10/03/2024
Submissions call:
“Exomoons–
Natural, and Unnatural, Astronomical Bodies Orbiting Strange Planets”
A Sci-Fi/Horror/Grimdark Anthology
Deadline: until full (probably within the end of this Summer…)
Payment:Exposure and Royalties
Short stories up to 7,000 words; Longer stories will also be considered.
Reprints: just in some restricted, limited cases, as long as you hold the rights.
“Many are the mysteries that have surrounded the Moon since the most ancient times, but there are – probably…- just billions of exomoons out there, past the boundary of our small Solar System. Exomoons are difficult to detect, given our present technology, and to date there have been no confirmed exomoon detections. However, observations from missions such as Kepler have observed something that might be reputed to be an exomoon. So, we all know about exoplanets that were discovered, more and more, year by year, thanks to the defunct Kepler space telescope, and today thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, to mention just two. But what about exomoons? Those still-unknown satellites orbiting exoplanets or other non-stellar extrasolar bodies are really difficult to find using current techniques. But what about them in the future? Were they born from the same matter the exoplanet they are orbiting is made of, like Earth’s Moon, or were they built (like the Death Star in Star Wars™) by some lifeforms or brought there by some alien species? And could those unknown exomoons support life, maybe even intelligent life? More than that, as Earth's Moon proved to be important in shaping life as we know it, because without it to stabilize our planet, its wobble would become erratic and extreme, what about exomoons and the many aliens they might have helped in developing and creating their strange civilizations elsewhere?”
Think of alien exomoons where once life was present and whose archaeological remains today have become the valuable prey of plunderers from space. What about moons that are bigger than Earth’s size, on which lifeforms are present, though orbiting a gas giant that doesn’t give them light, and warmth, the same as our Sun does. And what happened to exomoons partly damaged by something that apparently almost turned them into pieces of shapeless rocks in outer space? Are those exomoons full of surprises, or just as dead as our Moon is? Have some alien species visited them, or do they plan on doing it in the next future maybe?
Submission guidelines: Please include your name, address, e-mail address, the title of your story and its word count in your covering e-mail. Please submit your manuscript as a *.rtf or *.doc file (all other formats will automatically be rejected. Contact us prior to submitting if this presents an issue for you.).
Font and formatting: Please submit in Times New Roman, 12 point font; single line spacing. Please indent the first line of each paragraph half an inch. The page margin should be set to one inch on all sides.
No headers, footers or page numbers.
Please check spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
Upon acceptance into the Anthology, we ask that Horrified Press holds exclusive publishing rights for one year from the date of publication; after that date has passed, all intellectual property rights revert to the author with the proviso that Horrified Press retains distribution rights in the format of the contracted Anthology.
This title will be available as an e-book and trade quality paperback.
Sergio “ente per ente” Palumbo and Curtis Manges will be presiding over this Anthology as Editors.
The title will be published by Rogue Planet Press, an Imprint of Horrified Press, under the supervision of Gavin Chappell.
Email your submission as an attachment to: associazione (AT) lacenturia.it
The email subject line must read “SUBMISSION — Exomoons – ‘your story title’” or your submission will not be considered for this Anthology.
Successful applicants will be notified before the deadline has expired, or as soon as possible. Each submission must be a discrete stand-alone story. Each author can send up to 4 entries overall for evaluation (this doesn’t mean that all of them will be accepted, of course).
Cover ( and Back-cover) Art: by Italian artist Sara Dellacasa.
There may well be some beautiful Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror themed black and white illustrations lurking on the inside as well, art by comics artists Davide “Atog” Marescotti, Sara Dellacasa and Rossana Berretta.
Here’s, as follows, one of the images that will be included in the Anthology, by Sara DELLACASA.
