Today we celebrate humanity's explorations of many new frontiers: Space, technology, the environment and the human condition and experience. How will we forge ahead? What will occur when nature meets machine? When humanity is faced with choices such as shedding corporeal form to become part of living technology or something as ethereal as pure energy? How will we learn to balance our curiosity with the needs of a living planet? The desire to reach beyond what we know?

Authors are invited to submit stories to the Cascadia anthology.  To be considered for publications, stories must fit the following criteria:

The story will be set in whole or in part, in the Pacific Northwest ( Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Northern California, British Columbia, or Alberta).

• The story will be written in one of the speculative fiction genres (science fiction, fantasy, horror, or alternate history).

• The story will include elements or thematically explore the relationship between technology and invention and either man, nature, or the environment. An example of this might be a story set in world similar to the ShadowRun ® game or a cyberpunk setting where you explore how competition with thinking computers has caused the degradation of humanity and society.

•We welcome stories with a geographical theme. These may or may not be set in a utopian or dystopian universe. Humorous stories also welcome. Cultural commentary is fine, but political satire should be avoided. Clichés should be avoided.

Examples of some clichés to be avoided:

• Post-cataclysmic rag-tag armies struggle to survive against gangs of bandits, mutants, cyborgs, cyberpunks, etc. and/or try to win back their territory in the same old ways as every other film or book.
• An entire society is run by a computer. Maybe it goes berserk.
• A society consists of:
• A handful of ultra-powerful ultra-rich;
• Police whose only principle of operation is maintenance of the status quo;
• Hordes of poor people starving in the streets;
• Absolutely no middle class exist whatsoever. Nonetheless, the society manages to remain at a high technological level.

• Societies where all technology has been destroyed except automobiles and their equivalents, which are still running yet there are no mechanics, workshops, or gas stations.
• Alternative Earths where society is just like some society of the past, with technology added.

The above examples and many more can be found at The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés.

•Story length: 250 to 10,000 words. Stories between 4,000 and 10,000 words preferred. For stories longer than 10,000 words, please query first with a synopsis of the story, previous publications credits and SASE for reply. We prefer original work, but will consider previously published work

1. Manuscripts (Mss) must be on clean, white paper.

2. Mss must be typed, double-spaced on one side only.

3. Mss pages must be numbered.

4. Author’s name must appear on every page

5. Story must be accompanied by a page with the following information: Author’s name, author’s nom de plume (if applicable), author’s permanent address, author’s email address (required), author’s phone number and an accurate story word count. Author biography – 200 word maximum. If any of this information is not supplied, submission will be discarded.

6. A business sized envelope with first class postage for response.

7. Manuscripts will not be returned.

8. No email submissions will be accepted.

9. Do not send submissions signature required or certified. Use delivery confirmation forms if author desires to see whether or not submission has been received.

10. Submissions should be sent to:

Cascadia Anthology  
Windstorm Creative Ltd.  
Post Office Box 28  
Port Orchard WA 98366 		   

Questions? Send your questions to: Anthology Questions