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Tesseracts Twenty-one

Tesseracts 21 Wishlist

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EdgeI have the pleasure (and honour) of being one of the editors of this year’s Tesseracts anthology. Tesseracts Twenty-one has the theme of ‘Optimistic SF’ which I think is just perfect, because can’t we all use a little more optimism in our lives?

In the submission guidelines the theme is described as:

The theme of the anthology is ‘optimism’ – which doesn’t necessarily exclude dark or scary settings – but requires some sort of optimistic twist or element. Whether that takes the form of a solar-punk tale set in a sustainable world with a post-scarcity economy, a POV character existing as an advocate of optimism or something else entirely, the editors want to see it.

“We’re not looking for saccharine sweetness, but rather stories which offer a little brightness and hope in one way or another,” says Rhonda Parrish, co-editor.

“While we’re certainly interested in submissions where a Canadian setting (a specific city, region, or province) plays a role, we’re also open to stories set anywhere in the world, the universe, or the multiverse,” says Greg Bechtel, co-editor.

And submissions are open now, which means Greg and I have had the chance to read a few dozen stories already and I’ve got to say, I’m impressed. I love the different ways people are interpreting the theme of optimism! There hasn’t been a saccharine sweet story in the bunch, which I feel is somewhat of a miracle, truth be told. So even though things are looking really good in the submission pile, it’s sort of a tradition for me to put out a wishlist of sorts when I edit an anthology, so here’s my wishlist for Tesseracts Twenty-one 🙂

When I’m reading submissions the #1 most important thing to me are the characters — they need to be three-dimensional, of course, but beyond that I also need at least one character I can cheer for. They don’t need to be perfect (please God, don’t let them be perfect) but it’s vital that I want them to prevail. Apply this to all the things on my wishlist below, because I do 🙂

  • Solarpunk is  optimistic and envisions an eco-friendly future “focused on envisioning a positive future beyond scarcity and hierarchy, where humanity is reintegrated with nature and technology is used for human-centric and ecocentric purposes.” (Source: Wikipedia.). I’d love to see solarpunk stories that use interesting characters to explore the kinds of conflicts that would exist in a utopian world through an optimistic lens. That might include conflict types that exist now (interpersonal, criminal, political) as well as ones that might come about because of the new state of things. What kinds of conflicts would those be? I don’t know. Surprise me!* Related: I love the solarpunk aesthetic of Olivia’s art here.
  • Stories where different factions learn to work together (or at least co-exist) can be cheesy and overdone or they can be amazing and inspiring. If you have one of the latter, send it! 🙂
  • Good humour is difficult to write, but if you can make me laugh when I read your story you are halfway to the longlist already.
  • A new twist on a build-your-own-spaceship story? Yes, please!
  • I’m always a big fan of a good time travel story, and if that isn’t a sub-genre that is ripe for exploring through an optimistic lens I don’t know what is.
  • There are some who believe humans will set foot on Mars within our lifetime. I mean… I’m just saying… (Hint: I’m not just saying)

I could go on. Normally I probably would go on but these vague little hints I’m offering are just meant to help spark something for anyone who wanted to submit but are currently stuck for ideas, they aren’t meant to be prescriptive. And what I’m seeing in the submissions already is creative, thoughtful and insightful so it seems many of you have already got strong, interesting ideas for optimistic SF. I don’t want to muddy those waters.

Submissions will remain open until the end of April. I hope to see your name in the submissions pile and discover what your interpretation of ‘Optimistic SF’ is!

Submission details available here — http://edgewebsite.com/books/tess21/t21-catalog.html

 

*Plagiarized from the MSWL I posted a couple months ago

 

 

Editing

MSWL: -punk edition

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Diesel City 3 by Stefan Paris
Diesel City 3 by Stefan Paris

World Weaver Press has an open submission period coming up very soon — February first, to be exact — and I am ridiculously stoked about it! Reading submissions for novels and collections is a whole different ballgame than reading short stories or poems, and falling in love with a book and then being able to help improve it and share it with the world? It’s amazing. I can’t even begin to tell you. I love it!

