Deadline: March 31, 2016
Payment: $5 and a contributor copy
Kill Those Damn Cats – Cats of Ulthar Lovecraftian Anthology
The First United Church of Cthulhu is looking for horror fantasy involving the titular creatures from H. P. Lovecraft’s story The Cats of Ulthar. The original is set in the Dreamlands and is part of a series of short stories and novellas called the Dream Cycle.
Everybody’s got a story about those cats.
You can (re)familiarize yourself with the Dream Cycle here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Cycle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underworld_(Dreamlands)
Deadline: March 31, 2016
Length: 2,000 – 10,000 words
Payment: $5 + contributor copy
English only. Non-exclusive anthology rights. Reprints and multiple submissions are allowed. Author retains copyright. Payment is via Paypal.
Guidelines:
The cats are cats.
1. They do not have spoken lines. They do not have telepathy. They have no internal monologues. They did communicate with Randolph Carter in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath so this is acceptable, but we do not want talking animal stories (i.e. Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, Bugs Bunny, etc).
2. They do not walk upright. They do not wear clothes. This is not Puss In Boots.
3. They are not werecats or shapeshifters of any kind. But other beings from the Cthulhu Mythos who do have shapeshifting abilities may be found among the cats.
4. Cats are already very intelligent, so they can act with a human level of intelligence. Just no driving cars, shooting guns, writing novels about themselves, etc. They’re still cats.
5. They can have supernatural qualities. But they are not furry little wizards, so no fireballs or Expecto Patronum.
6. The majority of the story must take place in the Dreamlands.
7. The majority of the story must be about the cats of Ulthar. Do not tack on a companion cat to one of your sucky D&D campaign stories and try to pass it off as Lovecraftian.
8. Feel free to use any of the people, places, or monsters already listed in the Dream Cycle stories.
9. The Dreamlands have their own set of gods, the Great Ones. Do whatever you want with them. Nyarlathotep is the only being from the rest of the Mythos gods who makes an appearance in the Dream Cycle. You may include cultists, monstrous servants, and avatars of the other Mythos gods but give them a good reason to be there. Cthulhu DOES NOT wake up and start mucking about the Dreamlands.
10. Magic and supernatural powers are usable in the Dreamlands. Just don’t go all Tolkien on us.
11. The story can NOT be about humans taking the cats of Ulthar from the Dreamlands (our head priest has already called that plot device).
It is more of a fantastical place instead of a technological one; think Super Mario World or Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland or even Adventure Time but with more horrific elements.
The story can be pro-cat, anti-cat, or anywhere inbetween.
Pictures can be printed with the story (they will be black and white). Images should be .jpg or .png; 300 dpi is recommended but not necessary. Make sure you have clearance to use the image(s) and send with any necessary copyright information that would need to be listed.
Email your story as an attached .doc file to bitter_venus [at] yahoo.com with Kill Those Damn Cats as the subject.
Via: First United Church Of Cthulhu
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Stuart Conover is a father, husband, published author, blogger, geek, entrepreneur, horror fanatic, and runs a few websites including Horror Tree!
