Watch out! The deadline is right behind you!

There are only 18 days left until the deadline!

But no rush.

Update #1:  The allotment for artists filled up pretty fast.  I will accept 1-2 more with styles different from those in the showcase.  If you’re interested, feel free to email me with examples of your work.

Update #2:  I’m going to pitch this anthology to my publisher next week, so we’ll see where that leads us.  Hopefully it ends in good news!

Update #3:  I broke 100 submissions (around 200K words) roughly two weeks ago.  Out of those first 100, I’m only considering about 17.  My goal is to include 25-30 worthy stories.

Moving on.  As submissions continue to roll in, I’ve been asked one question quite a few times: “Before I submit, do you have any helpful tips?”

I sure do!  Here they are:

·    I’d like to see people shy away from setting their story inside Memory Eater stores.  Write with the understanding that readers will know a character went to a ME store if a memory is missing.  What I really want to see is your story’s character and how they either overcome or stumble over the obstacle in their way.

·    A lot of submissions deal with lovers and spouses deleting each other or their sleazy deeds, so know if this is the path you’re taking, there’s going to be a lot of competition.  A LOT.

·    You can alter the purpose of the Memory Eater, but know that only a small number of these submissions will be accepted, so again, this will be a tough category to win in.

·    I’d say about 8 to 10% of the submissions fall into the category of humor, so if you want to increase your chances of being selected, write a funny story.

·    Don’t get hung up on explaining the history of the Memory Eater in a story not dealing with the history of the Memory Eater.

·    I love unique voices, unique perspectives, unique situations, unique characters, unique…  For example, I just got done writing a story from the perspective of a gay man who is forcing his adopted eight-year-old girl to participate in a pageant show onboard a crashing plane.

·    Write with confidence, please.  If you don’t even believe in your own story, how am I supposed to?

And last but most importantly, make sure you incorporate the Memory Eater in some way, shape or form.  Meaning I'll reject stories that use telepathic powers, aliens, goblins, plungers, magic (really, I'm getting this kind of stuff) or anything else that isn't a variation of the Memory Eater to delete memories.

Now get back to writing!  That’s what I’m going to doJ

Artist Showcase Posted

I just posted a page dedicated to the artists who will be illustrating stories for The Memory Eater.  There you'll be able to view some of their work and find links to their sites.  You can click here or the link at the top of the blog to see.

Since I'm all for art, a big THANK YOU to everyone participating.  I'm still waiting on work from four artists, so I'll add them to the page as they come in.

I’m also still in need of a handful of artists, so if you are one or know of one, feel free to shoot me an email.

Artists Needed

I’d like to see how many artists would be interested in creating black and white illustrations for stories that will be included in the anthology.  All styles are welcome.  Since I already have 5 people interested, I’d need about 18-20 more.  Less if artists are willing to illustrate two stories.

If I get enough interest, I’ll move forward with this idea.  In the meantime understand that details are scarce and payment would be “for the love of”, although I’m willing to negotiate fair deals.

One of the things I'm planning on doing is dedicating a page on my blog where the participating artists will have a few pieces of art on display along with a link to their respective sites.  Once I have the stories selected, I'll go through an assign artists.  The artists will then be able to read the stories and come up with their own interpretations.

Feel free to send inquires to anthologies2011@gmail.com.  I don’t need a long message.  “Hey, I’m interested,” will do just fine.  But make sure to attach a few samples of your work to the email.  I’ll try and get back to each inquire within one business day.

Good luck finishing up those stories!

C. P.

Progress Report

I’d like to shed some light on how The Memory Eater anthology is progressing and why I extended the submission deadline.

First things first.  I had a breakthrough in marketing, mainly by focusing on Twitter, which I began using on May 16^th.  Here’s a look at how it helped my blog statistics:

March:  803 views (I began my blog on March 15^th)

April:  1,287 views

May:  2,906 views (764 from Twitter alone)

With an average daily view count of around 170, I’m predicting 5,000-5,500 views in June.  Possibly more depending on how much time I have to advertise.

While traffic and interest has more than doubled, I wanted to give newcomers adequate time to write and edit their submissions, so I extended the deadline.  Will I do it again?  It depends on the following…

Several small publishers have showed interest in the project.  Now I haven’t had the time to respond to all of them yet, but I’m getting there. 

Truth is, within the last two weeks, I found out that three of my stories are going to be published.  Two of them are sci-fi novelettes accepted by the same publisher, so when the time is right, I’m hoping to pitch this anthology to them.  This could be very good, especially if I ended up getting contributors paid up front.  Not to mention the market the anthology would reach.  Keep fingers crossed!

This idea has already far exceeded my expectations and new paths are starting to open up for it.  But as always, my main focus is on producing quality, so back to the slush pile it is for me.

And to those writing stories, the best of luck to you!

C. P.