In Brief:Allen Ashley will be editing a collection of stories loosely themed around “Catastrophes, Disasters, Post-Apocalyptic Fiction”. Allen is looking for original, unpublished stories which deal in a modern manner with these classic Science Fiction and Social Horror based themes.Rights and Other Technical DetailsWe are looking only for original material - No reprints. We are seeking to acquire First British and First North American Rights for your story with a six month moratorium subsequent to publication. At the current exchange rate we are offering 3p / 6c a word up to a maximum payment of £100 / $200 per story. We expect to only publish one story per author. The book will be split 50:50 between solicited works and open submissions. The submission period is scheduled to open on 1st July 2008.How do I submit?The information in this section applies only to "open" / "unsolicited" submissions. It does Not apply to invited authors.Please note: To enable authors to fully develop their core catastrophe idea and their characters’ reaction and response to the disaster, we are generally seeking stories in the range of 6000 to 12000 words. We will consider shorter material but we are extremely unlikely to take a story longer than 12000 words long.Please note: Before submitting – before completing – your opus, you should email a 500-750 summary to Allen at:editorcatastrophia@hotmail.co.ukIf we like your idea or approach, Allen will then contact you with a request to see the whole manuscript.Allen will NOT be receptive to submissions without prior email contact and agreement on the synopsis. Your synopsis does not have to include every plot twist but should detail the specific catastrophe/disaster/problem and the setting (e.g. downtown LA, the London Underground, beginning in Madagascar and spreading across the world…).Stories should be in English and in a legible typeface (Times New Roman, Arial, Courier New). Stories will be requested as an email attachment compatible with Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format.What do we mean by catastrophes?In short, some event that rapidly changes the world social order, threatens the survival of Humankind or planet Earth, reduces people to a state of mere hand to mouth existence, puts the clock of progress back a couple of thousand years almost overnight, takes our attention off the exploits of celebrities, footballers and politicians and instead focuses it on keeping ourselves and our loved ones alive until sundown… you get the picture. To give a further flavour of what we want, here is a quote from Allen Ashley’s story “The Overwhelm” (Catastrophe = World is engulfed by fog): “Truly it didn’t take much for the veneer of civilisation to be stripped away.”We are taking a broad view of what constitutes a catastrophe / disaster / apocalypse. Please note, however, that we do not view catastrophe stories as an excuse for disgruntled authors to indulge in a pointless orgy of gratuitous rape and violence fantasies.A Brief History of Catastrophes:These sorts of tales have a long and prominent history within the genre and are amongst the first titles that spring to mind when listing SF classics. Discounting Biblical, mythical and similar precedents, this sub-genre probably commenced with:“The War of the Worlds” by H. G. Wells (Invading Martians destroy Britain) and M. P. Shiel’s “The Purple Cloud” (Polar toxins kill everybody bar protagonist).Brian Aldiss famously labelled many of these stories as “cosy catastrophes” but that certainly hasn’t got in the way of our enjoyment. Your editor grew up on these stories and with “Catastrophia” expects to reinvigorate the genre for the twenty-first century. Indeed, recent films such as “The Day After Tomorrow” (environmental disaster), “Deep Impact” (comet strikes Earth) and a re-make of “The War of the Worlds” suggests the desire is there to be faced with the apocalyptic all over again.Further Information and InspirationWant to get the feel for the nature of the catastrophe before writing and submitting?Here’s an “off the top of my head” list of catastrophe stories to add to those already mentioned:John Wyndham – “The Day of the Triffids” (Blindness and Killer Plants);John Wyndham – “The Kraken Wakes” (Marauding sea monsters);John Christopher – “Death of Grass” (AKA “No Blade of Grass”) (All grass / wheat / rice crops fail);J. G. Ballard – “The Drowned World”, “The Drought’, “The Crystal World”, “The Wind From Nowhere” – early quartet of psychological / environmental disaster novels from the master;Brian Aldiss – “Greybeard” (No children are born);Edmund Cooper – “All Fool’s Day” and Richard Matheson – “I Am Legend” (Benchmark post-apocalyptic last man on Earth tales);Brian Aldiss – “Barefoot in the Head” (LSD contamination causes social breakdown);Edmund Cooper – “Kronk” and Charles Platt – “The Gas” (Rampant venereal disease / sex plagues);John Christopher – “The World in Winter” (New Ice Age);Keith Roberts – “The Furies” (Giant wasps);Roger Zelazny – “Damnation Alley” (Mad Max started here).For a really modern catastrophe story in the short form, I recommend that you track down “Approaching Zero” by John Lucas (Contemporary lifestyles as catastrophe!), most recently available in “The Elastic Book Of Numbers” Edited by Allen Ashley (Elastic Press, 2005).Catastrophes for the New MillenniumWith the current prominence of “Green” issues, you may well decide to try your hand at environmental disaster, biological agents running amuck, responses to the future fuel and water shortages or similar themes…I’ve always quite liked the idea of the animal and plant kingdoms getting their own back on Humankind (See “The Furies’, “Day of the Triffids”, the film “Them”, etc…) – so I’d be quite receptive to an idea along those lines. No vampires, though, which have been done to death.Something based on our dependence on technology in the so-called Information Age. No cyberspeak gobbledegook, please, and no rehash of “Transformers”… but I’m sure there’s plenty of material to extrapolate from.Better still, come up with a fresh catastrophe idea, something that has not been explored before but is still close enough to the real world to convince as an extrapolation or a possibility.OK, enough of me broadcasting ideas – it’s now up to you fabulous authors out there to impress your humble editor.- Alleneditorcatastrophia@hotmail.co.ukBefore We ForgetAbout P. S. PublishingP. S. publishing was set up by Pete Crowther in (1998-9) and is now the leading British independent press within the Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror field. P. S. Publishing won the World Fantasy Award in 2006 and is a multiple recipient of the British Fantasy Sciety award.About Allen AshleyAllen is the author of 5 books including the novel "The Planet Suite" (TTA Press, 1997). As editor of "The Elastic Book Of Numbers" (Elastic Press, 2005) he received the British Fantasy Society award for "Best Anthology" in 2006.
Comments