As I mentioned on the main page the other day, I am planning to edit and publish sometime this year an anthology of GLBT-oriented science fiction to be released as an e-book in various formats and also as POD book in my Lulu store and maybe some other venues. The guidelines are basically the same as for the regular magazine (open to most any word-count though super-short stuff is less likely to score with me, and I'd like it to be science fiction or at least close to it without getting too far into out-and-out fantasy), but with this addition: stories should feature in some way characters that are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or in some other as-yet-to-be-imagined way "queer." The story does not necessarily need to
all about that topic, however--the queerness can certainly be incidental and not the main focus. Or it
can be all about it, so long as its entertaining. I really want to some amazing stuff that I cannot even imagine myself until I read it.
Also, I should say something about content since this "theme" will inevitably make a lot of people think first of gay sex. I have not yet turned away a story from the regular zine because its content was too "adult," and I won't in the case of this anthology either. I run a content advisory in the magazine and have never said that what I publish is aimed at kids. That being said, I am certainly not intending to publish an anthology of pure erotica or porn. I'll certainly consider some "NC-17" content, but it ought to be artful and stylish and make some kind of sense in the story's plot. So a writer shouldn't just dust off an old masturbation fantasy and send it here unless its been made integral to a real sf story.
Lastly, I really hope to see submissions that cover a range GLBTness...if that's a word. I can imagine getting a whole pile of male samesex stories and just one female one, and I hope that doesn't happen! Though I myself am a dude, I am ready to read some sapphic sf as well. I'd also like to see a range of backgrounds among the writers: straight writers who have something to create in this sub-genre are as welcome as GLBT ones.
TO SUBMIT: Follow instructions in regular zine guidelines over on the right-hand column, but specify that your submission is for the GLBT antho so it goes into the right stack. Reprints: I may be more interested in reprints for this than I usually am for the regular zine, since there may be some already-published stuff that fits this concept but hasn't seen the light of day lately. So I'll look at those as if they are regular submissions (no need to query first), but specify that it's a reprint and tell me where it previously appeared.
PAYMENT: Specifics to be determined, but it will involve some kind of royalty plan, and it should be at least decently better than the pitiful rate I pay for stories in the zine. But no one should really expect to make much off of this. I'll have better details up later on.
DEADLINE: To be announced. Certainly not before end of summer, say Labor Day, but I will update this later when I have made a decision on it.
