Last couple of months!

We're down to the last couple of months before the submission deadline for Building Red: The Colonization of Mars! Slots are filling up fast but we still have room for a few more great stories.

As a quick reminder, here's the story prompt again:

"The year is 2050. Technology has finally progressed to the point humankind can begin colonizing Mars. Governments, corporations, and rich individuals are all sponsoring groups to tackle the task of surviving and thriving in a harsh and foreign atmosphere. It's a test of creativity, intelligence, and social skills; of genetic engineering, terraforming, and resources. The winners earn the right to incorporate their little corner of Mars as their own. It's a fool's adventure. It's an impossible dream. It's a risk that may cost everything, including lives. But adventures and dreams and risks are where stories begin."

Walrus Publishing is looking for your original, unpublished stories approximately 1,000-6,000 words long.  We prefer submission as a .doc, .docx, .txt, or shared via Google drive. Standard 1" margins, Times New Roman or equivalent font, double spaced, and all pages should have the title and page number in the heading.

Email your submission as an attachment or with a link to your shared Google Drive file to janetcannoneditor@gmail.com by November 1, 2014.

In the body of the email, include your name, contact info including address, phone number, and short (100 word) bio.

Send only one piece to be considered at a time. As some of you have discovered, if I like the piece but have some issues with it, I will ask for revisions and consider it again, but time is running out. I suggest having your piece workshopped or beta read by several people before sending it to me.

Any style is fine (serious, funny, macabre, etc.) as long as the piece fits the prompt and is science fiction. The only exceptions are no gratuitous violence or erotica.The vast majority of rejections are because the pieces are more fantasy than science fiction. Check your facts carefully!

Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please inform me immediately if your piece is published elsewhere.

Any submission not conforming to these specifications may be rejected.

If your piece is accepted, you will receive $25 upon publication of the finished anthology (Spring 2015) five free copies of the anthology, and a 50% discount on copies you purchase.

Right now my response time is a little more than a month. I apologize for the wait, but sometimes day jobs get in the way of our passions! Feel free to e-mail if you are afraid your piece has gotten lost, but likely it has not.

Here's looking forward to Building Red with you!

Story Resources

I'm excited I've already received so many stories for Building Red-The Colonization of Mars anthology! Some of the stories are funny, some serious, but one thing I want to emphasize: this is a science fiction anthology, not a fantasy anthology. Science fiction is based on science facts and extrapolation of what science could be in the future. That is one of the big reasons I'm having to either reject or ask for re-writes on stories. So for those of you who aren't familiar with life on Mars, here are a few resources you might check out to help fine-tune those stories.

I would suggest you read the specifics on these websites to get more detailed information, however, here are the highlights: Mars has longer days, has dangerous dust storms, no liquid water, has two moons, is extremely cold, has no atmosphere (therefore humans are subject to high levels of solar radiation! This is a big one people forget about.), and no oxygen, has several man-made craft flying in orbit around it, has a weaker gravitational pull than Earth, a lower air pressure, it only takes about a year (depending on technology and cycle of the orbits) to get to Mars.

1. Window to the Universe: http://www.windows2universe.org/kids_space/lifeonmars.html
2. NASA's Mars website: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/what-is-mars-k4.html#.U63d_vldXeI
3. Physics.org: http://www.physics.org/featuredetail.asp?id=69
4. Space.com: http://www.space.com/47-mars-the-red-planet-fourth-planet-from-the-sun.html
5. Discovery Channel: http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/5-hurdles-conquer-before-colonizing-mars.htm

Here's a group who plans on going to Mars in 2018! http://www.mars-one.com/

If your story is well-written and compelling, I'm likely to ask for a re-write rather than reject it, so don't feel this is meant to intimidate anyone. I merely want to help you write the best science fiction story possible.

Keep sending more stories!

Submission Guidelines

Walrus Publishing, an independent press from St. Louis, Missouri, is now accepting submissions for our sci/fi anthology, Building Red-The Colonization of Mars. If you wish to be considered for this anthology, your story must be written with this prompt in mind:

"The year is 2050. Technology has finally progressed to the point humankind can begin colonization of Mars. Governments, corporations, and rich individuals are all sponsoring groups to tackle the task of surviving and thriving in a harsh and foreign atmosphere. It's a test of creativity, intelligence, and social skills; of genetic engineering, terraforming, and resources. The winners earn the right to incorporate their little corner of Mars as their own. It's a fool's adventure. It's an impossible dream. It's a risk that may cost everything, including lives. But adventures and dreams and risks are where stories begin."

Submissions should be your original, unpublished story approximately 1,000-6,000 words long. No gratuitous violence or erotica, please. Document should be typed in a .doc, .docx, or .txt format. You can also share it with us using Google Drive. Standard 1” margins, Times New Roman or equivalent font, double spaced, and all pages should have the title and the page number in the heading. 

Submissions should be e-mailed as an attachment to or shared via Google Drive with janetcannoneditor@gmail.com by November 1, 2014. In the body of the e-mail, include your name, contact information including phone number, and short (100 word) bio. Send only one piece to be considered at a time. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please alert us immediately if your piece is accepted elsewhere.

Any submission not conforming to these specifications will not be accepted.

Contributing authors will receive $25, five copies of the finished anthology, and receive a 50% discount on purchasing the finished anthology scheduled for release Spring of 2015.

Please allow three months response time. You will notified whether your piece has been accepted or whether we feel it isn’t a good fit for this anthology. 

We're looking forward to Building Red with you!