New Ceres is a shared-world twice-yearly online publication. The background of the New Ceres concept is that “During the war that left Earth uninhabitable, refugees from the doomed planet fled to the outer colonies. Many of them found their way to New Ceres, a planet that embraced the Age of Enlightenment almost two hundred years ago, and has not yet let go. The water may be green and spaceships may be landing on a regular basis, but New Ceres is a planet firmly entrenched in Eighteenth Century culture. Offworld technology is strictly forbidden to anyone outside the government, and powdered wigs are in fashion.”
The reading period for issue #3 is open from now until 1 November (#3 should be posted in November). They’re looking for “fiction of any length, and short ‘non-fiction’ articles that explain an aspect of the society, history, or world of New Ceres. We anticipate that the contents of the first several issues will be a combination of solicited and unsolicited works. Submissions will be open to writers in any genre. The only proviso here is that your work must exist within the context and reality of the world. We are equally happy to see swords at sunset, romance, space opera, humour, social comedy, horror… there are as many variants as there are writers.” Payment is in Australian currency, 5¢ per word up to A$300 per story; A$10-$20 for non-fiction. The world and its stories are operating under a creative commons license, making the characters and settings from each story available to all. Full writers’ guidelines are available on this page.