Acceptances Announced!

Congratulations to the following authors who were accepted into the anthology, "Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations"!

(Listed in alphabetical order)

A.J. French                        Rebirth in Dreams

Andrew S. Williams              The Talisman of Hatra

Bruce L. Priddy                   Gilgamesh and the Mountain

C. Deskin Rink                    Königreich der Sorge (Kingdom of Sorrow)

Caw Miller                         The Small, Black God

Chelsea Armstrong              The Nightmare Orchestra

Cherstin Holtzman               In Eden

Curtis James McConnell        Bare Bones

Cynthia D. Witherspoon       Angel of Destruction

David Tallerman                  The Door Beyond the Water

Fadzlishah Johanabas          Gestures of Faith

Folly Blaine                        British Guiana, 1853

Gitte Christensen                Whale of a Time

Jackson Kuhl                      Quivira

Jamie Lackey                     Quetzalcoatl's Conquistador

Jason Andrew                    Requiem

Jay R. Thurston                  The Funeral Procession

JC Hemphill                        The Island Trovar

Joe R. Lansdale                  The Tall Grass

Jonathan Vos Post              Sumeria to the Stars

Mark Lee Pearson               To Run a Stick Through a Fish

Matthew Borgard                We Are Not The Favored Children

Michael G. Cornelius            Directions

Rob Rosen                         Buried Treasure

Wendra Chambers               The Moral of the Story

In total, there were 204 submissions. There were so many brilliant and well-written ideas that it was agonizing to be only able to select a small handful. I wish I could have included many more authors, but space was limited. Final tally to print is 25 stories comprising about 106,000 words of all original fiction!

All final notices, either rejection or acceptance, have been sent via e-mail. If there are any questions or concerns, you may e-mail me directly at: eric.guignard@gmail.com.

This anthology will be published by Dark Moon Books:

Web: www.darkmoondigest.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Dark-Moon-Digest/144741405546080

This anthology is still estimated to be released next spring for World Horror Convention, 2012 - http://www.whc2012.org/.

Thank you again to all who submitted stories - I truly enjoyed reading every one.

Keep writing!

Submissions are now CLOSED for "Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations"

Submissions are now CLOSED for "Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations"

Whew! I have just finished logging in all submissions and confirming receipt to authors.

It will take me a few weeks, but I will read everything and respond to submitters as I can. I will issue rejections right away and save stories with potential for my final "short list", from which to make acceptances before the end of November.

FINAL COUNT: I received 204 submissions, over 50 of which arrived within the last two weeks! A few stories come from the same author, meaning I rejected a story early on and they later resubmitted a new tale for consideration.

The average word count for all submissions is 4,469 with a range between 850 words up to 15,100.

Thus, I will have read well over 900,000 words by the time of final selection (or more than nine full-length novels).

I received submissions from 23 countries, including representation from each of the six "major" continents (i.e. all but Antarctica).

I am still estimating this project to be on schedule with a publication date of approximately the end of March, 2012.

Thank you to all submitters and I will be in contact with each of you!

Warm regards,

Eric

One week left to submit!

Only one week remaining to submit your fiction short story to the anthology, "DARK TALES OF LOST CIVILIZATIONS"!

Deadline is midnight, October 31.

Full submission guidelines at:

http://ericjguignard.blogspot.com/2011/06/now-accepting-submissions-new-anthology.html

Cheers,

ONE MONTH LEFT for submissions to anthology, "Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations"

As a reminder, there is only one month remaining to submit your story to the anthology, "Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations"! Be sure to get your Dark Tale in on time — this collection is going to be incredible!

Open call ends midnight, October 31, 2011.

Submission Statistics:

As of yesterday, September 29, I have responded to all inquiries and submissions.

I have so far received 121 submissions. Of those, I have accepted 6 stories immediately, added 55 to the short list, and declined 60. The average word count so far is 4,185.

Most stories will be short-listed first and final acceptances selected from the short list within thirty days after open call is ended. I have been generous in adding stories to the short list, because I have wanted to provide feedback to potential contributors as soon as possible (average review time has been four days). Each submission is graded on a rubric scale and so the ones which rank higher will ultimately displace the stories beneath them on the scale. Thus, as I receive more submissions, I will be reviewing stories from the short list and rejecting those which fall far enough below the others. It is a bit unconventional, but I find it to be a very fluid process and it keeps me involved as I continually go back to review stories received, in order to judge them against their peers.

