A lot of times I have a WTF please pinch me, this is too good to be true feeling about my family and the work that I get to do in the world. This has certainly not lessened while working on the final edits for Roving Pack and simultaneously signing the contract to edit Leather Ever After! Seriously now I actually get to read fairy tales and be able to legitimately call it research!!! You better believe I’m going to milk this for as long as humanly possible 😉
It’s been just over a month now since I was officially able to go live with the news about editing this new and very different anthology and it has continued to be fun for me to see the different reactions I’ve gotten to the announcement. People I know have pretty much broken into smiles or giggles and talked about how they see this as just about *the * perfect book for me to be working on because I’m such a funny little one. I really love realizing *just * how well my community actually knows me :p
I’ve been trying to talk up the anthology as much as possible on the internet and in person – I even went old school and made ¼ sheet printouts with the call for submissions. I don’t know if folks do that anymore, but it’s always been my style, so I figured I’d rock it this time as well. If you feel like your community/event needs some paper flyering and you’re up to helping out shoot me an email ( LeatherEverAfter@gmail.com )and I can send you the file so you can print some out : )
It’s been exciting and surprising to already be getting stories submitted! For me, opening my inbox to see stories is like a little mini Christmas (and if you follow me on facebook/twitter you know how much I LOVE Christmas 😉 ). I hope, since the deadline for submission isn’t until August 1st (that’s in your calendar right?!?!) that this is only the beginning and that all of you out there are busy thinking about fairy tales and all the ways you can kink them up! With that in mind, there have been a few questions/concerns/ideas I’ve been getting from folks pretty consistently so I thought I’d answer them publically
5 tips for submitting to Leather Ever After (other than following the submission guidelines) :
1) I have a REALLY broad definition of what can be included under Leather but as I’ve been saying “the presence of homosexual content does not a kinky story make.” This is Leather Ever After so I really want to see writers turn up the kink (of whatever flavor).
2.) Tell me a story. I’m a sucker for a really good story. I’m editing this anthology because I LOVE both leather and fairy tales. If you want to get into the anthology I can comfortably say it’s probably not enough just to use the name of a well known fairy tale character and then write a completely different story that has zero reference to any of the key aspects of the original fable. I’m not saying anyone has done this, rather just putting it out there as a general useful FYI.
3.) You don’t have to be a fantasy writer. Let me say that again, you don’t have to be a fantasy writer to submit to this anthology. I’ve had some people approach me and say they would love to submit a story to a book I’m editing but they don’t write fantasy so this won’t work for them. I imagine ::fingers crossed:: I hope I hope I hope ::fingers crossed:: I will get some fabulous submissions that really are deeply rooted in that traditional fairytale magic of dragons, witches and secret potions BUT that’s not all I want this book to be. Let me let y’all in on a little secret, I’m not a fantasy writer either, and I can guarantee (because I already know what I’m writing 😉 ) that my story in the book is going to be a gritty retelling and restaging of a fairytale in our present world. I certainly hope ::fingers crossed:: that I’ll be getting a lot of those sorts of stories too because I believe very deeply that while fairy tales are about magic, the world we live in is full of it’s own sorts of magic and I hope that writers considering submitting will take note and not feel limited but rather inspired by the idea of bringing fairy tales into today.
4. ) Please please please look beyond what I call the ‘Disney Cannon’ when you’re thinking about what story you’re going to use as your inspiration. There are so many incredible and pevertable fairy tales, don’t restrict yourself! Go to the library and pick up a collection of Hans Christian Anderson or Grimm’s Fairy Tales, or google them. I’m not saying I won’t include the most well known fairy tales (Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid etc.) in the anthology – I most certainly will, but I’m not going to include 10 retellings of any of those stories (that would be awfully boring don’t you think?). I guess what I’m saying is if you’re going to tackle one of those very well known stories be sure you’ve got a really good idea to knock me out of the park, and really I’m hoping folks are going to dig deep into the possibility of other stories. There are literally dozens of fairy tales down on their knees just begging to be leathered up and corrupted 😉
5.) You can find the full call for submissions here. If you have questions or concerns please send me an email LeatherEverAfter@gmail.com I try to be really approachable and believe there’s no such thing as a stupid question. I’m also really happy to have folks bounce ideas off of me.