Two announcements

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Or…. new and interesting ways to get in trouble…. for everyone!

Galactic Enquirer submission call!

Are you looking for an opportunity to hone your writing skills, get feedback, even make some money?  According to Hoyt has some for you!

First off, money!

Sarah Hoyt’s Inkstain Press is soliciting submissions for our Galactic Enquirer Anthology.  Please submit your humorous science fiction story of 6k-10k words to hollyfrost.inkstainpress@gmail.com by March 1, 2024 (note new date if you have seen this announcement elsewhere).  Payment will be by shares of royalties through Pubshare.

The 41st century is upon us, and historians work to piece together the 21st century from the bits, the bobs, the fragments and flotsam remaining. Humanity roams the stars, but a few overworked, underpaid, dedicated souls work to piece together what went before. What was earth like at the dawn of the first space age? They dig through rubble, occasionally they find a stash of paper, a trove here or there. Imagine, if you will, the 21st century as reconstructed from tabloids, from comic books, from bits written down. Language changes, oh, yes, it changes through the years, centuries and millennia.

But some few precious resources have helped these clever souls to decipher the past. To put together a true picture of life as it was. Glossy magazines, though crumbling, give gems of knowledge! Who knew politicians were lizards? Those creeps and sneaks from Zlorch must have visited earth earlier than officially claimed!

Was all of politics merely theater to entertain the masses? After all, the beloved JFK was reliably seen alive decades after his reported death! What about yeti? Is that the same as the Yschlo in Sector Gamma 3? And UFOs? Clearly, humanity was not the first in their branch to obtain the stars as has been commonly thought, but who or what visited Earth remains mysterious. No other records of these beings are extant, and the purpose of these visits, despite the evidence, remains unclear.

An archaeologist plumbing the remains of plumbing nearly dies, but makes the find of his career! A diplomat averts an alien takeover of his planet. After recognizing the tactics they used two thousand years ago on earth, he uncovers a plot to replace the king and his cabinet. A historian, scorned and shuffled to the side finds success with a new popular history of the 21st century that hinges on the relationship between Hillary and the “Alien”, personages that survive only in the pages of the enquirer. And what about the time traveling bard, Elvis? There are entire symposia designed to discuss and trace his appearances for hundreds of years after death. As for JFK and his many possible deaths, there are entire libraries devoted to them, and librarians who love every single volume and would die to defend them.

The possibilities are endless. Make a silly, over the top story of life as reported by 21st century tabloids, or fragments of our cities.

Join now! You too can see your name on the cover! Or at least be a member of Team And More.

Now, for something completely different:

Son of Silvercon is pleased to announce our inaugural Fission-Chan Writers Award.

Enter the short story contest, win recognition, get feedback from a panel of professional writers. See your name in ligh– Okay, fine. You can get a nifty plaque or certificate, and that all important feedback.

See more information and enter at: https://sonofsilvercon.wordpress.com/writers-award/

And for the younger set (share it with your kids, your friends’ kids, your home school group)

Son of Silvercon Young Writers Award:

Son of Silvercon is delighted to announce our inaugural Young Writers Award Competition. For fiction writers nineteen (19) years of age and under, this competition awards the Fission-Chan Award for Young Writers.

See more information and enter at: https://sonofsilvercon.wordpress.com/young-writers-award-entry/

47 thoughts on “Two announcements”

  1. Off topic.

    Babylon 5 (TV series) has a scene where some Earth guy sued an Alien Species for kidnapping his great-grandfather. :lol:

    Liked by 1 person

      1. It wasn’t a full episode but just a quick scene. It may have been second season but it was just a scene with the B5 ombudsman.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Realizing that it was first season (as another commenter noted), I probably also don’t recall it because the humor in that season could be pretty cringey. I try to remember the good stuff, and ignore the rest.

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  2. Oh boy! I can’t wait for this to be published so I can get a copy.

