Bitten by the pre-apocalypse muse? Adam David is looking for essays, fictions, poetry, songs, komix, doodles, photographs, videos, for THURSDAY NEVER LOOKING BACK, an electronic anthology that seeks to gather, process, and perform various end-of-the-world scenarios. You can see more details here.

Philippine Genre Stories (PGS) Online has opened today to fiction submissions by Filipino writers, and will remain open until April 30, 2012. You can find the full details here.  Note that while PGS Online does publish stories in Filipino, I’ve confirmed with editor Kenneth Yu that the present call is only for stories in English. I think that I’ve mentioned before how PGS, in its original print, always-open-to-submissions incarnation, was instrumental in jump starting the writing careers of many Filipino authors, like myself, and I’m certain it will continue to do so in its shiny online edition. So, writers, submit and spread the word!

Dean Alfar and Kenneth Yu, the publishers (respectively) of the Philippine Speculative Fiction Anthology and Philippine Genre Stories Online, are teaming up for a new anthology series featuring speculative fiction for young adults. The first anthology will feature horror stories, and you can find the submission guidelines below, or here.

Editors Dean Francis Alfar (publisher of the Philippine Speculative Fiction anthologies) and Kenneth Yu (publisher of Philippine Genre Stories) announce an open call for short fiction submissions for HORROR: Fantastic Filipino Fiction for Young Adults.

The Fantastic Filipino Fiction for Young Adults is a new annual anthology series, with the first volume focusing on horror, and launching in mid-2012.

Submissions must be:

1. in the horror genre or contain strong horror elements

2. written with the Young Adult reader in mind (from 10 – 18 years old) and feature a young adult character (or characters)

3. cognizant of the themes and concerns of Young Adult fiction (coming of age, identity, belonging, a sense of wonder, a love for adventure, angst, concerns over school, challenges of youth, family issues, relationships to authority figures, sexuality, experimentation, peer pressure, bullying, among many others) – without being didactic and/or boring.

4. written in English

5. authored by Filipinos or those of Philippine ancestry

Submissions are preferred to be:

1. original and unpublished

2. no shorter than 1,000 words and no longer than 7,500

In the case of previously-published work—if accepted, the author will be expected to secure permission to reprint, if necessary, from the original publishing entity, and to provide relevant publication information.

Submission details:

1. No multiple or simultaneous submissions—i.e., submit only one story, and do not submit that story to any other market until you have received a letter of regret from us.

2. All submissions should be in Rich Text Format (saved under the file extension ‘.rtf’), and emailed to dean(at)kestrelddm(dot)com with the subject line ‘FFFH: title (word count)’, where ‘title’ is the title of your submission and ‘(word count)’ is the number of words the submission comes up to, rounded up to the nearest hundred (use the “tools” function of your word processor to find out.

3. Do not use fancy formatting.

4. Include a brief bio and publishing history (if applicable).

5. The deadline for submissions is midnight, Manila time, March 15, 2012. Letters of acceptance or regret will be sent out no later than one month after the deadline.

6. First-time authors are more than welcome to submit; good stories trump literary credentials any time.

Compensation will be Php500 for selected stories. We are still deciding whether to go digital or print (or even both). In the event that we publish a print version, each author will be provided with a contributor’s copy of the book. If the anthology is published in digital form, each author will be given a formatted e-copy of the anthology.

Thanks,

Dean Francis Alfar & Kenneth Yu

Editors

HORROR: Fantastic Filipino Fiction for Young Adults

Australia-based Filipino Jason Banico has announced a call for submissions,  seeking short fiction from Filipino authors for his “Dracoraptor” anthology.

Dracoraptor is a fictional dragon dinosaur and is featured in its own site at http://www.dracoraptor.com.

Submissions must be:

1. speculative fiction of any of the following genre: science fiction, cryptofiction, historical fiction, horror, and alternative history.

2. depicting the Dracoraptor realistically based on characteristics detailed on the Dracoraptor site. For instance, the creature must spit acid and only in self-defense, and does not breathe fire.

3. written in English

The following settings are encouraged:

1. prehistoric (ex. Clan of the Cave Bear)
2. ancient (Homeric epics)
3. Asian (Chinese / Japanese)
4. age of discovery
5. Victorian-era
6. colonial Philippines
7. modern (ex. King Kong)
8. near future

All submissions should be in Rich Text Format (without fancy formatting) and emailed to jason at banico dot com dot au, with the subject line “Dracoraptor submission”.

The deadline for submission is March 30, 2012.

There is no direct compensation for submission. Selected stories will be posted in the Dracoraptor.com site and released in an e-book anthology. Revenue share is offered to authors whose stories appear in the e-book.

Jason is also looking for people who may be interested in co-editing the anthology with him – send any interested queries to the address mentioned above.

Just go easy on the “Nooooo”s, okay?

[Image from Kakatakutan]

This year, everyone was treated to a special edition of RP612fic during the June 8 Blog Action Day to save Philippine corals, but don’t forget that the annual celebration of Independence Day through twitter fiction is still pushing through on June 12, and on to June 13 as well, because the 12th is a Sunday, and we all tweet more when there’s work ^_^.

For anyone lat to the party, here’s all you need to know:

• What is #RP612fic? It’s Filipino authors coming together on Twitter to create tweet-length stories (130 characters, because you need to leave space for the hashtag) and sending them out into the wild with the #RP612fic hashtag. When the event is over, I’ll collate all submissions into a single post here on the site.
  • What’s a Hashtag? It’s a word/code you put in your tweet after the “#”. It acts as a label of sorts and makes it easier for me to find all participating stories.
• When does this take place? At least once a year on Independence Day, but starting this year we also do it to participate in other events, such as a Blog Action Day. For Independence Day 2011, you can send out stories on the 12th and the 13th.
• What kind of stories should I submit? For Independence Day, I’d love to see alternative history stories, but it’s not like I’m going to tell you to delete your 130 character realist micro fiction opus.
• What if I’m not on Twitter and I want to participate? Just send me your tweet length stories via rocketkapre[at]gmail.com and I’ll try to tweet them or at least include them in my compilation.

