Call for Submissions: The Flesh Made Word: Erotic Tales About Writing

Call for Submissions: The Flesh Made Word: Erotic Tales About Writing
Edited by Bernie Mojzes

Deadline: March 1, 2013

In the age of communication – where words are cheap, easy, and disposable – it’s easy to forget the sheer physicality of the written word. The inscription, through will and intention, through the press and flow of pen and ink expressing what’s hidden within ourselves upon a surface that is transformed through the process: what is more intimate than that?

The Flesh Made Word is an erotic anthology about the act of writing, and of being written upon. Old typewriters, the tattooist’s pen, the press of fountain-pen nib to flesh. The sensuality of the words themselves, both the sound and the shape of them. The clack of typewriter keys and the shuffle-clank of the printing press. The intersection of the expression of the idea and the physicality of the body. The transformation or transcendence of the flesh through written language.

I am looking for strong, edgy stories that don’t exist merely as an excuse for a great sex scene. Send me stories that take me to surprising places, and stories that don’t flinch.

While this anthology is expected to be primarily comprised of Science Fiction & Fantasy, it is open to (almost) all genres, including Mystery, Adventure, Western, Mainstream and the ever-popular-though-always-misunderstood Slipstream.

More details:

Length: Up to 8000 words.

Response Time: 1 month. Please query if you do not receive an acknowledgement within 3 days.

How to submit: Send your stories in .doc or .rtf format to fmw-subs@kappamaki.com. Please don’t send in .docx format, and please use a reasonable font and follow something that looks reasonably like Standard Manuscript Format.

About the editor: Bernie Mojzes is a writer of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, with occasional deviations into mainstream fiction. His stories appeared in as divergent markets as Daily Science Fiction and Circlet Press’s Whispers in Darkness. He also co-edits the Journal of Unlikely Entomology. That’s probably a good place to look to get a feel for his editorial aesthetic.

Only email submissions are accepted. Submissions sent to other addresses/other editors at Circlet Press will not be considered. Standard manuscript formatting rules apply even though sending as an attachment (MS Word .doc or .rtf preferred). Please note that this means your name, address, and email contact must appear on the manuscript itself and not simply in your email message. (If you’re not sure what a standard short story submission format should look like, Google is your friend.)

No simultaneous submissions (that is, don’t also send your story elsewhere at the same time, and don’t send it to multiple Circlet editors, either), and no multiple submissions – wait to hear back on the first story before sending a second.

All stories must include explicit sexuality and erotic focus. Romantic content is welcome, but in a short story remember to keep the details on the action and its effects on the main character’s internal point of view. We favor a strong, singular narrative voice (no ‘head hopping’ or swapping between different character’s points of view within a scene). For more details on our editorial preferences, see the general submission guidelines on circlet.com. We highly recommend reading the guidelines, especially the “do not send” list, to increase your chances of sending us something we’ll love. Try to avoid cliches. Fresh and direct language is preferred to overly euphemistic. Sex-positive, please, no rape/nonconsensuality/necrophilia or other purposefully gross topics. We do not publish horror.

Originals only, no reprints. We purchase first rights for inclusion in the ebook anthology for $0.01/word up to $25, with the additional rights to a print edition later for an additional payment of the same amount if a print edition happens. Authors retain the rights to the individual stories; Circlet exercises rights to the anthology as a whole.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012 at 2:44 pm and is filed under News & Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.