I needed, please see my blog for the original guidelines and monthly updates.

Please connect with me at any of my social media sites for updates to this book and other opportunities!

Blog: http://ericjguignard.blogspot.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ericjguignard

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/the.real.eric.guignard

Best of regards,

Eric

Anthology MONTH TWO update

The second month of open call for "Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations" has just passed, and I wanted to provide a current update.

Well, it has been another month of reading outstanding submissions! I have received many dark and fascinating ideas, even though a few of them have explored similar subject matter. I am not at all opposed to including stories in this anthology that discuss the same legend or civilization, as long as each is unique and well-written.

With that being said, I did want to mention one niche that I am lacking a bit of. I would say that at least 75% of the submissions are involved with "discovering" the remains of a lost civilization, people, etc., such as an archaeological or anthropological expedition, or that which explores just a random crossing of times and worlds.

While I would never tire of reading such stories that I love, I am also looking to include a substantial amount of tales explaining "why" a civilization or town collapsed or vanished. I would love to read submissions which are alternative history or speculative fiction, detailing the last days of a nation or world before they were destroyed. What was the reason they failed or horrible fate that befell them? What was learned? For example, why did the Minoans survive for fifty years after a volcano devastated their Island, only to then suddenly fade away? What occurred to the "Lost Roman Legion" that appeared inexplicably in the Gobi Desert, 17 years after going missing? What happened to the Indus Valley people, a culturally-advanced society that spanned from India to Afghanistan - they are considered India's oldest known civilization, numbering over five million in population, yet suddenly vanished at the height of their power!

Showcasing…

I am beyond thrilled to announce that one of my favorite authors has agreed to showcase an original story in this anthology!

Joe R. Lansdale - http://www.joerlansdale.com/todaysfeature.html

Joe R. Lansdale is considered one of dark fiction's greatest living authors. Having won last year's top honor at the World Horror Convention for category of best short fiction, Joe has also authored numerous novels, short stories, screenplays and comics in a wide collection of genres, spanning over forty years (he wrote the movie Bubba Ho-tep - c'mon!).

Besides Joe, I will also be including new fiction stories by a few other established authors that I admire and have invited to participate! I will announce more on who they are later.

Submission Statistics:

As of Wednesday, August 24, I have responded to all inquiries and submissions.

I have so far received 75 submissions. I have accepted 4 stories immediately, added 36 to the short list and declined 35. (NOTE that most stories will be short-listed first and final acceptances offered 30 days after open call is ended.) The average word count so far is 4,304.

I am still expecting to receive about two hundred submissions by the end of open call and I am still initially short-listing about half of the stories. Each submission is graded on a rubric scale and so the ones which rank higher will ultimately displace the stories beneath them on the scale. Thus, as I receive more submissions, I will be reviewing stories from the short list and rejecting those which fall far enough below the others. It is a bit unconventional, but I find it to be a very fluid process and it keeps me involved as I continually go back to review stories received, in order to judge them against their peers.

Just a little over two months to get your submissions in! Open call ends midnight, October 31.

Besides updates which may be found at my blog, http://ericjguignard.blogspot.com, I have also set up a Twitter account, http://twitter.com/#!/ericjguignard.

Best of regards,

Eric

Publisher announced!

I am pleased to announce that I have signed with Dark Moon Books as the publisher for "Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations"! Dark Moon Books is the Horror imprint of Stony Meadow Publishing and also produces the quarterly magazine, Dark Moon Digest.

http://www.darkmoondigest.com

http://www.lastwritesdmd.com

Over the past year and a half, Dark Moon Books has been immersed in the HDF market producing books, digests, contests, publicity, and preparing to be a major force at the 2012 World Horror Convention.

At this time, my goal is to have this anthology book in print and ready for WHC on 4/1/2012. Submissions will close 10/31/2011. I will edit until 12/31/2011 and then submit the finished book to Dark Moon. They will then format and layout and send to print. Depending on print schedules or other unaccountable incidentals, this should work out great to be right on time!

Updates may be found at my blog, http://ericjguignard.blogspot.com.