2016 Summer Anthology: Wicked Games

[Renee Stevens]

Please Note:  This thread is to announce the anthology as well as for questions and to provide the links to your stories after submission.  I have started a second thread for authors to discuss the anthology and visit.  This is to ensure that I don't miss any submissions or questions that anyone may have.  Feel free to visit and talk, but please use the discussion thread.  Any posts discussing the anthology may be moved to the anthology discussion thread without notice.

 

Thanks

~Renee
 
 
The theme of the 2016 Summer Anthology is Wicked Games
 
Feel free to interpret this theme in any way you want. The anthologies are not exclusive, but inclusive, so don't worry if you think your entry has only a tangential link to the theme. If you are inspired, then write a short story, poem or play, and submit it.
 
Please read these submission guidelines carefully.
 
You may address this theme in any style or genre you choose. Be as creative as you want to be with the theme. However, please note that this anthology is an anthology of short stories. By definition, a short story must stand alone and not require reading a prior story. It therefore cannot be a chapter in a serial.
 
Who may participate
 
Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate. However, submission to GA Stories requires that you be a member here at GA so you can be assigned as the author. If you have author status (which is free and you can get after five posts in the GA forums), you can submit stories.
 
Submission Guidelines
 
Submission Date: May 26th, 2016

Please Note: Submission date is for submission to the Anthology Proof Team.  Proofreads should take no more than 72 hours once you have been paired with a proofreader, if you have not received your story back within 72 hours, please contact Renee Stevens via PM.  If you send your stories in within the last 48 hours of the deadline, you have 48 hours after receiving it back to upload it in order for it to be included in the Anthology. 

 
Non-Poetry

• No Story Limit: Each story submitted must meet quality and editing guidelines
• Each story posted as its own submission
• Minimum Word Count Per Story: Only 1 story can be between 500 and 1,000 words, all others must be over 1,000
• Maximum Word Count Per Story: 20,000

Poetry

• Up to five poems
• Posted as a single submission (a collection)
• Each poem posted as its own chapter

Submission Procedure *Please read carefully*
 
Once your story is complete and has gone through your beta and editing team, please complete the following steps:

• Contact Renee Stevens via PM.  Include in the PM the following information:  Title, original editor, genre, synopsis, word count, and excerpt in the body of the PM.  Attach your story file.  You will be paired with an editor from the Anthology Proof Team who will perform a final proof for the anthology and return the file to you.  *Please Note: The Anthology Proof Team is not meant to take the place of an author’s normal editing team so all entries MUST be edited prior to contacting Renee Stevens.*
• Once you receive your proofed file, complete your edits and submit your story into GA Stories, for help, please visit the FAQ.
  • Make sure the story is unpublished by unchecking BOTH the publish boxes, one for the chapter and one for the story itself
  • Select “Fiction” as the category.  It will be moved to the correct category by the anthology team.
  • Mark your story as COMPLETE.  Only completed stories are allowed in the anthologies
  • Please note that once you submit a story it will NOT show up in your list of stories until the anthology has gone live.
  • Copy the URL for your story and provide Renee Stevens with the URL via the announcement thread so that your submission may be checked to ensure it has been submitted correctly and meets submission guidelines.  This also ensures that it will get moved to the anthology category.  Please give the URL to the STORY page, not the chapter page.
• Please do a visual check of your story once it has been uploaded to ensure that it uploaded correctly

Extensions
 
Occasionally things happen that prevent an author from meeting the deadline.  If you should find yourself in such a predicament, PM Renee Stevens, before the deadline (not the day of or after), and something may be able to be worked out.  Please contact Renee only if you need an extension; requests will only be considered when requested by the author personally.  However, if the same author is consistently asking for extra time, extensions may no longer be granted for that particular author.  Deadlines exist for a reason.  The Anthology Team needs time to prep the anthology to go live and extensions, while occasionally warranted due to unforeseeable circumstances, add to the already hectic workload.  If you have NOT made arrangements with Renee prior to the deadline, your Anthology will not be included in the anthology.  You are welcome to post your story on your own and include a story note stating that it was originally meant to be part of the anthology.
 
Story Titles
 
Please do not use the anthology theme or your GA Username as a title. Be as original as you can. In case of duplicate titles within the anthology, we will request that titles be changed.
 
Unacceptable entries & Content Warnings
 
Entries that are obviously unedited (containing many errors), are overly graphic, or which are deemed to have unacceptable content will be either declined outright, or changes may be requested as a condition of entry. For information on what is considered to be unacceptable, please see the Story Content Rules FAQ. If you still have questions, ask.
 
