Anthology Guidelines

Consent is one of the biggest hot-button issues in sex and sex-writing. That's why it can be incredibly hot—or not—when it's played with. When done well, delving into the gray area of dubious consent can explore the darkest corners of our characters' psyches. What happens when they're pushed outside of their comfort zone? How do they react? What do they learn about themselves?

These lines won't be in the same place for every character. What one character might easily consent to could be over the line for another. Negotiating these treacherous waters can be a sexy part of foreplay, as can playing with consensual non-consent. But what about when the line is crossed completely? When one partner is entirely out of their comfort zone and beyond what they've agreed to—can that still be sexy?

Show us what happens when lines are pushed, when lines are crossed, and when characters have to deal with the consequences. For this anthology, we are seeking gay non-con/dub-con submissions.

Vampires have become the ultimate erotic figure in paranormal literature, but in Blood Embrace, we're looking for more than pretty immortals who suck the blood from their victims or companions. What we really want in this anthology is to showcase M/M short stories that have unique takes on vampires. Take them beyond the traditional settings and extravagance and show us some solid and unique world building to support their existence. You know what that means: no sparklepires or caped Transylvanians who vant to suk your blud.

Did a genetic mutation over time create a vampiric syndrome that allows some humans to feed ? Are vampires the dominant race after the apocalypse? How about a realistic vampire virus? Or the frequently ignored energy and psychic vampires? We want to see what new and wonderful things can be done with this tried and true erotic theme.

It's said that when one sense is diminished or lost, the others improve to make up the difference. What might that mean in an erotic context? Can a blind man feel every touch more acutely? What power will a voice whispered sweetly in the ear have when you can't see? Does the scent of a lover become even more arousing if you can't hear their voice?

In Senseless, we're looking for stories of 10,000 to 20,000 words focused on main characters with visual, aural, vocal, or other sensory disabilities. Paint us a vivid picture of what his world is like; how does he see, hear, speak, and experience the world around him? The story can be of any genre, and although the main character must begin the story with his disability, he doesn't necessarily have to end the story with it.

The pomp and glamour associated with the Regency period in Britain is legendary. With steam presses producing gossip-ridden stories flaunting the wealth and frivolity of the aristocracy, it is sometimes easy to overlook the other side of the period. Amid refinements and cultural achievements, the Regency period was also a time of great contrast. The lofty end of society was so far separated from the poverty and famine seen elsewhere that many of the lower classes all but regarded the life of an aristocrat to be fantastical fiction.

In An Improper Arrangement, we are looking to showcase lesbian romance set in the Regency period, during which women were often bred to remain demure and polite. Marriage was one of the few ways for a woman in these times to further herself, making any involvement with the same sex cause for quite a scandal if discovered. Feel free to explore the social dynamics of the times. You may have a lady in love with a scullery maid, two commoners who are torn apart because of the political shifts of the time, or even a woman married by necessity who has always hidden her love of a close friend.

While we are looking for well-researched stories, we don't demand that they remain entirely historically accurate. The darker themes of society during the period are fair game as well. Because of the secrecy that would realistically reflect the times, we don't require happily-ever-afters for this anthology, but we ask that you bring your story to a satisfying conclusion.

When it comes to gay men, variety is the spice of life. Not everyone is a willowy twink or shows their hairless physiques like body builders. Some men are burly, bulky, and have hair on their chests. Others are downright furry, and they demand just as much love and respect as the next guy.

For Bear Season, we're looking for stories that focus on characters whose physiques are in line with the large and in charge trope of the gay bear. Your character can be anything from a Leather Daddy to a big softy who is more gentle than he appears at first glance.

While bears might appear dangerous or rough around the edges, we would love to see the full scope of personalities in these stories, so don't be afraid to juxtapose your burly protagonist against an unlikely love interest. Will he butt heads with a bigger, badder bear? Will a newfound appreciation for a slighter lover bring out his softer side?

Whatever direction you take it, we want readers to instantly know that they're playing with the big boys when they open up this anthology.

While World War I was meant to be the "war to end all wars", the peace lasted barely two decades before Hitler's Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and kicked off a second and even more devastating World War. It involved many different countries, from the more well-known combatants such as the United States, England, the Soviet Union, Japan, Germany, and Italy to countries as diverse as France, China, South Africa, Bulgaria, Finland, and Iraq. It was a time when men saw it as their patriotic duty to enlist, and they were proud to serve. All told, over 100 million served in some form of military capacity during the 6 year conflict that left over 50 million soldiers and civilians dead. It is not a time traditionally associated with romance, but even in the horrors of war, certain things are unstoppable.

