.

Submissions are encouraged from Australian writers of all levels of experience, with special encouragement given to CSFG members. Submissions should be sent (as plain email with stories as .rtf only) to masquessubmissions@gmail.com. Please make sure that the following information is in the email proper:

Name
Address
Email Address
Name of story
Other contact information

If you wish to contribute to the interior artwork, please contact masquescsfg@gmail.com

Dates for submissions: April 20th to October 31st 2008

Contact Information: masquescsfg@gmail.com

Speculative: “Speculative fiction is a term which has been used in multiple related but distinct ways. Speculative fiction is a type of fiction that asks the classic “What if?” question and attempts to answer it.

In more recent times, the term has come into wider use again, and gained the neutral inclusive sense as a convenient collective term for a set of genres. Its modern meaning depends on the speaker and the context.

A variation on this term is “speculative literature.” “Speculative fiction” is sometimes abbreviated “spec-fic,” “S-F,” “SF,” or “sf.” Care with context is needed in the use of such shorthand, as those last three abbreviations are more commonly used to mean just “science fiction.” - Wikipedia

It has been a while since I have done this (do you recall ‘little reminders’?) and I have so many small contest links and announcements that I believe it’s time to put up at least one more post like it. Enjoy.

The Australian Spec Fic Blog Carnival
Hosted by the lovely Eneit, this carnival is full of all sorts of fun tidbits from the authors down under who have a love of spec fic.

Bragging Rites Unleashed Publisher and Author Spotlight Chats
Bragging Rites Unleashed is hosting Red Rose Publishing author Liam Stalls today. Check out the site for more details.

My Very Special Agent Contest
You could win an e-book copy of Eureka Point, the first book in the series, and a Time for Tea gift basket containing teas, scone mix, jams and everything a true tea lover could want, and a few other surprises. Check out the site for more details.

The Winds of Asharra Contest
You could win the chance to name a character in The Winds of Asharra sequel or an autographed hardback copy of the book. Check out The Winds of Asharra website for more details.

WOW! Women On Writing Flash Fiction Contest
“WOW! hosts a (quarterly) writing contest every three months. The mission of this contest is to inspire creativity, communication, and well-rewarded recognition to contestants. The contest is open globally; age is of no matter; and entries must be in English. We are open to all styles of writing, although we do encourage you to take a close look at our guest judge for the season (upper right hand column) and the flavor of our sponsor, if you are serious about winning. We love creativity, originality, and light-hearted reads. That’s not to say that our guest judge will feel the same… so go wild! Express yourself, and most of all, let’s have some fun!”

Check out the WOW site for more details.

Thank you to Writers Who Blog for the heads up.

As always, remember:

Fiction Scribe Disclaimer: I in no way take responsibility for the validity of any submission (or contest!) opportunities. It’s up to you to use your judgment when submitting your work anywhere.

I say … and you think … ?

1. Questioning ::
2. Immunity ::
3. Online dating ::
4. Calcium ::
5. Dressing ::
6. Bucket ::
7. Stain ::
8. Advanced ::
9. Dramatic ::
10. Self-medication ::

Courtesy of Luna Nina

Interested in reviewing books on your blog? Would you like to interview authors?

We are seeking qualified bloggers who would like to become tour hosts for our clients. If you are a blogger who would be interested in either interviewing our authors, letting them guest post on your blog or would be willing to review their book and posting their review on your blog (or any other type of promotion) on a certain day that both you and we set up together, we would be interested in talking to you.

We are only looking for blogs who receive substantial traffic and are updated frequently.

All our tour hosts receive a link on our sponsors’ page (if you prefer hosting your banner, that’s fine, too), links on our in house blogs, and will receive copies of books where applicable for their time and effort in hosting our authors. You will also receive substantial traffic on your blog while the author is touring as we highly publicize each and every one of our tour stops.

We also spotlight our tour hosts at random in our monthly newsletter. All tour host spotlights will include blog information and an interview with the blog host as part of their feature in the newsletter. More added exposure! And…not only that…we will include your link on this page so that others can see what an outstanding blog you have.

If you are interested, you can visit Virtual Book Tours for Authors, look in the right hand sidebar for the list of authors touring, and let us know which author you would prefer to host.