Please include a Content Warning in the story notes if your story contains sensitive content. Examples of sensitive content: abuse, especially graphic/extreme abuse or child abuse, in-scene graphic violence, suicide attempts/themes, allowable incest, etc... if you're unsure that your story Summers within this type of content please alert Renee Stevens when you send the PM requesting the final edit.
 
Previously posted stories (whether at GA or elsewhere) are not eligible for inclusion into the GA anthologies.
 
Editing
 
All entries MUST be edited prior to being sent to the Anthology Proof Team.  If you need an editor, please visit the Writing Support Requests forum to request one.  There are editors who prefer to edit only one shots, such as anthologies.  Please make sure to state that your story is for the upcoming anthology.  Also, please make sure to follow the guidelines when requesting an editor.
 
Copyright
 
As with all content in GA Stories, the rights remain with the individual authors. Your story will post with a simple 2016 copyright notice, using your GA user display name. If you have another preference (for example, a different name, or a Creative Commons license, or specific copyright wording you'd like to use), please include that with your submission.
 
However, with this anthology, by submitting your story, you are giving GayAuthors.org first worldwide rights with 14 days exclusivity. What that means is you are giving GayAuthors.org permission to archive your story on its website, distribute it via RSS, kindle, iphone, ipad, eyeball…. And you agree not to publish it anywhere else for 2 weeks.
 
If you later decide to post your story at another site, please mention at the beginning or end of the story that it was first published as part of the 2016 Gay Authors Summer Anthology: Wicked Games, and include a link back to GA if possible.
 
Contact Information
 
We are now using the 'my media' system. Therefore when you post your story it generates a story in your media area. For you to interlink the forum thread and the story you have to create both. Some people do not want a forum thread. If you want one, create one. If you want the two linked, PM Renee Stevens and she can help you link the two.
 
If you have any questions, please contact Renee Stevens via PM or via the Anthology Blog or Forum.

[Timothy M.]

My story URL

[Cynus]

I thought I remembered reading a rule about submitting stories which are dependent upon previous stories, or more specifically that you can't submit a story dependent upon other stories you've written. I'm not seeing that here, but if it is here and I've missed it somehow, I have a question.

If a story only has a tangential connection to a previous story you've written, meaning it's set in the same world and casually mentions events happening in the background but which have no bearing on this story, would that be acceptable?

[Renee Stevens]

I thought I remembered reading a rule about submitting stories which are dependent upon previous stories, or more specifically that you can't submit a story dependent upon other stories you've written. I'm not seeing that here, but if it is here and I've missed it somehow, I have a question.

 

If a story only has a tangential connection to a previous story you've written, meaning it's set in the same world and casually mentions events happening in the background but which have no bearing on this story, would that be acceptable?

 

You did, I don't know how it failed to make it into this copy. But yes, that would be fine, provided it is not necessary to read the other story in order to read and understand the anthology story.

 

Edit to Add: Okay, it did make it in. Here's the part that covers that:

 

 

You may address this theme in any style or genre you choose. Be as creative as you want to be with the theme. However, please note that this anthology is an anthology of short stories. By definition, a short story must stand alone and not require reading a prior story. It therefore cannot be a chapter in a serial.

[Cynus]

You did, I don't know how it failed to make it into this copy. But yes, that would be fine, provided it is not necessary to read the other story in order to read and understand the anthology story.

 

Edit to Add: Okay, it did make it in. Here's the part that covers that:

Beautiful. Thank you!

[Renee Stevens]

NOTE: I will be leaving town either this Wednesday or Thursday until Tuesday. That means that I will not be around to get any last minute submissions paired with a member of the proof team. Starting on Wednesday (to be safe), when you send in your story, you need to include both myself, and Cia, in the PM. If I have already left town, she will get you set up with a proof team member.

[Dolores Esteban]

Mine is here.

[Valkyrie]

Here's mine  

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/story/valkyrie/bewitched

[Cynus]

And here's mine.

https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/story/cynus/witchyourtonguedemon

[Renee Stevens]

Timothy, Dolores, Valkyrie, and Cynus, your stories have all been moved into the correct category

[Cole Matthews]

Here is my offering for Wicked Games.  

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/story/cole-matthews/gillette

[Renee Stevens]

Here is my offering for Wicked Games.  

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/story/cole-matthews/gillette

 

I've moved it to the anthol category

[Emi GS]

Here are My Submissions.   Yeah, I am enjoying the concept of "No Story Limit"...  

Submission 1 and Submission 2

[Aditus]

Finally.