In Uncommon Valor, we are looking for M/M erotic stories that take place on a World War II stage. They can be men fighting together at Normandy, soldiers stationed at Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans forced to live in internment camps, American liberators of the Holocaust, or anything else that fits underneath the World War II umbrella. While we are willing to accept slight historical inaccuracies for story enhancement, each story must be well-researched and prominantly feature World War II. Due to the nature of the time period, we are not requiring a happily-ever-after, but submissions must have a strong and satisfying conclusion.

The threesome is among the most common sexual fantasies, regardless of sexuality. So for this anthology, we're looking for stories of M/M/M threesomes or triad relationships. What are the conflicts that arise when you invite a new party into your bed or into your lives?

Is it a third party joining an existing couple, a long-standing relationship between three men, or do three passing strangers come together at once? How does loving with three, rather than two, people change the dynamics of the relationship?

Show us what happens when loving, and sexing, with three. Submissions should be between 10,000 and 20,000 words and can be of any genre, so long as the three-partner interaction forms the core of the story.

From classical works to popular culture, the sex lives of angels have captivated audiences. In Paradise Lost, Milton's angels experience pure mutual interpenetration, mixing flesh with flesh and soul with soul. What's your interpretation of how angels express love and lust? Is gay love part of the divine, or have your angels fallen to follow their passions? Do they love one another or has a human captured their attention? Do the angels have magical abilities? Can they appear in dreams, exert inhuman strength, or fly through the air? Are they immortal? The possibilities are as endless as the heavens.

For Angelic, we're seeking gay short stories that star angels and give us a glimpse of their loves and lusts.

The sacred whore is a staple of many religious and spiritual histories. Women who lay with other mortals, or, in some cases, even the Gods themselves, are a well-established theme. From the houses of heaven of the Near East to Tantra in India, there are as many variations as there are gods to worship.

Sexual rituals as part of religious worship or other rites could take many forms; we want to see where your imagination can take us. For In the Service of Gods, we want your stories of sacred prostitution featuring lesbian and female bisexual main characters. Temple prostitutes and priestesses, their lovers, the gods they serve, it's an environment ripe for passion and lust, and perhaps, even love.

What does it feel like to give complete power and control of your pleasure over to another person? To go so far as to let someone else decide when, and if, you can even have an orgasm? Can you imagine wearing a chastity device and giving someone else the key? What sort of torments could they put you through? What could they make you do for the privilege of being unlocked and given release?

For some, it's the ultimate fantasy. Make us feel the burning desire for someone else to own us completely. The desire for our pleasure and pain to be in someone else's hands. And the warring desire to be given the release we crave. Take us inside the mind of the submissive and the Dominant that they trust utterly.

First loves can be just as intense and visceral for men as they are typically depicted for women. In Young Love, we want to see everything from boyish infatuation to hero worship to the inherent drama involved when men fall for one another for the first time.

Whether it's a love at first sight scenario, a casual fuck that leaves a lasting impression, or a friendship that matures into something more, we want to see your male characters overcome with emotion and passion for one another. We do ask that these stories have happily-ever-after or happily-for-now endings, so even if you put your characters through the emotional wringer and weave drama into their circumstances, please end on a high note that leaves everyone satisfied.

The 'Dykes on Bikes' always make an impression when they kick off the gay pride parade: leather vests, leather boots, and a hard attitude to match. But what happens when the bike is in the garage and the leather comes off? Who are the real people underneath the tough image?

How hard is it to keep up appearances? What happens when a biker chick lets her hair down? What conflicts are created when you don't fit in with mainstream culture's idea of femininity? Paint us rich, real characters in the lesbian biker world and tell us the stories of their lives.

The shifter genre meets fantasy! Everyone knows about werewolves. Werepanthers, werelions, and other common beasts have also made a place for themselves in literature. But what about dragons, unicorns, selkies, kitsune, and other mythical creatures?

Shapeshifting is actually a common theme in folklore, but not all creatures have made the jump to modern fiction. Now's your chance to help them find their place once more.

Magical enchantments, curses, or creatures that are born that way; there's more than one way to be a shapeshifter. Some transformations are voluntary and some are not. How much, if at all, is the mind changed by the change in form?

Show us your best sexy stories of beasts from bygone times! Stories should be between 10,000 and 20,000 words. High fantasy is certainly the most likely genre for stories of this sort, but urban fantasy or science-fiction would also be welcome!

Don't judge a book by its cover, or a person by their gender. There's often more to someone than meets the eye. What happens when first impressions are proven wrong or assumptions turn out to be false? What's it like for a character who comes with fine print? Some people just don't fit the expected mold, and some of those people do something about it, showing the world who they really are inside.

Do your characters reinterpret what it means to be masculine or feminine? Do they transition from one gender to another? Do they decide to abandon the gender binary all together and blaze their own trail? Show us how your characters find love, romance, and hot sex while navigating the sometimes-tricky waters of love and gender identity.

