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I was one of those authors. Back in the early 21st Century, Andrew gave me a slot in one of the anthologies. The Alsiso Project was an anthology of stories based on a typo, and the different ways you could interpret it. My story was presented as a lecture, if I remember correctly, about how Alsiso was a feral word. It kept cropping up but we didn’t quite know what it meant yet. Like those elements off in the middle of nowhere on the Periodic Table and you know there’s something between them and the other stuff but you just haven’t found it yet.
It was a fun piece and I’m a sucker for that kind of work so it was fun to write. It got some recognition, some of it as one of the book’s standouts, some of it as one of the book’s standouts for… different reasons. Such is the way of things. I moved on to a triumphantly lumpy career as a fiction writer before deciding I wrote good and other stuff good about non-fiction and that it was noticeably less soul destroying than trying to sell fiction. Andrew stuck the course and, as I say, has produced some pretty serious books over the years. His next one looks to be fun too, and he’s looking for submissions.
It’s an anthology of Punk fiction. PunkPunk, as he calls it. Andrew’s putting it out through Doghorn Publishing and the basic details are these:
• Accepted authors will receive two copies of the anthology. This is a very small press project so there’s no money to pay authors, just cover costs.
• Stories need to be 1,000-5,000 words and must be submitted as a .doc file to the submissions email address.
• They must be laid out in standard manuscript format as shown at http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html .
• Violence, swearing and sexual content, as long as they’re in context are fine. Anything gratuitous or that doesn’t serve the story and it’s out.
• Feel free to include strong science fiction, fantasy and horror elements on one condition: they need to be original. If you’re thinking devils and rock music, you need to be thinking about something else.
• Submissions will open on the 1 July and close on 31 December 2013. A reply may take up to 4-6 weeks and if you’ve not heard inside that time frame, please query.
• Reprints are fine but query the editor before sending one in. All queries should go to punkpunk@doghornpublishing.com .
Andrew’s a great editor and whilst this gig isn’t paid, it’s still a gig with one of the best editors in the country. So, if you’re interested, fire up your best writing guitar and send him something in. Full details can be found at: http://www.doghornpublishing.com/wordpress/news/submission-guidelines-punkpunk
Alasdair Stuart