Once you have decided which author you would like to host, copy and paste the below information into an email and send it to us at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com. Please put “I Want to Be a Tour Host” in the subject line of your email.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Daily.

Hi! Thanks so much for having me with you.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

Probably in the crib. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing — from goofy songs about fruit to love stories about my 4th grade teacher to my pre-author career as an advertising copywriter.

You’re currently on virtual tour for Fifteen Minutes of Shame. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

I’m not only on a virtual tour, I’m on a 22-city tour as well.

FIFTEEN MINUTES OF SHAME is a story about Darby Vaughn, a small-town girl turned dating guru. She’s finally landed the life she’s always dreamed of: A handsome, charming husband shes crazy about, a fabulous home in an exclusive neighborhood, a bestselling dating book, and tax-deductible pedicures.

Thousands of women have attended Darbys famous Dreamgirl Academy and followed her man-snagging advice to the letter, in hopes that their lives will turn out just like hers. But when she finds out her husband is cheating, her publicity-perfect world spins out of control. Not only is the most humiliating moment in her life splashed across every supermarket tabloid and celebrity gossip show, but her reputation as Americas favorite love expert is shot.

Her book sales have tanked, her publisher has canceled the rest of her tour, and her love life has become fodder for late-night TV. To make matters worse, the ex-wife Gigi keeps feeding the media frenzy in hopes of furthering her own reality TV career.

If Darby takes her philandering husband back, she will be breaking her own most cardinal law of relationships (Never stay with a cheater!), and her career will be over. If she sticks to her own rules, shell lose the only man she has ever truly loved. As her marriage and career fall apart, Darby learns that even dating experts get their hearts broken, and that when it comes to matters of the heart, none of us are in complete control.

What inspired you to write this book? Where did the idea begin?

The week before my dating advice book, Stop Getting Dumped! was first published, a very prominent dating expert was going through a very public divorce, and she was really taking a lot of heat in the media. At the time, my husband and I had just been married a few years — I remember having this moment where I thought about how awful it would be to go through one of the most difficult times in your life with the entire world watching — and the idea for Fifteen Minutes of Shame was born.

As I developed the story, a lot of the funniest scenes dealt with the world of television — the disparity between how something (and some people) look on TV, versus in real life, has always been hilarious to me.

What character do you relate to the most and why?

I’m a lot like Darby, the main character. Shes a funny, somewhat klutzy dating expert who wants to see everybody get a little piece of happily ever after. The trait we share is that we both tend to trust our brains over our hearts.

What is your favourite part of the book?

The TODAY SHOW scene, for certain. Darby’s biggest dream is finally coming true — she’s appearing on the TODAY SHOW, and Matt Lauer informs her that her husband is leaving her for another woman. Darby throws up on national television and then passes out. It’s one of the funniest scenes in the book, and it’s the moment when Darby’s entire existence is turned inside-out.

A trailer is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBRRYCJgaWA

What draws you about writing about relationships?

I’m always searching for patterns in people’s behavior, some overarching theme to explain WHY they are what they are, or why they do what they do. In general, I have a strong need to figure things out. Relationships are so fascinating to me because they’re such a wild card — the decisions we make in our relationships , sometimes our every brain cell will tell us to run in the other direction, and we stay. Sometimes our brains lead us one way, and our hearts another — it’s always interesting to me to watch that play out.

Are there any authors who have inspired you in your writing?

My favorite authors are Jane Austen, Delia Ephron, Nora Ephron, Jennifer Weiner, Sophie Kinsella, Oscar Wilde, and Kristin Harmel. I loved Freakonomics for the writing. I’m particularly fond the girls at the Debutante Ball Eileen Cook, Danielle Young-Ullman, Jenny Gardiner, Jess Riley and Gail Knopf-Baker. I love Eats, Shoots and Leaves for the punctuation stickers in the back. Liberating Paris by Linda Bloodworth Thomason was a revelation, and Michael Alvear, Lisa Earle McLeod and Lenore Skenazy crack me up.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a new novel, titled THE TRUTH ABOUT GOSSIP. I’m still early in the process on this book, but its a humorous, edgy story about someone struggling to overcome superficiality and preconceptions.

