A Quiet Shelter There Anthology

A Quiet Shelter There

An anthology of speculative stories about companion or service animals.

Submissions Guidelines

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Mahatma Gandhi

A Quiet Shelter There. An estimated four million unwanted dogs and cats are euthanized every year in the United States.
Throughout the country, animal shelters, humane societies, and other rescue groups are working to change this by helping
homeless animals find forever homes, healing those that are sick or injured, providing training and socialization for those that
need it, and working toward a future in which there are no more homeless pets. This anthology directly benefits one of those
shelters, Friends of Homeless Animals (http://www.foha.org), which has rescued and placed dogs and cats in the Washington
D.C. metro area since 1973. In 2010, even with limited funding due to the downturn in the economy, FOHA found homes for
350 dogs and 150 cats, including hard-to-place FIV positive cats, and they routinely house over 100 dogs and 50 cats at
their shelter in rural Northern Virginia. 70 percent of the profits for A Quiet Shelter There will be donated to FOHA--other
shelters across the country will be able to buy the book at a discounted price if they want to use it for fundraising.

We are looking for: Stories about companion or service animals. We expect most of the stories to be about cats or dogs,
but will not rule out stories that deal with other animals. We will accept fiction and poetry only. No essays. No nonfiction
articles. Preference will be given to speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism, etc. But we will also
consider other kinds of fiction, including (and especially) humor. While we welcome poetry submissions, we will probably not
use very many poems in the book. The submission can be from an animal's point of view, or it can be a more traditional
story that features or deals with animals in some way. We are open to seeing what you have to offer--just don't make us
work too hard trying to figure out how your story fits our theme. (Please query if you aren't sure if your idea will work within
the guidelines. Email address is below. Put QUERY in the subject line.)

Electronic submissions only: Do NOT send attachments. Emails sent with attachments will be deleted unread. Send the
story in the body of the email. Please double space between paragraphs, single space your text, and put some kind of
indicator between sections--no other fancy formatting is required. Please do NOT press Enter at the end of each line--let the
words wrap naturally. We will acknowledge receipt of each submission. If you do not receive an acknowledgement within five
days, please query to see if we received your sub (glitches do happen).

Please include a short bio of yourself with your submission, 100 words or less. New authors will definitely be considered, so
if this will be your first sale, don't be afraid to say that.

No simultaneous or multiple submissions.

Query first before submitting reprints.

Submissions must be in English, and contributors must be 18 or older.

Submission dates: May 1 to August 31, 2011.

Length: 1000 to 4000 words, query for longer or shorter.

Payment: By PayPal. $10.00 US for stories, $5.00 US for poems--you may choose to donate your payment to the shelter.
You will also receive one copy of the book; extra copies of the book will be available at a special author's price.

Other Important items: Stories will be judged based on merit. You do not have to have been published for your story to be
accepted, but we strongly recommend that you have the story critiqued or workshopped and please send good, tight, clean
prose. The editor has certain preferences--even, dare we say it, quirks (read: strong biases). Check out her blog to see
comments on these and read updates on anthology submissions.

No media tie-ins such as Star Trek (R), etc. (only the studios can authorize those) will be accepted. No using someone
else's literary creations (Big Red, for example) unless you are sure it is in the public domain (and can point us to where it
says it is--most literary characters are not: heirs have a habit of renewing copyrights).

We’re not looking for anything beyond mild language unless absolutely crucial to the plot. No gratuitous sex or graphic
violence. This book will be for all ages.

Where to send your submission:

Editor: Gerri Leen