The slush keeps coming in and variety has increased a bit. We have been getting stories in more locations and time period. However, we are still receiving a lot of 19 and 20th century stuff set in the United States and Europe (mainly England). Peeps, for the love of all that is holy, consider the many options outside this time/place setting.
The female protagonist issue persists. There are almost no stories involving women in the slush. I have no idea why this is. I’d think there would be plenty of interesting women to pick from to populate a tale, whether they be real historical figures (Wu Zetian, Agrippina the Younger, Cleopatra, Queen Sondok, etc.) or completely imaginary. Mind you, there are also not that many women in the slush. Correlation or not?
Most of the writers hail from the United States, but we’ve had some international writers starting to submit, including a story in French. I’d like to see more of this. Hopefully a recent post at the World SF blog about the anthology will bring more international eyeballs. Remember: we will read stories in English, French or Spanish.
The best advice I can give you, aside from choosing a setting that strays from Victorian/Edwardian, is to slap yourself if you’re starting to write a Lovecraft pastiche. Many a-decent story is hampered by a desire to throw in completely fake “ye olde” dialogue, or an attempt to mimic Lovecraft’s exact prose. The result is often stilted.
Also: just because it is historical it doesn’t mean we want an information dump. Some stories have arrived with no action happening until page five. Get us in the middle of the action and clues us into what is happening/where we are without resembling a Wikipedia entry.
We have bought a total of four stories so far. We are responding quickly to rejections. If you don’t hear from us within a week, it means you are being considered for the second pile.
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