Andromeda’s Offspring Anthology – The Enlightened Soldier

Well, a while ago I said that I would write and that I would get published this year. What I was hoping would be published was my novel, Shattered Lands: Torquemaster Rising, which is what I term as a Steamfantasy. More accurately, it’s Steampunk crossed with Shadowrun.

However, I digress. Whilst I was waiting for various different agencies to reject my novel, I started to write short stories that were specifically briefed out by Fringe Works, a small and independent publisher that had some very interesting and exciting submissions window.

One such window was for the Andromeda’s Offspring Anthology. The brief was;

Andromeda’s Offsping is specifically geared to attracting Science Fiction (SF) stories between 2,500 and 6,000 words in length. Stories should combine classic SF tropes (alien species, space opera, time travel etc.) with strong female protagonists. These tropes can be traditional or inverted, so long as the take on the SF sub-genre is original. The important factor is that the main character has a positive female role.

We are looking for new and original twists on this theme with surprising elements.
Be fun but most of all be unique.We expect this anthology will appeal to writers of Science Fiction.

I’ve never really written from a female’s perspective before, not where the female was the sole POV (in the case of my story that is). I also decided to follow on from my Grimm & Grimmer submission, Death’s Messengers – out this month – and expand a little more on the universe that I’d created in Death’s Messengers.

There’s nothing to indicate this however, apart from they are both in similar settings. If you read Death’s Messenger and then Enlightened Soldier, you will be able to work out why the central location in Death’s Messengers is where it is.

Last night I received the good news that Enlightened Soldier,  has been accepted for publication! I’m currently on a 100% acceptance score with my short stories for Fringe Works, and I hope that it continues for a long time as they are coming up with some very interesting and exciting projects indeed!