We've decided there's enough grim and dark in the real world without creating more of it as entertainment. And looking out on the publishing landscape we see a distinct shortage of anthologies of light, happy, FUN SF/F. In fact, we can count the number of such anthologies without resorting to two digits in binary. That's right, there's just ONE. It's a very good anthology, but it's carrying a heavy load.
We sense a great imbalance in the multiverse, therefore. An open niche which needs filling.
However, there's a problem. You see, the alternative to these grim, dark, dystopian nightmare worlds has long been considered to be Space Opera. Heroic Tales of Manly Men Being Manly while Womenly Women are Womanly and Small Furry Aliens Are the Objects of Humor and Derision. This is a cause which of late has been championed by the horrible sorts of people who only see SF/F through a lens of fake nostalgia for a bygone age. What the actual flickering light of reason! SF/F isn't NOSTALGIA!
So we need an antidote to the antidote to grim and dark tales of grimness and darkness. And besides, the model for space opera is wrong. It's drawn from "horse opera." Tales of the old west, and there we are with all that nostalgia again. Our new model for space opera is... well... OPERA! And every opera needs a libretto. (def: the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical.)
However, (what's with all these exceptions!) there's another problem. You see, there's nothing at all new under the sun. Take, for instance, villains.
The typical space opera villain has long been the Alien Space Nazi. They're Coming to Earth to Exterminate Us All (but first they'll confine us to death camps and get as much poor-quality labor out of us as they can before we die). Fictional Nazis don't scare us. There are REAL Nazis out there, folks. We usually punch six of them before breakfast.
Another hoary old standby of the space opera (often combined with the above), is the Eldritch Lovecraftian Horror From Beyond All Reality. Folks, this thing is so tired there are now Cthulhu PLUSHIES. Your neighbor's kid is wearing a "Yog-Sottoth is my Co-Pilot" t-shirt and no one bats an eyelash. If actual Fungi From Yuggoth were to land on Earth, the Queen of England would likely just invite them down for tea.
Thus we've decided that Alien Space Nazis are straight out. No space fascism, please. Also, Space Cthulhu is done. We're not the only ones to come to this conclusion, mind you. No one will ever say we're original thinkers here. Here's Charlie Stross:
At least one of us thinks the Mayans did their gruesome gods better, but whatever.Thinking about Bad Guys for future space operas:— Charlie Stross (@cstross) July 20, 2018
Nazis are far too 21st century. Space Nazis are therefore out.
Lovecraftian horrors: also out, see also Cthulhu plushies.
That leads me inevitably to think about the gruesome possibilities inherent in Space Aztecs …
To summarize, we need a more inclusive space opera. Fewer Nazis. No Chtulhu. Better representation for women, especially women of color. Better representation for the whole QUILTBAG-P+/-, Disabled persons. #ownvoices. Sure, we like stories with white guys who fight off evil... In space. Hey, who doesn't like space? You're living in it, you know. But there are other stories. We'd like to read them. We'd like to PUBLISH them for others to read.
This is where YOU come in. You are a WRITER. You wish to write inclusive fiction. You want stories which are light and fun and happy just as much as we do. You're a writer of color. You're a disabled writer. You're a neurologically atypical writer. You're a neurologically atypical disabled writer of COLOR. You're a woman. You're trans. You're bi, gay, asexual... Hey, some of us don't really want sex, kinda find it ickily biological and weird. That's okay. Those stories count too. It's not that we'll rule out stories by straight white guys, just as we won't rule out stories ABOUT them.
So get creative with your creations and create for us creative works of imaginative imaginings. Weird mashups. Space Dinosaurs versus Ancient Mayan Gods. Time-Traveling Agender Steampunky Fairies with Rocket Packs and Lasers versus A Wild Army of Robot Ninja Bonobo Pirates. I dunno, I'm just making up the mash-ups as I go here! 1950s sensibilities in everything BUT the lack of inclusion of the 1950s. Countdowns to "Blast off." Big fins on all the rockets. Torchships flying in brachistochrone trajectories on pillars of fire as God Herself intended.
And in act three, the ARIA. Actual coloratura diva sopranos singing! Because this is OPERA!
Guidelines are available here. We hope to open to submissions on November 1.
Right now, we're working on our Kickstarter campaign, and our payment rates aren't solidified just yet. However, we're hoping that we can at least tool up to become a SFWA-qualifying market. That means we're going to TRY for market rates (an equivalent of 6¢/word). But we want you to start writing even before we know for certain.
