PGS Special Halloween Issue: Call For Submissions
After the PGS holiday-themed issue, let's try, at the suggestion of award-winning writer and PGS contributor Yvette Tan, a Halloween-themed one. In fact, seeing as the workload for PGS is piling up, and it's becoming harder to manage things as both publisher and editor, I've accepted Yvette's offer to let her be the guest editor for this special issue due out near Halloween 2008.
Since stories of the supernatural are what grabs Yvette's attention (and what flows from her pen most of the time), editing the Halloween issue seems like a perfect fit. The guidelines:
- Submissions have to be of the horror/suspense genre. Ghost tales and stories of the supernatural are welcome. Cross-genre tales are also welcome (think "Alien", the first one, which is really more horror with a mix of scifi). Trying to mix horror with other genres like humor, fantasy, or romance is also welcome.
- Horror tropes, whether local or international, are welcome, but preference will be given to tales with a fresh take. Feel free to set your story anywhere, or write about any topic you want, but be aware there are things that have been done many times before.
- It's all right to use in your story mythic creatures, settings, or items that are not copyright protected (like kapres, aswangs, werewolves, vampires, El Dorado, the Fountain of Youth, etc.). But stories with such that are still under copyright protection will be rejected. So an homage/fan-fic piece, like Dracula in Dagupan, or Sherlock Holmes chasing a lost tikbalang in gas-lit London, might be considered, depending on how well-written and original the piece is (Note: Dracula and Sherlock Holmes are characters of the public domain now, as are all of Shakespeare's plays). But stories involving copyrighted material will not be considered. So a story involving Lestat wielding Voltes V's laser sword driving Marty McFly's DeLorean while being hunted down by Captain Barbell in alliance with the Powerpuff Girls, Darna, and Elmer (who is brandishing Indiana Jones' bull whip); said tale being also set in a modern-day Bacolod that has several magical/scientific/yada-yada shining portals that can take you to Hogwarts/Middle Earth/The bridge of the Enterprise/Narnia/Camp Big Falcon/Super Mario World,...will be rejected outright.
Pure, original stories, with original or copyright-lapsed characters, items, and settings, are most welcome. :)
- Send your submissions to pdohs(at)yahoo(dot)com. All stories will then be forwarded to Yvette Tan.
- Deadline is June 30, 2008, about six months away from the date of this post.
All previous horror/suspense submissions that are currently pending will be automatically forwarded to Yvette for this special Halloween issue. If you have any questions, just leave a comment here. Thanks!
*Erratum: thanks to The Bibliophile Stalker, who sent in this link, I found out that Arthur Conan Doyle's characters are still under trademark protection after all. So that erases Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and a few others from free use. My mistake; I thought enough time had passed for the characters to have fallen already into the public domain. Thanks for the heads-up, Charles!
- Submissions have to be of the horror/suspense genre. Ghost tales and stories of the supernatural are welcome. Cross-genre tales are also welcome (think "Alien", the first one, which is really more horror with a mix of scifi). Trying to mix horror with other genres like humor, fantasy, or romance is also welcome.
- Horror tropes, whether local or international, are welcome, but preference will be given to tales with a fresh take. Feel free to set your story anywhere, or write about any topic you want, but be aware there are things that have been done many times before.
- It's all right to use in your story mythic creatures, settings, or items that are not copyright protected (like kapres, aswangs, werewolves, vampires, El Dorado, the Fountain of Youth, etc.). But stories with such that are still under copyright protection will be rejected. So an homage/fan-fic piece, like Dracula in Dagupan, or Sherlock Holmes chasing a lost tikbalang in gas-lit London, might be considered, depending on how well-written and original the piece is (Note: Dracula and Sherlock Holmes are characters of the public domain now, as are all of Shakespeare's plays). But stories involving copyrighted material will not be considered. So a story involving Lestat wielding Voltes V's laser sword driving Marty McFly's DeLorean while being hunted down by Captain Barbell in alliance with the Powerpuff Girls, Darna, and Elmer (who is brandishing Indiana Jones' bull whip); said tale being also set in a modern-day Bacolod that has several magical/scientific/yada-yada shining portals that can take you to Hogwarts/Middle Earth/The bridge of the Enterprise/Narnia/Camp Big Falcon/Super Mario World,...will be rejected outright.
Pure, original stories, with original or copyright-lapsed characters, items, and settings, are most welcome. :)
- Send your submissions to pdohs(at)yahoo(dot)com. All stories will then be forwarded to Yvette Tan.
- Deadline is June 30, 2008, about six months away from the date of this post.
All previous horror/suspense submissions that are currently pending will be automatically forwarded to Yvette for this special Halloween issue. If you have any questions, just leave a comment here. Thanks!
*Erratum: thanks to The Bibliophile Stalker, who sent in this link, I found out that Arthur Conan Doyle's characters are still under trademark protection after all. So that erases Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and a few others from free use. My mistake; I thought enough time had passed for the characters to have fallen already into the public domain. Thanks for the heads-up, Charles!
posted by pgenrestories at 8:21 AM
7 Comments:
hi! Is there any way to know if you were able to receive a story that I submitted last 17 Sept? I know that you said specifically in the submission guidelines section that you probably won't have time to confirm receipt of submissions, but I'd just like to make sure. I think it has enough horror elements to be eligible for this new collection :p
Hi Ron. How are you? I sent you an email in reply. Thanks very much.
ayos. i'll have something for you guys very soon. :D
Thanks, kilawinguwak! I'll make sure Ms. Yvette Tan gets it after you send it in.
"...a story involving Lestat wielding Voltes V's laser sword driving Marty McFly's DeLorean while being hunted down by Captain Barbell in alliance with the Powerpuff Girls, Darna, and Elmer (who is brandishing Indiana Jones' bull whip); said tale being also set in a modern-day Bacolod that has several magical/scientific/yada-yada shining portals that can take you to..."
Sir, what have you being eating or smoking to give you such hallucinations?
LOL! Napaghahalata po ang edad, sir!
EK 8 )
Hi EK!
Yes, I know I'm old. I've been told many times that my pop references reflect my age. :D Not that I mind. My Voltes V and Back To The Future will be your Anime and Harry Potter when you reach my age.
But there is some seriousness behind the absurdity of the scenario I cooked up in the post. I've received a number of submissions and/or private emails asking about PGS printing fan-fiction, and sadly I've had to say "no" because of possible legal issues (maybe offending some of these contributors, who never emailed back). The owners of the copyrights of established characters, items, or settings could come after the author and PGS. I'm not sure how fan-fiction websites get away with it. Perhaps there are internet laws that can circumvent this, or perhaps it's because these sites usually don't have money involved. In any case, without proper permission, author and publisher can become legally liable. The over-the-top description I used in the post is meant to highlight this.
Hope that clears it up.
Argh. I'm old. Never mind. I can always ride my DeLorean and go back to the 80's if I really want to...
It's okay, sir. I did watch Back To the Future, too, and liked it a lot. I'm an 80's-90's girl.
Don't worry about your policy, sir. You're right about your concern. Since fanfiction.net is online, it can do things that you as a publication can't. Stand your ground. You're giving fanfic writers (like me and Celestine) incentive to write original material, after all that practice. I openly admitted to being a fanfic writer so I can tell people, "I'm a fanfic writer, and I can now actually write original stuff that The Establishment will accept! You can, too!"
EK 8 )
Post a Comment
<< Home