Circlet Press seeks short stories of erotic sf/fantasy for:
Touch Me, Heal Me
An Anthology of Erotic Fantasy and Science Fiction
edited by Mollie Wolfe
The Concept
“Since consciousness cannot bear witness to death, the life of the survivor becomes the repetition of the reality that consciousness cannot grasp. In the traumatic encounter with death, life itself attempts to serve as the witness that consciousness cannot provide.” – Cathy Caruth, “Parting Words: Trauma, Silence, and Survival”
Marginalized identities, cultures, and individuals have survived horrific traumas that remain unspoken, whether voiced or written. Rather than relegating these traumas to the past, this repression dooms such damage to repetition without end. Freud’s “talking cure” hinged on giving voice to such silenced memories, but some traumas lie too deep to be expresed in words. Non-verbal expression, connection, and communication lie at the heart of the needed healing, making erotica the perfect medium to explore this concept.
“It is always the story of the wound,” trauma scholar Cathy Caruth writes, “that cries out, that addresses us in the attempt to tell us of a reality or truth that is not otherwise available.” Freud located this wound in language and the psyche, but we can center it elsewhere, in the body, in the physical, erotic, and ecstatic self. What erotic practices exist, or can be imagined in your stories and fantasy worlds that would allow the memories of the flesh to speak?
MORE DETAILS ON SUBMITTING:
Length: Our preferred length is approximately 3500 to 7500 words, but we will consider the range from 2000 to 10,000 words. All submissions must be made via email to Mollie Wolfe, editor, at the following address: mollie.circlet@gmail.com
Deadline June 15, 2017
Submissions sent to other addresses/other editors at Circlet Press will not be considered. Standard manuscript formatting rules apply even though sending as an attachment (MS Word .doc or .rtf preferred). Please note that this means your name, address, and email contact must appear on the manuscript itself and not simply in your email message. (If you’re not sure what standard short story submission format should look like, Google is your friend.)
No simultaneous submissions (that is, don’t also send your story elsewhere at the same time, and don’t send it to multiple Circlet editors, either), and no multiple submissions to the same book. One story per author per anthology, thanks.
All stories must include explicit sexuality and erotic focus. Romantic content is welcome, but in a short story remember to keep the details on the action and its effects on the main character’s internal point of view. We favor a strong, singular narrative voice (no ‘head hopping’). For more details on our editorial preferences, see the general submission guidelines on circlet.com (https://circlet.com/writers-guidelines/). We highly recommend reading the guidelines, especially the “do not send” list, to increase your chances of sending us something we’ll love. Try to avoid cliches. Fresh and direct language is preferred to overly euphemistic. Sex-positive, please, no rape/nonconsensuality/necrophilia or other purposefully gross topics. We do not publish horror.
Originals only, no reprints. We purchase first rights for inclusion in the ebook anthology for $25, with the additional rights to a print edition later which would also be paid $25 if a print edition happens. Authors retain the rights to the individual stories; Circlet exercises rights to the anthology as a whole.