Not every girl wants to wear heels, dresses, and lipstick. Some women are much more comfortable wearing the pants in the relationship—and if they go with a pair of stomp worthy boots, all the better. Beyond appearances, some women also exude a rugged masculinity that makes them all the more appealing. They don't need to be feminine to be sexy.

There are as many ways to represent female sexuality as there are women in the world, and those that bring out the masculine side of women are those we want to celebrate in our Butch anthology. From the more gentle androgyny of the soft butch to the more emphatic masculinity of the stone butch, we want to see the spectrum of women who love other women.

Does your butch like to take charge with a femme on her arm, or does she prefer another butch woman? How does the world react to her, and how does that effect the way she lives? Does she have a job or a lifestyle that makes being herself easy, or is it a constant struggle?

Bring your characters to life and show us how these butch women live, play, and love.

Despite the dark and often harsh history of forced servitude and slavery, depictions of fetishized slavery fantasies have a growing appeal in today's erotica market. Like rape fantasy, it isn't an actual desire for the act that entices the reader, but the ability to explore such themes in a safe space. It isn't uncommon for people to harbor a secret wish to be forced into certain acts that they know they want, but have been socially conditioned to abhor. Such wishes can be especially difficult for women, who are often judged harshly for acting out these fantasies or even speaking of them. For On Her Knees, we seek to give voice to these slavery fantasies in the form of F/F short stories.

We are not looking for stories of consensual, negotiated power exchange, which might be seen in BDSM relationships. Stories submitted for this anthology must focus on true sexualized, erotic slavery. We want to receive stories involving women who are forced into a second-class life servicing another woman however her mistress sees fit. These stories will, by necessity, be rather dark, with elements of non-consensual sex and physical and psychological abuse. However, they should still maintain a level of fantasy and eroticism that keep the stories from crossing over into gratuitous sadism.

Happily-ever-afters aren't required here, but a fulfilling and satisfying conclusion is. Hopelessness, despair, or death, for instance, should be kept out of these tales. This is still slave fantasy, so some level of optimism and sensuality is the aim.

Advanced technology is essential in good cyberpunk, but what really sets it apart is the way it showcases that technological achievement while also exposing the seedy underbelly of society. Has technology polarized society, created an underground counter-culture? There is infinite potential for adventure, especially when you have a bisexual hero/heroine in the cyberpunk setting. Are they jacked into virtual reality to express themselves, or do they have some other way of blazing a trail through high society or the downtrodden?

For our Surfing the Aether anthology, we want to see what makes your bisexual characters stand out from the world they inhabit. Cyberpunk protagonists are often misfits and anti-heroes, so we'd love to see where your characters fit in the hierarchy. How do they use the technology at their fingertips rather than letting the technology use them? Have the advanced tools changed the sexual climate, and if so, how does it impact your hero/heroine's identity and expression as a bisexual? We want to discover the darker consequences of the time's industrial successes through your characters' eyes.

Show us your best, most interesting, hottest bisexual main characters and how they navigate not only the complex world around them but their relationships as well. Just be sure to emphasize the dark, urbanized, film noir aspects that make this sub-genre truly shine.

Is being born with special powers a blessing or a curse? That's for you to decide as you weave erotic tales of bisexual psychics. What would it be like to know what your lover was thinking while you were in bed together? Or to know what everyone in a party was thinking about you? Would you use those powers for the good of others or to your own advantage? What happens when you can see through all the white lies that people tell every day?

Is this a world where psychic abilities are common or is your character alone? How would that make them feel? Who would they choose to confide in?

For this anthology, we're looking for stories between 10,000 and 20,000 words that feature an explicitly bisexual main character—of any gender or gender identity—with psychic abilities. The specific nature of the ability is up to you, but it must be used at least once in the course of the narrative.

The world—at least as we've known it—has ended. Now it's time to pick up the pieces and see what's left, what kind of future can be built. Who are the people left standing? Are they the strongest, the smartest, or simply the luckiest? Did a group of people survive together or do they find each other along the way?

What conflicts will arise when you have little control over who you're thrown together with and resources are scarce? Is there time for love and romance in this environment or is desperate passion all that's left?

We want you to weave tales of a post-apocalyptic world that feel gritty and real. Show us what's really at stake for your characters and what motivates them to keep moving forward. Who is important in their lives and what are they fighting for? What would a happy ending look like in a world that's unrecognizable? For Rising from the Ashes, we're seeking gay stories in a post-apocalyptic setting, so please be sure to represent both those requirements in the submissions.

Annie Oakley, Belle Starr, Calamity Jane—the old west might not have as many women who stand out in its history as men, but there are certainly characters to remember. What does it take for a woman to survive in what is truly a man's world? What kind of skills does it take to stay safe and make a name for yourself? And after a hard day in the dust and sun, who are you going to come home to?

We're looking for tales of lesbians in the old west. Give us a rich, believable world. Make us crave a rot-gut whiskey while we're reading.