The PORTALS, TEMPORALLY DEACTIVATED, and ALTERNATE PEACE anthology kickstarter has hit its goal! If you have a story idea that fits one of the anthology themes, write it up, revise it, polish it, and send it in for consideration. I've posted the guidelines below.

The PORTALS, TEMPORALLY DEACTIVATED, and ALTERNATE PEACE Submission Guidelines

Zombies Need Brains LLC is accepting submissions to its three science fiction and fantasy anthologies PORTALS, TEMPORALLY DEACTIVATED, and ALTERNATE PEACE. Stories must be submitted in electronic form as an attachment with the title of the story as the file name in .doc or .docx format. The header of the email should include the name of the anthology the submission is for along with the title of the submission (for example: WERE-: WereJellyfish Gone Wild!). The content of the email should also include which anthology the manuscript is intended for. Please send multiple manuscripts in separate emails; you may submit to any or all of the anthologies as many times as you wish. Manuscripts should be in manuscript format, meaning double-spaced, 12pt font, standard margins on top, bottom and sides, and pages numbered. Please use Times New Roman font. The first page should include the Title of the story, Author’s name, address, and email, and Pseudonym if different from the author’s real name. Italics and bold should be in italics and bold.

Stories for this anthology must be original (no reprints or previously published material), no more than 7,500 words in length, and must satisfy the theme of the anthology.

PORTALS is to feature science fiction or fantasy stories that contain a portal opening up between two different worlds and the consequences that come from that portal. We are attempting to fill half of the anthology with science fiction stories and half with fantasy stories. Stories featuring more interesting settings and twists on the typical portals will receive more attention than those that use standard tropes. In other words, we don’t want to see 100 stories dealing with a door in the back of the wardrobe leading to a fantasy world of gnomes, dwarves, and elves. If we do, it’s likely that only one, at most, would be selected for the anthology. We do NOT want to see time portals, connecting one time to another; however, it can be a portal from our reality to an alternate reality. We are interested in all kinds of portals: doors at the back of wardrobes, stone archways in the middle of the forest, wormholes, cracks in reality, etc. Be creative, choose something different, and use it in an unusual and unexpected way. We are looking for a range of tones, from humorous all the way up to dark.

TEMPORALLY DEACTIVATED is to feature stories where the author explores what the phrase “temporally deactivated” could mean with regards to a person, place, or thing. Stories featuring more interesting takes on the twisting of time and how it is integrated into the story will receive more attention than those with more typical twisted time stories. We do NOT want to see stories where “temporal deactivation” means simply death. So be creative and use time in an unusual and unexpected way. We are looking for a range of tones, from humorous all the way up to dark.

ALTERNATE PEACE is to feature alternate history stories where the divergence from our timeline comes from some kind of peaceful change to our past. It must explore the consequences of this divergence, not simply introduce the divergence. Stories featuring more interesting historical settings and twists on the consequences of the peaceful divergence from our timeline will receive more attention than those with more standard changes to the course of history. So be creative and come up with an unusual and unexpected break from the timeline. Please note that while the divergence in the timeline must be from some peaceful change, that change CAN lead to violence; in other words, you are allowed to have violence in the story, it just can’t be what’s initiating the alternate history. We are looking for a range of tones, from humorous all the way up to dark.



Here are some example stories for ALTERNATE PEACE--stories where the divergence from the timeline comes from a peaceful change:

Stephen Baxter: The Twelfth Album (Interzone 13, Hartwell’s Best Science Fiction of the Year 4) Michael F. Flynn: Quaetiones Super Caelo et Mundo (Analog, 7/07)

Janet Kagan: Love Our Lockwood (Alternate Presidents) John Kessel: The Franchise (Pure Product, Fields of Fantasies) Mary Robinette Kowal: The Lady Astronaut series (Tor Books)

Ian R. MacLeod: Snodgrass (Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction 10, Past Magic) Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Recovering Apollo 8 (Asimov’s, 2/7, Recovering Apollo 8) Howard Waldrop: Heart of Whitenesse (Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction 15, Heart of Whitenesse)

DEADLINE and TIMELINE:

The deadline for submissions is December 31st, 2018. Decisions on stories should be completed by the end of February 2019. Please send submissions to contact@zombiesneedbrains.com. You will receive a receipt email within a few days of receiving the submission and having it filed for consideration. Notices about decisions on the stories will be sent out no later than the end of March 2019.

If your story is selected for use in the anthology, you should expect a revision letter by the end of April 2019. Revisions and the final draft of the story will be expected no later than the end of May 2019. These dates may change due to the editors’ work schedules. Zombies Need Brains LLC is seeking exclusive world anthology rights (including electronic rights) in all languages for the duration of one year after publication/release of the anthology, non-exclusive world anthology rights (including electronic rights) in all languages after that. Your story cannot appear elsewhere during that first year. Pay rate will be an advance of a minimum of 6 cents per word. The anthology will be published as an ebook and an exclusive mass market paperback edition, distributed to the Kickstarter backers. The book would be available after that to the general public in ebook and trade paperback formats. Advances would be immediately earned out by the success of the Kickstarter. Royalties on additional sales beyond the Kickstarter will be 25% of ebook cover price and 10% of trade paperback cover price, both split evenly (not by word count) between the authors in and editors of the anthology.