Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Call for Submissions: Elementary Erotica

There's always been a certain… something about Sherlock Holmes. Though a confirmed bachelor, and a cool logician, there's a certain sexiness about him, and about many of the people who passed through the doors of 221b Baker Street. Now it's time to tell their stories. Was more going on between Watson and Holmes than friendship? What are the missing details of Watson's courtship of Miss Mary Morstan? Could "The Woman," Miss Irene Adler, have had other misadventures before or after her run in with Holmes? We're looking for these stories, set in an alternate steampunk universe. Anything goes, as long as Doyle's characters are involved, and there's at least a flavor of steampunk.


SUBMISSION DETAILS:


The submission deadline is June 30, 2010. Email submissions only. Stories are best submitted as a word processor document (.doc, .rtf, .txt, etc.) attached to the email, but do not forget to include your complete contact information on the attached document! (If it’s only in the body of the email, it’s quite easy to have a brilliant story come out of the printer and then have no way to trace back where the heck it came from.) Manuscripts should be correctly/professionally formatted for submission. (If you’re not sure what we mean by that, Google it.)


Preferred word length is between 3000 and 7000 words. All stories must include explicit sexuality and erotic focus. (For more details on our editorial preferences, see the general submission guidelines. We highly recommend reading the guidelines, especially the “do not send” list, to increase your chances of sending us something we’ll love.) Try to avoid clichés. Fresh and direct language is preferred to overly euphemistic. Sex-positive, please, no rape/nonconsensuality/necrophilia or other purposefully gross topics. We do not publish horror.


Original stories only, NO REPRINTS unless the distribution was truly obscure. Ebooks pay $25 per story, with an additional $25 if the book gets a print edition. Authors get one copy of each edition, as well. Author retains the reprint rights to individual story; we buy non-exclusive rights to inclusion in this anthology only.


Send submissions to: msjblackmore (at) gmail (dot) com

Vintage Vibes



This image is from a neat little article and gallery featured on Gizmodo. I love stuff like this. The article draws on a book by Dr. Rachel P. Maines called The Technology of Orgasm, a book that I'm probably going to have to pick up and devour. I've just bought an ebook called Penis Pending, which is a collection of diagrams and descriptions of some of the strangest sex toys ever invented.

As gadgets that bring pleasure are relevant to the interests of any steamypunk worth her goggles, I'll probably review them here.