Updates. Again. On Everythin.
Becoming a full-time freelancer is way, way harder than it looks. If you already think it's hard and haven't tried to do it, let me assure you that it's at least three times as difficult as you probably think it is. I've honestly been pulling far more 16-18 hour days since December than I've done at any other time in my life--yes, even when I worked in the theatre on huge projects such as the 2005 Humana Festival and the Sundance Play Lab. Add to this health issues that kept coming one after another (broken teeth, stomach flu, adrenal exhaustion, and plain old days when I was too exhausted from overwork to do anything but sleep), and I'm very behind on several anthology projects. But as you'll see that's changing!
I am truly sorry about this, to the point that I'm honestly dreading making this post. I don't want to make excuses, but I really have had almost no time off since getting fired in November, and I'm still the sole earner of our household. My partner's Tarot and life coaching business has not brought in any money yet, and the part-time job that hired her in May decided to un-hire her for reasons that were so flimsy and convoluted they basically came down to "because we can, peasant." I really, truly did try my best not to let my employment situation and my household's finances interfere with my anthology work. Unfortunately, neither my partner nor I expected that she would be out of work entirely for what will be a year in less than one month, or that I would have to make a freelance business appear out of thin air to keep us treading water--all while managing my health which weeks of little sleep and stress kicked down from "middling as usual" to "abysmal."
The good news, though, is that I've done well enough for the past few months that I can pretty much devote June and July to un-fucking everything.
Which means it's time for another update.
Steam-Powered III
I don't know if Steam-Powered III will be released in December of this year or in January of 2013. I was honestly expecting more submissions to come in than have already, and my workload up to the end of May was so heavy that I simply didn't have the spoons to start shaking the trees for more people when things didn't pick up around mid-April. So, after speaking to my publisher, we've decided to extend the submissions deadline from June 15 to September 1, giving you all two and a half more months. So far, I have only accepted five stories (with a sixth looking likely), which means I'm looking for 7-8 more. I'm reposting the submission guidelines here for your convenience.
Steam-Powered 3: Further Lesbian Steampunk Stories is an anthology of steampunk stories that feature lesbian-identified protagonist and which strives to be inclusive of underrepresented (and often misrepresented!) identities in steampunk and lesbian fiction.
Although “steampunk” is a fairly broad genre, we are interested in the following:
* Stories set in the past and present as we know them, or in an alternate past or present, as well as a future in which 19th Century technology dominates.
* Stories that involve 19th Century steam technology or retro-future technology that does not involve steam. For example, if your story is set in the Gobi Desert, the lack of water may make this technology look different than it would in a society that has enough water for steam technology to be feasible. For a good idea of what I mean here, please read this essay by Steam-Powered 1 contributor Amal El-Mohtar: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/10/towards-a-steampunk-without-steam.
* Stories that explore and critique 19th and early 20th Century notions of colonialism, empire, race, sex and sexuality.
* The editor also has a strong preference for stories set outside Victorian England and the United States, stories that feature women of color protagonists, stories that feature protagonists from the lower or working class, stories with disabled protagonists (including those with cognitive disabilities and mental illnesses), and stories whose protagonists are not Christian. This is not to say that more ‘typical’ steampunk stories are unwelcome, just that they will be a harder sell.
* While Torquere Press publishes several romance and erotica titles, stories need not have romantic or erotic elements.
We are not interested in the following:
* Stories that exoticize, misrepresent or demonize lesbians, people of color, people with disabilities, or any culture or religion. (look up “cultural appropriation” for an idea of what we mean here).
* Stories with anti-lesbian clichés (such as the lesbian who would really enjoy heterosexual sex, if she met the right man)
* Stories with villains whose sole motivation for being bad is a mental illness or “being crazy.”
* Poetry
* Fan fiction (stories featuring characters that are not copyrighted to the author)
As Steam-Powered is entering its third incarnation, we've seen a lot of stories set in a lot of places. However, some countries and regions have never appeared at all. Thus, I am particularly keen on seeing stories set in the following countries/regions/cultures.
1) Eastern and Central Europe. Seriously. We've had all of one submission ever set here.
2) Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, or Scandinavia. (I will seriously love you forever if you send me a story set in Italy--though by saying this I'm aware I may have just opened the floodgates lol)
3) Southern and Central Africa. Though I always want more stories about this continent!
4) Australia
5) Russia
6) Mexico
7) Canada
8) Anywhere in South America. I have one acceptance for SP3 set here, but I'd love more.
Of course, all regions are fine--specifically if they're not England--so please don't think I'm going to bounce your story if it isn't set in any of these places. I'm simply, again, offering up a few that I've seen little or nothing from and would like to see represented.
Submission Period: March 15 – June 15 September 1.
Word Count: 3,000 – 10,000 words (though shorter stories may be considered). **PLEASE query with your story idea first to save both you and the editor time.
Payment: $35 per story.
If your query is accepted, submit stories in .rtf or .doc format to JoSelle Vanderhooft at upstart.crow@gmail.com. Please title your submissions as [Author's Last Name]: Steam-Powered III Submission, and use standard manuscript format that includes your full name (and pen name if applicable), address, phone number and email.
Femmes Fatales
Finally, I'm getting through these edits, and I'm emailing everyone involved in this anthology this week. I'm sorry this has taken so long. I have honestly never experienced so many major illnesses and major upheavals while putting together a single project.
Wiscon Chronicles 7
Knowing that June and July would be financially stable and a time for me to devote myself almost completely to anthology work, I said yes to editing Volume 7 of the Wiscon Chronicles. This is something I've been talking to Aqueduct Press about for over a year now, and I'm super excited to have this opportunity! I'll post a link to guidelines as soon as they go up, which should be today or tomorrow.
