Author Archives: Dominica May

The covers for our new anthologies

Both covers for our anthologies are ready! Those of you who follow us on Facebook will already have seen them, because neither of us could wait to share them! But here they are here too, for the rest of you.

The cover for Allusions of Innocence was illustrated and designed by Luke Spooner from Carrion House. He did an amazing job, in my not-so-humble opinion, of capturing the mix of childlikeness and total creepiness that I was after. Here it is!

Allusions of Innocence

The cover for Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction was designed by Jun Hun Yap, who has done an incredible job on it. Have a look:

Cover of Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction

We’re absolutely thrilled with the work both these artists have produced for us, and hope you love them as much as we do! Now that the covers are ready, it will be only a couple of days before we launch our crowdfunding campaign for these two books. So watch this space!

Reviewers Needed for Our Upcoming Anthologies

We realise it has been a long time since we posted anything directly to this blog. I didn’t even properly announce my novel here when it was officially released on September 19th, as I’d been busy promoting it in numerous other locations.

In any case, Jax and I (Dominica) have two anthologies that we are looking to have ready to the point of launching our next crowdfunding campaign in February. We have now responded to all of the submissions for both the precocious children anthology and the Amok Asia-Pacific anthology. If you’ve been waiting to hear back from us and haven’t seen anything, please send an email to us so we can sort that out!

We won’t be officially announcing any names or story titles until contracts are sent out and signed. However, as we are looking to have both anthologies typeset by the beginning of February, we are looking for people who would be interested in receiving an ARC (advance reading copy) around that time, so reviews can go up during the course of our crowdfunding campaign. ARCs will likely be available in PDF format. Other formats will depend on whether we can have them ready in time.

Early reviews may be posted on blogs, Goodreads, or anywhere else that accept book reviews. Once we have the books listed at online stores, reviews can be crossposted there.

If you’re interested in receiving an ARC, please contact us at solarwyrm@gmail.com with the subject “ARC Request”. Please specify which anthology you would like to review, or if you would like to review both. Please don’t sign up unless you are sure you can make time to read and review during the month of February.

Information about the anthologies, to make your selection (based on the assumption that all accepted authors agree to publication):

Precocious Children
18 stories at approx. 70,000 words.
These stories all have major characters who are children, written for an adult audience.

Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction
24 stories at approx. 85,000 words.
This anthology includes traditional mythology, fantasy, future tech, dystopias, and more.
Stories selected are set in the following locations:
Australia, China, Hawai’i, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pacific Ocean, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam

If you have a book blog, we may also be open to sending review copies of books from our back catalogue. If you would also like to request those, please include a link to your blog and an estimated date for review.

Submission Call: Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction

Please note: Submissions for this anthology are now closed. To those who submitted something, thank you. I will be working my way through the remaining stories in the coming weeks. I received a total of 68 stories for consideration.

Solarwyrm Press is seeking short speculative fiction stories for its tentatively titled “Amok” anthology.

The main requirement is that stories must be set somewhere in the Asia-Pacific region — from India to Hawaii, and everything in between (as far north as Mongolia and south as Australia/New Zealand)*.

For the purposes of this anthology, speculative fiction is defined as science-fiction, fantasy, or horror, set in the real world, with elements that go beyond our current most-agreed-upon view of the world. Alternate history (e.g. What if Korea won the space race?) is also acceptable, and stories may be set in the past, present, and/or future.

Do you have a story where the Japanese had a zombie army that invaded the Philippines in World War II? A future-tech story with China as the main world power? A love affair between a mermaid and a Hindu in India? A ghost haunting a Muslim family in Malaysia? A dystopian New Zealand, where they’re the only country that survived the apocalypse? These are the types of stories we have in mind. Hopefully these ideas help inspire you. Don’t feel constrained to them!

Consideration is especially given to a diverse array of characters, at the very least within the anthology, if not within individual stories. We’d like to see racial and religious diversity, which should be easier to include with the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as characters who fall somewhere on the QUILTBAG spectrum, or are generally not limited to protagonists who are straight, white, abled men in their 20s or 30s.

Whilst racism may be explored in stories submitted, if the overall sentiment is that one race (or religion) is better than another, your story will not be accepted.

*Full list of countries/island regions accepted:
American Samoa, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, East Timor, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Hawaiian Islands, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, Niue, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands, North Korea, Palau, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna.

Hawaii may not be technically considered part of the region, but it is in the Pacific Ocean and the editor has a soft spot for the islands, so stories set there will be considered.

If you have another location that you think ought to be included that is not on this list, please query the editor first.

Submission Guidelines

Please send your submissions by email directed to Dominica Malcolm at solarwyrm@gmail.com. You may submit up to 3 stories for consideration.

Your attached story should be a .doc, .odt, or .rtf file and must be formatted with double spacing. Times New Roman font is preferred.

The subject line should read “Amok Anthology Submission/YOUR SURNAME/TITLE/WORD COUNT”

Please also indicate the location(s) used in your story within the body of your email.

Word count: Between 1,000-8,000 words.
Deadline: November 30th, 2013.

We will endeavour to notify all writers accepted for the anthology by December 31st, 2013.

Rights and Remuneration

The author will retain copyright of the work. Solarwyrm Press requests first print and digital publication rights, exclusive for 3 months from publication. After that, the author is free to accept publication elsewhere, post the story to their blog, or anything else.

Stories may be edited for minor spelling, grammar, or formatting issues. Stories with major spelling and grammar issues will be rejected.

The author will receive 1 paperback copy of the anthology, and be paid at the rate of 1/2 a cent per word, which equates to a maximum of US$40.

This anthology will also be crowdfunded and promoted in conjunction with editor Jax Goss’s Precocious Children anthology. Feel free to consider submitting to both.

Report your response times at Duotrope

Launching Adrift by Dominica Malcolm

Now that we’ve finished with the release of Fae Fatales: A Fantasy Noir Anthology, we’re getting ready for the release of our next book.

Let me first introduce myself. Up until now, all the other Solarwyrm posts have been made by Jax Goss. I’m Dominica Malcolm, one of the writers from Fae Fatales. Like that book, I am running a crowdfunding campaign for my novel, Adrift.

Cover of Adrift by Dominica Malcolm

It’s the 21st century, and Jaclyn Rousseau is not where she should be. 1661 disappeared before her eyes, and there’s no way home. That matters not to Jaclyn—she lost her lover, and everything else that meant anything to her, in the West Indies.

In an adventure that crosses time and the Atlantic, a murderous pirate must find a place for herself in this new world.

Can she escape her past, or will it catch up with her?

Unlike Fae Fatales, money is not being raised to pay writers and artists, but instead to go toward marketing, promotion, and advertising costs. 20% of the net profits will also be donated to the World Literacy Foundation.

As a promotion for the launch of the campaign, we are running a giveaway. You can win copies of Adrift, Fae Fatales: A Fantasy Noir Anthology, or Jax Goss’s The Edge of the Map. Check it out!

There is also another way to earn a free ebook copy of Adrift. You will need to head over to the campaign on Indiegogo, and have a login. Once you do, share the campaign link with your unique Indiegogo ID at the end (if you’re logged in, you can just copy the URL from the share section of the page, or the URL bar in your browser, or even use the share buttons on the page). If you help raise $10 or more through the campaign, I will send you the ebook.

If you haven’t yet had the chance to pick up Fae Fatales, you can also get the ebook version for free or at a slight discount through Adrift‘s Indiegogo campaign, when buying the novel. Check out the campaign page for details.

Add Adrift to your shelves on Goodreads.

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