Women in Space Westerns

In my internet travels I've discovered a nice little way to flex my short story fiction writing skills. A Feminist fiction group is asking people for submissions of various different prose, poetry and other mediums of fiction for their November 2008 event. I would like to write something. Feminist fiction in their standards is everything but the typical white male centered fiction. I have some ideas and am thinking of doing a character based on my younger brother. I have until October 28th to get it all thought out and written down and submitted. :P I can do! :D


Check out the website for more details:

http://www.spacewesterns.com/submissions/#22ndCarnival

Here is an excerpt:

What we are looking for: Genre, Topics, and Themes
Space Westerns

First and foremost, we’re looking for Space Westerns: works with themes from the Western genre set in Outer-space, or having some element of extra-terrestrial travel. This is the majority of the fiction that we publish. Our preference is to publish works that contain, in part, some form of off-earth travel.

For our purposes we consider the following to be examples of works with strong Space Western themes (inter-planetary fiction containing Western genre themes): Flash Gordon (comic, movie serial, and 1978 animated serial), Buck Rogers, Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica (both series), Firefly, Serenity, Mike Resnick’s Santiago, Ande Norton’s Beastmaster series, Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, Bravestarr, Silverhawks, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Coyote Ragtime Show, and Trigun.
Science Fiction Westerns

Science Fiction themes with Western elements (setting, characters, etc.).
Steam Punk

We’d like to see Steam Punk (after all, the era is right) with some Western elements (themes, setting, characters, etc.). Space travel is a plus, but not strictly necessary.
Weird West

We’re using the term Weird Western here to denote Western/Fantasy/Horror genre blending. We are least likely to publish a Weird Western unless it also includes Space Western elements.
Feminist & Minority Themes

We’ve all seen the white man in a white hat riding his white horse into the sunset. The Western genre is replete with white male driven stories. The Space Western sub-genre isn’t much different. Send us stories with strong women, weak women, but most of all stories with real women. Send us stories from a non-WASP point-of-view: fiction about Chinese, Native American, Mexican/Spanish, African/African-American and/or even the “New Immigrants” — (German, Irish/Gaelic, Italian, Russian) peoples influences on the Western themes.