Roby James is editing Warrior Wisewoman, the first of what is expected to be an “annual anthology series of science fiction featuring powerful and remarkable women,” for Norilana Books. They expect to publish it first in paper in June 2008, to be followed later by an electronic edition. This anthology “is intended as a sister volume to the Sword and Sorceress fantasy series, with the main difference being that the story themes will involve science fiction instead of fantasy. They will be intended for a more mature audience, allowing a mixture of serious contemporary issues and reasonable sexual content (but no erotica) in addition to action and adventure. The stories will have a stronger focus on the interface between scientific exploration and our sense of wonder.”
James will start reading stories on 31 October 2007, and reminds writers to not submit before then. She says “I am looking for stories that shed light on the truth of what it means to be female, that illuminate the wisdom and the strength of a woman, but not in cliché ‘goddess’ stories. I love action and adventure, grand space opera, thrilling discovery, and intelligent protagonists. Make the story thoughtful, wise, and surprising, not merely the same old metal spaceship hull filled with cardboard military uniforms with female names ‘barking’ orders and firing at aliens. In addition, the stories in the anthology should appeal to genuine emotions, suspense, fear, sorrow, delight, wonder. The science can be part of the background and the characters foremost, or the science can be central to the story, as long as the characters are realistic and appealing.”
She adds that, although the anthology is expected to be science fiction, “I also welcome stories of spiritual exploration, looking at the bond between the scientific and the divine. I want to see how a woman survives tragedy and disaster, overcomes impossible odds, achieves her true potential, or goes on to thrive in a marvelous universe of so many possibilities, using what is inside her, as well as what she finds in the laboratory, the alien planet, or space itself. The stories should contain the question of ‘what if’ on some level. And they should have a woman answer it.”
Payment is two cents per word, with a deadline of 31 January 2008. To submit a story, see the guidelines page.