Green Wizards are story tellers and every story teller has to start somewhere.

Announcing TWO short story contests for submissions to upcoming anthologies. The great thing for new writers, both book will be physically published along with ebooks. Nothing like holding a actual book that has your name in the writer's credits on the list of stories. Moms are so proud at their children's accomplishments!, lol. Be sure to buy several copies so she can hand a copy out and brag about you to her friends.

Here are the details...

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The first is for the second volume of the "Vintage Worlds" anthologies. I'll let John Michael Greer's own words explain:

Announced in a postscript to "The Flight from Nature", at Ecosophia.net, 12/19/2018

In other news, I’m delighted to announce that stories are now being accepted for the second volume of Vintage Worlds, our ongoing anthology of tales from the Old Solar System—the vivid if utterly imaginary backdrop for so much classic science fiction, full of habitable worlds, intelligent species, and two- (or more-)fisted adventure. (The first volume, as I think most of my readers know, is now available for purchase.)

This is a joint project, shared with Zendexor of the Solar System Heritage website. We’re looking for another round of stories set in the Old Solar System — the imaginary one that was conjured into being by science fiction authors back in the glory days of the genre, when Mars had canals, Venus was a jungle planet, and human explorers could tangle with colorful adventures all the way from the Twilight Belt of Mercury to the improbably habitable far reaches of the system.

Those writers who don’t happen to be familiar with the Old Solar System should read Zendexor’s website and then follow it up with a good healthy helping of classic SF. Those who already know the territory — well, what are you waiting for?

We’re looking for short stories (2500-7500 words), novelettes (7500-12,500 words) and a novella (12500+ words) set in the Old Solar System. We will also accept poems of any length, though only a few of these will be chosen. Type of story is as wide open as space —adventure tales, interplanetary romance, cosmic horror, you name it, as long as the tale takes place on one or more of the worlds of the Old Solar System or the voids between them.

Please note that we have a preference for good lively escapist fun. Relevantitis – a common ailment of science fiction these days, which you can find discussed in Zendexor’s essay here – isn’t a death sentence, but it’s going to make us less interested in your story or poem. Stories should be submitted to Zendexor at heritageofdreams (at) aol (dot) com.

Deadline for story submissions is July 30, 2019, so grab your laser pistols, climb aboard that spaceship, and head out for other worlds!

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The second announced short story contest, is a new book in the popular "After Oil" series of post industrial fiction stories. I have myself gotten two short stories published in these books. The new book has something of a twist. Again I'll let John explain,

Announced in a postscript of "What Is Art For?", at Ecosophia.net, 12/05/2018
Based on comments made to the "November 2018 Open Post", at Ecosophia.net, 11/28/2018

Love in the Ruins will be an anthology of short fiction in the romance genre set in the kind of future we’re actually going to get—a future shaped by the slow decline and fall of industrial civilization, brought about by the depletion of the natural resources on which it depends and the disruption of the ecological systems on which it’s equally dependent. Space travel and the rest of the panoply of shiny new technologies with which people these days like to stock their imaginary futures? Forget about it. Instead, think economic contraction, the abandonment of high-end technologies, all the familiar processes through which civilizations slowly give way to dark ages and dark ages give way to the rise of successor cultures. (No, stories about apocalypse aren’t of interest either—those are just as hackneyed and unrealistic as the shopworn Star Trek fantasy of perpetual progress outward to the stars.)

In an age of decline and fall, or the ages of turmoil and rebuilding that come after it, people will still fall in love. That’s the basic theme of the romance genre: two people fall in love and, overcoming whatever obstacles stand in their way, live happily ever after. Stories accepted for this anthology will follow that basic outline. Please note that I’m not specifying genders or, for that matter, species for the two romantic leads; that’s up to you. Sex is fine, though please leave out the grunt-and-squirt sort of detail; if you want to do an old-fashioned romance where the curtain comes down as the protagonists kiss for the first time, that’s fine too.

I’m looking for fifteen or so short stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words, and will also include one or two novelettes of up to 15,000 words. I’m also looking for four to six poems, and it’s only fair to note that I’m seriously prejudiced in favor of short poems rather than long ones, and of old-fashioned poetic forms rather than shapeless free verse—write a sonnet, a villanelle, or something else that rhymes and scans elegantly and your chances of acceptance will go way up.

We’ll be using the same submissions method that worked so well with the After Oil anthologies. Once you’ve got your story written, post it on a free website and then make a comment on the most recent post of this blog, letting me and other readers know where they can read it. Payment will depend on the contract I work out with the publisher—yes, this is going to be published, and yes, it’s going to be a paying gig; I’ll post the details here as we work them out.

So get to work with the long sultry glances in crumbling cities and the feverish kisses in sheltered glades in the tropical jungles of 30th-century Pennsylvania. All submissions must be received by May 1, 2019.

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