Underground Writers Network Forum Submission call: Tabloid Purpo..

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Submission Guidelines for
TABLOID PURPOSES 5
Cyber:Terror:Machine

The concept for this one is much different than the other four so pay attention very closely with this – the fact that I always included Science Fiction of some form with Tabloid Purposes from the very conception of the series come to play here and this one. The fact I am trying to include a cyberpunk influence.

              You must read the first four for the science fiction stories for the ideas that I want to convey with this one being Tabloid Purposes was born on the Dawn of the 21 st Century, the fact some stories dealt head on with 9/11/2001 and other things in current times or tried to keep it current. This time around I want a mix of Gothic Horror with a Cyberpunk element – the cyberpunk setting with the Gothic Horror plot devices thrown into the mix. Since both genres are related to each other – I want all stories set in the 1990 to the 2027 time frame. (Post Second Iraq War. In this alternate future the war has ended.)

           I want to recommend 2002 film, The Time Machine, for some insight you have a lot of homework to do for this one how to make the cyberpunk and Gothic Horror themes work. So I am doing the guidelines way ahead of time here. We're in the here and now as Joseph Armstead wrote in the introduction of Tabloid Purposes IV, there was landscape we haven't touched into as a series and this is a ripe playground to really tear things up in – the future. I also want to include a positive faith influence so writers of the faith community are strongly encouraged to get into the mix since Philip K. Dick was a Christian author. I, myself, am writing the test story for this concept anthology. Going for the vibe I did when I first wrote The Storms of Armageddon. Taking that cyberpunk concept and taking it one step further – this will also give a doorway for stories set in 2012 (yeah that is why I want to call the subtitle Cyberterrormachine.)

              Bands like Fear Factory covered the cyberpunk them and so did the heavy metal band VOIVOD. The darker the cyberpunk story the better, really give it a punch and make the story so supernatural, that the systems will crash. Play around with Hangar 18 and Area 51, both places are fair game here for a supernatural cyberpunk concept. The concept of the story will open the gateway for a theological element in there. Ghosts in the mainframe, demons causing a computer virus, Aliens finding ghosts in an area they couldn't understand so they had to come to earth and investigate – the previous books are characters in the fifth book or books by any of the writers involved with the series can have a cameo in the story. I am not looking for Satanism here with the story or alternative sexuality laced stories so don't even try to send me a story that has that theme in it. Do not send me any erotic content, but the dark side here is mixed with the supernatural and science. I do encourage both Atheist and Christian authors with this one.

            I am also encouraging collaborations again this time around because I think the only this can be pulled off is by authors collaborating with each other. Cyberpunk fiction came into reality during the 1990s so keep that in mind – if you're an author in my life time as in you're my age or a little bit older, you know what I am talking about. Think Blade Runner in the realms of Science Fiction here but combine it with the H.P. Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood type supernatural horror elements. Keep it scary but make it really smart. The smarter the delivery is – the better. Macabre elements are really encouraged but try not to go overboard with the gore with it. Scare me to hell and use the science element equally with the supernatural element. This is the thing that made H.P. Lovecraft known because he wrote horror and Science Fiction in the same story.

           If you can include King Kong (public domain characters okay, but you must have your own characters accompanying them) type fiction into the cyberpunk setting –– that is also encouraged but try to keep the supernatural type horror fiction in the cyberpunk element. It is much harder to do the two together. I am going to have a list of books for people to read while they are getting ready for this one. The element I encourage more than anything with this anthology is the neo-noir element. Tabloid Purposes as a series always had this element in there – the fact that Tabloid Purposes II and IV were the two darkest installments of the series so I am looking for that kind of darkness with this one. Tabloid Purposes Five will carry on the tradition in the level of darkness but including some new concepts with it. The fact that the cyberpunk element comes to mind here, think of the things that Philip K. Dick thought of when he wrote his work and if you read I AM THIS MEAT, that will give you some direction I want to go too with it – not quite what Philbin does with Chimeraworld because I don't want to steal his thunder there, but I want something that will compliment Chimeraworld #5 in some ways while at the same time do something that makes Tabloid Purposes Five stand out If you do an alternate history story it must be alternate 1990s starting and goes into future history up to 2027.

          I am looking for something extremely fierce here. Keep the future history in mind and try to go too far into the future with this one. I want to keep the future aspect as close as possible and in this, cyberpunk type science fiction had always the most realistic.

• Suggested Readings: A Dark Obituary for A Common Man by Apathademon, Coach's Midnight Diner, Philip K. Dick's work, Richard Matheson's Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
• Stories: 2400 to 8000 words (firm) Genre: Cyberpunk with Supernatural Horror elements
• Format: send stories as a .doc attachment
• Stories off target will be considered for the magazine
• Line up picks the editor's story.
• Keep in your life time – ie if you were born in 1982-1986, you have a wider time frame to play around with. This is about possiblities and having characters who have a Tabloid Journalist background – no Alt. Sexuality characters.
• Deadline: July 28, 2008
• Submission begin date: Feb 13, 2008 (start writing stories now – this thing will fill fast like Tabloid Purposes II did.)
• Payment here: STARTING @ $10