    My writing style is Report Writing for an institutional environment. Don’t think I will submit anything.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “There once was a Legendary American known today only as Orange Man…”

      I once read/owned a book called “The Culture Code” written by a French immigrant. Very fascinating book, didn’t agree with all his conclusions about American culture but I think he did grok a lot of it. His writings on who gets elected president really came up in my mind during Trump’s election campaigns.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. And in protest, due to my rather pedestrian writing skills (I do okay with technical writing; but not readable fiction) and horrible, alleged “sense of humor” (according to my team), I present the following:

    I remember Spider Robinson writing very fondly. I hope he recovers enough to finish Orphan Stars and visit more conventions. This song always makes me think of the novel I never wrote about a guest staying upstairs of Callahan’s Place

    Liked by 1 person

      1. I did, in 2018 (the first convention he had done in a long while after the deaths of his wife and his daughter, both to cancer IIRC.) He seemed a bit sad and a lot grateful for the fan support.

        Liked by 2 people

  5. Sounds interesting, Sarah. I’ll direct a few people on ALH to the post, and mention it on Perfessor Squirrel’s Sunday Morning Book Thread at Ace’s.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Are you looking for something like “Motel of the Mysteries” by David Macauley?

    Or something more like “Bat Boy Conquers Mars”?

    Or something more like “Whither McDonalds? An Meta-Analysis of Antebellum Food Myths”?

    Or “yes”?

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    2. Yes.
      But more…. This came from a discussion on how what we know about Rome is largely through their gossip columnists. And then we remembered the checkout tabloids, which seem to be gone now, including the one that yes, suggested that Cruz’s father time traveled. Or the one on Hilary having an affair with the Alien.
      And we wondered what fragments of that, a bit of fiction — I mean can you imagine what they’ll make of the vampire and werewolf craze? — etc. would make future historians and academicians, or even historical fiction writers think of us.

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      2. I liked the Weekly World News’ story on the haunted toilet seat.
        Glanced at the rag and noted most of the stories were actually, well, normal.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. In the MHI Memoirs book Sinners, the MCB actually published one with the attacks written as over the top.

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      4. Or the one on Hilary having an affair with the Alien.

        –
        Suspension of disbelief failure. I can’t imagine an alien with such bad taste.

        Unless it’s an Alien from the Sigourney Weaver movies, in which case the ‘affair’ would be pretty one-sided.

        Oh, ugh, now I just had a flash of the Alien Queen with Hillary’s face. Mental Floss, Mental Floss!!

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  8. Slightly off-topic, I didn’t know about Fission-chan until I searched for “fission-chan silvercon” and found the fisson-chan dot org website/blog. Cool idea; I like it.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Okay, now I need to write about some history student defending a thesis about ‘Florida Man’.

    I blame you, Sarah.

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          1. In that case, go to PJ Media and look for Stephen Green’s “Florida Man Friday” column. Each installment has roughly half a dozen stories pulled from Florida news media sites, with links to the original stories.

            Be aware that it’s a time sink to rival TV Tropes.

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          2. Packed into the walls of a historical museum as insulation. Uncovered in an accidental remodel. Carefully extracted, translated, and studied by grad students under desperate publish-or-perish profs.

            Debated and discussed to death like Shakespeare. Massive faculty fights over nomenclature. PTSD stricken veterans of the subject matter no longer even utter the words “Floridaman” and “Opossum” together in a single sentence. A department wide ban is proposed as armistice for the alligator incident (and a desperate hope to end the debate).

            The History of Floridaman is a 900 level course only taken by those with legendary intestinal fortitude and true courage, a rarity in upper level academia.

            Liked by 1 person

    2. I see I am not the only one that got that idea.

      This one’s all you, girl. If Florida man’s superpower is he’s a bodiless spirit that possesses people only from a certain state (and state of mind), it almost makes sense.

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  12. I’ve already started, darn you to heck!

    “Man of Action, or Man of Myth”

    I think the hard part will be word count…. and then gutting up enough to actually submit…

    Liked by 1 person

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