Edit: The submission deadline has been extended to April 30, 2022.
Since its beginnings in the early 1980s, the Life, the Universe, & Everything Symposium has been a staple of the Utah and Intermountain West author and artist community. Many authors, artists, and editors have found inspiration for their careers at the feet of scores of symposium guests. Influential professors and others have mentored those planning and running the symposium, but many of these mentors have passed on.
The symposium helps students of all ages by providing greatly discounted student memberships. Hemelein Publications—in conjunction with LTUE Press—created a series of memorial benefit/charity anthologies to help the symposium continue to help these aspiring creators learn about their crafts at a reasonable cost. Author, artist, and editor royalty proceeds from the anthology go to LTUE to help students attend for a very low cost.
The sixth of these anthologies, Troubadours and Space Princesses, is a science fiction and fantasy adventure anthology, created in honor of Dave Wolverton. Best known under his pseudonym David Farland, Dave passed away in January 2022. He was a fixture at LTUE from the beginning. He mentored many, many writers and artists through his workshops, his work with Writers and Illustrators of the Future, conferences and conventions, and just personally. He was always kind and generous with his time and knowledge.
Theme
At heart, Dave was a storyteller, a spinner of yarns fantastic. To honor his memory and connection with LTUE, we want stories of troubadours, minstrels, and bards teaming up with princesses feisty and bold. We want them to save the kingdom or the spaceship, or maybe only the tavern or spaceport bar, or even just the cat. We want tales of adventure and mischief. But most of all, we want fantasy and science fiction tales with heart, stories of kindness and courage, much like those Dave wrote.
Set your story in a magical fantasy world or in a galaxy far, far away; just give us a warm and happy ending to your adventure. Tell us the kind of story you’d want to hear on a cold winter’s evening gathered at the local inn where the troubadour has come visiting. Tell us the kind of story Dave would love.
In summary:
- Stories must meet the theme as described above.
- Story characters and settings must be your own. Do not use other creators’ characters or settings.
- Stories can be any length up to 17,500 words.
- Stories can be unpublished or reprint stories.
- Up to two submissions per author.
- No simultaneous submissions, please.
- Stories must meet the content guidelines described on the Submission Guidelines page
- This is a benefit/charity anthology, so stories are donated and authors receive no monetary compensation
- Authors receive a print copy of the anthology and an electronic copy.
- We ask for print, electronic book, and audio rights, 90-day exclusive worldwide English after publication for unpublished, and no exclusivity worldwide English for reprints. We request to keep the anthology in publication indefinitely.
- Stories are due by April 30, 2022 at 11:59pm Mountain Time.
If you have stories that meet these criteria, please submit them here:
Acceptances or rejections will be sent by September 30, 2022, and acceptances will be accompanied by a publication contract with all the details. The anthology will be released during the LTUE symposium in February 2024 in electronic and printed form, and possibly audio format.
As this is a benefit/charity anthology, author, editor, and artist royalty proceeds go to support the symposium’s mission of education, training, and inspiring authors, artists, and editors in producing the next generation of amazing speculative fiction works. The anthology will be jointly published by Hemelein Publications and LTUE Press. This anthology will be edited by Joe Monson and Jaleta Clegg, co-editors of the LTUE Benefit Anthologies series.
Stories not accepted for this anthology may be submitted for consideration for future benefit anthologies for LTUE during each submission period. Additional benefit anthologies will be published in the future, under a variety of genres. Themes so far have been space opera, adventure fantasy, light horror, wizards, and unusual heroes.
If you are an artist and would like us to consider using your works for this or future benefit anthology covers, please contact us.
Please forward this call to anyone you think would be interested. If you have additional questions, feel free to contact us.
We appreciate your support of this cause, and we look forward to seeing your stories.
