10 Reasons To Cross The Moat - Guidelines
We're looking for [at least] ten stories that are inspired by the title of the anthology. Imagine, if you will, a moat. Usually a moat surrounds a castle or other large dwelling, and it can also encircle a small town, village, even a city; but we will leave the specifics up to you--after all, it's your story to write. There is, however, one requirement: you must tell a story in which there is a reason to cross this moat.
Other helpful hints:
1. The moat may be crossed in either direction. It's up to you to decide in which direction, and why to cross it, and tell that story.
2. One need not necessarily use a drawbridge to cross the moat. There may be other ways to cross it, and there may be reasons why your character[s] would want to pass or sneak into--or out of--the castle or dwelling.
About the editorial staff:
10 Reasons To Cross The Moat is edited by Katie Hartlove & Sylvan Bree Baker. Ms Hartlove is a veteran writer with editorial experience, most recently as co-editor of the award-nominated Potter's Field 4, also published by [ahem] us. Ms Baker is an experienced writer whose stories and travelogues have appeared in Beyond Centauri, and who is currently involved in a writing curriculum at Georgia Southern University.
What we are looking for:
Stories:
10 Reasons To Cross The Moat wants ten original fantasy and science fiction short stories in the word-count range of 2,000 to 9,000 words. The stories are to be inspired in some way by the title of the anthology. Simple. And we'll pay $20.00 per story.
Helpful hints:
1. Character development and plot are musts. The reader needs to experience the events of the story vicariously through the writing, the protagonist, or other major character. The plot takes the protagonist from point A to point B--the plot is, if you will, the reason the story takes place. Oh, and our editors are enamored of subplots and layering, so be creative. But write lucidly.
2. Stories may have happy or sad endings, but the ending must be consistent with the scenarios you have established in the story. We don't mind twists--love them, in fact--but even the unexpected has foreshadowing, or a clue that it might occur. Look at it this way: a twist at the end is one the reader can look at and say, oh, right, I see now how that came about. [Read almost any short story by O. Henry, and you'll see this type of "twist" demonstrated perfectly].
3. Stories in which the protagonist awakens and realizes it was all a dream should be put back to sleep.
4. Alternate or parallel universe stories might be worth trying. So would the concept of moat as metaphor.
Poems:
10 Reasons To Cross The Moat will consider original poetry, but we are only going to accept a maximum of five poems. Poem length should be less than 100 lines. We'll pay $5.00 per poem, but they must be really, really, really, really, really good--that's $1.00 per "really."
Art:
10 Reasons To Cross The Moat is not considering art.
How to submit your work:
The submissions and query address for 10 Reasons To Cross The Moat is tocrossthemoat@yahoo.com.
Send stories as rtf or Word doc attachments. Send only one story at a time.
Send poems in the body of the e-mail or as rtf or Word doc attachments. Send no more than three poems at a time.
How the process works:
For stories we decline, the response time will be 1-2 months. Other stories will be held over for further consideration, and you will be notified of this holdover status, also within 1-2 months. As we are opening to submissions on 1 December 2011, we hope to start the final evaluation process around 1 April or 1 May 2012. From that point, we hope to make final decisions by 1 July at the latest, which means a probable publication date of 1 September 2012, well before the Maya calendar expires.
If you have questions, please query.