The Newsletter of
The Council for the Literature of the Fantastic
Volume 1, Number 3 (February 1996)
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• THE ROSWELL LITERARY REVIEW: News, Sept., 1996-- RLR is seeking submissions for its bi-monthly publication. The Review publishes high-quality, short fiction of any genre up to 5000 words, and short-short fiction up to 2000 words. First-person essays and poetry are also accepted. For poetry, there is no line limit. No concrete or "found" poetry, and no Japanese forms, please. The Review is especially interested in politics--local, state, national, or international; social issues, and literature. Avoid over-done issues.

  Payment: $2 or more per poem. 1/4 cent to 4 cents per word for prose. Plus copy. Pledge: The editorial staff will work with promising writers and poets, and will comment on and critique every rejected manuscript accompanied with an SASE. No generic rejections, ever!

  Contact:
  

  The Roswell Literary Review
  

  Harvey Stanbrough, Editor/Publisher
  

  P.O. Box 2412
  

  Roswell NM 88202-2412
  

  (505) 623-0180

• PIRATE WRITINGS: --Edward J. McFadden, P.O. Box 329, Brightwaters, NY 11718-0329. $5/$15. SF/F/DF/P. 250-8k words. Cutting edge, radical, PG-13, particularly looking for mysteries, doesn't like cat stories. Include cover letter w/credits, e- mail (queries only): pwpubl@aol.com. 1-5 cents/word on pub.

• TALEBONES: -- Mr. Patrick J. Swenson, Fairwood Press, 10531 SE 250th Pl. #104, Kent, WA 98031. $4.50/$16. SF/F/DF. To 5k words. Stories with a "dark" slant, but not straight horror, wants psychological, experimental, black humor, fiction that blurs the boundary between darkness and SF/F, stories must have an element of supernatural or fantasy, doesn't like cat stories. Include cover ltr, e-mail subs to: Talebones@aol.com. 1 cent/word on pub.

  Talebones is a quarterly magazine of dark science fiction and dark fantasy, featuring professional as well as newer writers. Talebones is fiction with a dark slant, stories and poems with punch -- sometimes experimental or psychological, sometimes laced with black humor.

  Payment: 1 cent a word. Poetry payment: 1 cent a word plus 5 cents a line, minimum of $5, max of $10. Photo/art: $25 cover, $10-15 interior. Also looking for nonfiction: articles on the state of speculative fiction.

  You may submit to Talebones the usual way: typed, double-spaced with SASE, or you may send stories on disk, saved twice, once as regular file, once as text file. Include a label and enough postage to return the disk to you in the same disk mailer. You may also submit via email at: Talebones@aol.com . Always include a cover letter. Magazine prices: $4.50/single, $16.00/year.

• TERRA INCOGNITA: -- Mr. Jan Berrien Berends, 52 Windermere Ave #3, Lansdowne, PA 19050-1812. $5/$15. SF to 15k words. Earth-centered stories (see below). E-mail (for guidelines only): TerrIncog@aol.com. 1-2 cents/word + 1 yr subscription. 12/19/24

  Terra Incognita, a full-sized, quarterly SF magazine, publishes a broad range of SF stories and non-fiction articles and includes an extensive section of reviews of written SF works, all united by a common theme: the earth, both today and in the future.

  Fiction

  1. Write a science-fiction short story--(it can be up to 15,000 words in length--and not a word longer; we will not consider poetry): (a). using beautiful prose (your writing must be lucid, literate, graceful, nuanced, and not entirely devoid of poetry); (b). with vivid characters (we don't care if all the humans are dead--but there must be characters!); (c). a real protagonist (the protagonist--who need not be the viewpoint character--must try to accomplish something); (d). a plot that resolves (do not end the story where it actually begins); (e). and an appropriate, fully realized setting--(that is, present or future earth), (f). which addresses the magazine's theme.
  2. Make sure your story is appropriate:(here's some of the stuff we like: cybertechnology, apocalypse and post-apocalypse settings, sociological extrapolations and alternative social systems, gender and race issues, biotechnology, information technology, human evolution, alien visitors, ecological disasters or triumphs, oceanography and the settlement of the ocean, non-Western cultures in the future, the natural and applied sciences; just make it fit our theme; we are not interested in sword & sorcery, high fantasy, splatter-horror, fantasy-based horror, purely psychological horror, alternative history, formula SF, space opera; if it's not earth-based then it's not for us)
  3. Send it to us ( we accept neither electronic nor simultaneous submissions)
  • using proper manuscript format
  • with a self-addressed, stamped envelope (non-disposable manuscripts require a big enough envelope and adequate postage; disposable manuscripts [which we do recycle] require a #10 SASE for our response; please affix the postage to the return envelope; if you live outside the US, please enclose appropriate IRCs)
  • and a cover letter, if you wish. (We like to hear about our writers, but you don't need to write a cover letter if you don't want to; please! no form letters; and, above all, do not give a synopsis of your story in your cover letter.)
  4. Wait six weeks or less (probably a lot less; generally, we read and respond to all submissions on the very day they are received; if you haven't heard from us within six weeks, either the manuscript got lost in the mail or you didn't include an SASE)
  5. Look in your mailbox. (if your story grabbed us and dragged us right through to the end, or dazzled us, or moved us deeply, or even merely impressed us, you just might find an acceptance; otherwise, you'll find your manuscript [if you asked for it back] and a letter explaining why we didn't buy it--we always comment on rejected manuscripts)

ANTHOLOGIES:

• GOING POSTAL -- Mr. Gerard Houarner, Pirate Writings, c/o Gerard Houarner, P.O. Box 195, Bronx, NY 10461. SF/F/DF/H [Science fiction, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Horror]. Fiction about extreme emotional reactions caused by the pressures of daily living, especially looking for satiric/ironic/absurd, not just descriptions of killing sprees, looking for sympathetic characters reacting to the unreasonable/unjust demands of a vast, impersonal world in unique but equally vast, extreme, emotional and destructive ways.
  Story need not contain a postal worker. Not looking for serial killers, gothic/supernatural icons performing their usual damage, simple stories about personal revenge, or stories in odd dialect. Send SASE for full GLs.

  READING: 10/1/96 to 4/1/97. LENGTH: 1,500-6k words. PAYS: _-3 cents/word.