Open to Submissions - And Some Suggestions for New Writers

We opened to subs May 15. http://mundania.com/submissions.php

Please, please, please follow the guidelines. We aren't looking for the same things we were last year (this applies to unsolicited manuscripts--in house authors can sub anything any time) and it speeds up the process for everyone in slush when the guidelines are followed.

Some additional tips for those who might be interested:

1. Please double check your spam folders for correspondence. An auto-reply is sent to submissions received. If you didn't get an auto-reply, we didn't get your submission--but check your spam folder. I highly recommend querying from an email address such as Gmail, as we've had trouble with both AOL and Comcast receiving our replies.

2. All submissions that follow the guidelines will receive a reply. If you don't receive a reply, check whether you sent a genre we're not looking for, a file format we don't accept, or didn't include something important such as a synopsis. Depending on the volume of submissions, you may get a rejection letter pointing this out or the submission may have been deleted without review. If you don't receive a reply and you *did* follow the guidelines, again, keep an eye on your spam folder. Every time we open for subs, I receive a handful of complaints that I didn't get back to people when I did send an R notice. (To that end, no, nothing from last year is still under consideration--those full reads were handled in January/early Feb.)

3. Please don't resubmit previously submitted material unless specifically asked to do so. You'll be able to tell because the email will say, "Please feel free to resubmit this in the future."

4. Please watch what you say on your blog. There's nothing worse than being excited about a manuscript, visiting the author's site, and being disappointed in their behavior.

To expand on this, understand that while the number one most important thing is the book you've written, acquiring a book means entering in a business relationship with someone for at least three to five years (and hopefully more--we love to build a backlist with authors). I understand new writers don't have a whole lot to talk about *but* the submissions process on their blogs, but less information is usually the way to go. It's probably not a good idea to blog about rejections. It's *really* a bad idea to blog about rejections calling the editor or agent by name. It's *really* not a smart move to sub to small press and then speak of them as less-than on your blog.

We google every author and every book under serious consideration, to see if the work was previously published and to see if the author is someone who raises any red flags (whether they're professional ones or rather serious ones, like arrests for stalking and assault, which has happened). Treat your public words as what they are: words anyone can read, including people you want to work with.

Sort of like dressing at work for the position you want and not the one you have, act *now* like a professional writer even if you don't have pro credits yet.

The likelihood is that we'll stay open for submissions for sixty to ninety days. Don't rush your work: take your time, polish things up, because you have a couple of months to do so.

Happy writing!

New Release & Guest Post: Light in a Dark World by Dina James

Today we have author Dina James visiting with a post about her new release, Light in a Dark World.

This collection of intertwined short stories includes three (revised and extended) ones which first appeared in The Mammoth of Vampire Romance, The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance, and The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2: Love Bites, along with three all new stories as well.

Read on for a chance to win All Wounds from Dina's backlist!

And here are a few words from Dina about this release:

Though more a study in physics, human perception and the biological construction of the eye, it's been shown that the light of a single candle can, in theory, be seen from up to ten miles away, holding back the surrounding darkness.

Sometimes there is light in the darkest of places. Even more ironic is that the darkest hour is actually the herald of the light. So, too, can the darkest of beings actually be a guide through the shadows.

When one thinks of heroes, they generally don't think of vampires. The members of Clan Destrati certainly don't think of themselves that way. They are, however, the light in a dark world – the single candle holding back the darkness they were born from.

There is one being who knows the true origins of Clan Destrati, and he won't talk. Not even if you bribe him with a bottle of his favorite whiskey. He alone knows why the Destrati do what they do. He alone knows what they're truly capable of.

He alone knows the darkness they truly hold at bay.

Light draws attention to itself. Drawing attention by being the only light in a dark world can be a bad thing.

A very bad thing indeed.

Light in a Dark World: Legends of the Destrati - Dina James

Kyle abhors the word "vampire." He prefers the more accurate term "lost soul," for that is how true vampires are made -- through a damning bargain with the Devil. Kyle is unique among what could loosely be called his kind, for he not only wants the return of what was, he feels, stolen, but because he was once the demon lord Kailkiril'ron, servant of Lucifer.

