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Now, if the idea of erotica
offends you, you won't like this one.
Salacious Tales published in 2013.
It was about the most fun I've ever had doing anything creative. With many
talented writers, I published a 500-page, 22-story anthology that was
beautifully illustrated by Aleksandar Žiljak. Aleksandar, who also
contributed fiction to the anthology, gave us stunning cover art, and did
23 interior B&W illustrations for the 22 stories.
We haven't been getting rich off this, but
it was so much fun I'm doing it again with Salacious Tales 2. This
is open until filled.
What I Want
I want science fiction,
fantasy, and supernatural horror of all stripes. With it, I want erotic
elements. This can be as simple as sexual suggestion or titillation or as
graphic as hardcore erotica.
I don't want the kind of sex tales
you're apt to find in adult magazines; the story must be about more than
people having sex. Like any
stories I publish, these must be STORIES, not slices of life, with plots,
and with characters who grow and change before they participate in the resolution
of the plot.
But these stories should be
erotic, with at least one erotic encounter that must be vital to the
story. Explicit language is okay. The sex doesn't need to be romantic.
Remember, the sex must be
vital—not "It results in pregnancy" vital, but vital as a sexual element. Don't take your latest space-trekking story and toss in a
"Captain of the ship bags the green alien" scene. Don't take a
sword-and-sorcery tale where the human rescues the elven princess and
throw in a screw session between them. The sex should matter in some way
to the story, and ideally be integral. (NOTE: I get A LOT of stories that
clearly are these, where it's obvious a writer pulled an unsold story from
his inventory, threw in a sex scene, and sent it along. Folks, I can tell.
Even if you wove it in seamlessly, I can tell if you didn't read these
guidelines and the erotic elements are only incidental to the plot. Yes, I
get that your vampire story depends on the sex because the poor heroine
was raped by a vampire, which sets up the birth of her half-vamp child,
but that's not enough.
What I Don't Want
With the first
ST, I said I wanted male/female encounters because, as a heterosexual male, I
wasn't a good judge at what constituted good LGBT erotica. Despite those
guidelines, inevitably some people complained. I'll repeat my original
note here: If you feel you have a
piece with LGBT characters that a hetero male editor would see as erotic,
send it along. I may find myself surprised. Even I wrote a story about two
women in love for ST1, and there was another lesbian story. (And if you're interested in me doing an LGBT
version of ST, let me know. I'd be very interested in working with a
serious editor who is LGBT.)
Obviously, in spec-fic,
there are endless opportunities for atypical male/female relationships. In
ST1, we had a man with an android female, a woman with a
computer-generated male, a woman voluntarily engaging in a gang-bang with
a hundred alien males, and so forth.
Make it original, make it
titillating, make it passionate, make it a good story, and make me not put
it down until I need a cold shower. If it works, I won't care about the
characters' sexual preferences.
Length
In general, I'm looking for
stories from 3,000 to 9,000 words; however, I am unlikely to accept long
stories unless they're very, very good. Long stories mean multiple shorter
stories won't make the cut.
Deadline
As always, until filled. I
am very picky and slow to fill, which you'd know if you read my
five requirements.
How
to Submit
Observing everything under
my five requirements, submit to
editor@epicsagapub.com.
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