Spread the word! For those who want to see the previous RP612fic stories, you can check out these links:

• RP612fic 2009
• RP612fic 2010
• RP612fic Corals and Reefs Edition

(Image of old school Philippine soldiers from Filipiniana.net)

Fresh from the launch of the sixth volume of the anthology, submissions are now open for volume seven of the Philippine Speculative Fiction anthology. You can read the guidelines over at the blog of Kate Aton-Osias, who will be co-editing the next volume with her husband, Alex Osias. The most important bit of data of course is the deadline: The deadline for submissions is midnight, Manila time, September 30, 2011

Get cracking! You know you want to be one of the names on the back of the book.

It’s that time of year once again (although it seems you’ll have a bit more time to prepare this year): the annual Philippine Speculative Fiction anthology is now open for submissions. This volume will be edited by Nikki Alfar and Kate Aton-Osias. Here’s the official call:

Editors Nikki Alfar and Kate Aton-Osias invite you to submit short fiction for consideration for Philippine Speculative Fiction volume 6.

Philippine Speculative Fiction is a yearly anthology series, which collects a wide range of stories that define, explore, and sometimes blur the boundaries of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all things in between. The anthology has been shortlisted for the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award, and multiple stories from each volume have been cited in roundups of the year’s best speculative fiction across the globe.

First-time authors are more than welcome to submit; good stories trump literary credentials any time.

Submissions must be:

1. speculative fiction—i.e., they must contain strong elements or sensibilities of science fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, alternate history, folklore, superheroes, and/or related ‘nonrealist’ genres and subgenres

2. written in English

3. authored by Filipinos or those of Philippine ancestry

Submissions are preferred to be:

1. original and unpublished

2. no shorter than 1,000 words and no longer than 7,500

3. written for an adult audience

In all cases, these preferences can be easily overturned by exceptionally well-written pieces. In the case of previously-published work—if accepted, the author will be expected to secure permission to reprint, if necessary, from the original publishing entity, and to provide relevant publication information.

Submission details:

1. No multiple or simultaneous submissions—i.e., submit only one story, and do not submit that story to any other market until you have received a letter of regret from us.

2. All submissions should be in Rich Text Format (saved under the file extension ‘.rtf’), and emailed to kate.osias@gmail.com, with the subject line ‘PSF6 submission’.

3. The deadline for submissions is midnight, Manila time, November 15, 2010. Letters of acceptance or regret will be sent out no later than one month after the deadline.

Editors’ notes:

1. Please don’t forget to indicate your real name in the submission email! If you want to write under a pseudonym, that’s fine, but this can be discussed upon story acceptance. Initially, we just need to know who we’re talking to.

2. If you’d like to write a cover letter with your brief bio and publishing history (if applicable), do feel free to introduce yourself—but not your story, please. If it needs to be explained, it’s probably not ready to be published.

3. We advise authors to avoid fancy formatting—this will just be a waste of your time and ours, since we will, eventually, standardize fonts and everything else to fit our established house style.

Compensation will be Php500 for selected stories. In previous years, we’ve provided contributor copies of the book, as well as small royalty shares, but we are strongly leaning toward shifting Philippine Speculative Fiction to digital format, so we’re shifting to outright financial payment as well.

Please help spread the word! We’d really appreciate it if you’d publish this invitation on your blog, e-group, etc.

Thanks,

Nikki Alfar & Kate Aton-Osias, co-editors

Dean Alfar, publisher

This coming Saturday is June 12, Independence Day here in the Philippines, an occasion well worth commemorating–and, for writers, perhaps commemorating in our own inimitable way. Last year, on my old blog “Bahay Talinhaga”, I invited people to celebrate independence day on Twitter by tweeting six word stories and tagging them with #RP612fic. Even on such short notice–I only had the bright idea a day before independence day–quite a few people chose to participate and we ended up with a hundred original micro stories, (some NSFW so ‘ware the link) give or take, which I personally found to be an excellent way to celebrate our independence.

So, as should be apparent by now, I’d like to do this again this year–and with more advance notice as well. For RP612Fic 2010, I’m doing away with the six word limit–any story which would fit a tweet with the #RP612fic tag will do, so 130 characters, regardless of how many words are included therein. Let’s start posting the stories on Friday, June 11, and I’ll wait until the afternoon of June 14 before putting all the tweets/stories together in a post. Aside from that time limit, there are no real rules, though obviously I’d love good spec fic micro stories about Filipinos/the Philippines–and I have a special love for alternative history stories at this time of year. (For instance, what if there had been perfect attendance at the House of Representatives when the Freedom of Information Bill was on the table last Friday?)

If you’re on Twitter, tag your stories with #RP612fic so I can compile them in a post. If you’re not on Twitter but would still like to participate, just shoot me an email before June 13 at rocketkapre[at] gmail.com and place “RP612fic” in the subject line and I’ll include these stories in the aggregation post.

So that’s it. I hope that all of you can participate and help spread the word. Looking forward to reading all your stories ^_^

(Image of old school Philippine soldiers from Filipiniana.net)

And we’re off! The reading period for Alternative Alamat opens today and will stay open until August 30, 2010. Guidelines can be found here.   I ask for your patience and forbearance, kind authors, should it take me a bit to reply to your submissions. For those still in need of ideas, never fear, there’s still quite a bit of time, and I’ll be posting a new aid, similar to the Myth List, on the site soon.

Good luck and write well everyone! Can’t wait to read your stories.