Trick or Treat: Tricks

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Trick or Treat: Treats



Halloween is a time for scares and candy, for ghouls to come out of the dark and goodies to be dropped into bags. In short, Halloween isn’t Halloween without both Tricks and Treats. This dual furry anthology will feature both. For folks that like a good scare, Tricks will have spooky stories with a furry bent that should send a chill up anyone’s spine. For those with softer appetites, Treats will feature some wonderful adult-themed stories that center around Halloween to keep you warm on an autumn night.


Basic Guidelines:

*10,000 words max. (Query for longer stories before submitting with a basic synopsis and why you need those extra words – We might be willing to stretch the limit.)

*Word .doc or .rtf file, Times New Roman, 1” margins all around. No need to worry about double-spacing. Use Italics for Italics.

*When submitting, include preferred contact info on first page as well as author name and submission title.

*Number pages and include author name and abbreviated title in header of each page.

*No simultaneous submissions or copyrighted characters that are not your own creation.

*Original stories only please, nothing that’s been in other anthologies or up on FA, SoFurry, InkBunny or any other website or community.

*Email all submissions to ianus.anthologies[at]gmail.com Include “Trick or Treat Submission” in your subject line.

*Yes, you can submit multiple submissions, but in most cases only your top story is going to be considered.



What I want for Tricks:

*Scare me – that’s the first thing; if you can actually really scare me, you have a much better shot. Not just a surprise scare, write something that might make me hesitate to turn off the lights at night.

*Be innovative – Come up with a spooky story that’s not just the same old, same old. Yes, stories with vampires, zombies, etc. will be given consideration, and I’ll probably accept at least one or two given their popularity with Halloween. But unless they’re amazing, they’ll almost always lose out to something really different.

*Run wild – There aren’t any limits, this is going to be an anthology for adults still, so violence and/or some gore are just fine. However, don’t send me 5,000 words of nothing but gratuitous gore and violence, have a story to back it up.

*Furry – Don’t think I need to say this, but this is a furry antho. You can’t give me a story with one lycanthrope and say, “There, it’s furry.” There are plenty of other anthologies for that.

*Use the tropes – Halloween has a lot of tropes and traditions that can easily give you some great material. Use those traditions and the actual history of Halloween wherever it fits your story.

*Halloween is not about Satan – I’ll know if you haven’t studied the real mythos behind Halloween throughout time and while the use of devils and demons for your horror story is fine, you won’t get any mileage out of a Chick Tract about someone defeating the “evil” of the holiday itself.



What I want for Treats:

*Sex – Let’s not mince words, Treats is meant to be on the steamy side with a Halloween or late autumn theme. Give me something that will turn the reader on.

*Eroticism – Go beyond just having your characters rut for ten pages. Give me a reason for them to have fun and why it relates to Halloween.

*Any and all orientations – Treats is meant to be equal opportunity. I’ll probably divide them up into categories in the anthology, but give me gay, straight, bi, whatever.

*More than just October 31st – Don’t take a random adult story and just change all the calendars to Halloween. Give me something that at least relates to the time of year or couldn’t just as easily take place on President’s Day or Arbor Day. The theme is Halloween.

*Supernatural allowed – You’re free to use actual supernatural themes in your erotica if that’s what you want, and it does fit the theme. Really clever use of the supernatural and Halloween mythos will help you out. This is not about erotic horror though, so keep that in mind.

*NO UNDERAGE CHARACTERS – At least not in any sexual situations. If they have to be in the story somewhere for storytelling sake, that’s fine, but they need to be out of the room and tucked in bed upstairs before the real action starts.



For questions about any of the criteria above, send email to ianus.anthologies[at]gmail.com with the subject heading “Trick or Treat Question”



Deadlines:
Submissions will be open until April 1, 2013 for Trick or Treat: Tricks and Treats!

Compensation:
Stories – Rabbit Valley® Comics will pay out a flat rate of $100.00 per accepted story for the print production of the anthology. A second payment of $100.00 may be paid out after a period of one year from publication for the digital version of the anthology. We do not pay out on word count as we feel that authors should be free to express their story in as many words as necessary, within the limits of the anthology in question.

Artwork – Rabbit Valley Comics is not actively seeking artwork for submissions at this time.