GRNW is excited to share the below announcement–a call for submissions for a new project, a charity story anthology based on the prompts from the Character Type Love Match game held at the 2014 and 2015 GRNW Meet-Up conferences.

If you’re loving the prompts, “Soldier x Tattoo Artist” and/or “Mage & Cyborg,” we hope you will consider submitting a LGBTQIA romance story for the anthology. We’d love to build a magical experience that shares the awesomeness of queer romance to GRNW readers and beyond in 2016!

MAGIC AND MAYHEM: A GRNW Charity Anthology

Now Accepting Submissions!

For the past three years, Old Growth Northwest’s Gay Romance Northwest initiative has brought LGBTQ romance authors and readers to the Pacific Northwest to celebrate the genre. Panels, discussions, and books abound—as well as Character Type Love Match. Character Type Love Match is an interactive crowd favorite where attendees vote to advance their favorite character type, and the two left standing form a happily-ever-after pairing. In 2014, the winners were Tattoo Artist and Soldier. At 2015’s conference, the winners were Mage and Cyborg. Magic and Mayhem: A GRNW Anthology is taking those pairings out of GRNW attendees’ fertile imaginations and letting them run wild on the page.

GRNW enthusiasts and authors of queer romance in general are invited to submit their stories about mage/cyborg or tattoo artist/soldier in love for publication in Magic and Mayhem. Proceeds from the anthology will benefit the nonprofit and volunteer-run Gay Romance Northwest initiative so that they can continue to put on excellent programming, facilitate hundreds of book donations to the Seattle area, and keep being awesome without a profit margin.

As this is a charity anthology, contributors will not retain any money from the sale of Magic and Mayhem. Potential authors should keep this in mind when submitting.

Free Entry into GRNW 2016 AND 2017 as an Attending Author: All authors whose works are part of the published anthology will receive a free registration to the 2016 Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up conference on 9/24/16 in Seattle, WA, and will be included in the conference program as an official GRNW 2016 Attending Author. Anthology authors will ALSO be included in GRNW 2017 as an attending author. That’s right! The next TWO years of conferences.

Story guidelines:

• Stories should be 2,500 to 20,000 words in length.
• Stories must be LGBTQIA. We encourage authors to submit stories from all over the QUILTBAG spectrum: trans (including genderqueer), asexual, bi romance, and beyond.
• Any sub-genre is accepted, but it must suit the pairing of either mage/cyborg OR tattoo artist/soldier.
• As this is a romance genre anthology, a happy ending for the couple, whether it’s HEA or HFN, is strongly preferred.
• Any heat level is accepted, but as this is a charity anthology for a nonprofit organization, please avoid instances of rape and non-consent for these stories.

Submission guidelines:

• Deadline is March 31, 2016.
• The anthology publisher will retain the rights to the stories for two [2] years.
• Send your submissions to grnwanthoteam@gmail.com with MAGIC AND MAYHEM – SUBMISSION in the subject line.
• The file must be attached in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format.
• Include a short (no longer than 200 words) summary of the story in the body of the email, as well as the pairing.
• Stories should be formatted as follows: Times New Roman size 12, double-spaced, paragraphs indented (.25″). Include a cover page with the title, author name, and word count.

Anthology Organizers – Who we are:

• Nicole Kimberling, Amanda Jean, and Samantha M. Derr are editors brought together in support of GRNW. We’re the organizers and editors of this anthology. Please contact us at grnwanthoteam@gmail.com if you have questions (or contact Amanda on twitter: @amandahjean and Samantha: @rykaine).
• To read more about Old Growth Northwest, please visit http://oldgrowthnw.org.

Thank you for your support!

GRNW offers our deepest heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Nicole, Amanda, and Samantha for leading this amazing project, and thank you to all the authors who are interested in submitting a story to this anthology and who wish to help support Gay Romance Northwest activities.

Thank you so much! We can’t wait to unveil all the magic (and mahem) next year!