Creeping Crawlers Looking for Submissions #seanocarolan.com #Writing #Submissions

Submissions open 1 March 2015. Full details below:

This will be a fiction anthology edited by Allen Ashley on behalf of Shadow Publishing.

Allen says:
I will be looking for new, previously unpublished stories with a word count of between 1000 and 6000 words on the theme “Creeping Crawlers”. Stories will be grounded in the Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror / Slipstream field. I am looking for complete, stand alone stories that engage in a literate, entertaining and interesting way with my theme.
I am not looking for novel excerpts, play scripts, poetry, illustrated work, Young Adult fiction or children’s stories. I am also not looking for stories that could be regarded as fan fiction, Shared World or which make use of copyrighted characters and settings. To be clear: You can write: “The monster appeared just as I sat down to watch ‘Doctor Who’.” You cannot write: “Inside the Dalek casing was a clawed, slithering monstrosity.”
By unpublished, I mean: not previously printed, podcast or made available on a website including the author’s own; not blogged, not available as an app, not broadcast on TV, film, radio or any other media.
Creeping Crawlers: Creatures that creep or crawl have a long tradition in the stories we tell, from (stretching it a bit) the Serpent in the Garden of Eden through Kafka’s human cockroach in “Metamorphosis” on to the giant spider in “The Incredible Shrinking Man” and the irradiated ants in “Them”. We have the visceral horror of Guy N. Smiths “Crabs” series or the more insidious psychological threat posed by the alien centipedes in the works of William Burroughs. What is this lingering fear of insects, arachnids, arthropods, crustaceans and those that slither? Is it a hangover from the survival battles in the savannah or does it go deeper and further back than that in our evolutionary heritage? Does the highly regulated ant society represent a worrying paradigm of a potential human future? Unchallenged, the locusts, the maggots, the worms, the flies, the aphids and the termites may consume and destroy all that we have and hold dear. In a subtler way, we think we are in control of the Earth but the insect class are the great survivors biding their time and, whilst they are playing the long game, perhaps they are also manipulating us for their own inscrutable purposes.
I am looking for well-constructed stories that explore and illuminate my theme. Intrigue me, thrill me, excite me and unsettle me. Most of all, impress me.

Although this anthology and, indeed, Shadow Publishing’s output has a horror bias, please note that I am not looking for the following: gore fests, torture porn, rape fantasies or anything that presents as deeply offensive to any decent-minded reader. I know you won’t send me anything like that but I mention it now to avoid any possible misunderstanding.

Email submissions only please, to Allen Ashley. Note, one submission only, per author. Please submit your story in a standard format as a Word or RTF document attachment. Use a sensible font such as Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica or Courier New; pitch size 12; double spacing; indicate scene breaks with one asterisk; use speech marks for speech; adopt a professional approach.
We are looking for between 15 and 20 stories in total.

Submission window opens 1 March 2015 and closes 31 May 2015 or when the book is full. Please keep an eye on the website and the Shadow Publishing Newsletter for updates.

All authors will be personally informed of the success or otherwise of their stories by the end of July 2015.

We are planning to publish the book during Autumn 2015 with a launch event at BFS Fantasy Con in Nottingham – October 2015.
Authors will receive one free copy of the book and a discounted rate of purchase for extra copies. Authors will receive a pro rata rate of royalties for any additional sales that exceed our publishing costs. This will be indicated in our contract to you.
The independent press is the lifeblood of the genre short story form in the UK. Thank you for your support.

Any queries will be happily answered by Allen on creepingcrawlers@outlook.com