Fantastical Andrew Fox

Now that my fundraising campaign on Freedomfy is over with and I know how much capital I have to work with, I’m free to post my submission guidelines for my upcoming open anthology, AGAIN, HAZARDOUS IMAGININGS: More Politically Incorrect Science Fiction. Due to the smaller-than-hoped-for funds available, I’ll be doing this open anthology as a companion volume to my single-author collection on the same theme, HAZARDOUS IMAGININGS: The Mondo Book of Politically Incorrect Science Fiction. My original plan had been to put out a single, really big volume, but since I’ll only be able to purchase about 30,000 words of original fiction from other writers, I figured two volumes would make more sense (otherwise, two-thirds of a sole book would be my fiction, which wasn’t what I intended).

Without further ado, here’s what I’m looking for–

Science fiction is often called “speculative fiction.” Speculation and extrapolation – asking what if? and why? or how? – is the life’s blood of science fiction. Science fiction writers can’t wrap themselves in yellow CAUTION tape. They need to be free to follow their what ifs? wherever those speculative rabbit-holes may lead… even if they lead to dark, dank, unpleasant places.

Recent controversies within the science fiction and pop culture fields illustrate a dramatic and worrisome reversal of what has traditionally been science fiction’s greatest strength: the freedom it has granted its creators to confront, extrapolate, and dissect technological and social trends, from a panoply of viewpoints, using a full arsenal of intellectual and literary tools. Writers who were once lionized as key contributors to the science fiction field are now being drummed out of the community by online zealots who stir up instant outrage mobs in hopes of “canceling” those voices who do not fall in line with the current progressive zeitgeist.

Science fiction should always make room for contrarians, for heretics, for the unfashionable and unpopular, for dreamers at the fringe. Without them, the centuries-long conversation at the heart of science fiction becomes a sterile echo chamber. Writers holding viewpoints from across the political spectrum must all feel welcome. In this era of accelerating technological and social change, we need a healthy, vigorous, daring and courageous science fiction, more than ever. One with no ideological handcuffs or defensive self-censoring.

Guidelines for AGAIN, HAZARDOUS IMAGININGS:

● Stories can be up to 7,000 words, maximum. (Although if the story is truly outstanding, I’m willing to be a bit flexible on word length.)

● Stories cannot have been previously published (this is an ORIGINAL anthology).

● No simultaneous submissions (I don’t want to get all hot-and-bothered about your wonderful story, only to learn it’s been sold to Clarkesworld Magazine).

● I intend for this anthology to serve as a cultural snapshot in time. With this in mind, shoot for the stars – submit your very best work, work you are proud of.

● I am looking for stories that, due to their content, viewpoint, and/or subject matter, have little or no chance of being published in the commercial market. Yesterday’s transgressions (those spotlighted in Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions) are today’s cultural virtues and/or commonplaces. What are TODAY’S taboos? What kinds of science fiction stories are verboten in today’s commercial publishing market? What just won’t fly, whether due to shared social beliefs and aversions common to editors, assumptions that editors make about their readerships’ beliefs and aversions, or the commercial pressures of the corporate publishing world? How can these modern-day taboos be illuminated and explored using the unique extrapolative tools of science fiction?

● No troll submissions! I am looking for stories of high literary merit. No stories that merely (or primarily) seek to shock, insult, or provoke will be accepted. The subject matter may be outrageous by the standards of today’s marketplace. But keep in mind, the more outrageous or disturbing the material, the more incisively it needs to be explored using the cognitive tools of science fiction. Your story may be humorous or satirical; the subject matter may greatly benefit from that approach. But your goals should be to induce your readers to care about your characters, their conflicts, and their predicaments, to leave your readers with something memorable to think about, and, last but not least, to entertain.

● Use of a pseudonym is acceptable. You have my word that I will not reveal your true identity if you do not wish it to be revealed, and I will be happy to disguise your PII (Personally Identifiable Information) in any story introductions.

● Payment is $.03 (three cents) per word, payable upon acceptance.

● Submissions will be accepted through 12/31/2019. Email submissions to: fantasticalandrewfox Atsymbol gmail.com .

● Submissions should be in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx), Word Perfect format (.wp), or Rich Text format (.rtf), double-spaced with one-inch margins and a 12 point font.

● AGAIN, HAZARDOUS VISIONS will be published as both an ebook and a print-on-demand trade paperback by MonstraCity Press. It is anticipated the anthology will be about 50,000 words in length. It is being published as a companion volume to HAZARDOUS VISIONS: The Mondo Book of Politically Incorrect Science Fiction, which will be a collection of novellas and stories by Andrew Fox, author of Fat White Vampire Blues and The Good Humor Man, or, Calorie 3501.

