Spoke Too Soon

Remember how I was talking just the other day about how few werewolf anthologies there were to submit to? I guess I spoke too soon, cause Duotrope’s Digest just emailed me yesterday, and here’s one of the new markets:

Children of the Moon: A werewolf anthology
Don’t let the name fool you (cuz it’s likely to change); these bad dogs aren’t cute or cuddly. Try and tickle one of these chins and you’re likely to lose fingers. Howl, baby, howl.

We’re going to keep the parameters simple and only enforce three story rules upon the submissions.

1. NO POETRY ABOUT WEREWOLVES. Original prose only; no reprints unless requested by the management.
2. Your story must be about a werewolf. No rats, owls, canaries, etc. We want something about the original moon babies, not sideshow creatures from your urban fantasy novel.
3. Your werewolves must be traditional shapeshifters. By this we mean at least capable of shifting from human (be it male/female/child) to wolf and back again. Whether they do it in the story is up to you, but the capability must be there.

And their other upcoming anthology looks pretty interesting too.

A Rustle of Dark Leaves: Tales from the Shadows of the Forest
For this anthology, I want dark stories set in the forest. It can be anything from a tropical rainforest in Brazil, to a jungle in the heart of Africa, or a state park in the U.S.A. As long as your characters are surrounded by lots of trees, they’re in the right place.

As far as content, I want dark, but that doesn’t necessarily mean just straightforward horror. Nothing wrong with straightforward horror, of course, but I’m also very open to fantasy and even SF and literary if you can make it work. Basically, I want you to draw me in and enchant me. I want to be caught up in your story like I’m lost in the very forest its taking place in.

The setting is pretty much my only requirement for this anthology. I will give a bit of advice and warn writers that killer trees and man-eating plants aren’t likely to be accepted, so you probably don’t want to waste your effort on those. Other than that, though, I’m anxious to see whatever you can come up with!

I think I have a few stories going through the stages right now that could fit that prompt as well. It’s nice to see some anthologies that are pronouncing the traditional werewolf as well. I much prefer them to other were-beasts, amusing as they can be.

On a side note, I’ve had a piece for almost 2 months over at Ticonderoga Publications: Damnation & Dames Anthology. And although they acknowledged the submission days after I sent it, there’s no way to tell how long it’ll take to get feedback. Hopefully its not an anthology that reads all of the submissions after the deadline, cause then I wouldn’t near back until *next* year. Oh the annoying little details of publishing short stories. Too bad there’s no firm rule to reference for how long to wait before withdrawing a story. Duotrope says one submission has waited 84 days without word.

How long do you usually wait before withdrawing a piece? If there’s no estimated time given, does that change how long you wait?

PS: Embedded is pretty awesome so far. When describing it to a friend, the only category that seemed to do it justice was military space noir. Crazy, I know. But it works.