Mythos antho -- The Year’s Best Lovecraftian Horror: 2020.

Culled from author M. Keaton's recent email, with his express permission. Briefly, he wants to put out an anthology of stories based in the Lovecraftian mythos, not just on Cthulhu.

Attendees of Penguicons 2005-2010 and ConClaves 2006-2015 will remember him well -- as the helpful panelist [of so many panels!] who was eloquent and energetic. You can find his work here, on his (old) blog.

His email, slightly edited, follows: 

First off, my sincere apologies for being out of touch for so long. I’ve lost a lot of my contact information. I'd appreciate any help you can give me in getting back in touch with everyone.

To business. Archangel Press is going to put out an anthology and I want to give preference to people I know and have worked with, especially veterans of the Sanctuary Press/AAP writing workshops and the Writing Puffins as well as Midnight Screaming contributors and so on.

Please spread the news, send me stories you think might fit, and put me in touch with other people you think might be interested in contributing.

~ G/L ~

The guidelines are simple. The working anthology title is The Year’s Best Lovecraftian Horror: 2020. That alone tells you most of what you need to know. I want good, solid Lovecraftian stories.

 I specifically say Lovecraftian rather than Cthulhu because I’d like stories across the entire mythos including additions by the original group of mythos authors --  like Robert Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. Likewise, specific mythos references are not as important as getting the right style and tone. For example, I would happily take Smith’s "Seed From the Sepulchre" over a Deep One tale.

This style preference also applies to gore and sex: think early Weird Tales. Having said that, science fiction horror is strongly encouraged; this is not an anthology of period pieces.

I’m not overly concerned about length. 2,500 to 10,000 words is preferable but I also know from personal experience that horror doesn’t always lend itself to a strict word count. I don’t care about
submission formatting as long as it’s legible, clean copy.

Electronically, I need the story either in the body of an email or an rtf file.

~ Final edition ~

The goal is a final book with about ten stories averaging 5,000 words apiece. I’m working on having internal black-and-white line art and a paperback size layout. Unless something changes, I’ll probably use Amazon KDP for e-book and print and the goal is to release the book officially on Halloween. Logistically that means I need the stories submitted ASAP and certainly no later than the end of July.

What's in it for the author? Mainly exposure.

There will be a token payment of $20 and a comp copy for the author -- but the really useful part is that each contributor gets a bio to promote their own stuff (I’m trying to avoid a specific word limit on bios but please respect the reader and the fact that every additional page raises the cover price.) Copyright will be retained by the author and rights will revert to the author on publication.

Payment upon acceptance with comp copy to follow at release.



On a personal note, I know of at least two workshop submissions that I would take in a heartbeat if the stories were finished--

The decision to do this anthology was based on, first, the “Covid situation” (we need a convention but we can’t have a convention.) The second was the staff at my local bookstore repeatedly bringing up the fact that they can’t keep Lovecraftian horror on the shelves but no one is putting it out. This is a small attempt to alleviate both things.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions and thank you for your time and support.

Missing you all,
M. Keaton
AAP

=-=-=-=

I will create a condensed version of the guidelines presently. Ideally you'd have your story to MK before 31-July-2020... either as an email or rtf file.

Feel free to reply here if you lack his contact info.

-- AZ