Here's to the rest of 2012 not exploding. :) And as always, feel free to email me at upstart.crow @ gmail with any questions (and hopefully queries!). If you've been waiting on a reply for a while now, please nudge me. I think I've caught up with everyone I was not caught up with, but I'm probably missing a few people. That's always the way these things work.
I am truly sorry about this, to the point that I'm honestly dreading making this post. I don't want to make excuses, but I really have had almost no time off since getting fired in November, and I'm still the sole earner of our household. My partner's Tarot and life coaching business has not brought in any money yet, and the part-time job that hired her in May decided to un-hire her for reasons that were so flimsy and convoluted they basically came down to "because we can, peasant." I really, truly did try my best not to let my employment situation and my household's finances interfere with my anthology work. Unfortunately, neither my partner nor I expected that she would be out of work entirely for what will be a year in less than one month, or that I would have to make a freelance business appear out of thin air to keep us treading water--all while managing my health which weeks of little sleep and stress kicked down from "middling as usual" to "abysmal."
The good news, though, is that I've done well enough for the past few months that I can pretty much devote June and July to un-fucking everything.
Which means it's time for another update.
Steam-Powered III
I don't know if Steam-Powered III will be released in December of this year or in January of 2013. I was honestly expecting more submissions to come in than have already, and my workload up to the end of May was so heavy that I simply didn't have the spoons to start shaking the trees for more people when things didn't pick up around mid-April. So, after speaking to my publisher, we've decided to extend the submissions deadline from June 15 to September 1, giving you all two and a half more months. So far, I have only accepted five stories (with a sixth looking likely), which means I'm looking for 7-8 more. I'm reposting the submission guidelines here for your convenience.
Steam-Powered 3: Further Lesbian Steampunk Stories is an anthology of steampunk stories that feature lesbian-identified protagonist and which strives to be inclusive of underrepresented (and often misrepresented!) identities in steampunk and lesbian fiction.
Although “steampunk” is a fairly broad genre, we are interested in the following:
* Stories set in the past and present as we know them, or in an alternate past or present, as well as a future in which 19th Century technology dominates.
* Stories that involve 19th Century steam technology or retro-future technology that does not involve steam. For example, if your story is set in the Gobi Desert, the lack of water may make this technology look different than it would in a society that has enough water for steam technology to be feasible. For a good idea of what I mean here, please read this essay by Steam-Powered 1 contributor Amal El-Mohtar: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/10/towards-a-steampunk-without-steam.
* Stories that explore and critique 19th and early 20th Century notions of colonialism, empire, race, sex and sexuality.
* The editor also has a strong preference for stories set outside Victorian England and the United States, stories that feature women of color protagonists, stories that feature protagonists from the lower or working class, stories with disabled protagonists (including those with cognitive disabilities and mental illnesses), and stories whose protagonists are not Christian. This is not to say that more ‘typical’ steampunk stories are unwelcome, just that they will be a harder sell.
* While Torquere Press publishes several romance and erotica titles, stories need not have romantic or erotic elements.
We are not interested in the following:
* Stories that exoticize, misrepresent or demonize lesbians, people of color, people with disabilities, or any culture or religion. (look up “cultural appropriation” for an idea of what we mean here).
* Stories with anti-lesbian clichés (such as the lesbian who would really enjoy heterosexual sex, if she met the right man)
* Stories with villains whose sole motivation for being bad is a mental illness or “being crazy.”
* Poetry
* Fan fiction (stories featuring characters that are not copyrighted to the author)
As Steam-Powered is entering its third incarnation, we've seen a lot of stories set in a lot of places. However, some countries and regions have never appeared at all. Thus, I am particularly keen on seeing stories set in the following countries/regions/cultures.
1) Eastern and Central Europe. Seriously. We've had all of one submission ever set here.
2) Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, or Scandinavia. (I will seriously love you forever if you send me a story set in Italy--though by saying this I'm aware I may have just opened the floodgates lol)
3) Southern and Central Africa. Though I always want more stories about this continent!
4) Australia
5) Russia
6) Mexico
7) Canada
8) Anywhere in South America. I have one acceptance for SP3 set here, but I'd love more.
Of course, all regions are fine--specifically if they're not England--so please don't think I'm going to bounce your story if it isn't set in any of these places. I'm simply, again, offering up a few that I've seen little or nothing from and would like to see represented.
Submission Period: March 15 – June 15 September 1.
Word Count: 3,000 – 10,000 words (though shorter stories may be considered). **PLEASE query with your story idea first to save both you and the editor time.
Payment: $35 per story.
If your query is accepted, submit stories in .rtf or .doc format to JoSelle Vanderhooft at upstart.crow@gmail.com. Please title your submissions as [Author's Last Name]: Steam-Powered III Submission, and use standard manuscript format that includes your full name (and pen name if applicable), address, phone number and email.
Femmes Fatales
Finally, I'm getting through these edits, and I'm emailing everyone involved in this anthology this week. I'm sorry this has taken so long. I have honestly never experienced so many major illnesses and major upheavals while putting together a single project.
Wiscon Chronicles 7
Knowing that June and July would be financially stable and a time for me to devote myself almost completely to anthology work, I said yes to editing Volume 7 of the Wiscon Chronicles. This is something I've been talking to Aqueduct Press about for over a year now, and I'm super excited to have this opportunity! I'll post a link to guidelines as soon as they go up, which should be today or tomorrow.
Here's to the rest of 2012 not exploding. :) And as always, feel free to email me at upstart.crow @ gmail with any questions (and hopefully queries!). If you've been waiting on a reply for a while now, please nudge me. I think I've caught up with everyone I was not caught up with, but I'm probably missing a few people. That's always the way these things work.
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