What are your dreams for your writing?

My biggest dream for my writing has come true — when someone says to me how much they loved Fifteen Minutes of Shame or my first book, Stop Getting Dumped!, and that they stayed up all night because they couldn’t put it down. Those are the reactions that every writer lives for.

Like most authors, I dream of the top spot on the New York Times bestseller list. Mostly, I hope I’m as grateful for the experience of being published as I am today.

When you’re not writing novels, what do you do? How do you find time to write?

When I’m not writing novels, I’m writing dating advice books (my new one, How To Date Like a Grownup, comes out in December). I also do a weekly relationships advice segment on DAYTIME, a syndicated morning TV show.

Do you have any advice for writers?

What separates working writers from wannabe writers is sticking it out, getting it done, whether your muse is on vacation or not. Don’t give up when it gets hard it gets hard for everybody.

I recommend that anyone wanting to write books starts by getting the best writing job you can swing (newspaper, magazine, advertising copywriter) where you are surrounded by, and hopefully supervised by, writers who are far better than you are. Learn everything you can, and write every single day. Then, be brave and put your work out into the world.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you so much for allowing me to be here today! Great questions!

While I was going through all the past Thursday Thirteens I have put up, I found one I posted the last Thursday of 2007. It happened to be a list of thirteen goals I had for this year.

Yes, you caught the ‘had’ there, didn’t you? It turns out that list needs to be revised a bit, so I thought I would take the time and opportunity to do that this week. I’m putting up the original list as well as (my revisions).

1. Finish the first draft of my work in progress. (Still working on it…)
2. Finish the first edit of my work in progress. (Completely doable.)
3. Pay off my hospital bill. (It will happen…if I win the lottery. Revision: Pay off half.)
4. Still be writing for this site at this time next year. (Looking good so far. Revision: Still be writing for this site at this time next year and have it be more financially successful at that time.)
5. Submit a story (or more) to Women’s Weekly magazine. (Revision: Chicken Soup for the Soul. WW is a tough lot.
6. Go to Conflux 5. (Looks like it’s going to happen.)
7. Collect at least three more cool and/or weird pens. (I have two so far…)
8. Submit at least one short story…somewhere. (Working on it.)
9. Start on writing another novel. (Done.)
10. Keep my husband working on his novel. (RE: Snowball’s chance in hell. Revision: Encourage husband to work on his novels.)
11. Learn to make a fabulous lemon meringue pie. (Could still be done…)
12. Also learn to make lovely pumpkin risotto and turn that into my writing food. (Not going to happen. I just so happened to have risotto just before a severe reaction to a medication I started. Risotto is now spread regularly around Victoria. Revision: Find a healthy writing snack.)
13. Have a more functional and organized work space. (Doable. I did it before, but now I’ve gone and destroyed it again because I have spring fever…in the end of autumn…)

Check out my other Thursday Thirteens at Write Anyway, Long Relationships, and The Book Stacks

My marketing and promotional plan is unusual to say the least. I have never really done things the normal way; instead, I take what I have learned from others and put my distinctive spin on it. To be honest it’s hard to describe what I do, because I never really stop. When I go out into the world, I am nearly always on and ready to promote.

One of the most effect ways I use is just talk about my books. I carry bookmarkers with me and give them out to remind people about my work. At book signings, I also gave away pens, notepads, coffee mugs and CDs with excerpts of both my novels even if they didn’t buy a book at the time. Giving away promotional items not only gives them a reminder of my novels, but how we met. A simple bookmarker not only keeps the place within a book, but it also anchors a memory.

Cold contacting bookstores is also an excellent way to get attention for you books in print. With most telephone plans now having unlimited long distance, it is no longer a hardship to reach out and touch someone. Originally, I called and talked to the owner or manager; however, this past year I relied more on fax and email.

Faxing, especially, gives them a hard copy of the information for the owner to use later for ordering; however, not every store has the capability of receiving them. Some people send flyers or postcards to the stores, but snail mail postage adds up quick and the cards are easily lost in the mail. The downside of emailing is that if the subject line isn’t written effectively the email could get lost in the spam box and be deleted without being read.