Known as The Betrayer, Kyle is a powerful force to be reckoned with by any standard, both feared and shunned by every single vampire clan in existence, including the renegade Destrati. Why he would choose to assist one of their members -- the very member sent to bring Kyle to justice -- is his own affair. The better question is why anyone, let alone a Destrati, would accept The Betrayer's help.

The Destrati differ from other vampire clans in that the whole of its members have turned away from the Darkness with whom they once dealt. Destrati feel that the parasitical cost of their cursed existence is too high, and have sworn to redeem the souls they bargained away for their immortality. They make it a fierce point to keep others from being coerced into trading their souls. This is seen as interference by the other vampire clans, and while most clans are at perpetual war with one another over such differences in philosophy, Clan Destrati members are among the most hated, for they, like Kyle, are seen as betrayers.

Among Ethereals, Clan Destrati's reputation and exploits are as renowned as the associates it boasts. Within these pages are but a few of their legends.

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Interested in winning an e-copy of Dina's previous release, All Wounds?

Leave a comment with your email address to go in a random draw for an ebook in your preferred format. Winner will be drawn this weekend.

New Release: Whiskey Sour by Skyla Dawn Cameron

Whiskey Sour by Skyla Dawn Cameron

One night without protection led to French-Canadian fae bartender Juliette Aubrey catching lycanthropy. Now half faerie, half werewolf, and entirely pissed off, Juliette has the chance for revenge when the last person she wants to see strolls into her bar needing help.

This short story download also contains two bonus stories.

A Vampire Walked Into a Bar: Pat knows there are vampires in his city, and now he has visual proof. He's set up a meeting with someone who might be able to stop them...but there's a vampire or two who might have something to say about that.

Zombie Faeries: When a vampire entered her territory uninvited, faerwolf Juliette Aubrey decided to teach her a lesson. Unfortunately for her, that vampire is Zara Lain. And unfortunately for the both of them, they aren't the only big, bad creatures of the night in the cemetery when they meet.

Whiskey Sour originally appeared in the anthology Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad.

17 000 words.

New Release: Dormitory of the Dead by Kelly Lougheed

Dormitory of the Dead - Kelly Lougheed

Blood coming out of the bathroom faucets of Charity Hooper's Hawthorn School dormitory doesn't just mean Charity can't wash her face to maintain her porcelain (well, kind of) complexion--it means there's a dead body from 1923 buried in the plumbing, astonishingly well-preserved by the wet sewage conditions.

Well-preserved enough, in fact, for the dead girl's vampire boyfriend to reanimate her as a zombie so they can live happily ever after, massacring innocent Hawthorn students side-by-side.

Faced with such homicidal creatures, Charity would ordinarily consult her English teacher, Ms. Van Tessel, whose knowledge of zombie extermination rivals only her knowledge of British literature. But Ms. Van Tessel has gone mysteriously missing. Can Charity track down her teacher before the annual midnight Capture the Flag tournament, which will be nothing more than an all-you-can-eat buffet for the vampire-zombie tag team?

------------------

Dormitory of the Dead is the sequel to Kelly Lougheed's fabulous YA paranormal satire The Graveyard Gymnasium. When we last left Charity Hooper, she had faced the Romanian exchange students--vampires who attempted to raise a legion of the undead from beneath the Hawthorn School gymnasium--as well as a potential tempestuous affair with one of the handsome creatures of the night. This time she's back for another encounter with the undead and more homework to avoid.

This is Kelly Lougheed's third novel, the first being the standalone Cads and Cadavers, also available from Mundania Press. Want to check out something from her backlist? I'll give a random commenter their choice of either The Graveyard Gymnasium or Cads and Cadavers in their preferred ebook format. Be sure to leave your email address!

New Release & Guest Post: Lineage by Skyla Dawn Cameron

So today we have...um, me and my book. Yeah, this is awkward. Same deal, though: brief guest post and a chance to win an ebook from my backlist.

