Call for Submissions: Guns and Romances

Cool stuff happens when Carrie and I put our heads together. One of us might have a wisp of an idea then the other encourages her. And it's kinda like an authorly game of ideas tennis that steadily gets completely out of hand.

That's how we started writing together, and ended up with projects like Just My Blood Type and Blood and Fire, with our #3 currently on its way (not quite like being pregnant but let's leave those analogies for now, okay?)

Of course we also love making work for ourselves (but it's fun) and this idea was simply too filled with awesomesauce for us to ignore it. I'm sharing the editor's mantel with Carrie to bring out an anthology (or two) themed along the lines of Guns and Romances. The submission guidelines are here.

Essentially, give us two characters interacting, flavoured with guns and music, and you'll have us by the short and curlies. Can be noir, SF, werewolves, vampires, weird... Doesn't matter. You gotta blend those three elements.

As for what we *don't* want to see, Carrie says: "Submissions that do not have the three requested elements: guns, music and not necessarily romance, but some sort of interaction to excite the reader. This is the most important thing I look for first. It's what I'm asking for. Give it to me. Very poorly polished work, as in first-draft quality. I need to be able to read the submission without stumbling over a million typos. All-out pornography for no particular reason. Needless violence intended to shock me, because it's not going to."

I'll echo that but add that I don't want to see thinly veiled fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off. If you absolutely *must* give us zombies, please find some way to put your stamp of individuality on it. Ditto for the vampires, angels and [insert currently trending supernatural entity here].

As for what we WANT to see, Carrie adds: "I love short stories. I adore being given the opportunity to read these little beauties and possibly include them in this anthology. I know what I'm looking for. Now I'm just waiting for the stories that have it."

My thoughts? Give me something that's going to excite me. A hint, I adore the hell out of Neil Gaiman's Sandman universe. Storm Constantine is another of my literary idols, and I have a soft, very rotten spot for vintage Poppy Z Brite. I love dark fantasy that does the unexpected, like Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire series or evil authors like GRRM who break my heart. I love stories that evoke the senses and subvert my loyalties. Make me laugh with twisted, snarky black humour and I will adore you as well. Extra Nerine points if you can mash together two contradictory ideas and somehow give the hybrid beast wings.