Sofawolf Press is excited to announce the opening of submissions for a brand new New Tibet anthology! The mineral-rich, frozen planet of New Tibet was first introduced to the inhabitants of Earth back in 2002 with the publication of Breaking the Ice: Stories from New Tibet, an anthology of stories set on this planet, edited by Tim Susman. Another collection of short stories from the planet were published in Shadows in Snow: More Stories from New Tibet two years later in 2004, and Tim Susman’s novel, Common and Precious, was published in 2007. Little was heard from the planet in the decade since, but we are once again looking for reports of what has happened on the planet in the intervening years. Do you have stories to tell? We’d like to hear from you!
New Tibet is to planets what the American West was to the frontier landscapes: a tantalizing expanse of unexploited resources just waiting to make the most adventurous and the most resourceful rich. People from all walks of life were enticed away from their homes with the prospect of prosperity… only to discover that life there was tough, expensive, corrupt and controlled by those who came ahead of them. For many, it’s a miserable existence that’s nearly impossible to escape because the cost of the trip home is more than they an afford. Within this setting, everyone must figure out how to scrape by if they're going to survive, and the stories in Breaking the Ice tend to focus on these bleak themes. But even within these challenging conditions, people still find their own ways to experience joy and happiness, and the stories in Shadows in Snow lean more towards hopeful themes in the face of adversity. The novel Common and Precious explores the relationships between social classes high and low, crime, fear and compassion in greater detail.
Interested in submitting? Here are some important and helpful resources:
- Please submit stories through our New Tibet form on Submittable. Submissions are open through April 30, 2018. As always, please follow the submission guidelines!
- Learn about New Tibet on Tim Susman’s website.
- Dark End, one of our editors, wrote a very nice thread on Twitter talking about the history and significance of the New Tibet series.
- Read the original stories by purchasing all three books in softcover format on our website under the New Tibet category: Breaking the Ice, Shadows in Snow, and Common and Precious.
- If you prefer e-books, Common and Precious is available from Bad Dog Books and Amazon.
E-book editions of Breaking the Ice, and Shadows in Snow are in the works, but will not be ready for at least a month. Conversion of the original layout files into e-book format is underway. However, we also need to write updated contracts with our original contributors: the original contracts were written back before we had started creating e-books, and they only included publication rights for print, not digital formats.
Breaking the Ice was Sofawolf Press’s first novel-format book. How far back in time was that? January 2002, when it was released, Jeff and Rio (the original Sofawolf mascot) had just moved to Minnesota from Massachusetts. In the subsequent 16 years we’ve moved operations between three different home basements, added a storage locker, and then expanded into a warehouse space for the Digger Omnibus Kickstarter, and most recently to yet another warehouse space when the lease on the first expired. Sadly, Rio and her understudy, Wizard, have both passed (we miss them greatly!), and we now have Sofawolves #3 and #4 in Gypsy and Zeena.
We are excited with the start to a new era of New Tibet stories, and we look forward to what new submissions come in! All are welcome, whether you have been inspired by New Tibet’s world for years, or if this is totally new to you.