When I’m reading submissions the #1 most important thing to me are the characters — they need to be three-dimensional, of course, but beyond that I also need at least one character in the book that I can cheer for. They don’t need to be perfect (please God, don’t let them be perfect) but it’s vital that I want them to prevail. Everything else — plot, world-building, pacing, all of that — comes secondary to this. I can help fix plot problems, or offer suggestions to improve pacing, etc. etc. but if I don’t have a character to cheer for I’m not going to make it through my first read of the manuscript.

Writing a manuscript wish list is really difficult because really what I want most is something that I’ve never even considered asking for. I want to be surprised. That being said, since I only have room in my schedule to acquire one title during this window (at most) I’d like to try and offer some small idea of what I would most like to see and right now I’m all about the -punk.

I’m fascinated with the World Wars and the years between them so it is probably not a huge surprise that the absolute #1 thing I would love to see in the WWP submissions inbox next month is a gritty dieselpunk novel. In case you’re not familiar with dieselpunk one of the best descriptions I’ve found of it so far comes from DailyDot.com:

“…Hallmarked by the advent of diesel engines for major machinery, particularly war machines, dieselpunk begins roughly around the time of the first World War, and finds its apotheosis in the second.

If steampunk’s calling card is a dazzling spectacle of brass, clockwork, and earth tones, then dieselpunk’s is steel and chrome mixing with the grime and grit of modern machinery, the nostalgia of unironic patriotism, and a touch of the misery and existential dread that accompanies modernism.”

Think Dark City. Think Mad Max: Fury Road. Think Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Think Snowpiercer*. And if you’ve got a dieselpunk novel, think of World Weaver Press LOL. We don’t do super duper dark titles for the most part, but we’re good with gritty. I love gritty. Send me all the grit! 🙂

And remember that all countries have patriots, not just North American ones (hint, hint).

Art by Miss Olivia Louise
Art by Miss Olivia Louise

As much as I love grit, these days I find myself hungry for optimism as well. For hope. That’s where the second thing on my wishlist comes in.

Somewhere on the other side of the -punk spectrum from dieselpunk is solarpunk. Solarpunk is much more optimistic and envisions an eco-friendly future “focused on envisioning a positive future beyond scarcity and hierarchy, where humanity is reintegrated with nature and technology is used for human-centric and ecocentric purposes.” (Source: Wikipedia.).

I’d love to acquire a lush solarpunk title that uses interesting characters to explore the kinds of conflicts that would exist in a utopian world through an optimistic (not saccharine) lens. That might include conflict types that exist now (interpersonal, criminal, political) as well as ones that might come about because of the new state of things. What kinds of conflicts would those be? I don’t know. Surprise me!

And sandwiched between those two comes the third thing on my wishlist — steampunk. I think everyone knows what steampunk is, and yes, there has been a lot of it produced and published in recent years, but I’m not done with it yet. If you’ve got a fresh take on a steampunk-type tale I would love to see it. Bonus points if your story takes the core steampunk aesthetics and technology but places them somewhere other than the American West or Britain. Got an arctic steampunk tale? I’d love to see it. Something equatorial and steampunk-y? Yes, please.

World Weaver Press is opening for submissions February 1st, so if you’re interested in submitting be sure and read and follow the submission guidelines.

And remember, if your title is nothing like what I’ve described in this wishlist don’t let that hold you back. First of all, I’m open to all sorts of things I haven’t listed here — like I said, my favourite thing to find in a submission is something I never would have thought to ask for. Secondly, I’m not the only person reading the submissions — there are several Editors at WWP and we all like different things, so even if a project isn’t right for me it might be perfect for one of them. We all read all the submissions so you don’t even have to try and guess which one of us would be most likely to be a good fit for your manuscript.

See you in the slush?

🙂

*Wrong time frame to technically be dieselpunk but right aesthetic. And labels exist to be defied :-p