Deadline: June 30th, 2023
Payment: 3 cents per word
Theme: A look at the south of the United States through the lens of speculative fiction

B Cubed press is proud to announce our latest Open Call:  Alternative Truths. Southern Edition: Bless their Hearts (working title).

Edited by K.G.  Anderson and Bob Brown and the next in B Cubed Press’s best-selling Alternative Truths series.

This book will examine the South, a place where politicians and their followers compete to peg the outrage meter. Why—and how—are they turning the United States into a cauldron of bigotry and hate?

• They are banning books.
• They are controlling free speech (“Don’t Say Gay”).
• They have placed bounties on abortion seekers.
• They have declared war on Mickey Mouse.
• They promote state takeovers of local prosecutors’ offices, election boards, college governing boards, and school curricula.
• They think no one is too young or too unbalanced to have a gun and are In full retreat on gun-safety laws.
• They would make your gender identity a crime.

It goes on and on.

This book will look at the mindset behind these and other efforts to bring back the Old South, a mythical place and time when everyone knew their place.

We want you give us stories that speak to the consequences of such a mindset and where it may be taking us as individuals and  as a culture. What, if left unfettered, would they make of America, the world, and the future. And more important, how will we fight to stop them.

 What we are looking for:

We are accepting stories, essays, and poems.

When you write, go deep. You won’t sell us a story just by mocking the Right or by being Left. We want thoughtful looks at the issues. Hate doesn’t work for us.

We like character-driven stories. We like to laugh. We like to see redemption.

Your story doesn’t have to be set in the South, but it should reflect the essence of Southern politics, past or present.

Give us your insights into those who espouse a revisionist history of the “glory days” of the South. Or tell us about the efforts of Civil Rights marchers, poll workers, or school kids demanding schools free of mass shootings.

Tell us a good story, be it from the pre-Civil War era to a futuristic colony in space created by an Atlanta billionaire. You can send fantasy, science fiction, Westerns, or straight-up general fiction.

The book will be shaped more by the stories you write than by the words of this call. So write your best. We have room between these covers for stories by and about multiple ethnicities, sexual orientations, and belief systems.

As we said before, the editors love humor and redemption stories with a strong sense of humanity and compassion. No two-dimensional stereotypes, please—unless you are going to shatter those stereotypes as part of the story. (As the Disney wars are brewing, don’t be afraid to make reference copyrighted characters but please don’t have them as active characters in the story.)

Please click on a submission type to begin a new submission.

Via: B Cubed Press.