At Year’s End: SFF Holiday Stories

Here at the Kaz, we cannot believe another year’s come to an end. In our minds, 2012 just began…and here it is already September. Still, we’re excited to be sliding toward another holiday season. We enjoy family and friends being nearby, and we enjoy sharing our traditions with kith and kin (and a fair few new folk as well). In short, the people behind Kazka love bringing people together.

One way that Kazka Press hopes to bring people together this holiday season is through a new anthology call: At Year’s End: SFF Holiday Stories. Here’s what we’re looking for:

1. 500 word (or less) stories set against year-end holidays (Yule, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Samhain, Bodhi Day, New Year, Chinese New Year, Watch Night, Pancha Ganapati, Saturnalia, The Invincible Sun, etc.)
2. Science Fiction / Fantasy (SFF) themed
3. Avoid cultural appropriation
4. Invest us in the story immediately. Five-hundred words is not a lot. Don’t waste 395 words meandering. Get right to the heart of the thing.
5. Want an example of something we like? Check at ‘Nuclear Family‘ in Kasma SF, written by Alex Shvartsman. (This story will appear in our anthology, by the way.)
6. Remember: these stories don’t need to be about the holiday. They just need to be set against a holiday. We’re much more interested in an engaging story that occurs on Thanksgiving or Chinese New Year rather than a story about those holidays. Just make sure the holiday forms a clear, present backdrop.

Payment: 5 cents a word + 1 contributors copy of each format (print and ebook (.epub and .pdf)). Payment upon publication. We pay via Google Checkout, Amazon Payments, Paypal, or check.

Length: 500 (or less). Firm.

Format: .rtf, .doc, .docx, .pages, or .odt.  Standard manuscript format–however, italicize your italics. No underlines to denote italics, please.

More Rules & Response Time: Please no simultaneous submissions or reprints [except for in special, solicited cases we'll accept reprints for 0.02 a word]. We aim to respond to submissions within 15 days…and in less time if we can.

Rights Sought: First worldwide print and electronic English Language rights. Exclusivity for 14 months from date of release. [Though you can sell audio rights elsewhere immediately, as long as no electronic/print text is made available.] Non-exclusive rights to keep the anthology in print across different publishing platforms afterward.

When to submit: Now – 2 November 2012.

How to submit: Submit via email to kazkapress[at]gmail.com. Subject line: At Year’s End. Include a 100-ish word bio with your submission.

Publication: Dec 3 2012.

One comment on “At Year’s End: SFF Holiday Stories”

1. Would the Super Bowl apply if placed in appropriate context?

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