Online, I have an active blog, which has been gaining in popularity. Blogs are only effective if they are maintained and properly formatted with SEO keywords. You can have the most interesting blog in the world, but unless readers can find it, it won’t do you any good.

I do my best to post at least five separate entries a week. Not only does it keep your readers coming back, but it also helps the blog gain ratings with the search engines. Even if I don’t have anything to say, I will post a YouTube video that like just to show that it was updated. In addition, listing the individual articles with http://www.digg.com will add to the traffic. By using a tag generator, such as http://www.evilgeni usmarketing.com/ice/tag-generator.cfm., each posting catches the attention of internet services such as:

Technorati
Digg
Del.icio.us
Yahoo
BlinkList
Spurl
Reddit
Furl

Keyword sites such as:
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html

help generate the SEO keywords that will help the key generator attracted the search engines and target your niche market. Not only do this sites show the popularity of a keyword, but they also give alternative keywords that the author might have thought of.

Using SEO keywords and tags on my website has also increased the traffic. It is very important for site to be easily found not only by your readers but also by the search engines. The domain name should be logical. Mine is simple–www.theresachaze.com.

Using a nickname or one of your books, unless you intend to by more than one domain name, is simply making it more difficult for you to be found. It’s counter productive. My site and domain name are through Yahoo Geocities; it’s simple and cost effective. Although, I bought the domain name, viewers are redirected to a free site, which isn’t really free because I pay to have the ads removed. It’s a pet peeve of mine to visit a site and have to fight the pop ups. It looks unprofessional and really annoys people.

I placed ads in four national magazines, which targeted my niche market. When you are working with print, there is always a delayed benefits. In addition, if the ad isn’t a good quality, it will do more harm than good.

The first ad I placed didn’t get me much traction because the text neglected to mention where my books could be bought. I rewrote it for the last and it should get more attention. Ads should be simple and direct. Unless you are doing buy a half page or more, graphics should be limited. The smaller the ad, the less likely the graphic will retain its quality.

From Blank Page to Book Shelves–How to Successfully Create and Market Your Book explains not only more about marketing and promotion, but also has tips about writing and publishing. Currently, my ebook is available as an Amazon Kindle or on my website, www.theresachaze.com for $7.00. Copies bought on the author’s site are accompanied by a 345 page listing of over 2000 independent bookstores.

Phoenix Imprints Presents is now accepting art and literary submissions for its new anthology:

Ghosts In The Machine, edited by Aitch Jae Esse of Phoenix Imprints Presents, an original collection of short stories focused specifically on the supernatural as relates to technology, most particularly with the Internet/Computers but other areas of technology will certainly be considered.

Literary submissions should be less than 7000 words and, while authors are encouraged to ‘push the envelope’ with their submissions, excessive sexuality and violence are acceptable only to the degree that they serve the overall story. Successful submissions will be those stories that tell a genuinely scary, original tale with memorable characters and story arcs. If you have questions about submissions, policies, etc., please email the address below.

*Submission Deadline: June 1st, 2008
*Anticipated Publication Fourth Quarter, 2008, First Quarter 2009
*Submission Details: 1000-7000 words
*Authors’ Recompense: $20 per story accepted, publication credit and contributors’ copy

Artwork Sought: Original Cover Art as well as interior illustrations, recompense negotiated based upon submissions.

Authors may submit their literary artwork to the email address below. Please place the following in the subject line: “Ghosts In The Machine: Literary Submission”. Acceptable formats include MSWord (DOC) and Rich Text Format (RTF). Please be certain to include your contact information including Name, Address, Email Address, Telephone and any other relevant contact information.

Artists may submit their artistic submissions to the email address below. Please place the following in the subject line: “Ghosts In The Machine: Artist Submission”. Please make sure to include all photographs of work in TIFF, JPG or BMP formats. Other formats may be acceptable if arranged in advance. Please be certain to include your contact information including Name, Address, Email Address, Telephone and any other relevant contact information.

Contact Information: AitchJaeEsse@Hotmail.com

Fiction Scribe Disclaimer: I in no way take responsibility for the validity of any submission opportunities. It’s up to you to use your judgment when submitting your work anywhere.