I’m not sure whether any of my readers here have attempted to donate to my Freedomfy fundraising campaign for my planned anthology, HAZARDOUS IMAGININGS; a technical glitch caused donations to not show on the page, so it appears I’ve collected a grand total of $0, although the administrators tell me that a bit more than $900 towards my $4,000 goal has come in. However, if you’ve tried to donate, you may have assumed the site wasn’t working and that your donation wasn’t going through. That part has been fixed, although my total raised hasn’t been updated yet. Still 23 days to go (they gave me an additional week, due to their feeling bad about the glitch). If you’d like to donate, or just check out the page and see what I have planned, here’s the link again:

https://www.freedomfy.com/projects/push-back-against-woke-science-fiction-support-the-hazardous-imaginings-anthology/

The campaign’s end has been extended from July 5 to July 12, 2019. Thanks for having a look! Since I’m close to $1000 in donations, if I go with a $.04/word rate of payment, I’ll be able to acquire about 25,000 words of original fiction at this point. I’d like to do better than that, if I can…

Christian Toto, manager of the popular entertainment site Hollywood in Toto, published a lengthy interview with me regarding my HAZARDOUS IMAGININGS project, my efforts to push back against the closing of science fiction’s communal mind, the ups-and-downs of my writing career, and recent eruptions of “recreational outrage” on the Internet directed at science fiction writers who fail to hew precisely to the progressive, politically correct line of thought. Check it out!

I’ve made the decision to switch my fund-raising campaign for HAZARDOUS IMAGININGS: The Mondo Book of Politically Incorrect Science Fiction from Kickstarter to a new crowdfunding platform called Freedomfy. I’m looking to raise $4,000.00 by July 5, 2019 to pay for 60,000 words of original, high-quality fiction that addresses today’s social, political, technological, and cultural taboos.

I think it’s extremely important for the health of our society to have a diversified social media and Internet infrastructure. None of us should be satisfied with our social media and Internet semi-monopolies of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google. That’s why when I heard about a brand-new crowdfunding platform, Freedomfy, I was intrigued and wanted to support them. Also, they expressed a great desire to fund creative projects but hadn’t yet had many sign up. Glancing through their catalog of funded projects, I didn’t see any books. I figured that “the early bird gets the worm” – anthologies might be par-for-the-course at Kickstarter (where I wasn’t making much headway), but at Freedomfy, a free-thinkers science fiction anthology might be both novel and very much welcomed. I’m excited to be a trailblazer for creative projects at Freedomfy. I hope that by being a pioneer, I can both encourage other producers of creative content to use the platform and help ensure that Freedomfy thrives as an alternative to the other crowdfunding sites.

HAZARDOUS IMAGININGS: The Mondo Book of Politically Incorrect Science Fiction is intended to help push open the closing Overton Window of what is acceptable to address in science fiction and fantasy. Science fiction’s strength has always been its practitioners’ flexibility of thought. The genre has traditionally provided its creators virtually limitless freedom to extrapolate trends to sometimes ludicrous or horrifying lengths, and to imagine the social, environmental, and psychological changes that might come about when what is impossible today becomes tomorrow’s reality.

Yet science fiction and the indispensable freedom it provides to thinkers to “stress test” the future face an existential threat. Today’s increasingly popular ideologies of intersectionality and “wokeness,” with their accompanying prohibition against the “sin” of cultural appropriation, have done much to smother the freedom of thought and expression science fiction requires to thrive.

Why do I want to get this anthology done? I love science fiction. I have loved the genre in all its forms since before I learned to read. I grew up on a steady diet of Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Vonda McIntyre, Anne McCaffrey, Barry N. Malzberg, and Harlan Ellison. Our society’s present-day drift towards censorship worries me enormously. I’m not speaking of censorship by the government. Rather, the censorship of which I speak is the de-platforming of unpopular ideas by media companies, commercial publishing, and internet content/social media providers. It is the encouragement of self-censorship by shaming mobs — practitioners of “recreational outrage” who take advantage of the new communication platforms, hoping to bully writers and creators into conforming to the mobs’ political and social notions by inciting fears of ostracism that will demolish any hope writers may have of remaining commercially viable in their chosen field.

Science fiction is often called “speculative fiction.” Speculation and extrapolation – asking what if? and why? or how? – is the life’s blood of science fiction. Science fiction writers can’t wrap themselves in yellow CAUTION tape. They need to be free to follow their what ifs? wherever those speculative rabbit-holes may lead… even if they lead to dark, dank, unpleasant places.

So I hope you’ll join me in re-opening science fiction’s closing Overton Window by donating to or helping spread the word about HAZARDOUS IMAGININGS: The Mondo Book of Politically Incorrect Science Fiction.