I Hope You Don't Like My Heroine

Every time I write, I'm drawn to do something I know will slash in half my potential audience.

I write about bad people.

With the exception of my demon hunting nun in Hunter, this is invariably what I do. I write people with unlikable qualities. Women who are damaged, often violent, who react poorly to kindness, who make really terrible mistakes, whose prickly exteriors are in place to keep everyone at a distance--perhaps even the reader.

Still, I identify with them, even when I don't particularly like them. I do at least try to show why they are the way they are, so maybe you, dear reader, while not wanting to sit down and have dinner with them, can perhaps spend a 90K word book with them.

At the same time...I also hope you don't like my new heroine, Persephone Takata.

Peri--due to her rather deep flaws--wasn't where she was supposed to be one day. And because of this, she survived an attack that killed her husband and two children. Years later, she's a deadly combination of quarter-demon and trained mercenary, whose suicidal tendencies are only exceeded by her homicidal ones. She comes from an extremely dark place. She does very horrible things. She betrays people, she lashes out, she doesn't care about anything but her mission of avenging her family.

I hope you don't like her. I hope you can't identify with her. I hope you've never had anything so horrible happen to you that it turns you into someone like her. And I hope you never will find yourself in a place that's pitch black and cold, swimming in guilt, certain you'll never get out.

And if you do...I hope you manage to find your way out again.

~Skyla

Lineage by Skyla Dawn Cameron

What's a woman to do when her dad's the antichrist, her grandma's the devil, the end of the world is at her doorstep, and she's out to avenge the murders of her husband and kids?

Kill everything in her way.

Quarter-demon Peri Takata exists with but one goal in mind: annihilate everyone responsible for the death of her family. Then--her need for vengeance quelled--she plans to take her own life.

Her mission brings her to vampire Zara Lain, the only known survivor of the event that destroyed Peri's family five years ago. Hunting down a secret society of those who don't want to be found has its challenges, however, especially when forces are working to keep the antichrist's daughter very much alive. The apocalypse is closing in and Peri may be playing a role in it whether she wants to or not

(Exclusively at Mundania Press, the ebooks contain a bonus short story called Sunrise from the perspective of fan favourite character, Nate O'Connor. All paperbacks also contain the story.)

Want to win an ebook from my backlist? Leave a comment with your email address and I'll randomly draw a winner Saturday at 12am EST.

Valentine's Day Sale!

Now through February 18, take 25% off your order at Mundania.com by entering the coupon code LOVE2012 at checkout.

Think we publish just science fiction and fantasy? Not so--we have a variety of romance and cross-genre romance novels, including everything from our Awe-Struck imprint (regency, paranormal romance, romantic comedy, SF romance, historical romance).

New Release: The Man Who Loved Yolanda Dodson by Patricia Snodgrass

Today we have a new release by Patricia Snodgrass. Read on for how you can win a copy of something from her backlist with us!

The Man Who Loved Yolanda Dodson was the most difficult but one of the most rewarding stories I've ever written. A love story, from a man's point of view, Vincent Clebourne takes interviewer Julia Santos on a journey of his life, from his humble beginnings as a farmer's son in South West Arkansas, to silent film and radio star turned wild game hunter. Here we discover Vincent's great loves, his losses, and the lessons of a love that never could be. I hope you enjoy The Man Who Loved Yolanda Dodson as much I loved writing it.

~Patricia

The Man Who Loved Yolanda Dodson - Patricia Snodgrass

Vincent Cleburne, silent film actor and big game hunter conquered women as easily as he hunted tigers in India. Now, Vincent has set his sights on the exquisite beauty, actress and man eater, Yolanda Dodson.

During an outburst at a popular nightclub, Yolanda challenges him to hunt and kill a white leopard and bring her the pelt.

He readily agrees. But what Vincent doesn't realize when he gets to Nepal and begins his hunt, is that he will be marked by his quarry in ways that he never dreamed possible.

Interested in winning a Patricia Snodgrass book? Leave a comment here with your email address and you can win either her Southern Gothic Glorious or her spicy paranormal romance Marilyn. Winner to be drawn 12am on Saturday.