Dead North: Update 1

I guess people (in Canada and all over the world) love zombies because I’ve had quite a few submissions. Here’s some info about the slush pile:

• No historical stories. No stories set in the future. All the settings are contemporary.
• A number of parodies/funny stories that fall flat. Comedy is a hard sell and you’d be surprised how many people are doing “brain-dead” politicians.
• Everyone is Caucasian. In urban centres like Vancouver and Toronto this would be extremely odd. Not to mention the number of immigrants we have, or our Aboriginal peoples ( First Nations, Inuit and Métis).
• Lots of stories where someone ends up being eaten. Not such an original ending.
• Almost all Romero/infection type zombies. I don’t want this to be a pandemic anthology. Surely someone can look beyond the Night of the Living dead movies?
• Not enough guts. I don’t mean body parts, I mean a lot of third person POV “safe” stories of someone surviving in an infected zombie world. Get a bit wild, people.
• Genre-narrow. No sci-fi, no sword-and-sorcery, no steampunk, no alternate histories, no urban fantasy, etc.

Although most people are attempting to follow the guidelines I have also received:

• An erotic story that had little to nothing to do with zombies. This is not your chance to insert “zombie” in the title and call it a day.
• Stories that were obviously set in another place and someone just substituted “Vancouver” for “Los Angeles.” I’m going to notice. Hell, I live here.
• Stories that are not stories. I do not want screenplays, poems, novels or memoirs. Scratch that. If it’s a zombie memoir, lets talk.
• Stories without cover letters. Add a cover letter! At the very least you should be indicating the word count, story title and your name.

That’s it for this update. I’ll be back next month with more news about the slush. I leave you with a video from Godsmack: